Consumer complaint received 2015-12-04
Product: Money transfers — International money transfer
Issue: Wrong amount charged or received — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (TX)

I needed money while living XXXX in XXXX to pay for a condo for 12 months + a 2 month deposit. Wells Fargo was my bank back home in XXXX but they would not allow me to wire money to myself without physically being present at a branch in XXXX nor do an online transfer, so I transferred {$26000.00} of my own personal money into my business partner and my joint bank account with Wells Fargo and had him wire the money into the condo owner 's personal bank account at XXXX here in the XXXX. The money was wired by my business partner on behalf of me on XXXX XXXX, 2015. My business partner was told that it could take up to 7 business days for the wire to go through. 7 business days later and the money is not there according to the local XXXX XXXX here, so I have my business partner go back to Wells Fargo and ask them where the missing money is. Wells Fargo then stated that they would have to an 'investigation ' in order to figure out where the money was at. Incredibly, Wells Fargo then told my business partner that this investigation could take up to two weeks. I was absolutely appalled that it would take 2 weeks to find out where my missing money was at being that it took me all of 45 minutes to figure it out in hindsight. After this 'thorough ' 2 week investigation during which Wells not once contacted me to let me know what was going on nor did they even tell us that the investigation was even complete, Wells Fargo XXXX bold conclusion was that XXXX did indeed have the money the whole time which later and amazingly still turned out to be wrong. Amazing that it took XXXX weeks to come to an incorrect conclusion while my money is getting destroyed by the USD because of the currency conversion. Next, after proceeding down the local XXXX branch here, the local rep tells me that they had rejected the wire transfer 3 days after it was sent and gave me the rejection reference number because Wells Fargo sent it to the wrong XXXX entity and used the wrong SWIFT code. I tell my business partner to go into the branch yet again to get this problem resolved and he tells the Wells rep around the XXXX of XXXX to accept the rejection and deposit the money back into my account using the reference number XXXX had given me. The Wells Fargo rep then proceeds to make another startling mistake by assuming that we wanted the money to be sent again and awaited new wire instructions thus delaying my money getting redeposited again and allowing the USD to continue bludgeoning the XXXX. And finally on XXXX XXXX, 2015 ( an INCONCEIVABLE 30 DAYS after my wire was sent ) and I finally get my money back in the amount of {$25000.00} and Wells Fargo is trying to tell me that I am responsible for the currency changes during this 30 days?? {$1800.00}! A whopping XXXX % of my money gone due to banking incompetence. Wells Fargo is the entity that put in the wrong swift code to begin with and wired the money to the wrong bank. I provided the correct wiring instructions and Wells Fargo screwed it up. Secondly, let 's assume that I did send the wrong info and Wells Fargo did everything correctly. This money should at the very least have been redeposited immediately after the wire was rejected on XXXX XXXX, 2015 during which the XXXX would not have been killed by the USD. In addition to this, when the money was wired from Wells Fargo on XXXX XXXX, 2015 they gave me an unconscionable rate from USD to XXXX of XXXX. The actual rates at this time were closer to XXXX thus Wells Fargo positioned itself by currency manipulation such that under no circumstances could I get my initial wire back in the full amount because when it was transferred back at the actual rate of around XXXX again, the money was now only {$25000.00}. Bottom line is that Wells Fargo manipulated the currency rate and made it impossible for me to get back my full wire.