Consumer complaint received 2018-11-13
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Problem with fees charged

Complaint:
I financed my XXXX XXXX through Wells Fargo in XX/XX/XXXX on a five-year note. After I moved from Oklahoma to Wisconsin in XX/XX/XXXX I had a hiccup in my car insurance payment, where it was sent to the old payment address that I'd used as an Oklahoma driver instead of the new payment address that I should have been using as a Wisconsin driver. That was totally my fault ; my insurance company contacted me, the payment was applied to my insurance premium a few days after its original due date, and I updated my online billpay to reflect the correct payment address for my future insurance premiums. 

A few days later I got a letter from Wells Fargo stating that they'd been notified of a late payment by my insurance company, and that if I didn't provide proof of coverage, they were going to provide coverage themselves and bill me for the additional premiums. Now, please don't get me wrong -- I was fine with that. It was my responsibility to insure the car that Wells Fargo was financing, and it was my fault that an insurance premium was received late. I called my insurance agent, provided him with the fax number for providing proof of insurance to Wells Fargo, and they faxed the requested proof of insurance over while I was still on the line. 

Here 's where things REALLY get interesting! 

Two or three days later I placed a follow-up call to Wells Fargo to ensure that they'd received what they needed. The woman that I spoke with sounded confused, and said it looked like I'd been paying insurance premiums to Wells Fargo since I first bought my Jeep. I explained that this wasn't the case -- that I was calling in response to their letter -- and she explained that she was new, didn't understand what she was seeing on my account, but would get help from a supervisor.

I spent about eight to ten minutes on hold before she came back, said she'd been mistaken, that they'd received my fax, and everything was fine. 

Now, one thing you should know is that I paid my car installments to Wells Fargo ahead of schedule. Every month I paid early, and I always paid extra every month, and so in XX/XX/XXXX I couldn't understand why the principal that I owed on my XXXX  was higher than it ought to have been if I'd paid my installments according to their schedule. Once again I called Wells Fargo. 

The woman that I spoke with this time said that my principal balance had gone up because Wells Fargo had billed me for insurance premiums. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and suddenly her story changed : I was told that I'd been billed for insurance premiums, but those premiums had also been refunded to me, so that that in the end, they hadn't increased my principal balance at all. I was told that I hadn't made as many extra payments as I thought I had, and that their accounting was correct. Wells Fargo refused to provide me with any sort of billing and payment summary -- my questions weren't answered. I continued to pay off my XXXX early every month, until the loan was paid off in XX/XX/XXXX. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I saw a news article about Wells Fargo being fined a XXXX dollars by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for fraudulently charging its car loan customers for unwanted auto insurance. 

Of course, I instantly knew that I'd been one of those customers, even before I got the letter from Wells Fargo in XX/XX/XXXX. 

That letter was very apologetic, and promised to make full restitution, although Wells Fargo didn't use the word 'fraud ' the way that the CFPB had used it when fining the XXXX out of them. I think Wells Fargo 's letter used the word 'mistakenly ' or 'in error ' or 'inadvertently ' or somesuch nonsense, sprinkled in with a few " unfortunatelies '' and " sincerelies. '' It was fraud. 

Pure and simple fraud. 

Fraudy fraudulent fraud. Wells Fargo fraudulently defrauded fraud victims with this sort of fraudy fraud. 

I was asked to furnish Wells Fargo with 'proof ' that I'd maintained my own private auto insurance coverage, so that Wells Fargo could reimburse me for any periods where I'd been charged for their in-house insurance product 'in error, ' in order to qualify for a full refund ... along with Wells Fargo 's most profound apologies. Sincere apologies. Big wet crocodile teardrop apologies. Wells Fargo was SOOOOO very sorry that it had gotten caught stealing from me.

I sent Wells Fargo the requested information via USPS certified mail. I know they received it before the deadline. I have the proof of delivery.

About six months later, I received a check from Wells Fargo.

IN.

THE.

AMOUNT.

OF.

XXXX XXXX.

DOLLARS. 

You read that right. My 'full restitution ' for Wells Fargo 's mistaken, completely in error, unfortunate, deeply regretted, certainly-not-a-case-of-fraud, was {$29.00}. 

Keep in mind that I still haven't received any full accounting of my account history, because Wells Fargo won't provide that information to me. 

After working the phones for a few days, I finally got in touch with Wells Fargo 's office of the president. What I learned was that Wells Fargo had fraudulently added {$840.00} to my principal loan balance in XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, long before I moved to Wisconsin and had my little incident with a misapplied insurance payment. I was charged another lump-sum amount for insurance coverage in XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, but that they'd canceled that coverage after I called them to make sure they're received my agent 's fax, refunding all but {$260.00} of that second amount.

Keep in mind, the agent who presumably canceled that insurance in XX/XX/XXXX told me that she'd been mistaken about seeing insurance on my account. 

Keep in mind that I'd been told by a supervisor that I'd been completely refunded for all insurance premiums, so that they hadn't increased my loan amount. 

Keep in mind that Wells Fargo initially tried to make me go away with a {$29.00} check. 

That's the sort of fraudy fraudulent fraud that Wells Fargo defrauds its fraud-victim customers with. Fraudulently. 

Fraud. Fraud. Fraud.

By my reckoning, then, Wells Fargo stole {$840.00} and {$260.00} from me, plus compounded interest on this amount from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX, less the {$29.00} insult check that they sent to me. 

Keep in mind that these are Wells Fargo 's numbers, and that to this day I don't know exactly what charges were applied to my principal loan amount or on what dates, or how much interest was charged on this balance, because Wells Fargo won't tell me. 

Completely setting aside interest amounts -- and I want a refund on interest paid, I just don't know how much that was -- Wells Fargo owes me {$1000.00} in fraudulent charges applied to my principal loan amount. I think we've been more or less in agreement on that amount since XX/XX/XXXX -- or at least, Wells Fargo doesn't dispute that amount -- but they still won't pay me. 

The funny thing is that Wells Fargo has spent about XXXX months " verifying my insurance coverage '' prior to payment -- that strikes me as funny because they really should have done that BEFORE billing me for their insurance product. 

Late in XX/XX/XXXX I read, in the news, that Wells Fargo had told the CFPB that it wouldn't be prepared to begin making settlement offers to its victims until XX/XX/XXXX, and that it wouldn't complete its restitution payments until XX/XX/XXXX. 

So, as I understand it, Wells Fargo notified me of fraudulent charges on my account in XX/XX/XXXX, five years after it added those charges to to my loan balance, and four years after it first lied to me about those charges -- and now Wells Fargo has decided that it's going to take another two years to decide how to make that situation right, as if that solution weren't already obvious, and THEN Wells Fargo is going to graciously allow itself another year to actually return the money that it had no right to take in the first place. 

The REAL kicker was reading, last week, that a top official at Wells Fargo Bank was aware of this fraud in XX/XX/XXXX, but did nothing to stop it -- and HE STILL HAS A JOB AT THIS COMPANY. 

I just want my money back. How in God 's name do I push Wells Fargo 's monstrous bureaucracy into action?

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 monetary relief