Consumer complaint received 2022-10-22
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Banking errors
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (CA)

In XX/XX/XXXX I had fraudulent transactions on my account. I attempted to contact the merchant who referred me back to my bank. At this point I filed a claim with my bank for these fraudulent transactions in XX/XX/XXXX. After the 10 day waiting period I received word from Wells Fargo that they had in fact denied my claim. As a Wells Fargo customer I did have the right to appeal their decision and I did. At this time I was going back-and-forth with Wells Fargo and attempting to get into contact with the merchant which unfortunately the only way that I was able to contact the merchant was via email. When I finally got a response from the merchant that stated they reported the unauthorized transactions to their management team and my account was locked as to prevent any further unauthorized transactions and even sent me an email confirming on their end that it was showing everything was refunded/credited back to my bank account. I then contacted Wells Fargo to let them know what the merchant had told me and still nothing. I finally sent them the email from the merchant stating that on their end it was showing everything was refunded/credited back to my bank account. After going back and forth with the bank again I was finally given a credit to my account in XX/XX/XXXX. Now due to the timeframe I was only given a partial credit because it had gone out of the 60 day window. At this point Wells Fargo decided to close this claim and I have been fighting with them ever since. I am disputing the fact that Wells Fargo did not properly investigate the matter from the very beginning because if they had in fact done so and spoke to the merchant themselves instead of me doing it this matter would have been resolved and I would not have spent the past 18 months being passed around to XXXX employees who have lied to me and given me inaccurate information. Numerous employees have lied to me and given me incorrect information but XXXX employee specifically stands out who told me that the reason my claim was denied was because I did not file the correct paperwork within the allotted time frame. I then asked this employee what that timeframe was and he told me 60 days. Now mind you the entire time I am talking with this employee he has a better than you attitude, as if he was in the right. After I finished letting him speak I then informed him that I had filed this claim and the necessary paperwork along with it well within that 60 day timeframe and Wells Fargo was the one who did not properly investigate this matter from the very beginning. Now at this point his attitude disappeared and he got quiet. I was then told by this employee that he was going to escalate this matter and that he would get back to me within a 10 day timeframe. Those 10 days past and when I tried contacting this employee on numerous occasions I simply got his voicemail when I was finally able to get into contact with somebody they explained to me that this employee had in fact gone on vacation. This is just an example of the things that I have had to deal with the past 18 months with Wells Fargo. Now we are in XX/XX/XXXX I am still fighting with Wells Fargo over this and they are still refusing to take responsibility for a mistake that they made. I have already filed a complaint with a CFPB in which Wells Fargo responded and the case was closed without further investigation. I am stating fact that Wells Fargo did not investigate this matter properly from the very beginning because as I said if they would have done so and got in contact with the merchant they wouldve been told that everything was refunded/credited back to my account, That my account with the merchant was frozen and locked due to it being compromised and to prevent any further unauthorized transactions. Now because of this again I have been fighting with Wells Fargo since. The amount of stress and frustration that this entire situation has put me through has been unbearable. According to Wells Fargos code of ethics when an employee makes a mistake they acknowledge the mistake and take action to fix it. The only thing Wells Fargo has done the past 18 months is pass me around from employee to employee and not provide factual information to support their decision. Again attached you will see an email from the merchant themselves stating that after speaking with their management team it shows on their end that everything was refunded/credited back to my bank account. Thats where it ended with the merchant and is now back on Wells Fargo which again after sending that email to Wells Fargo is why they credited my account in XX/XX/XXXX but as I said it was only a partial credit due to the fact of it being out of that 60 day timeframe due to Wells Fargos neglect to properly investigate the matter from the beginning. So yes this is a mistake 100 % on Wells Fargo. They need to be held responsible for their actions and they need to compensate me for the time and trouble that they have put me through for the past 18 months. I do understand that an employee violating a companies code of ethics is more of an in-house kind of punishment but in this particular case with multiple employees violating their companies code of ethics it affected a customer financially. So with these employees defrauding customers by not taking the proper course of actions with investigating this matter, this is how I feel that compensation is due for my time and trouble. I really hope the CFPB will take a deeper look into not only my complaint but other complaints of the same nature. Within this past week alone I have spoken with numerous Wells Fargo customers that have been experiencing the same disappointment in this financial institution as I have. No one being on the same page, giving customers improper information, lying about escalating matters And not taking a proper course of action when they were supposed to. This results in not only customers being upset because they were lied to but it also results in the same experience that I had with Cases going outside of that time frame in order to get the correct results. So again Wells Fargo is defrauding more and more customers by not taking a proper course of actions when it comes to resolving these matters. I do believe that this is something that needs to be addressed on a higher level so that Wells Fargo can be held accountable for their actions that have affected customers in a negative way. I will continue fighting for this because Wells Fargo is in the wrong and the longer that this fight has to go on the List of people that are affected by Wells Fargos neglect to take the proper course of action will grow. I can promise you that this will not be the last complaint that you receive regarding Wells Fargos unethical business practices in which they lie and deceive customers. The complaints will continue to grow until something is done to stop their bad business practices.