Consumer complaint received 2019-02-28
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not handled or disbursed as instructed

Complaint:
INCIDENT - This morning XX/XX/XXXX my tenant and I discovered a security breach in your Deposit Only bank card system. If a cardholder is not able to withdraw money from an ATM using the card, likewise the cardholder should NOT be able to walk into a branch and withdraw money from my account. The security breach involved your teller almost giving my tenant {$920.00} from my Business Checking account, instead of requiring him to make a Deposit which was his purpose for being there. My question is How does my tenant walk into a branch to pay his rent, and almost walk away with more than he walked in with? My tenant said he had to remind XXXX XXXX, a teller at your branch located at : XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, CA XXXX that he was using a Deposit Only card, and not trying to withdraw money ( which he shouldve never been able to do, nor should your tellers drawer even open for the transaction ). Im immediately notifying you of this breach in your system, and also left a complaint with your customer care department as well. If your organization does not fix this breach immediately, and any of my funds are stolen, I will be contacting a lawyer to file a law suit against Wells Fargo. Because you almost lost {$1000.00} of my money this morning. And with knowledge of this breach, anyone would be able to walk into a branch across the United States and pull the same stunt. My Business Checking account bears an audit trail of this transaction today as well. 

BACKGROUND - In XX/XX/XXXX, one of your bankers presented me with a service that Wells Fargo offers, which allows employees to make Deposits into company accounts. That is the only privilege available on the account. It sounded like a good idea, and thought it would be a good addition to my property management business. So far, the Deposit Only card system has worked well for my tenants in conjunction with XXXX. XXXX is convienient, and all the tenants like it, but the transfer amount limitations kill the convenience. That is until this morning, then all that changed. Now theyre both just faux conveniences, providing just more to worry about for business owners. 

REMEDY My suggestion would be to have your IT Department write a program that prevents the tellers drawer from opening their drawer when a Deposit Only card is used. I shouldnt have to mention, that Deposit Only is also the only option that should be available when using an ATM. Seems like that would be an easy fix and removes human error. The same way a Deposit Only card can perform one transaction at an ATM, should be the only transaction it can perform inside a branch. That did not happen today! I find it ridiculous that I should have to identify this problem for a well-known banking institution such as yours, but if you already knew, this letter wouldnt be necessary CONCLUSION Ive been banking with Wells Fargo for a very long time. As indicated above, I immediately trusted your banker that this system would be secure. However, every time I walk into a branch or speak to non-business banking personell on the phone regarding these cards, they never know what Im talking about. They always start talking about setting someone up as a signer on the account. This shakes my faith in your employees knowledgeability. What happened this morning shakes my faith in Wells Fargo even more. You guys screwed up a hold transaction for me last summer which shook my faith in you. Youre actually chipping away at my faith in your ability to provide secure banking for me.

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 non-monetary relief