Complaint Review: Wells Fargo - Internet
- Wells Fargo Internet United States
- Phone:
- Web: Wellsfargo.com
- Category: Banks
Wells Fargo Withholding of funds long after Wells Fargo has collected them from another institution. Internet
*Consumer Suggestion: Funds availability policy
*Consumer Comment: Corporate world
listed on other sites?
Those sites steal
Ripoff Report's
content.
We can get those
removed for you!
Find out more here.
Ripoff Report
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..
I want to preface this review by saying my complaint is not directed at my local Wells Fargo branch. Everyone there is great, and they are the only reason I continue to bank with Wells Fargo. By now everyone knows how Wells Fargo has treated their customers until recently by opening accounts without their clients’ knowledge. If you believe them, they have made amends and no longer do that. They have a huge TV ad campaign going on now about how they have lost the public's trust and they are working to regain it. I just want to alert the public of another way their clients are being screwed.
I have both personal and business accounts with WF. On June 13th, I deposited a check from a client in the amount of $17,206.50. I was notified on the 15th that the check was being put on hold because of insufficient funds. I called my client and told them the news and they were surprised because the check had been paid and the funds withdrawn from their account on June 14th, less than 24 hours after the deposit was made. On Tuesday, June 19th, the funds were still being withheld from my account. I was told on the phone by a WF customer service rep that I had to wait 5 business days from the date of deposit before I could make an official request that the money be credited to my account.
When I called back on Wednesday the 20th I was told by another rep that I had to file an "official request to get the hold removed". After being put on hold for about 10 minutes he came back online and said the hold "would be removed tomorrow" and I told them that wasn't good enough because they had my client’s funds to cover the check since the 14th. He then told me that the hold would be removed "by the end of the business day today or first thing tomorrow morning" and someone would call me when that had been done. He also told me that "federal law allows them to withhold funds for up to 6 days."
As of 3 pm today (June 21st) the funds still have not been credited to my account! I called WF customer service again and was told that no request had been filed to release the funds! So, I had to go through the whole process again waiting even longer on hold this time. So, I'm wondering, if WF has had the funds to cover my deposit for a week now, why do I have to file a request to have them released to my account?
Now, I do want to say that in the past I have deposited larger checks than this one and never had to wait more than two days for it to show up in my account. Now I'm wondering if this is just another way that WF has devised to take advantage of the "float" before making funds available to their customers? What really irks me is that I was told that the check was being held for insufficient funds when in fact the funds had been removed from my client's account less than 24 hrs. after I made my deposit! And when they notified me on the 15th of "insufficient funds at time of inquiry" they were already holding the funds that would cover my clients check. Personally, I don't believe there were insufficient funds at time of inquiry. This same client had given me a much smaller check several weeks earlier that was returned for insufficient funds. In that case WF charged me $12! Why didn't they charge me $12 this time around? Was it because they had the funds but figured I would buy into their lie? Given WF's past record it wouldn't surprise me a bit if they have a computer program that spots situations like this and spits out insufficient funds notices and then uses it as an excuse to without funds long after they've collected them!
It seems that WF hasn't learned their lesson and is still up to their dirty tricks. If WF randomly does that to a million customers a day the amount of money it generates for them must be enormous. This whole episode was personally embarrassing for both me and my clients. The funds were always there to cover their check and WF lied in saying that there were insufficient funds. Currently, with electronic funds transfers, I can see no reason for withholding funds availability for more than 24 hours (other than putting more profit into WF's already bloated coffers)!
News Flash: I just got a call from someone at WF complaint department. (Probably because I trashed them in a customer service survey they emailed me earlier today). They finally credited the deposit I made 8 days ago and for my time and aggravation they credited $21.00 back to my account for "fees" that I paid for viewing photo copies of other checks I had deposited (another WF rip-off)! Big Deal! I told the person I talked to that I was just getting ready to push the send button to ripoffreport.com when he called. Unfortunately, $21 is not nearly enough to reimburse me for all the time and aggravation I've endured over the last several days!
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 06/21/2018 09:58 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/wells-fargo/internet/wells-fargo-withholding-of-funds-long-after-wells-fargo-has-collected-them-from-another-in-1448395. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content
If you would like to see more Rip-off Reports on this company/individual, search here:
#2 Consumer Suggestion
Funds availability policy
AUTHOR: Flint - (Afghanistan)
SUBMITTED: Sunday, June 24, 2018
Maybe before whining about Wells Fargo you should actually read the agreement you signed when you opened the account. It sounds like they have the same funds availability policy as most other banks, namely that checks over $5000 will be held for 7 business days. They can make them available sooner in some cases, but that's what they promise. You should deposit such checks in person, and ask the teller to have a manager manually verify the check, if you don't want it to be held. It has nothing to do with insufficient funds, and it has everything to do with preventing fraud. Personal checks (and even cashier's checks) can be reversed if they are fraudulent, so the fact that a check cleared the other party's account means nothing. If you need the money to be available sooner, have your client wire the money instead of writing a check.
#1 Consumer Comment
Corporate world
AUTHOR: Chaiya - (United States)
SUBMITTED: Friday, June 22, 2018
Your report is exactly what a report should be. I agreed that WF is playing a trick on their customer in your case.
A check deposit could be put on hold by the bank, but 6-business-day is a bit longer than usual even with fund more than $5k. Normally, 5-business-day is already long enough. Thus, the bank intends to use the fund for their own benefit during the floating time.
The reason of insufficient fund is a big BS from the person who told you. I am quite sure that the person has been trained to lie using similar reason to any customers. The reason would usually put customers off to their clients and stop the phone call. However, that is a very bad practice but seems to be used by WF regularly.
Speaking of their complaint department, I believe that the department is disconnected from WF customer service. The complaint department is like a janitor, and needs to clean up messes from customer service department. So people in one department can do whatever they want (lie), and WF has another department to console their customers. I feel bad for those who are in the complaint department. However, your report is legit and should be seen by everybody.
Sadly, it is a corporation world. Any big banks in the nation seem to follow the practice nowadays.
Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.