Consumer complaint received 2020-12-02
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Step 1 What is this complaint about? 

Failure of a bank for follow a policy personally told to me by the Teller Supervisor when depositing a check. This failure to follow bank policy erroneously led me to believe a fraudulent check was in fact a good and transfer {$500.00} to the giver of check via XXXX. The bank was unable to craw-back the XXXX payment and refuses to take responsibility for their failure to follow bank policy which now has cost me {$500.00} in lost funds. 

Step 2 What type of problem are you having? 

The bank refuses to acknowledge their failure to follow stated bank policy cost me {$500.00} in lost funds. They say their failure to follow stated policy which cost me {$500.00} is not their responsibility and refuse to compensate me for their mistake ( by crediting my account for the {$500.00} ). 

Step 3 What happened? 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a check for the purchase of car plus transportation costs from a buyer. I went the bank to deposit the check ( {$4900.00} on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX on the enclosed statement ) and given the amount of the check, the window teller called over Teller Supervisor for approval. The Teller Supervisor inspected the check and asked me if I had deposited check from this same party and bank before and said no. She had the window teller look-up the check on a data base and evidently found no adverse information. The Teller Supervisor told me it would take up to 7-10 days for the check to clear given the potential for fraud. I told her I certainly understood the bank policy on holding check and with that condition my deposited was accepted. That evening the check shown as pending with no funds credited to my account. 

Early in the morning of XX/XX/XXXX I checked my bank statement and to my surprise the check had been cleared and all the funds were available. Given overnight clearing meets the criteria of 7-10 days maximum to clear the check I assumed the check had properly cleared and the funds were good. At the request of the car buyer I transferred {$500.00} via XXXX for transportation costs. I then went to the supermarket to purchase some groceries and found my debit card attached to account would not work and my account was over drawn. 

Returning home I check my bank statement online and found XXXX XXXX had reversed the {$4900.00} deposit. I drove to the bank to meet with a banker to explore this problem further. While waiting in line outside the bank I happened to recognize the Teller Supervisor who was leaving and explained to her what happened. She now told me that for long-term customers like myself the bank will sometimes credit my account before funds are actually received from the issuing bank. I told no mention was made of this fact when deposited the check and second this policy actually does a disservice to customers because now I have no way of knowing if a checked has been cleared or not. Further, I pointed only the bank say if a check has cleared or not given that I, as a customer, have no visibility into the clearing process. She basically had no response to my statements. 

I then meet with a Banker and related what happen as described above. The conversation then moved on the same discussion I had with the Teller Supervisor. Again, like the Teller Supervisor, he no answer as why the bank would credit my account for a check which was supposed to be held for 7-10 days. While I was meeting with him he filed a report with the bank fraud unit as to the circumstances of the XXXX transfer but the fraud unit was able to secure return of the {$500.00}. 

In reading the enclosed bank statement, please note although the days are reverse chronological order the transaction for each day are chronological order. On XX/XX/XXXX the {$500.00} XXXX transfer was made before the bank reversed the {$4900.00} deposit. 

In summary, the bank did not follow its stated policy of holding checks for 7-10 days and the a mistake of prematurely crediting my account for {$4900.00} led me to falsely believe the check had cleared, which led me to transfer {$500.00} via XXXX under fraudulent conditions unknown to me at the time. When discovered, the bank now refuses to take responsibility for their actions which caused me to lose {$500.00}. 

Step 4 What company is this complaint about? 

Wells Fargo Bank, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, CA XXXX Step 5 Who are the people involved? 

Teller Supervisor : Name unknown, middle-aged XXXX-American female, height XXXX XXXX, weight approximately XXXX pounds. 

Banker : XXXX XXXX,

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