Consumer complaint received 2017-04-26
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Personal line of credit
Issue: Getting a line of credit

Complaint:
I went to my local Wells Fargo branch to review which loan options would best fit up to {$20000.00} in home improvement projects prior to putting up my home for sale. A Wells Fargo consultant sat down with my husband and I and we viewed a few options I had questions on. We decided that a personal loan would best suit us at the time. I was interested in a personal loan because I plan to sell my house in the next couple of months and pay the loan off with the capital gains from the house. I wanted a loan without prepayment penalties and a fixed interest rate so in the event that something happened and I was not able to sell, that it would be an easy and reasonable payment. We decided with the Wells Fargo consultant that the personal loan was our best option. The consultant ran our Wells Fargo account information and walked us through the loan application process. She put in our monthly bills, mortgage, and car etc ... She said that we would definitely qualify and that I could qualify on my own if just I apply and the interest rates would fall somewhere between 6- 9 % on the loan. She recommended we complete the loan application online and then bring in the documents for signing that would be mailed to us. I finished filling out the online application on 4/18. I received an acceptance letter in the mail and opened it on Monday 4/24. The letter stated that I had been approved for a line of credit with a variable interest rate of 12 %, instead of being approved the personal loan that I had applied for online with Wells Fargo. I thought that there had been a mistake and I took the documents down to my local branch and talked with the same consultant as before. I showed her the documents and said that there has been some mistake and that this is not what I applied for, or spoke to you about when we were researching our options. She said that she remembered, but that she really could n't do anything that I would have to call Wells Fargo. I explained again that I had applied for a loan and not a line of credit and asked if she could look into it with Wells Fargo. She copied the first page of my letter from Wells Fargo and said she would try to investigate it and call me back.
After leaving the branch on the afternoon of 4/24, I called the Wells Fargo to follow up and was transferred from person to person until being transferred to Customer Care and Executive Services where Wells Fargo opened up a case to investigate what happened to my loan application getting turned into a personal line of credit with a variable interest rate. I was not allowed to send any emails or my letter from Wells Fargo, or screen shots of the application process. I was told that I would be able to do that once I was transferred to a case manager at Executive Services. I was told that if I wanted a loan I would have to apply again. I asked Executive Services that if I applied online for a loan again how could I be assured that it would n't get turned into a line of credit again? I chose to go back to the Wells Fargo branch and talk to the original consultant that helped us. At the same time, she had called me back and said that after her investigative work with calls she was told me that my application was for a line of credit instead of a loan. I explained that I had most certainly applied for a loan and wanted to sit down and show her my documents and screen shots from the application process, so I returned the branch with my documents and screen shots the evening on Mon   XXXX  .
She told us that I could apply for a loan again through her to make sure everything went through and that it would most likely account for only 1 credit inquiry because she made notations in the file for what had happened with the original loan application. She also told us that I had 7 business days to withdraw from the already approved line of credit and gave us the number to call and that I would need to call before   XXXX   or I could not withdraw my application, it would book automatically. She also told us that we would need to call   XXXX   ourselves and request that the credit inquiry be removed because it was not the product we had thought we applied for. After my husband called   XXXX   himself he was given a Well Fargo number and told that we would have to ask Wells Fargo to ask   XXXX   to remove the Inquiries.
While at the bank branch on the evening on   XXXX  4, we went through the loan approval application process with the original consultant and we were approved verbally through her for {$10000.00} loan at an interest rate of approx. 19.99 %. I do not remember the exact amount for interest, but it was much higher than the line of credit, and I rejected the loan offer there on site. Even with the notations she added in the file during the loan application process, from my previous online application, that I only wanted the personal loan, Wells Fargo counter offered instead of doing anything to try to withdraw or change the original application into the product we were asking for both in person and online. ( At the same time we are sitting in the local branch an email came through to me saying that my application was accepted and even though we did not accept the loan offer there on site and then an email was sent to me approx. 2 hours after leaving the bank saying that I was denied the loan by Wells Fargo, even though while in the bank we were given a loan offer? At this point I am not really sure what to believe or who to trust. ) The next day on Tuesdays   XXXX  , I called my contact through Costumer Care at Wells Fargo, to try to resolve the first case number and only escalated into a second case number. She transferred me twice to a Wells Fargo line for help in the removal of the credit runs at  XXXX , both of which I was not able to leave a voice mail as she had directed. Also on  XX/XX/XXXX , I had called the number given me to withdraw from the line of credit and I was told that there was nothing that they could do that the personnel line of credit was already booked. I do not understand how it could be booked when I was still within the timeframe to withdraw? Also I never signed any documents accepting the line of credit, and I have been on the phone and in the branch explaining that I am not interested in having it or using it and that I wanted to withdraw and cancel this. He repeatedly told me that there was nothing else he could do, and he was the number given to me at Wells Fargo for withdrawals, both in person at the branch and over the phone. I explained that I wanted to find out my options for cancelling and or withdrawing from the loan since I was never intending to use this. He told me that I could only work with Customer Care. He refused to help or give me any further assistance. He was very rude ( Everyone has been very friendly with the exception of this rep. However, even though they are friendly and polite no one is able to help, answer questions, or take any action to help the customer. I have been constantly told through this process and by several reps That is a great question   XXXX   XXXX   ) When I called the person back at customer care this morning  XX/XX/XXXX , to report it and pick up where we had left off from yesterday, I explained that I had until  XX/XX/XXXX  and that I was calling in the evening of   XXXX   and should be able to cancel the loan. After about an hour of her working with personnel at Wells Fargo while I was on hold, she said that she couldnt do anything more and transferred me to another member in the Executive Care for complaints that was for sure going to be able to help me with this. We started from the beginning all over again, and after an about an additional hour on the phone, another case was opened for the inability to withdraw from the loan. The case was then assigned to a new analyst at executive services that would be expediting this inquiry in 5 business days. I am back where I started and have not spoken to this analyst yet. I do not understand why it is so difficult to cancel or reject a product I did not intend to apply for or ever use.
I am reporting this because I did not receive the product I applied for both in person and online on two separate occasions this past week. I have banked with Wells Fargo my whole life, have never had any type of issue with any of my accounts and have a very good credit rating. While banking with Wells fargo I have never applied for any type of loan. I was accepted for a product I did not apply for and have tried to both change from credit line to loan, and now withdraw, and yet I have not been able to reach any type of resolution with Wells Fargo. I have been handed from person to person and now have two separate case numbers on this incident with Wells Fargo. While trying to resolve the issue on my own with Wells Fargo for several hours each day, I do not have any resolution other than Wells Fargo collecting information from me, and it morphing into more issues, when all I would like now is for the loan applications to be withdrawn and the credit inquiries removed.
Even in reviewing my emails from Wells Fargo the information in their emails is different than the information given to me in person and over the phone with Costumer care. Even while they refused to withdraw my application for the line of credit they went ahead and with my current open cases, and calls to try to resolve between  XX/XX/XXXX  through today,  XX/XX/XXXX , Wells Fargo still went ahead and activated the account that I did not apply for and am not interested in. While Well Fargo knew this and I had been reporting it to them all along, they refused to let me withdraw the application within 7 days. I was told my the rep at the bank,   XXXX   XXXX  , that I had until  XX/XX/XXXX  to withdraw the application. Wells Fargo would not honor my wishes to withdraw, close, and cancel when I called the number for withdrawal on  XX/XX/XXXX , and spoke to   XXXX   XXXX  , and therefore this must be reported. In addition, there was never any clear documentation from Wells Fargo calling my application a line of Credit and not a loan. It was n't until I received the docs in the mail that it specified that it was for a line of credit and not a loan. Then I received an email on  XX/XX/XXXX  even after contacting Wells Fargo that the line of credit was active and this was sooner than it should have been activated. I was still within the time frame to withdraw the application but wells Fargo is refusing to do this for me even as a long time costumer that has never asked or applied for a loan.

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 monetary relief