Consumer complaint received 2020-04-03
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Problem with a purchase or transfer — Card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase or transfer
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (CA)

I engaged an auto mechanic XX/XX/XXXX I had known for approximately twenty-five years to rebuild the engine in my XXXX XXXX. The mechanic sent the engine to a machine shop and after a year, the car came back with parts left out of the engine. The mechanic reluctantly installed the parts, and informed me he was going out of business. He returned the car to me at the end of XXXX when he was closing his doors. The car overheats and will not run for more than about 15 miles on the freeway without losing all coolant, with the overflow bottle blowing out and steam everywhere. There is also an engine knock and low oil pressure. When I complained to the mechanic in an email ( attached ), he referred me to the machine shop ( attached ), with whom I had no contract. The machine shop blamed the problems on the mechanic ( attached ). As three of the four sums I paid to the mechanic were through my Wells Fargo Visa debit card ( {$7000.00} XX/XX/XXXX, {$5900.00} XX/XX/XXXX and {$870.00} XX/XX/XXXX, I initiated a merchant dispute. A provisional credit was initially given, but taken back in XXXX. I received a letter from Wells Fargo saying the matter was closed and the dispute denied. Despite that the Wells Fargo documentation correctly describes the dispute as 13.3 Defective/not as described ( XXXX pgs. 7-9 attached ), page two of the XX/XX/XXXX letter I received from XXXX XXXX at Wells Fargo ( attached ) describes the situation more as a 10.3 ( i.e. no unauthorized transaction ). I never claimed someone else used my card. Rather I complained the merchant did not perform the work adequately. Moreover, the merchant did not provide documentation proving my car runs properly, In fact, his later of XX/XX/XXXX admits there were problems. The merchant also admits he was " liquidating his business '' ( which is why I could not go back to him for correction of the problems ). When I asked him in an email ( attached ) for relief he referred me to the machine shop, a third party with whom I have no contract and who refuses to take any responsibility. I paid the mechanic, not the machine shop, who the mechanic selected. 

Visa and Wells Fargo seem to have sided with the merchant when no compelling evidence and no third party documentation such as a second opinion letter have been provided by the merchant. I provided a second opinion letter ( attached ) at the direction of Wells Fargo, and this seems to have been ignored. Also, it seems Wells Fargo and perhaps Visa ( no access to Visa is provided by the bank ) changed the dispute from defective merchandise to fraud based on page 2 of the XX/XX/XXXX letter from Wells Fargo " Based on additional documents from the merchant, it was determined the charges were made by the customer or an authorized person. '' It seems rigged by the bank, in that my complaint was for a defective repair, which I have proven and is acknowledged by the mechanic in his own letter ( attached ), not a claim that a transaction was made by someone else.