Consumer complaint received 2021-08-11
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: DE
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
We applied to refinance our existing Wells Fargo ( WF ) home mortgage in XX/XX/XXXX. The rate for a 20 yr fixed rate loan was 2.875 %. The agreement had a clause that said if the rate decreased during the initial Interest Rate Lock Agreement ( IRLA ) period that expired XX/XX/XXXX we could " reprice '' the loan by paying an unspecified sum. On XX/XX/XXXX I e-mailed our loan handler XXXX XXXX ( XXXX  ) with a cc copy sent to our mortgage consultant XXXX XXXX ( XXXX  ) asking about WF 's current 20 yr fixed rate. On XX/XX/XXXX, without yet having heard from either XXXX  or XXXX, I went to WF 's website, It showed the rate had dropped to 2.625 %. 
Later that day XXXX e-mailed me that WF would merely extend the 2.875 % rate " at Wells Fargo 's costs '' - whatever that meant. I replied via e-mail ( with a cc copy to XXXX ) asking XXXX  what the repricing fee was. Neither CP or XXXX replied to this request as to either the fee amount or how WF wanted it paid ( e.g. up-front cash payment or rolled into the closing statement ). 
On XX/XX/XXXX I received an unsolicited e-mail from XXXX XXXX a regional WF manager from MD. His e-mail also merely told me that WF was extending the current IRLA. Later that day I e-mailed XXXX that I wanted to invoke our right to reprice the mortgage. Twenty three hours after that I still had not received a reply to either the XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX e-mails. 
So on XX/XX/XXXX I sent another e-mail to XXXX, XXXX and XXXX. Later that day XXXX told me on the phone that the re-pricing fee was XXXX points ( about {$3800.00} in our case ). Since going to the lower interest rate was going to save us only about $ 40/month I told XXXX I would not exercise my right to re-price the loan - if that was the actual fee. I asked him to send me an e-mail to confirm the fee amount. He said he would do so but he never did. However, later that day he e-mailed me to say XXXX  and XXXX would be in touch with me on XX/XX/XXXX to " put this behind you '' ( whatever that means, I still don't know ). 
However, all that happened the next day was that I received a voluminous ( and I believe retaliatory ) document request from XXXX  that asked for second or third copies of documents previously submitted to her office. Later that day I talked with XXXX  and I asked her to memorialize in an e-mail what the repricing fee was. Implausibly she said she did not know the fee amount. She said she had forwarded my XXXX inquiry on the fee amount to XXXX and it had been " sitting in his inbox for a week ''. 
On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX called me to say the repricing fee was XXXX point. I asked him to put this in writing and that I still wanted to invoke my right to reprice the loan before the IRLA expired on XX/XX/XXXX. However, XXXX did not take any action until XX/XX/XXXX at which time he merely sent me an e-mail again advising me that WF would merely extend the original IRLA. But his e-mail did confirm that the repricing fee was XXXX point as opposed to the XXXX point quote rendered the previous week by his colleague XXXX XXXX. 
Within two weeks the interest rate went back to 2.875 %. ( NOTE : If the XXXX point was the actual fee our cost would have been about {$410.00} which we would have recovered in about 10 months. 
WF 's stalling is costing us about $ XXXXmonth or a little over {$10000.00} over the cost of the loan. I have corresponded with about 7 folks from WF 's " executive '' escalation office in Iowa but they have all avoided answering the question of why we weren't allowed to reprice the loan. However, XXXX XXXX of that office recently told me that XXXX was on vacation during the closing days of the IRLA - hence the call from XXXX XXXX. However, in his most recent letter to me XXXX XXXX  claims that WF never refused my request to reprice the loan ( sic ).

One of the IA staff actually wrote that WF did not honor my repricing request because I did not properly address it to XXXX. When I pointed out that XXXX was either a co-addressee or a cc recipient on all of my requests XXXX and WF dropped that argument.

I tried to get WF to drop its demand to escrow the RE taxes to settle this amicably but they ignored that suggestion.

At that point we proceeded to a belated settlement while we waited for WF to correct the points charged ( somehow their original draft of the closing statement increased the points charged from XXXX to XXXX XXXX and adjust the balance due on the existing mortgage which was predictably more than we really owed. But this didn't stop XXXX from trying to lay a guilt trip on me when I refused to proceed to closing with these flaws and making me wait for WF to subsequently refund the overcharges at its own pace.

In its written correspondence the IA office has repeatedly apologized for WF 's asking us for multiple copies of docs, making us use a dysfunctional, proprietary " Loan Tracker '' platform and provided us with a non-working phone number for our mortgage review, XXXX XXXX of NJ. 
WF 's collective attitude is that if we didn't like the terms we should have walked away from the settlement. In their correspondence WF reps like to talk about the voluminous research they have done on this case. With the benefit of hindsight the " research '' consists chiefly of phone calls to other WF reps to get their self-serving, anecdotal evidence of what did or did not happen here. XXXX  has told me three different times that XXXX 's phone number is now working - for whatever that is worth now. 
They have not been the least bit apologetic about ignoring my e-mails or responding to them at a glacial pace. XXXX only recently told me that the repricing fee is not required up-front but is incorporated into the closing statement. 
We have closed our WF checking and credit card accounts. During the process my wife and I would joke that it was a good thing we were WF customers in good standing because we couldn't imagine would kind of bad things WF would do to customers who just walked in off the street. FYI I can provide copies of additional e-mails, letters and screen shots of the WF web page upon request. Our mortgage balance is about {$330000.00}.

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