Consumer complaint received 2021-11-03
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Hello Wells Fargo, I am writing you this email because I would like to reopen a claim that your team denied. I was told that I could email your claim assistance team here to get it reopened and continue the investigation. In this email I will present sufficient evidence in PDF format of why this claim needs to be reopened, a retelling of what happened, and why this is so unfair and unacceptable as a customer. 

On the XXXX of XXXX, I sent {$200.00} dollars to XXXX through XXXX for an artwork that I bought from him. On XX/XX/XXXX, he blocked me and I never received the merchandise. I never received what I paid for. I got scammed. 

The evidence of where he received the payment will be titled as 'confirmation that he received the payment ' PDF. In this PDF, he is confirming that he received the money. I did authorize the transaction, but I should not be denied only because I was the one who authorized it. This claim needs to be reopened and the evidence that will be sent here needs to be applied to the situation. I was taken advantage of and scammed. Wells Fargo needs to side with the customer and not the scammer. 

The evidence of our last conversation is in the second PDF attached that is titled : 'end of conversation photo '. In this PDF, he leaves me on read on XX/XX/XXXX and blocks me by XX/XX/XXXX. That is where he blocked me. There are timestamps to show proof of when each message was sent. On the XXXX, I immediately filed a claim with Wells Fargo once I realized that he blocked me and that I was scammed. 

The evidence of him blocking me can be seen in the third PDF titled : 'blocked image 1 '. In this image, you can see that his profile is no longer available. I no longer follow him and none of his information pops up. This is evident proof of him blocking me and he reveals that he scammed me. If he was a real seller, I would have received my artwork and he never would have blocked me. He would keep in contact with me. As seen in the PDF titled : 'end of conversation photo ', I asked him at XXXX XXXX  on XX/XX/XXXX, " oh nice! can i see? ". If he intended to actually sell me a real artwork, he would have followed up by sending me a photo of the art piece. However, the following day I was blocked. 

After patiently waiting 10 business days for my claim to be investigated, I received a notification stating it was completed on XX/XX/XXXX. I called a claim representative and they stated that it was denied. They described to me why it was denied. They only told me that I could go to XXXX and discuss it with them. I talked with XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and they denied helping me as well. This is because this type of payment is not covered by " XXXX Buyers Protection Program ''. They told me that I have to talk with my bank or card issuer and that it only can be resolved through Wells Fargo. They stated that Wells Fargo can contact them to receive additional information about the transaction. 

The type of transaction that I sent the money with is under " Family and Friends. '' XXXX does not do refunds for these types of payments. However, I researched and found numerous individuals that posted online about receiving refunds from Wells Fargo even when they were the ones who sent the funds to the recipient through " Family and Friends '' on XXXX. Wells Fargo did not deny them. Wells Fargo sided with them. The evidence of him tricking me into sending it on " Family and Friends '' instead of " Business '' can be seen in the fourth PDF titled : 'tricking me proof '. If he were an honest seller, he would NOT have done this. He would have done it through 'Business ' so I could refund it if I was not happy with the artwork or if it came damaged. Instead, he tricked me and scammed me. 

On XX/XX/XXXX when I was speaking to the claim assistant, they told me I could also contact the recipient and work it out with them. This is NOT possible. I contacted him a second time on XX/XX/XXXX and he blocked me again. The evidence of my messages to him can be seen in the PDF titled : 'trying to contact him. ' In this chat, I am aggressive because he is a scammer and he stole my money. If he were a real artist, he would have not blocked me for a second time. He would have responded and tried to resolve the matter at hand, even if I was aggressive. If he was a real seller, he would not care if I was aggressive and he would have responded so he could help me to the best of his ability. He did not block me because of my aggressiveness. However, he responded by blocking me again. The evidence of him blocking me a second time can be seen in the PDF titled : 'blocked image 2 '. Again, the profile is mostly gone and it says that this is 'User not found '. In the end, it is impossible to contact him and if I tried to do it again, he would keep blocking me. Do NOT ask me to contact him again. 

The denial of my claim is unacceptable and unfair. It is truly disappointing that I, as a Wells Fargo customer, was denied and the bank that I should be able to trust has sided with a scammer. It should NOT MATTER if I authorized this transaction or not and if I did this with a third party app. I have done EVERYTHING that was asked of me : contacting XXXX about helping me, contacting the recipient, and filing a claim. Only Wells Fargo can help, XXXX can not and they told me to ask my bank for help. It is Wells Fargo 's JOB to protect their customers and to side with them when it is right. I was NOT taken seriously and I am incredibly frustrated, angry, and ashamed that my bank would do this to me. There is sufficient evidence presented in this email of why I deserve to be refunded. There is evidence online of customers being refunded in the same situations as I am in right now. I was blocked and I never received my merchandise. As a customer, I have the RIGHT to ask for my claim to be reopened. NO ONE should have to go through this.

I kindly ask you to reopen this claim and help one of your loyal, long-term customers by refunding the payment of {$200.00} to the RIGHTFUL owner. No customer should have to experience this horrible treatment and no scammer should have money that is taken from victims of fraud. I never received what I bought and I deserve to be reimbursed. Please reconsider your decision, thank you. 

Lastly, I would like to file a chargeback if possible. The recipient does NOT have a merchant ID, but I do have their email for Wells Fargo and XXXX. Please respond in a timely manner to stay in touch. Thank you.

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