Consumer complaint received 2016-04-13
Product: Bank account or service — Other bank product/service
Issue: Using a debit or ATM card — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (TX)

In XXXX, 2015, I was traveling, via my personal XXXX camper, through the remote XXXX XXXX, inside the XXXX XXXX, when I experienced loss of oil pressure that resulted in my engine seizing. My vehicle was towed to the nearest village of XXXX, XXXX, where the only garage in town told me they could replace my engine with a " salvage yard '' engine that was in good shape. I agreed to the replacement and price. When I returned to claim my truck over a month later, the truck was running, but had numerous problems. The shop replaced the battery twice before the truck would start. Then, even though the engine was running fine, when I turned the key to the ignition " off '', the engine continued to run. I immediately returned to the shop, and ask them why this was happening. I was told by a mechanic that my truck had " gremlins '' in it. He told me I would have to open the hood and remove the ignition relay to get the engine to stop. Next, I saw the headlights remained on even though the key was " off '' and the ignition relay was removed from the fuse box under the hood. The mechanic advised me I would also need to disconnect the battery each time I stopped so the various electrical connections would not drain my battery. I protested that none of these symptoms existed at any point of my 7 month, XXXX mile trip from XXXX, Texas to the XXXX XXXX, where my engine failed. Again he blamed it all on the " gremlins '' and said they had replaced the engine, and that was what they were supposed to do. 

Though there was a blinding snow storm, and temperatures in the XXXX, I decided to set out on the long drive back to XXXX, Texas, in hopes I could at least get far enough before anything happened that I could have better options for help. Before I even got out of XXXX I noticed the engine RPMs were too high for each gear shift of the automatic transmission. Within XXXX miles of XXXX, I smelled a burning smell, and the transmission refused to engage even though the engine was running fine. In a blinding snow storm, I walked to the next small village along this desolate road, and found someone with a truck to tow me into town. One week later I was able to charter a flatbed truck passing down the road on its way to XXXX, the XXXX of XXXX XXXX. In XXXX, I found a qualified mechanic to troubleshoot the myriad problems with my truck. The mechanic used a XXXX code reader to determine all XXXX trouble codes were linked to a faulty transmission - a faulty transmission that had been replaced, along with the salvage engine in XXXX. This garage showed me the parts inside the transmission, and the seal between the engine and transmission was not new, and the gears inside the transmission were so damaged that it could not have made the more than XXXX mile journey from XXXX to the XXXX XXXX. 

Upon returning to XXXX, I contacted my bank, Wells Fargo, and disputed this payment to the garageman in XXXX. I was given a temporary credit for the roughly {$3700.00} USD. Over the next several months, the Wells Fargo Claims Center engaged in series of extremely frustrating communication, involving many form letters sent USPS to an address where I no longer live, despite my repeated requests to communicate through email. Each form letter said the same thing, and advised me to call the claims center. Each time I provided them with the documentation they requested, including a letter from the garage in XXXX that verified the work done in XXXX was not what I requested, and, while they replaced the engine as requested, they also replaced my perfectly good, recently rebuilt transmission with a faulty transmission that was attached to the rear of the salvage engine ( presumably because they could not extricate the transmission from the salvage engine ). After months, Wells Fargo ruled against me.