Consumer complaint received 2020-01-12
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (CA)

I had a business bank account with Wells Fargo for my company. The name of this account was XXXX XXXX  XXXX '. 

On XX/XX/2019 and XX/XX/2019 there were fraudulent charges that withdrew a total of {$16000.00} from my account. I saw the fraud on XX/XX/2019 and immediately called Wells Fargo to report it. On this call, I asked them block any more fraudulent charges from happening and to ensure no more charges would happen. They told me that the charges were reported, cancelled my card, and told me no more fraud should happen. 

However, after the call more fraud continued to happen on my account. I called Wells Fargo again on XX/XX/XXXX, and told them about this. We discussed how these were not credit or debit charges, and how it looked like they were withdrawing money directly from the account using the checking and routing number. Because of this, I asked them to shut down my account completely. They said I would have to go into a Wells Fargo branch. So that day I went in to Wells Fargo and met with a banker. I told them what was happening, and asked them to shut down my account. I emptied the bank account and transferred all of the money to a new account. They told me that my account was closed and that no more charges could happen whatsoever. 

However, it was not closed. On XX/XX/XXXX two more charges came through, totaling {$5500.00}. I immediately reported these additional charges by phone and asked them to close my account. They told me I couldn't close it over the phone and I had to go into a branch ( even though I had already done this entire process once before ). 

When I returned from XXXX travel, I had to go into a branch on XX/XX/XXXX and asked them to explain why charges were still happening on my account. By this time, more fraud charges of {$410.00} had occurred. They then revealed that the account was not, in fact, closed, and that charges could continue to go through, even though they explicitly told me it was closed the last time I came into the branch. 

I asked them to close my account immediately, but they told me that they couldn't - because there were still 'pending transactions ', which was the fraud charges or bank fees being triggered by fraud. They said that I would have to wait 24 hours for the transactions to clear before I could close my account. I asked, what happens if more charges occur within that 24 hours? That would create more pending charges, more bank fees, and the cycle would start over. Theoretically, if the charges continued coming in like they were, I would never be able to close my account and would have to deal with never ending fraud charges. They told me that this is just the way it works and all we could do is wait and see.

So we waited a day, and sure enough, more fraud charges happened. Therefore, I could not close my account and would have to wait another 24 hours to see what would happen. At this point I went into the bank branch for a third time. I told them that is not logical and that we need to find a solution. My bank account was in the negative due to all the fraud charges, and the banker told me that if I just transferred some money in to cover the negative balance ( and cover the fraud ), then they could close the account. She assured me that all the fraud would be reimbursed, and therefore I wouldn't have to worry about losing that money. Because this was my only option at this point ( it was either this, or just continue in a never ending cycle of fraud charges ) I decided to transfer the money in to cover the fraud. I transferred {$6200.00} on XX/XX/XXXX to get back to a positive balance. At this point, they finally closed my bank account. 

Wells Fargo was in the process of reimbursing the fraud charges, but a few weeks letter I received a letter saying they would not reimburse the charges from XX/XX/XXXX totaling {$5500.00}. Their reasoning was that it was ACH charges and due to their policies I had to report that within 24 hours or they had no liability to cover them. However : A ) I let them know that I did report those charges within 24 hours. They then told me it had to be reported before noon the following day, so realistically, you have less than 24 hours to report. I find this to be a gross violation of the protections the FDIC provides to consumers. 

B ) More importantly, I went into a branch and CLOSED my account before those charges happened. They told me that my account was closed and no more activity could occur whatsoever. After I took action to CLOSE my account, they were negligent in the fact that they did not actually close my account, nor did they inform me that my account was not closed. In fact, they assured me that it was closed. 

Because of this, I believe that Wells Fargo should be responsible for reimbursing me for the fraudulent charges of {$5500.00}. When I requested that the person within Wells Fargo who was handling this case contact me, she did call me. However, on the call I asked to speak to her supervisor and she refused. I asked for her full name and she refused to give it to me. I asked for her phone number so I could reach out after I had a chance to gather more information and she also refused to give it to me. After this call, I had no way of reaching her or even knowing who she was. They have completely stone walled me and will not allow me to even communicate directly with the person handling my case. This is a tragedy of customer service and honest policy, to a business owner and customer of theirs for over 10 years. I would like to report this to the CFPB and am hopeful that you can help me achieve some sort of resolution in this matter.