Consumer complaint received 2021-03-01
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: GA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem accessing account

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2020 my XXXX XXXX XXXX daughter and I made a trip to XXXX. We are actually still here. We were told that we need to quarantine for 14 days due to the coronavirus. We had no problem as we were staying with family. Once quarantine was over, we needed to get food and supplies. So on XX/XX/2020 I decided to log into my Wells Fargo account and transfer some funds to my personal account for use while I'm here. To my surprise, the mobile app did not work. I thought well maybe they're having technical issues. So I logged into my computer and tried to login. I got a message that my login was incorrect. My credentials are saved so there's no way my account password was incorrect. Another try and I was notified that my password was locked out and I needed to reset it. I followed the steps and it still denied me access to my account. There was a number listed to call for assistance. As you can imagine, I  was furious. I never received a fraud alert, email nor phone call and I had no way to access my account. I tried calling and was on hold for more than 30 minutes, so i hung up. I had to decide to either create a large phone bill by staying on hold until I got someone, or face the XXXX  and XXXX reality of asking relatives and friends for money to sustain myself and my daughter. We faced another issue, power went out for several days, and we had no way to recharge phones, laptops, etc. When power returned on friday, I called and still no answer. The weekend was now upon us and we still had no access to money. We would have literally XXXX if I did not muster up and ask for small loans for people we know. Finally on monday XX/XX/2020, I got someone on the phone. They said my account needed to be reset and I needed to confirm a few things before I could get access back into my account. I asked why was my account locked and the rep said he didn't have specific details but it seems to be some sort of security issue. I explained that I needed a better answer than that, because I am in an international country and just faced a big problem not being able to access neither my personal nor business accounts. He explained that since both accounts have the same login, it is the login that was locked out, hence, locking out all accounts associated with the login. After verifying everything and getting back access, I asked again, what triggered this security issue. He said there was a fraud alert placed on the account by a transaction but I needed to speak to the fraud department about it. I got transferred and the other person told me exactly what transaction caused the issue. My cousin had sent me less than {$200.00} via XXXX and wells fargo claims my cousin placed a fraud alert on the transaction so they shut down the account. I contacted my cousin and she said she faced the same issue at her bank and she confirmed she DID NOT place a fraud alert on the transaction. She said she is also willing to write a statement confirming this. I am so hurt and XXXX and had to put aside my pride asking friends and family for money. This situation should NEVER have happened. Fraud alerts should ALWAYS be confirmed with a phone call and follow up of some kind. My phone has international access so if they called I would have definitely known. The mobile app is also a secondary means to communicate with consumers. Simply locking people out of their account with no explanation and no notification is a terrible way to do business. All my auto payment bills and subscriptions are tied to these accounts. So if I was not needing to access the account immediately, I would have never known that this happened.

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