Consumer complaint received 2024-03-15 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Wrong amount charged or received — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
I am retired from Wells Fargo and I receive deferred compensation from the company. I have already received two annual payments and I will receive eight more in the future. The annual payments are approximately {$45000.00} and they are made by direct deposit into my Wells Fargo checking account. In the first payment the federal tax rate was 22 %. That payment was made in XXXX of XXXX. 

Since this is a substantial component of my family 's income, I wanted to reduce the federal tax rate to an amount that was more appropriate for a married couple earning such a low income. I was informed that I needed to submit a W4 form to do that. I submitted the W4 and received confirmation that Wells Fargo received the form in XXXX or XXXX of XXXX. 

In XXXX of XXXX I received my second annual payment and the tax rate was not reduced, in fact, it was increased to 29.4 %. I contacted Wells Fargo XXXX XXXX at XXXX to seek a resolution to the error. I was informed by employee care that someone from Payroll would be in contact with me within two business days. The next day I was contacted by the same person that I spoke to the previous day ( not a person from Payroll ) and he informed me that the third-party company that administers the account was responsible for the error. The third-party is called XXXX XXXX. I told this person that I disagreed with him and that it clearly states on the XXXX XXXX website that any tax related changes need to be made by Wells Fargo XXXX XXXX. He insisted that he was correct and I need to address the issue with XXXX XXXX. I asked him why someone from Payroll had not contacted me and he told me that the Payroll department told him to direct me to XXXX XXXX. 

I contacted Sky Comp and as I suspected, I was informed that Wells Fargo was responsible for any tax changes. I, once again, contacted XXXX XXXX and asked for an escalation to a supervisor. After a very long wait, I was not transferred to a supervisor, I was transferred to a subject matter expert and this person told me that they would research the issue and personally get back to me withing two business days. A few days later, I was contacted by another person and they told me that the payroll department checked the tax rate and that it was correct. He also told me that he checked it personally with an on-line calculator and it was correct. At that point, I asked him if he could share the calculator with me. The calculator is on a Wells Fargo site called Teamworks. I was able to get on the site and we both entered the numbers to determine my tax rate together. One field was called income and we both entered the {$45000.00}. The next field was called pay frequency and he told me to choose bi-weekly. At that point, I knew the cause of the error. 

I explained to him that this is an annual payment and not a bi-weekly payment so he needed to divide the XXXX by XXXX if he was going to use the bi-weekly option or use an income of {$45000.00} and choose a pay frequency of annually. He told me that he was instructed to use by-weekly. I explained to him that the way he was calculating this was assuming that I am getting XXXX bi-weekly payment of {$45000.00} or an annual amount of {$1.00} XXXX dollars and that is why the tax rate was so high. After another hour-long conversation I believe that I was able to get my point across and that he understood the issue. 
I also explained to him that this error has caused my financial hardship because I was overtaxed by about {$13000.00} and that unless this fixed immediately, I would have to borrow money to pay off some financial obligations. 

I have to say that after working for this bank for nearly 20 years that I am shocked there are not adequate controls in place to avoid this type of error. I am also shocked that the people that are entrusted to do this job and given the title of Subject Matter Expert do not have the knowledge to immediately recognize this error. As I said, I am retired and I count on this income to live and I am reasonably certain that many other retired people that have Deferred Compensation have struggled with the same issue. 

I dont have a lot of confidence that this issue will be resolved quickly and I have even less confidence that the same issue will not reoccur next year without adequate controls and training being put in place.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation