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Sold my car to a foreign student new to the US so the two of us went to the local Well Fargo branch to arrange a wire transfer into my account elsewhere at another institution. After several days the money bounces back into his account because the paperwork was filled out incorrectly by the bank. OK, I get it people make mistakes. The problem comes when I go into the branch and ask the manager to put a hold on these funds until they can straighten it out internally. He flat out refuses. So, I suggest we sit down and fill out the transfer correctly and they can fax it over to the kid's branch office for him to sign. Again, the manager refuses. He completely blew me off with no recourse and basically told me to get lost, he wasn't going to do anything about it at all even though they had screwed up. I am incredulous. He suggests I call the police if the kid doesn't pay me. I feel like calling the police because the bank has taken my money and refuses to send it to me.
Meanwhile my payment is sitting back in the account of someone whose home base in on another continent, who is a week away from spring break, who could have failed or dropped out of school, been unreachable, or even influenced by other young inexperienced kids to refuse to pay me already having the car in his possession.
Called the district manager who said the customer had signed the wire transfer and therefore it was not the banks fault and they would do nothing to correct the extremely tenuous situation and huge potential loss they had put me in. Even the arguement that no customer would know how to fill out the bank's internal paperwork (despite the fact that it was in fact the banker who had filled it out wrong) no less a young one who had been in the country for a month.
Fortunately the kid was an honorable one and still in the country, and I was able to get the payment though it took me a day's travel out of my way. It could have been further complicated if the buyer was one of those out of state who were looking at it. Come to find out he had been at the motor vehicle dept the day before and tried to call the bank as he needed money, which he subsequently had to borrow from friends who happened to be with him. Apparently the girl at the branch says she doesn't answer customer calls in the afternoon because she's too busy.
I've heard about customer service deteriorating these days but couldn't believe any of this. My mission in life has now become to get this manager fired and possibly the district manager. People of this caliber don't belong in positions in the financial field.
I only had accounts at Wells Fargo for about six months before I closed them all. In my experience the staff was friendly and responsive, but I never had to deal with any major problems. I closed my accounts because I did not like the products or online banking system, which the local staff doesn't have any control over.
I do wonder how does the money from a wire transfer bounce back? Was the money ever in your account in a settled status?
I've found the easiest way to deal with people you don't know is to only accept cash. Unless they're handing you counterfeit bills, cash is immediate payment without holds (unless you bank at Wells in which case even a cash deposit or wire may be held for a day!)
I wouldn't waste any time with that manager or district manager. Just don't do business with them in the future.
No, the money was never able to be found in either of the two institutions whose routing was provided to WF to be filled out in order to deposit to my account despite being provided with a Federal routing number by WF. It was either not sent it would seem or sent incorrectly. In either case it should have been their problem and not made into mine.
It's not a matter of me not doing business with them in the future. That's a given. What I hate to see is people in a position of responsibility who shirk their duties to the detriment of others.
Did you really expect them to hold funds in the kids account just because YOU told them to? So I could just walk in and ask them to hold funds in your account right? Doesnt work that way.
There are some very strict regulations on wire transfers at WF to avoid folks trying to put the bank in the middle of the blame game like you are trying to do. Unless the client is disabled and needs someone to write for them, the manager cannot fill out the paperwork. The client must. And this client (the kid) messed up. Period.
Put the blame where it really belongs on the kid for making a mistake, not on the bank for following the directions of its client. The bank didnt have your money, its client the kid had it when the wire was returned. The manager is correct that your recourse was to go after the kid not the bank. The client fills out the wire paperwork not the bank. And it aint all that hard. Errors happen. The kid made an error maybe got a digit off so the wire was returned. Why blame the bank? It was not "your" money until it hit "your" account.
Banks are not perfect. And plenty of them make mistakes. But the only mistake here was by the kid. It was not the banks problem to fix.
A wire can bounce back or be returned say if the routing number was off and it went to the wrong bank or if it got to the right bank and the account nunber was wrong.
Did you really expect them to hold funds in the kids account just because YOU told them to? So I could just walk in and ask them to hold funds in your account right? Doesnt work that way.
There are some very strict regulations on wire transfers at WF to avoid folks trying to put the bank in the middle of the blame game like you are trying to do. Unless the client is disabled and needs someone to write for them, the manager cannot fill out the paperwork. The client must. And this client (the kid) messed up. Period.
Put the blame where it really belongs on the kid for making a mistake, not on the bank for following the directions of its client. The bank didnt have your money, its client the kid had it when the wire was returned. The manager is correct that your recourse was to go after the kid not the bank. The client fills out the wire paperwork not the bank. And it aint all that hard. Errors happen. The kid made an error maybe got a digit off so the wire was returned. Why blame the bank? It was not "your" money until it hit "your" account.
Banks are not perfect. And plenty of them make mistakes. But the only mistake here was by the kid. It was not the banks problem to fix.
A wire can bounce back or be returned say if the routing number was off and it went to the wrong bank or if it got to the right bank and the account nunber was wrong.
I agree. Since the he was sending you the money, the burden falls on him get you the money. I wouldn't want my bank to put holds on my money because of some irate customer. If you were worried about this guy not paying you, you should never have signed over the title until the money was in your account.
It was the bank who filled out all of the paperwork. Not the kid. This was a legal sized form with many lines of internal bank designations not some quick or uncomplicated paper. The kid merely signed what was given to him by the bank. Do you know how to fill out one with multiple routings? Apparently even those paid to know how to do so didn't.
The bank was given the proper information by both me and in a phone call to the institution who was going to receive it along with a full explanation on the process. This was clearly an error on the bank's part as they placed the information on the wrong lines and made the transaction invalid. They should have assisted in safeguarding both the money that was designated to come to me and the intent of the kid and they refused to take any responsibility. I think that is wrong and could have resulted in a complicated mess and a major loss to me.
I also had a problem at Wells Fargo a few years ago. I had a small joint account with my daughter who was in college across the country. We set it up mainly so she'd have funds to return home in case of an emergency with my sick husband and it had not been used for 3 years. We used Wells because they had branches in both towns.
She lived in a house with 3 other girls and they opened a WF joint checking which they all contributed to for household expenses. One of the girl's purses (not my dau's) was stolen and the thief used the checks and overdrew the acct. Police were involved and Wells Fargo was notified almost immediately.
Wells Fargo still took the money from my accts to cover their losses, fees etc. I was shocked. I closed all accts with them including brokerage. They did eventually return my money, but it was a lesson for all of us.
As far as I was concerned a correct wire transfer would have in fact immediately transferred the money to me when it was sent (which was while we were sitting there) therefore the money belonged to me at the point I later went to the branch. It was merely the matter of its conveyence to me which was the problem, and caused by the bank. It should have been their position as both a fiduciary institution and as good business to assist in correcting the quagmire they caused.
I still have nightmares about trying to find someone on another continent with no information other than the kid's name to straighten it out.
Wires do not always occur immediately. Some institutions, particularly smaller ones, have it handled by a larger institution so they send it to the larger institution and it can take a few hours for it to go through. I do not know the value of the transaction, but generally you can go to the bank and ask for thousands of dollars in cash without any problems. It may take them 5-10 minutes to get it ready if it goes over certain limits or if they have to report the transfer to the federal government. For extremely large amounts of money it is best for the bank to be notified ahead of time. Basically for any transaction in which you do not trust the buyer, get the money in cash. While you may feel the bank mishandled this case, many of us do not, and either way, using cash eliminates the issue altogether.
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