Consumer complaint received 2022-10-18
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card — Can't use card to make purchases
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (FL)

On XXXX/XXXX/22, I booked a hotel room for an event that immediately sells out all affiliated hotel rooms. I had the credit card in question saved to my XXXX account. Per Wells Fargo, an initial test charge was approved, but the deposit payment was declined. According to Wells Fargo, this was declined due to fraud protection. I had received a text to verify the payment, which I had responded to within XXXX minute while I was at work. Unfortunately, due to the nature of this event, the hotel room was immediately cancelled due to declined payment, and rebooked to someone else immediately ( there is no waitlist ). The trip itself may be ruined, as I am now scrambling to find a less desirable hotel room that will be more expensive due to not being part of the event. It's difficult to predict how much money I will lose due to having to find new accommodations. 

XX/XX/22 : Complaint called into Wells Fargo XX/XX/22 : Email received stating XXXX ( ext XXXX ) is handling this case. I called the extension, but XXXX was out of the office. I requested a rep call put in a message to call me back, as potentially rebooking the room is extremely time sensitive. 
XX/XX/22 : I called again, and was informed that XXXX is out of the office. I requested a call back from someone else on the team. The rep I spoke with forwarded my concerns to team leader, XXXX XXXX, and the team manager, XXXX XXXX XXXX did not receive any calls from this team. 
XX/XX/22 : XXXX called me in the morning, and said that she is escalating my case. She acknowledged all of my stated concerns, and did all that she could in requesting resolution, and upon being rejected for those resolutions, escalating the case further. The case was escalated to XXXX XXXX ext XXXX ), who told me that she was ready to close the case with no resolution. She stated that Wells Fargo does not guarantee payment on claims, and they would not do anything to assist in the situation generated by their declined payment. I requested to escalate further, and XXXX refused, stating that she is the highest escalation. I asked if she was the manager of her department, and she stated that she is not, so I asked to speak to a manager. She said that a manager from a different site may call back, but her manager is XXXX. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Wells Fargo declines payment, refuses to elaborate on why fraud protection was triggered and why they choose to auto-deny payment instead of verifying before rescinding payment. Declined payment cancels my hotel room, which is possibly now irretrievable. Wells Fargo refuses to help, and my trip is potentially ruined, and I likely will have to spend even more money for less desirable accommodations, if any in the area are even available. 

The heart of my complaint : Wells Fargo automatically denying claims on a credit card, for a hotel room, is anti-consumer. I would expect that a future booking for a hotel room would be particularly easy to recoup a payment, considering in most instances if it happened before or during the stay, the hotel would be able to cancel the reservation or update payment method. By automatically denying payments as part of the fraud protection system that Wells Fargo has chosen to use, it puts the burden on the customer to fix a mistake made by Wells Fargo. Notably, other banks and credit card providers do not automatically deny payments, even when a verification request is sent to the customer.