Consumer complaint received 2020-07-07
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem making or receiving payments

Complaint:
This is for my wife, English is not her first language. 
She has banked with Wells Fargo for many years and keeps sizable deposit amounts with the bank. Wells Fargo always has people from their branches or other departments calling her in XXXX trying to pitch her extra services, wealth management, investments, etc., but it's not a service she wants, we do that elsewhere. 
My wife has also been a holder of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX credit cards ( two -- one business and one personal ), with the personal card being over 15 years, her longest credit history in the US. When used, those cards are paid off in full. 
In early XXXX, we received a notice that her personal XXXX card was closed because of denied payment having been received twice XXXX or more ). We were shocked, and assumed it was XXXX 's fault because those cards are set to autpay. XXXX said that the auto-draft payments were being denied by Wells Fargo, which we couldn't understand why. 
Then we began calling Wells Fargo to see what happened, these were extremely long calls, being passed form person to person. What we found out is shocking and quite frankly unbelievable, even to the Wells Fargo people on the phone who finally realized what occurred. 
So, rewind back to one of those Wells Fargo " Wealth Management '' solicitation calls to my wife earlier this year, upon discussion with the Wells Fargo people on the phone trying to determine what happened, my wife said one of the " Wealth Management '' ladies who called her said she had some helpful advice to bring to my wife 's attention, that she was paying the same credit card twice, and would my wife like to have her stop this unnecessary duplicative payment. My wife said sure, really in an attempt to get her off the phone and stop annoying her with the calls. It turns out that the Wells Fargo actions blocked all electronic debits/ACH, which then stopped my wife 's automatic bill pay set within XXXX 's website. From the Wells Fargo side, there was a monthly {$35.00} paper check being mailed by Wells Fargo ( which didn't even show in our bill pay area of the account, they speculate that it was set before some online upgrade that Wells Fargo did a decade ago, and just no longer showed on the customer facing side, and in fact it didnt even show on the front line customer service screens at Wells Fargo, only the Bill Pay specialists could find it ). 
So the ever-so-helpful " Wealth Management '' person had blocked all electronic debits by XXXX, thereby causing my wife 's account to go into violation, and XXXX subsequently shutting both accounts down. This is and will continue to have negative consequences, and XXXX said the only thing that can be done is for Wells Fargo to send XXXX a letter explaining what happened and indicating it's no fault of the customer.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation