Consumer complaint received 2024-06-22
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (WA)

Short Form Complaint : 1. Wells Fargo and XXXX have failed to provide and maintain minimally adequate customer service resources and technologies concerning consumer lending products they offer in the State of Washington.

2. Wells Fargo has abused its position as a financial institution in conjunction with its relationship with rent payment services offered by XXXX to misappropriate and improperly apply funds intended for rent payments to its own accounts receivable for its consumer credit accounts. 

XXXX. Wells Fargo has engaged in unethical and bad faith practices in handling complaints related to technical issues with consumer credit products it services and related softwarea mobile applicationoffered in partnership with XXXX. 

4. Wells Fargo has either deliberately or negligently failed to provide timely notice of adverse actions concerning the closure of a credit account. 
a. In the XXXX instance where a notice was sent, there is strong evidence to suggest that the reasons cited in Wells Fargos correspondence are pretextual, and the actual reason for account closure was due to bounced payments resulting from Wells Fargos own, documented, software errors in an open tech support case. 

5. Wells Fargo has engaged in unlawful and unfairly deceptive debt collection practices including but not limited to failing to disclose it was acting in a debt collection capacity and/or misrepresenting the nature of its so-called customer service and tech support case ( XXXX ). 

6. XXXX fails to display, and Wells Fargo permits this failure to continue, any indication of current consumer account status in its mobile application or provide any required notices once a consumer account has been terminated and transferred to collections. 

Facts and Circumstances : Prior to XX/XX/year>, an automatic minimum monthly payment of {$300.00} was initiated on my XXXX XXXX. The XXXX XXXX is a product offered by XXXX XXXX XXXX and serviced by Wells Fargo. XXXX is responsible for handling rent payments, their rewards program, and tech support for their mobile app/website. Wells Fargo manages everything related to the credit card, which is a Mastercard. XXXX offers a service that sends rent checks to landlords once a month free of charge. When these payments are submitted, the payment amount is charged against the credit line, like any other charge. The payment method is either an ACH or a mailed check from XXXX to the landlord on the cardholders behalf. 

On XX/XX/year>, I became aware of a payment processing error. Rather than drawing from my XXXX Checking account ending in XXXX ( XXXX ), XXXX attempted to draw the automatic minim monthly payment of {$300.00} from a XXXX Savings account ending in XXXX ( XXXX ). Wells Fargo retroactively charged me a late fee of {$25.00} as of XX/XX/year>. 
I then attempted to manually resubmit payment using my XXXX Checking account ending in XXXX. Despite my selection of this account, XXXX attempted to draw from XXXX again. Of the three payment accounts I had added in the XXXX mobile application, XXXX was set as the Default, and due to a technical error, all payments were processed through the Default account rather than the selected account. When I attempted to change the Default account, I was unable to do so. In the interim and to avoid further fees, I funded the XXXX account so my resubmitted payment of {$1100.00} would clear. This transaction processed successfully through XXXX on XX/XX/year>. 

Before XX/XX/year>, I initiated another payment of {$7000.00} through the XXXX mobile application ( XXXX XXXX ). Again, the XXXX mobile application attempted to draw from XXXX instead of XXXX. At this point, I manually removed XXXX and a third payment account ( XXXX ) from my linked payment accounts in the XXXX mobile application to force XXXX to be the Default. After this, I reattempted the First Payoff but was prevented from submitting it because the then-current balance outstanding on my XXXX XXXX credit account reflected my First Payoff, which was incorrectly drawn on XXXX and had not yet been reversed for XXXX XXXX mobile application and Wells Fargo policy both prohibit payments being made more than a credit accounts current outstanding balance without regard to any pending reversals or changes. This is when I began seeking customer service and tech support from XXXX. 

When I contacted XXXX, I was directed to a chatbot on their website and in the mobile application. For payment processing errors, I was directed to email XXXX XXXX at XXXX. I exchanged at least XXXX emails with XXXX representatives, who initially misunderstood my inquiry. The XXXX representatives incorrectly believed I was referencing an automatic rent payment of {$5200.00} submitted to my landlord scheduled through the XXXX mobile application that was processed on or about XX/XX/year> ( Rent Payment ). The Rent Payment was returned for NSF because the First Payoff had not been applied to my XXXX account due to the Discover/BECU payment and Default payment method errors. Once XXXX representatives understood the issue, I was directed to Wells Fargo for further assistance. 

My case was escalated to Wells Fargos Executive Office, case ID XXXX, with XXXX assigned XXXX the case. XXXX confirmed that credit card payment errors like my First Payoff were for Wells Fargo to resolve, expecting resolution within XXXX business days. XXXX advised that Wells Fargos payment processing systems would automatically reattempt both the First Payoff and the Rent Payment and that they could not disable these automatic reattempts. 

The First Payoff was declined by XXXX at least twice, first on or about XX/XX/year>, and then again on or about XX/XX/year>. ( XXXX Bank provided at least a dozen other payment failure notices by email and mobile application alert, but only these two transactions are reflected on my XXXX account ). An additional automatic minimum monthly payment of {$300.00} was also reattempted and declined by XXXX on or about XX/XX/year>. 

I do not have visibility into what rent checks or payments were mailed or paid by XXXX. I notified my landlord on XX/XX/year>, and requested a waiver of late fees while resolving payment processing errors. My landlord agreed. Between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, my landlord received the Rent Payment, cashed it, and had the payment reversed for NSF. The landlord was charged a {$25.00} NSF fee, later reversed. I received a confirmatory email from my landlord on XX/XX/year>. 

On XX/XX/year>, I initiated a new payoff of {$8700.00} through the XXXX mobile app, which was drawn from XXXX and applied to my XXXX credit account balance on XX/XX/year> ( Second Payoff ). I also reinitiated my Rent Payment on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX called me on XX/XX/XXXX to confirm my issues were resolved. I confirmed they were, to the best of my knowledge. 

On XX/XX/year>, my XXXX XXXX began being declined by merchants, but an online transaction of {$24.00} was processed on XX/XX/XXXX. As of then, I had received no correspondence from XXXX or Wells Fargo of any kind and assumed these declines were due to automated fraud protection. Wells Fargo support informed me there were no fraud alerts on my account. My card continued to be declined. I figured, perhaps, that a new card had been mailed by Wells Fargo as part of the resolution for my case and thought nothing more of it. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a notice from XXXX that my XXXX card had been deactivated from XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX, I called Wells Fargo for assistance, expecting to request information for when to expect my new card. XXXX was surprised to hear about the issues, believing the problem was resolved. She had no knowledge of what had happened with my account after XX/XX/XXXX. 

Upon investigation, XXXX confirmed an adverse action letter indicating my XXXX XXXX account had been closed, prepared and sent by postal mail on XX/XX/XXXX. Conflicting closure dates were either XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX, both after my Second Payoff was initiated and after XXXX confirmed the matter was resolved. 

XXXX opened a new case for the account closure problem, case ID # XXXX, assigned to XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/year>, XXXX responded XXXX confirming my credit card was closed on XX/XX/year>, and could not be reopened. XX/XX/XXXX is also after my Second Payoff was initiated and after XXXX confirmed the matter was resolved. 

I called Wells Fargo again, requesting XXXX 's assistance and a new case was opened with ID # XXXX. The Wells Fargo representative I spoke with on XX/XX/year>, indicated both XXXX and XXXX were busy but had received notes to contact me. As of the filing of this complaint, I have not been contacted by XXXX, XXXX, or any other representative of either XXXX or Wells Fargo. 

For the above reasons, I was left with no choice but to seek assistance from the state and other regulatory bodies and file this complaint, along with others substantially similar.