Wells Fargo Unscrupulous Business Practices (1 Viewer)

[mc4saints]

We banked with Wells Fargo for a little while. After we moved to Charleston, my wife was downtown with our 8-month old baby walking around with the stroller. She had to pee and it started raining really hard. She saw the Wells Fargo branch and went inside. They didn't have a public restroom but she's standing here wet from the rain and with a baby in the stroller. She tells the lady at the desk that we bank there (and actually at the time, we had a very large transaction in process and there was a very large amount of money in our account - though that shouldn't matter).

They refused to let her use the bathroom - something about the proximity to the vault. She had to walk back out into the rain to find a bathroom.

About a week later I got a call from one of their bankers who had seen our large transaction and whether we could do more business with them. In a very calm voice, I told the banker about how while all that money was sitting in their bank, my wife was refused the bathroom with a baby in a stroller in the rain. I told him that I was going to be closing my accounts and that I never wanted to ever hear from Wells Fargo again, ever. He didn't try to change my mind, he said "well, I understand."

A few days later I walked into that same branch and closed the accounts. I was very clear that it was because they refused to let one of their own customers use the bathroom and sent her back out into the rain with a baby in the stroller.

Obviously, your Wife and 8-month-old were just trying to get access to the vault. Geez.

On a side note, if anyone tries to refinance to leave Wells Fargo, make sure it is directly with another large bank. if you go through a lending company, which usually gets the best rates, they will most likely just sell your loan back to Wells Fargo if possible.

 

[superchuck500]

Obviously, your Wife and 8-month-old were just trying to get access to the vault. Geez.

On a side note, if anyone tries to refinance to leave Wells Fargo, make sure it is directly with another large bank. if you go through a lending company, which usually gets the best rates, they will most likely just sell your loan back to Wells Fargo if possible.

You could include in your lending contract/mortgage that they can't sell it to Wells Fargo. They might agree to that, knowing that there are other institutions in the market they could sell to. But it's a bi-lateral deal, you certainly have the right to insist upon that. Either they take it or they don't do the deal.

 

[Saint_Ward]

Letter warned Wells Fargo of 'widespread' fraud in 2007 - exclusive - Oct. 18, 2016

Employee tried to warn them (allegedly) in 2007 about this.

Someone is probably going to jail.

 

[rob22278]

They refused to let her use the bathroom - something about the proximity to the vault.

You blew off the most important sentence in your story. It's called secure access. I know its cool to pile on Wells Fargo right now but this is the case with most financial institutions. If public restrooms were not put in the lobby when the building was built, bank employees can't let customers use a restroom behind a restricted area.

Would you ask to use the casino restroom behind the cage?

 

[superchuck500]

You blew off the most important sentence in your story. It's called secure access. I know its cool to pile on Wells Fargo right now but this is the case with most financial institutions. If public restrooms were not put in the lobby when the building was built, bank employees can't let customers use a restroom behind a restricted area.

Would you ask to use the casino restroom behind the cage?

I don't care. Everyone involved was a human being capable of judgment. If the reality was that they had no discretion to allow her to use the bathroom, the reality was also that we're not doing business with them anymore in any fashion.

 

[DaveXA]

I don't care. Everyone involved was a human being capable of judgment. If the reality was that they had no discretion to allow her to use the bathroom, the reality was also that we're not doing business with them anymore in any fashion.

Pretty much. I've worked at financial institutions before, and I can tell you that while there are security measures in place, there are common decency expectations as well. Most managers have discretion in decision making when it comes to this type of thing. It may depend to some degree on the institution, but the way WF handled that was pretty terrible.

 

[LAhotsauce]

lus-un2: This right here. One of the biggest disappointments of Obama's presidency to me was the unwillingness of him and the Justice department to go after and prosecute those who where largely responsible for the banking crisis. Outside of fines, there was absolutely no accountability. No wonder these business practices continue.

The DOJ did go after them for their discriminatory loan sharking on blacks and Hispanics. They had to pay a record settlement amount over 330k for that kind of offense. Was probably not enough.

Edit...330 Million that is