I brought in a cashier's check (wage) to cash. I asked specifically if the check went through and the money I withdrew came from the check. The teller said yes. The manager said yes. I asked again to verify since this check was my pay for a part-time job and donation and was my first time getting a cashier's check. They knew this. After withdrawing the money and wiring part of the money to on behalf of my employer as a donation, four days later my ATM was frozen. I didn't know why. After endless phone calls and visits, they said the check was a fraud. I was banned from their banks. All accounts were frozen and my savings emptied to cover the cashier's check. I filed a police report because of the scam. I asked Wells Fargo why they stated that the money went through and gave me the assurance that the check went through. They said they were not trained to tell the difference between fakes and real checks. Apparently, they are not trained in this. I didn't know this. I asked why they didn't tell me I should wait to cash my check, they said "well if we knew you were wiring the money, we would have told you." I asked why did they let me cash the check, they stated "well you have been a long time customer and you had the funds in your savings to cover the lost in the event it didn't go through." I asked them when were they going to notify me about the problem of the check instead of just closing out my accounts and labeling my accounts as a scammer: "they said it was there fault for not notifying me, but I am no longer welcome to bank with them ever." I asked them why they assured me the money came from the cashier's check and not my savings, they said "well that is not our problem. It is your problem to verify if a check is authentic, not us." Basically, the scam could have been avoided if they told me ahead of time to wait for the check to clear and that they didn't know if the check cleared or not. Instead, the teller and manager knew nothing and just said, "yeah, the money is coming from the cashier's check. everything looks okay." Bad business. No relief for customers. Deposit your money and lose it if they feel that they didn't do an adequate job of informing you.

My grandmother set up a trust to pay out to her grandchildren when her daughter (my mother) passed away. She passed away in Dec 2009. They are still hanging on to the money(actually stocks). They give us excuse after excuse as to why we have seen nothing from them yet. We have signed & sent all documents they want, but there is always "something else" they need to do. I sure don't think much of their trust department-- I notice they always collect their fees! I may have to use a lawyer to pry their hands off of what is ours.

Perhaps you can be of some help, if not for me, then others in my predicament; this being loss of income, my house and my credit rating, unnecessarily.

I purchased a house 5 years ago when my income was well within the parameters to afford the mortgage. In the past two years my income has decreased by 66%. I was living on credit cards for most expenses in order to continue to make my mortgage payments. I knew I could not continue to try and make ends meet with maxed out credit cards and no near future hope for an increase in my income so I placed my home on the market in August of 2009.

My real estate broker felt the price was at a good market value. There were no offers on the house from August through February of 2010 even though the price was reduced several times. In February of this year I applied for a loan modification with the lender, Wells Fargo. Approximately two months later I received a letter from WF stating they would lower my payment by $100 for three months and then I had to make full payment again. I could not accept this offer because it wouldn’t help my situation or even come close.

Also in February I was forced to stop making payments, a very difficult decision, as I have always had very good credit. It was my mortgage or all my other expenses that would suffer. By May with still no offers on the house I decided to apply for a short sale, as it was my understanding that this program was put in place to help people in my situation, by the government giving money to the banks for that purpose. The short sale application was approved, all documents requested were sent and acknowledged and we were told by Wells Fargo that an acceptable offer would be approved in 15-30 days.

In June we received a very good offer from a very qualified buyer, for almost $7, 000.00 more than my mortgage balance. We waited until almost 30 days went by and started calling Wells Fargo for updates on the process. A once a week call at that point (in July) always got the same response; “application is still in review” and we were never able to talk to the same person twice.

In mid July I received a letter from Wells Fargo stating that my house would be auctioned on November 8, 2010..Three days later I received three letters identical to the first one via certified mail. Three of these letters were addressed to me and one was addressed to ‘occupant’. The next day a gentleman came to my house and taped another of the letters (exactly the same as the first four) to my front door and took photos of it and my house.

Also in July two different individuals came to my house stating they worked with Wells Fargo and were “inspectors”. They each asked me three questions: Did I have gas or electric, a pool or hot tub and was I behind on my payments? They said they were not Wells Fargo employees but worked with WF.

August arrived with still no approval so we started calling twice a week for updates. We were told that a second negotiator was on the case now and it was “still in review”. Several more documents were requested and sent. By the third week in August the buyer was getting nervous as he needed to know if he had a place to move into. So the next call to Wells Fargo was a request to talk to a supervisor which was granted.

The supervisor stated that everything looked good and the approval would be forthcoming in 5-7 days. The following week with no communication from Wells Fargo, another call to them with the same message, “the approval would come in 5-7 days”. We were advised that there was now a third negotiator. Another call the following week to them with the same response, “approval would come in 5-7 days”. Another document was requested and sent (the same document that was sent four previous times to them).

The buyer (a local Medical Doctor) at this time is looking at other houses to purchase as he needs to find a home to move into and is getting impatient, as we all are.

September 3rd came and went with still no communication about approval from Wells Fargo.

We have lost the buyer for good; he cannot wait on Wells Fargo any longer. September 7th, in my last call to Wells Fargo and attempt to possibly save the sale; I was told that the sale was not approved because Wells Fargo did not receive the required documents. I asked what those were and they said the same 20 pages that I initially sent them in June. They told me on September 7th that all those documents became outdated every 30 days and needed to be sent in every 30 days. I asked why I wasn’t informed of this back in June as I certainly would have complied and she stated that she “didn’t know why I was not informed”.

The documents she referred to were my 2008 and 2009 tax returns, proof of income, financial statement and hardship letter. Although none of these things had changed in three months, I would have happily complied had I been informed they were necessary every month. And, to add insult to injury, I was told “not to call them anymore”. So, even though everything they asked for was supplied to them, WF has refused to approve a sale that was $7K over the mortgage balance and I’m facing a foreclosure. They lost a good buyer and payoff of the mortgage and my credit is ruined for years, unnecessarily. The entire process has been incredibly frustrating and discouraging to say the least.

As a public servant, would it be possible for you to find out exactly what has happened/is happening to all the money the government (taxpayers) have given the bank to help people like me? Statistics I have read state that only 3 in 100 people in similar situations are actually getting any help through modifications or short sales. It is too late for me, losing my buyer and an excellent offer, but perhaps something can be accomplished to help prevent others from going through my horrible experience with Wells Fargo.

I feel the general public needs to know that this type thing is going on.


Sincerely,

Myra Greene

I opened an account at Wells Fargo, all went fine untill about 3 weeks ago. I had 3 fraud activities come to the account and Wells Fargo knew this. I had some money in the acoount but not enough for the fraud. I called and made a claim. Those assholes charged me 35 x 3 overdraft fees. I put money in the account ot cover the so-called overdraft fees. Wells Fargo claimed they refunded me back for the fees due to fraud. LIERS!! I called to close the account down and they lied, gave me the run around and all. I have filed a complaint with the FTC and The Federal Reserve. They froze the account and last week allowed some company to put money in the account. I filed a complaint form for that and fraud. They lie and scam all they can.

In a nutshell, we came to a loan modification agreement with Wells Fargo and agreed to have them automatically draft the first payment of our agreement on a specific date. During this time, we talked to a different customer service rep and they put us on a different loan mod program. However, Wells Fargo never deleted or voided the initial agreement, so we were charged for TWO mortgage payments in one day. It took several phone calls (we were hung up on during some of them) but we eventually straightened everything out. Unfortunately, 2 days later they sent another mortgage payment through! Every phone call has resulted in different answers from their reps and they don't seem to feel as if they need to resolve our situation immediately or that they've wronged us in any way. Our account is now overdrawn by $800 dollars and we've had to borrow money from friends and family to put food on the table and provide for our children. We're a middle-class working family that pays our bills, we pay our mortgage every month and we work hard for what little we have. This has caused undue stress and hardship on our family and if I was a different person, I would retain a lawyer and start a lawsuit. But I am choosing to take the higher ground and remain hopeful that WF takes responsibility for their actions with our situation.