Consumer complaint received 2016-07-21
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Other bank product/service
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
I applied for a line of credit with Wells Fargo to help my elderly Mother pay her back property taxes on her home XXXX, and since she had a Wells Fargo account XXXX upon which my brother and I were a signers, it made sense to me to use that account to make auto-payments, which I did. 
The automatic payments went well - I was even getting monthly emails notifying me when the statement was available online, which was helpful, since the paper statements were going to my Mother c/o of my brother 's address back XXXX. My Mom died in XXXX of XXXX, and mail then was presumably sent to my brother. Since he had no further interest in that Wells Fargo checking account after her death, he did n't bother opening the statements, if he even got them - I was checking the account online, and all was well - or so I thought - I had sufficient money in that account to pay the monthly LOC payments for a couple of years, in fact, it was on my calendar to replenish it this year. 
My brother and I were busy trying to settle my Mom 's complicated estate from a distance - he was having to deal with matters XXXX, where she owned property, and I was doing what I could from here XXXX. I was distracted and did n't notice when I stopped getting the emails reminding me to check the account online until I got an email from WF XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, informing me that the monthly automatic payment had bounced! I went immediately to the local Wells Fargo and it turned out that at some point ( perhaps when the email notifications stopped coming?! ) the account had gotten below a certain threshold and I was being charged a hefty monthly service charge, which had caused the account to be depleted faster than expected, there was only about {$80.00} left in the account and my monthly {$100.00} automatic payment bounced. My brother and I decided to close the XXXX checking account, and I decided to bring the LOC to zero, so I asked the banker for the payoff amount. She made a phone call, and I was given the amount, wrote a check on my personal checking account, took the remaining cash from the closed checking account, and thought I was done with the matter until I could close the LOC ( to close it now will cost me {$400.00} ). 
Anyway, in XXXX, I received a WF statement showing that I still owe {$200.00} - no explanation of what the charges were for, so I spoke with " XXXX, '' at WF on XXXX and asked him to dispute the charge. While there 's evidence in the computer log that I spoke with him, per XXXX XXXX, with whom I followed up on XXXX, he took no action. She finally started " research '' on the matter, and since this had been delayed by XXXX 's inaction, I asked her to see that the interest stopped accruing while WF investigated. Now I have a letter from " XXXX XXXX '' telling me that I do, in fact, owe the additional {$200.00} + interest. It took me a couple of days to reach XXXX, because the telephone number he left on my voicemail and gave me in his letter did n't actually reach him. I finally got transferred to his voicemail and left a message for him to call me, which of course, he did not. I called him this morning and could not get a straight story from him - he has n't a clue what the charges are for ( or at least, his explanations make no sense - I had to figure out and explain to him what at least part of the charges were for ) and he refuses to escalate the matter to a supervisor, because he claims no " error '' was made. Well, I disagree. It was a huge error on WF 's part to give me the wrong payoff, and it was his personal error ( or strategem ) to give me the wrong telephone number and XXXX extension to reach him.

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