I just became a Wells Fargo customer about three months ago since late 90's. I have been banking with few other institutions like Bank of America and few very small, local banks. I recently decided to go back to Wells Fargo since my experiences in the past had been relatively good. Was I wrong!

On November 23, I deposited just over $4, 000 to my account. As I made the deposit, the banker told me that there will be a hold on the amount for two days. They did not tell my why. I know that this could be the case when checks I deposit had a history of insufficient funds. This was still fine with me since I knew that I had close to $3, 000 in in the account already. Then I got an email saying that I was overdrawn, and the bank returned a check for $640. I thought it was my oversight and thought that I had much less money in the account than I had thought. So rushed to the bank to cover few more checks and deposited $600 in cash.

The next day, I checked my bank and found that my account balance was over $8, 000. If I were overdrawn and my deposits are no longer on hold, I should have less than $4, 000 or just about that. The math did not make any sense. I called the customer service. The first person, Shelly, could not understand my questions or did not want to deal with me. She handed the phone to her supervisor, Dawn. I asked her why I was overdrawn. After looking at it few minutes, she said that there was a double holding on my deposit of $4, 000. So instead of holding $4, 000, they held $8, 000. Because I had $2, 900 in my account before the deposit, I was actually negative by about $1, 000 in their system. This was the worst, the stupidest, idiotic mistake any banking institution has made in my history. To make matters worse, I found that a woman named Cinthia Sanchez has authorized a payment on my account to Direct TV. I have Charter. Instead of taking care of this right away, Wells Fargo suggested me opening a secondary account as a back up.

The customer service said that the mistake of holding the deposits for twice the amount was made from the branch and name the branch manager, Diana, as the responsible party. When I talked to the manager herself, she said that she was not even in the office when it happened and that she will do some research and will call back at the end of the day. As anyone could guess, she did not call back. Meanwhile, I got another email alert with insufficient funds for another check which came in after my account balance was shown 8 times more than the check itself. When I called back and asked why this happened again, the person could only said that there was a hold of over $7, 000.

What I got in the end was useless apology from people who did not understand what just happened. This was my last conversation with Wells Fargo customer service.

me: Tell me one thing. If I deposit $2, 000 and if Wells Fargo decides to hold the amount, what amount should you put on hold?

Wells: ... ( no answer)

me: If I deposit $2, 000, is it Wells Fargo policy to hold 4, 000 or 2, 000 for two days?

Wells: 2, 000, of course.

me: So if you put a hold on 4, 000 instead of 2, 000, it is a stupid thing to do, right?

Wells: ... (no answer)

me: Yes, or no. Answer my question.

Wells: Yes, it is pretty stupid.

me: You know what, you should become a branch manager just by acknowledging that. The branch manager should live up to her position as a manager and she did not do it today.

After this ordeal, I decided to leave Wells Fargo and open an account at another bank. It is truly the most outrageous banking experience I had ever had to deal with. I will never, never, never thousand times more, open an account with Wells Fargo.