Be sure to read our Ultimate Consumerist Guide to Fighting Back, a go-to handbook for the dissatisfied consumer. Once you've decided to go the executive customer service right, be sure you read this first so you know what to say when you call the corporate avatar of your choice.

The Consumerist Executive Customer Service Index

ACS
Adelphia
Air Tran
Alamo
Alaska Airlines
Allegiant
Aloha
Amazon
America West
American Airlines
American Express
Amtrak
Apple
ATA
AT&T
AT&T Wireless
Bank of America
Barnes and Noble
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Best Buy
Blizzard
Blockbuster
Blogger
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Blue Cross/Blue Shield
British Airways
Borders
Busey Bank
Buy.com
Cablevision
Charter Communications
Chase
Circuit City
Citibank
Comcast
Continental
cox
Delta
Direc-TV
Discover Card
Dish
Disney
Ebay
Enterprise
Equifax
Experian
Fedex
Frontier Airlines
Fry's
Gamefly
Geek Squad
Georgia Power
Helio
Home Depot
Humana
HSBC
IKEA
ING Direct
Insight
Keybank
Lenovo
Loew's
Macy's
Microsoft (and Xbox)
Midwest Airlines
Motorola
National City
Nicors
Northwest Airlines
Norton
Office Depot
Office Max
Orbitz
Paypal
Pitney Bowes
Qwest
RCN
Regions Bank
Register.com
Ryan Air
Samsung
Seagate
Sears
Sirius
Skybus
Sony Ericcson
Spirit Airlines
Sprint
Sports Authority
Staples
Symantec
T-mobile
Target
Time Warner Cable
TransUnion
Uhaul
United Airlines
United Health Care
UNUM Life Insurance
UPS
US Airways
US Cellular
Verizon landline/DSL/Fios
Verizon Wireless
Vonage
Wachovia
Walmart
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Wells Fargo

In the event you can't find the info you are looking for here, you can scan our backlog of contact info, or use Google to uncover the addresses yourself. In the event you find something we don't have, feel free to share at tips@consumerist.com.

Researched by Alex Jarvis
Last updated: 11/07/2008

The Times says that if Wells Fargo is successful in a deal with Wachovia, it would elevate what is essentially an overgrown regional bank into a national player.

A deal with Wachovia would elevate Wells Fargo to a prime position in the American banking industry, with the largest nationwide deposit and branch franchise in the country. Together, Wells Fargo and Wachovia will have $1.42 trillion in assets, 48 million customers and 280,000 employees.

The combined bank will be present on both coasts in the fastest-growing markets, playing on the same field as JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, two of the nation’s largest banks.

Wells Fargo Wins The War For Wachovia [NYT]

``There is a point at which the FDIC will take Wachovia over if they are concerned about the stability of the bank,'' said Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, an independent research firm in Torrance, California. ``But as long as Citi and Wells will extend support to Wachovia, they have time.''

To end a legal skirmish, Citigroup may agree to take Wachovia's branches in the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, while Wells Fargo would get the Southeast and California branches, as well as Wachovia's asset-management and brokerage units, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

Bank officials and FDIC spokesman David Barr declined to comment. Cable network CNBC reported that Citigroup was bidding for all of Wachovia. Citigroup spokeswoman Shannon Bell didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

A ruling over the weekend that said Citibank had the exclusive right to negotiate a takeover with Wachovia until Oct. 10 was overturned yesterday.

Wachovia is in trouble after acquiring a lender that was heavily invested in "pay-option" mortgages, a type of risky loan often given to people with good credit, but who are not required to provide documentation of their finances. "Pay-option" loans can actually grow in size because borrowers are allowed to pay less than the accruing interest.

Citigroup, Wells Fight May End by Splitting Wachovia (Update4)[Bloomberg]
(Photo: So Cal Metro )

UPDATE: Now the block has been blocked! Madness continues apace.

Citibank previously teamed up with the FDIC to pick off Wachovia's banking operation for $2.2 billion. Four days after the deal was announced, Wells Fargo loaded up the stagecoach, buying Wachovia as a whole for $15 billion. The FDIC shrugged its shoulders, glad not to have pay $42 billion to secure against losses, and let Wells Fargo proceed with the takeover.

Citigroup raised the stakes in the merger battle on Saturday afternoon, asking Justice Charles E. Ramos of New York State Supreme Court to issue an emergency order blocking the deal between Wachovia and Wells Fargo.

Representatives from the banks met at Justice Ramos’s home in Cornwall, Conn., late Saturday afternoon for more than three hours of oral arguments, according to people briefed on the situation.

In the unusual weekend session, Citigroup presented Justice Ramos with a 16-page complaint naming both Wells Fargo and Wachovia, and their boards, as defendants. But it has not yet filed the suit formally because the courts were closed.

Late Saturday, after several hours of intense legal jockeying, Justice Ramos issued an injunction effectively blocking the Wells Fargo deal, pending a hearing scheduled for Friday.

Wachovia hasn't seen the judge's order yet, but that didn't stop them from debasing Citibank's lawsuit as nothing more than a "pointless legal maneuver."

Wachovia customers can sit back and feel loved. Your accounts are safe, and for the moment, your banking experience will remain the same as it ever was.

Citigroup Says Judge Suspends Wachovia Deal [The New York Times]
Citi: Wells Fargo blocked from buying Wachovia [AP]
PREVIOUSLY: Giddyup! Wells Fargo Rides In And Steals Wachovia From Citibank!
(Photo: So Cal Metro)

The announcement came just four days after Citigroup had agreed to buy Wachovia’s banking operations of Wachovia for $2.2 billion of about $1 a share. But Wachovia, which is based in Charlotte, N.C., has now rejected that deal in favor of one where the entire company would be acquired. How Citigroup will respond to the news remained a question Friday morning.

In a statement, Wells Fargo, which is based in San Francisco, said that the deal required no assistance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

Under the old deal, the FDIC agreed to guarantee losses above $42 billion in exchange for stock and warrants worth about $12 billion, says the NYT.

As far as the mortgage meltdown goes, Wells Fargo didn't take the risks that many other banks did, and are therefore in a good position to acquire Wachovia. It also did not have a big investment bank, so was spared the recent investment banking bloodbath.

Wells Fargo in a Deal to Buy All of Wachovia [NYT]
(Photo: So Cal Metro )

First read this post about how to contact and conduct yourself when using executive customer service.

1) Call 866-249-3302. Ask to be transferred "to the office of Mr. Stumpf." Once you reach the secretary or switchboard operator, say the following:

"Hello, my name is ________. I'm one of your customers, and I was hoping to speak to Mr. Stumpf because I'm really getting frustrated with getting a problem resolved, and I know that your company doesn't want me to feel that way."

2) You can also send some of their busy executives a well-written and cogent complaint letter (here's how to write one):

John G. Stumpf@wellsfargo.com, Howard.I.Atkins@wellsfargo.com, James.M.Strother@wellsfargo.com, Richard.D.Levy@wellsfargo.com, Mark.C.Oman@wellsfargo.com, David.A.Hoyt@wellsfargo.com, Carrie.L.Tolstedt@wellsfargo.com, Michael.J.Loughlin@wellsfargo.com

If you prefer using written correspondence, particularly when sending letters by certified mail provides a trail that they actually got your letter, these addresses may come in handy:

Corporate Offices
Wells Fargo
420 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94104

Home Mortgage
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
P.O. Box 10335
Des Moines, IA 50306-0335

Home Equity
Wells Fargo Home Equity-Internet
MAC S3837-020
2nd Floor
2222 W Rose Garden Lane
Phoenix, AZ 85027-2644

Online Customer Service
Wells Fargo Customer Service
P.O. Box 4132
Concord, CA 94524-4132

Wells Fargo Financial
Wells Fargo Financial, Inc.
Customer Service F4008-080
800 Walnut
Des Moines, IA 50309

I have noticed a lot of comments on my Confession from yesterday, and thought I would follow up on some of these.

First of all, anything that I mentioned having to do with bankruptcy was what I learned in investigating bankruptcy laws. I am not a lawyer, I am not in pursuit of a J.D, etc. If you happen to know bankruptcy law I would be interested to learn about it. From experience I have never seen or heard of a mortgage being forgiven by chapter 7. I guess I wouldn't unless they had called to gloat. I implore anyone to seek legal advice please! Don't take my word for it at all. I was told that when someone mentions bankruptcy (at all) to stop any collections and cease the call, even if they needed help. That's the reason I warned against it.

Secondly, it would seem that a majority of people think that I am either a homeowner with a bad experience or a disgruntled employee. I can admit that I was frustrated with Wells Fargo, hence me quitting, but that I did indeed work there. Collections, sixth floor, disaster, escalation, and some loss mitigation (cross trained to help out loss mitigation).

Now I don't know the site that Stanwell is referring to, but it could not have been my site. In my training class there were 4 people (myself included) that were over the age of twenty. My training class consisted of twenty-some people. Do the math. Out of those 20 or so people me and one other were the only ones with any college experience. Most of the people in that class had graduated high school the summer before. 2 of my 4 supervisors did not have college degrees either. I don't mean to insinuate that they were not intelligent because of this, it's just that I would like the biggest investment in my portfolio (the mortgage) to be handled by someone who knows what they are doing and can spell. The last part is no joke: in loan comments there were misspellings that would make E.B. White spin in his grave. One rep wrote "homeowner diseesed as of 05/07." Really?

Morale is low because, compared to everyone else at my campus, they treated us collectors like crap. The other WFHM collector mentions that time between calls isn't counted. It was for me. I was a part of a team that blended (because time between calls had been getting extended), which means that in between taking collections calls I was making collections calls. On a typical day I would say that any given "blender" would talk to (not necessarily collect on, though) 100-200 people. A good deal of those were frustrated people that would hang up. I was told that they needed to turn up the speed (how fast the calls come) because I had about 10% down time the day before. There were probably 9 or 10 of us that did this, all the while being paid the same as those of us who didn't.

As for QA: Wells records all their calls with date and time stamps, however *most of the time* they monitor the calls that they grade live, if it isn't a busy month. I have no doubt that they monitored a call as late as 9:30. I didn't mean to insinuate that they NEVER graded anyone after 12pm, they just listen less and less as the day goes on.

Loss mitigation is indeed overwhelmed, but they aren't doing anything to help themselves out either. I was told on more than one occasion to "just handle the call" when a borrower would call on an active loss mitigation account (which prime inbound collections at my site was told not to handle). I was also given information that I knew to be wrong at least half the time. On a few occasions loss mit reps would place me on hold but forget to hit the mute button, and I would hear them talking about me. This wasn't common at all, but if it happened to me I would imagine it happened to others.

My supervisors stressed to me that Wells Fargo wants to help your call, so long as it is within the 6-7 minute average handle time. That's not a lot of time to give customers the individual attention they need. Anything after 6 minutes and I was told "transfer it to customer service." Customer service was used as the panacea at my site, even though we would frequently transfer calls that had nothing to do with customer service. It wasn't uncommon to get a call from C/S that had originally gone to collections. It frustrated people, and frustrated people get mad.

There are multiple collections sites. I can tell you that from my experience, Fort Mill, SC is the worst. San Bernardino, CA seemed to be the best of them, and as always there are exceptions on both sides. I can only speak for my site, and the experiences that I had with others. I will say that I had a great experience with a rep in CA. She went totally above what she was expected to do and helped me out a great deal.

There are a few things I forgot to mention in my confession as well:

1. Make sure WFHM is reporting your credit correctly. More than once I found accounts where the credit reporting has been messed up by a representative. They aren't supposed to touch it, but frequently will. WFHM will dispute it for you, but it seems to be a long road.

2. WFHM's SCRA (Serviceman's Credit Relief Act) was changed about a year ago to reflect the new policies that they were putting into place. If you have the SCRA active on your account ask what is covered. From the calls I received it would seem that WF did not communicate this. I believe they changed the way the fees were assessed, interest rate, and ability to make collections calls. I am not 100% sure on that though. If you know more about this, Stanwell, please share. I don't agree with it, but there wasn't much I could do. I wasn't a part of Special Loans.

PREVIOUSLY: 12 Confessions Of A Home Mortgage Collector

I was the best at what I did at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (WFHM) for years. What did I do? I was a collector. At Wells, collectors are in charge of most aspects of a loan, notably ability to repay (like repayment plans) and loss mitigation aspects (loan modifications, etc). I was also part of WFHM's disaster team. I no longer work there, thank god (and can take bathroom breaks that total more than 6 monitored minutes a day!). Here's what I learned that can save you from people like the kind I used to be:

1. Chances are your mortgage is serviced (worked) by someone who has just graduated high school. A large majority of WFHM employees in major call centers have no college experience.

2. WFHM Training barely mentions loan laws and regulations. I had to download my own copy of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and even then most people in WFHM have been told that they are "legally outside of the FDCPA."

3. Do not threaten bankruptcy. Legally we had to get the names of all those who mentioned bankruptcy to corporate attorneys, and that results in a fee. Bankruptcy will not forgive a mortgage debt.

4. Fight your bankruptcy fees with a passion! WFHM tacks on all fees regarding bankruptcies on to the loan, but these fees are not simple document fees. They are normally multiple $600+ fees regarding attorneys. WFHM will not talk about these practices with collectors. I have seen upwards of $4500 in fees regarding ONE chapter 13 bankruptcy, and when I was asked to send documentation of these fees I was told we "could not."

5. WFHM wants to appear concerned about foreclosure, but their actual policies tell a different story. In the two years that I worked in the servicing call center the repayment plans constantly went DOWN in number of months available. In other words, when I started we could spread out a missed payment or 3 over 18 months; when I quit it was only 6 (on a Freddie Mac loan). Making things harder to repay does not help people avoid foreclosure.

6. WFHM does not actively investigate instances of deceptive lending practices. More than once I got an account that was a predatory loan, and WFHM will not do anything about it (even after telling us they would).

7. The Loss Mitigation department has NO CLUE what they are doing. The department that is supposed to be in charge of Load Modifications and such will almost always "lose" key documents to the modifications, and you will go into foreclosure. I normally kept track of loans that went to Loss Mit and 85% of the time 3 months later it had not been touched. If the loan was 4 months past due that now makes it 7 months past due. These are not low numbers either, we are talking about 85% of tens of thousands of loans.

8. Call center employees frequently hang up or transfer homeowners back into queue to avoid work. I would say it happened on 1 out of 3 calls. If someone needs to "transfer" you for a simple question, politely ask why. If you detect any attitude whatsoever speak with a supervisor.

9.Call early in the day. Calls are monitored by Quality Assurance (QA) in the mornings. All the reps know this. Low QA scores for collectors means no end of month bonus (if other criteria is met). In some cases that means an extra $300. Collectors take this very seriously.

10. Morale is dangerously low at WFHM. Most employees leave without notice or give 1 days notice. WFHM wants to achieve 98% utilization, meaning that only 2% of the day can go without talking to someone (in other words, 540 seconds without talking to someone in an 8 hour shift). Nepotism is also rampant at WFHM. The employee handbook states that family members are not supposed to have a superior-subordinate relationship in the same department, yet on my floor alone there were at least 2 supervisor-underling families.

11. Don't argue about the due date. The due date, on 99.5% of loans, is the first. I cannot count how many people, on a daily basis, argue this. As soon as you argue the due date, don't expect any help from the collector. Collectors at WFHM hate this more than anything else. A grace period is a GRACE period, not a blanket due date.

12.Know what you are doing when you call, because likely the collector will not. Also, if you can, deal with a local agency about your loan being past due. It's not something to be embarrassed about. At the end of month Wells has a delinquency rate of something like 2.5% (grossly inaccurate). With an 8.5M loan portfolio that means 212,500 people are late with you. Use this website to find a counselor.

Customer Satisfaction Index Ranking (1,000 point scale)

American Express 783
Discover Card 751
Industry Average 724
National City 721
Chase 719
U.S. Bank 716
WaMu 712
Citi Cards 710
Wells Fargo 709
Bank of America 692
GE Money 683
Target Visa 682
Capital One 678
HSBC 667

Source: 2008 Credit Card Satisfaction Survey [J.D. Power and Associates ]

Do you agree with their results? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

PREVIOUSLY: JD Power Credit Card 2007 Customer Satisfaction Survey (Photo: Tengaport)

With all the talk of a credit crisis, you would think that a bank would welcome a customer trying to pay down his high-interest student loans. Not So. Like many people in my position, I went deeply into debt in order to attend law school. Since graduating in December, I've been actively attempting to pay-down my debt. Student loans come in different shapes and sizes, and your average indebted student has many different types of loans. The most common is a Federal Stafford Loan; these typically have lower interest rates and longer deferment periods than their counterparts, but they only go so far. Another type of loan is the "graduate plus" loan; these often have much higher interest rates. And when your tuition is $20,000 per year, you typically need a graduate plus loan in addition to your Stafford Loan.

I took my student loans through Wells Fargo, which, in retrospect, was a bad move. My loans have entered repayment, and when you have extra money left over after paying your minimum loan payment at the end of the month, and you want to pay down your debt, the savvy debtor will spend that money on his high-interest Graduate Plus Loan (8.25%), rather than his low interest Federal Stafford Loan (4%). Simple right?

Well, all these different loans are under a single account number so when you pay extra, there is no way to tell where you want that money to go. As a result, I called Wells Fargo in January, and I let them know that any extra payments above my minimum payments were to be directed towards my highest interest loans. "No problem," said the CSR, "in fact, it is Wells Fargo policy to direct any extra funds we receive towards the loans that are hurting you the most." This system worked great for months; I would take any surplus funds I had left over at the end of each month and make an online payment which was automatically directed against my Graduate plus Loans.

But then, one day, it stopped. Wells Fargo began directing my extra payments either evenly over all my loans (high interest and low interest) or, in some cases, entirely to my lowest interest loans. Every month for the last three months this has happened, and every month I would call and inform them of the problem. Every time they would apologize profusely for the error, insist it was an isolated incident, reverse the payment and wish me a nice day. Every month, that is, except this one. This month I called up and was told that Wells Fargo simply couldn't direct my funds the way I requested. "If you want your extra payments to go to your highest interest loans, you will have to pay by check, and you will have to send a letter with your payment telling us how you want it apportioned... every month." I pressed on, explaining that this system had been in place for months and that I had been assured this was company policy. They had no response. I asked to speak with a manager and got the same answer. I asked if I could set up a separate account, one account for my high interest loans and one account for my low interest loans. "No," they said, "Wells Fargo policy: one debtor one account."

Then I tried to get clever. I asked Wells Fargo to set up two different due dates for my loan payments. One due date (the 20th) for my low interest loans, one due date (the 19th) for my high interest loans. That way, when I went online to make a payment, there would be two different payment options. That way, I figured, I could pay extra for my payment due on the 19th, and achieve my goal. But Wells Fargo was one step ahead. Unlike in the past, when I could choose whatever amount I wanted when making my payments, Wells Fargo would only let me pay the minimum balance for my high interest loans. But, of course, I could pay as much as I liked on my low interest loans.

SCREENSHOTS OF CALEB'S ACCOUNT:

I next called the Department of Education Federal Student Aid Ombudsman; this entity is supposed to be the watchdog for these kind of shenanigans. They were totally impotent. "There's nothing we can do," they told me, "but if it makes you feel any better, we've been getting a lot of these types of complaints."

No ma'am, actually that doesn't make me feel any better.

Now, maybe its just me, and maybe I'm just being paranoid, but it looks like Wells Fargo has engineered its system to make it as hard has possible for former students to pay down their high interest loans. They're determined to squeeze every last cent from these high interest rate loans.

-Caleb F

That really, really doesn't sound right. Instead of the Department of Education, you might want to try talking to your bank's regulator. In this case, that's the Comptroller of the Currency. You can call them at 1-800-613-6743 or email Customer.Assistance@occ.treas.gov. Other ways of contacting them are here.

Has this been happening to anyone else?

We've sent an inquiry to Wells Fargo media relations and eagerly await their reply. UPDATE: We've put Caleb in contact with Wells Fargo so they can investigate his issue.

Also, Wells Fargo corporate email address format is Firstname.middleinitial.lastname@wellsfargo.com

Kevin Rhein – President 612-667-5632 Fax 612 667 4982

Bonnie Johnson – admin 515-222-8202
Kathleen Forchelli -415 222 3344 Fax 415 693 0293

lutz Braum 415 222 2750
Todd Denbo 415 396 6392 Fax 415 693 0293
Andrew Hee 415 222 6790 Fax 415 772 0951
Laura Lewison 415 369 1568 Fax 415 639 0293
William Nicholls 602 328 2743 Fax 602 328 2323
Benjamin Soccorsy 417 222 1158 Fax 602 328 2323

Brent Vallat 415 936 3888
Daniel Ayala 925 686 7466 Fax 925 686 7400

Gloria Pineda- Admin 325 686 7285
Bob Cantrel 925 686 7334 Fax 925 686 7400
Steve Clark 925 686 7056 Fax 925 686 7400
Xochitl Leon 925 603 2351Fax 925 686 7400
Gina Nearing 925 686 7383 Fax 925 686 7400

Alma Perez 281 362 6668
David Blank 515 222 8381 Fax 515 222 8870

Cindy Fry- admin 515 222 8365
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Dave Demanett 515 327 5131 Fax 515 222 8870

Dorothy Garett-admin 515 222 8151
Deb Ayers 515 222 8669 Fax 515 222 8884
Lisa Banker 515 222 8351Fax 515 222 8810
Farzin Avval 415 222 4080 Fax 415 693 0293
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Amy tetmeyer 515 222 8695 Fax 515 222 8810
Michael Devito 651 205 8683 Fax 866 478 1724
Peg Simons-Admin 651 205 8601 Fax 651 208 8834

Patrick Conner 214 692 3540
Paul Dockry 605 575 4293 Fax 605 575 8761
Michal Ferris 605 575 5111 Fax 605 575 4685
Jeffrey Hommes 605 575 4765 Fax 605 336 5656

Gary Roos 651 205 8687
Tonya Rowe 605 575 5396 Fax 605 575 5310

Jason Smith 925 686 7842
Tiana Wimmer 415 396 3001
Mike Dosedel 515 326 9581
Amy Burks 515 326 9585 Fax 888 286 0203
Todd Eaton 515 222 8279 Fax 515 222 8447
Betty Hoople 925 603 2068 Fax 925 681 4927

Carolyn tesene 925 603 2392
Judy Gizzi 925 686 7346 Fax 925 681 4927
Olga Jenkins 925 681 4931 Fax 925 681 4927
Jack Mackhouse 925 686 7327 Fax 925 687 6704
Michael McDonald 612 215 2411Fax 877 869 3428
Nancy Beaver 925 686 7251 Fax 925 681 4928
Dana Karzan 925 686 7197 Fax 925 681 4927
Ed Kadletz 612 667 0827 Fax 613 316 3036

Barb Tonsager 612 316 4381
Dave DePaepe 612 667 2349 Fax 612 316 3036
Gary Pearcy 612 667 0886 Fax 612 316 3036
Kathy yee 415 396 4232 Fax 415 977 9396
Brenda Yosy 415 222 5556 Fax 415 977 9396

Setff Keire 925 686 7789
Doug Blough 925 686 7290 Fax 925 963 4101

Chris Gerding 925 603 2352
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Randy Shaver 515 222 8500 Fax 515 327 4300
Tom La centra 503 614 3229 Fax 503 614 6175

Judy Armstong-Admin 503 614 2341
Mike Armstrong 503 614 2485 Fax 503 614 6748
Pam Huntley 515 222 8170 Fax 515 213 7377
Tric Kennedy 503 614 5955 Fax 506 614 6175
Larry Tewell 515 222 8184 Fax 515 222 8889
Steve Ward 503 614 6571 Fax 503 614 1984
Kevin Mower 515 327 4585 Fax 515 222 8011

Deb Demay 515 222 8219
Bill Cochrun 503 614 5789 Fax 503 614 6715
Brenda Hardy 515 222 8003 Fax 515 222 8878
Mike Klosterman 515 226 3739 Fax 515 222 8123
Steve Slagter 515 222 8056 Fax 626 222 8880
Mary Twickley 515 222 8051 Fax 515 222 8878
Steve Samuelson 515 327 4500 Fax 515 222 8870

June williams 515 222 8213
Todd Andersen 515 222 8427 Fax 515 222 8205
Darlene Campbell 925 686 7199 Fax 925 687 7158
Kevin Hale 515 222 8923 Fax 515 222 8886
Debi hartman 515 222 8009 Fax 515 222 8409
Charlie Hoover 515 222 8120 Fax 515 222 8205
Bill Russell 702 765 3434 Fax 702 765 3450
Craig Shorter 515 222 8398 Fax 515 222 8870
Mike Tyler 515 222 8212 Fax 515 222 8870

Bonnie Johnson 515 222 8202
Carla Bellew 515 222 8636 Fax 515 222 8105
Chris Bonner 925 686 7485 Fax 925 603 2347
Julie McCormic 515 222 8654 Fax 515 222 8870
Sandy Nowak 425 450 8036 425 451 3994

Lisa westermann 415 222 6236
Jay lawrence 636 594 2263
Michael Wood 515 222 8218 Fax 515 222 8870

Christi Power 515 222 8220
Seta Arabian 415 222 4824 Fax 415 975 6941
Sharda Carp 212 805 1161 Fax 212 805 1065
Dawn Mandt 612 667 4025 Fax 612 667 6082

(Photo: Marcin Wichary)

Waits improve at IndyMac bank branches [LAT] (Thanks to Kathy!)

(Photo: zoliblog)

Here's the story:

Today I was interviewing one of my clients and she said that one of the loans she that she had should have been illegal. I asked her what she meant and she said that the loan she received should never have been permissible. Turns out she had a car loan with Volkswagen with an interest rate of about 3% and a loan balance of approximately $23,000.00 Because she had her home mortgage with Wells Fargo (or at least that is what she thinks is the reason) she received an offer from Wells Fargo for an equity loan on her car! (i.e. just like a home equity loan except the collateral is a car instead of a house) I had never heard of such a thing before. In any event, she agreed to do the deal with Wells Fargo (she needed to money to pay her bills and was much too embarrassed to go to family and friends) so she agreed to the refi and at closing she received $4850 in cash, Wells Fargo received $1300 in fees and the total amount of the debt went from $23,649 (the amount owed VW on the original car financing) to, hold on to your seats, $48,852! The interest rate on the new loan was a mere 16.24% (remember the old rate with VW was approximately 3%). Of course she defaulted and Wells Fargo repossessed the car and is now seeking its deficiency balance. Amazing to see an equity loan on a rapidly depreciating asset but when she received the loan Wells Fargo told her that she had paid down her car loan so quickly she had accumulated equity and they had a way to get the equity now.

The Wells Fargo loan was made in 2006 – the cost of the new financing was $17,900 – almost as much as the balance (i.e. $23,649) then due on the original note with VW. Also, the term of the new loan with Wells Fargo – 72 months, on a 2005 VW Passat!

Just say "no" to that loan!

Why Is This Legal? [Credit Slips]
(Photo: spidra webster )

Yesterday I was running late for work and arrived with just enough gas to get me to a gas station during my lunch break. I go to a gas station near my job on my lunch break to fill up my car. My debit/credit card linked to my checking account is denied. I had the clerk try both credit and debit, denied, denied. I used my card the night before with no problem. I go to another gas station down the street and denied again. So I call the number on the back and get a hold of a customer service rep. I explain my situation and they state, my card is in "conversion" and they sent me a new card in the mail. I explained to them that I never received a new card or a phone call telling me that my old card was going to get canceled. ( BTW I have almost 2 years before this card should expire) I ask them what caused my old card to expire before the given date. They put the blame on me, stating that I probably did weird purchasing activity or purchased a bunch online. I stated I purchased 1 item for under 20 bucks online in the last year and I check my account online daily. They went back and checked and then stated I was part of a mass conversion for my protection??? (only thing I need protection from is Wells Fargo)

After multiple calls, speaking to 2 supervisors, 3 customer support reps, and one customer support person at a branch, I found out data for 125,000 cards was "compromised".

This is the 2nd time within 1 year this has happened to me with Wells Fargo. ( First time I gave them the benefit of the doubt since they had an old cell number to contact me, at that time I had them update my profile with my current cell number)

They offered nothing to help me out in the current jam of being at a gas station, with very little gas in my car, with no access to my money. They would not activate my old card temporarily so I could get out of this situation. (I expressed this to every person I talked with )

Between the several calls I got mixed information about how this process works and how long your old card will work during the conversion. (14 day, 21 days, 30 days. They are definitely not all on the same page within the same business. The lucky answer is 14-21 days)

No one would tell me exactly what caused this "compromise" of my card data. This was internal information. Yet I am having to deal with it.

I asked Joseph at the branch why I should stay a customer with them, he answered: "That is a personal choice and frankly I would not stay with a bank that offered bad customer service." Thanks Joseph for some honesty.

Both supervisors were really rude, claimed Wells Fargo did nothing wrong and implied this was my fault.

They offered me a temporary debit card the next morning at a branch location and stated I should be able to access $300 a day. Actually its only $60 for the first day, I found this out after I left the branch, this further deterred my plans. (I work 9-6, which is their bank hours, very inconvenient for me, so I lose another hour of pay and I needed access to more than $60)

I left a voice mail (only option I was giving) with a manager and have received no call back as to how my data was compromised.

Lesson learned, have a backup checking account just in case your bank decides to cancel your card and not inform you. Wells Fargo has terrible customer service and tons of red tape for us consumers who trust them with our hard earned money. Apparently 100,000+ card data is being compromised on a yearly basis.

We can understand your frustration, Bryan. To have to worry about running out of gas and where you are going to get a few dollars, all because of the bank's error, is really dehumanizing. To have it happen twice in 1 year would be more than enough for us to start taking our business elsewhere. Loyal Consumerist readers know that there are several reasons to have a backup credit or debit card. It sounds cliche but it's still good advice: Don't put all your eggs in 1 basket. It really is only a matter of time before your card has some type of glitch which could seriously inconvenience you or worse.

(Photo: Getty)

I recently tried to sign up for online access to my Wells Fargo Financial account. I am on a mac and use Firefox or Safari - depending on my mood.

I went to sign up and was re-directed to a webpage that said that I should use Netscape Navigator instead!!! I ended up having to login using Internet Explorer from within Parallels on my macbook pro. It is ridiculous. I'm speculating that Wells Fargo still uses that stagecoach on their logo to have their mail delivered!

Here's the message he got from Wells Fargo's website:

We support the following browsers. If your browser does not meet Wells Fargo's security standards, please follow the download instructions below.

Note: We strongly recommend that your computer be running one of the operating systems listed below, and be connected to the internet using one of the browser versions indicated.

Netscape® 6.XX and 7.XX

* Netscape Navigator/Communicator Upgrade for Windows
* Netscape Upgrade for Macintosh

Microsoft® Internet Explorer (MSIE) 5.X - 6.XX

* MSIE Upgrade for Windows

America Online® 4.0 - AOL 8.0 for Windows; use with MSIE 5.X - 6.0

* America Online Browser Upgrade

Eric is currently using Parallels to run IE, and is annoyed by that.

Wells Fargo Financial [EricStoller]
(Photo:Getty)

The judge said the foreclosure lawsuit was filed before Wells Fargo owned the mortgage - thus, the suit was premature.

The ruling - the first of its kind by a state court judge in Ohio since the subprime mortgage crisis erupted this year - could have profound implications on how foreclosures are handled in Ohio, which leads the nation in the percentage of mortgages in foreclosure. The local ruling comes as three federal court judges - in Cleveland, Dayton and Columbus - have issued similar opinions in foreclosure cases in the last month.

In other cases, however, especially when the original lender has gone bankrupt or otherwise imploded, it may be difficult or impossible to get the necessary signatures, and the necessary documents, to complete a legal transfer of the mortgage that was not completed before the foreclosure. There is no reliable way to estimate the percentage of cases where ownership paperwork will be unavailable, but it will be significant. Hopefully, while the servicers search frantically for the missing paperwork, they can focus more time and attention on making reasonable modifications of loan principal and interest to allow homeowners to stay in their homes, and mitigate losses to investors.

Judge halts foreclosures [Enquirer via CL&P]
(Photo:Getty)

After he got off the phone, DM's dad gave him a stern lecture on financial responsibility. DM says he is now keeping track of his transactions in Excel and using Mint.com to monitor his accounts. We also made him download our budget.

Amazing that people can make so much money (his mother also apparently has the ultra exclusive AmEx Centurion card...) and not teach their kids a damn thing about overdrafts.

PREVIOUSLY: College Student Learns How Overdrafts Work

So, Saturday night I made two Paypal purchases. When I looked at my bank account, I noticed that I didn't have enough to cover them, so I transferred enough to cover both purchases and the overdraft fee from my ING Direct account. Monday rolls around, my Paypal purchases come through, and my transfer shows up as pending. Okay, I thought, so I've got that covered, cool. Tuesday morning rolls around and my deposit has posted and I'm in the green, with enough to cover the inevitable overdraft fee. Then, Tuesday night I decided to check in on my account. TWO overdraft fees has posted, and I'm deep in the red. Not to mention I had bought a stamp today that puts me deeper in the red, though not by much. So I call Wells Fargo, explain my situation and confusion, and ask to speak to the manager. I'm put on hold, the music plays for a little while, then stops. I sit for another five minutes with no reaction from the phone, so I hang up and try again. I am transferred to the manager, but this time I don't even get the music, it just cuts off. The third time I finally get through to a manager, who, after I explained the situation, informs me that, yes, every item will be subject to an overdraft fee. This means I might get another overdraft fee from having bought the stamp today.

I know this is mostly my own fault, but after about ten minutes on the phone I couldn't even get her to reverse one of the fees because it "wasn't a bank error." I just think it's a little unfair that I'm looking now at potentially over $100 in overdraft fees for something I thought I had corrected. Consumerist, I put this out as a warning. I used to love Wells Fargo, but now... the magic is gone. I have to move on. Probably to a Student Credit Union- I've heard good things about them.

-DM

DM,

In the final tally, deductions are taken out immediately. So if at any point there wasn't enough money to cover the charge, there's going to be an overdraft. Technically, you're screwed, but if you call the Wells Fargo 1800 number and say please, they might show mercy and refund one of the overdrafts. Switching to a credit union is a good idea anyway, but don't expect them to be more lenient on the issue of how quickly items are debited, though they might be more sympathetic when you overdraft again.

From the S P-I:

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo would not say how many customers or machines were affected but acknowledged that services were down throughout the company — from personal banking and Wells Fargo corporate Web sites and ATMs to the processing of mortgage and student loans.

"Customers may continue to experience transaction difficulties or delays in our stores, at ATMs and at the point-of-sale ... and processing for some mortgage, home equity, student loans and remittances," Wells Fargo spokeswoman Julia Tunis said. "Our systems teams are working to fix those problems and we hope to have all channels fully available soon."

Wells Fargo customers stranded by service issues [Seattle P-I] (Thanks, Cherise!)
(Photo:RyanWelshPhotography.com)

1) Wells Fargo funds Cash Advance, a large chain of payday loan centers.
2) Credit reporting agencies make sure to keep the reports of high-profile people, like politicians, actors, and celebrities, extra-squeaky clean, so as to avoid potential trouble.

Number one is perhaps the most astonishing allegation, suggesting that some of the biggest household names in banking are bankrolling shady sub-prime and predatory lending.

WellsFargoProblems.com says Wells Fargo has extended various million-dollar lines of credit to several different payday loan outlets, Dollar Financial, Advance America, Cash America , ACE Cash Express

Who could resist getting into a business where you can charge 651.79% interest? — BEN POPKEN

PREVIOUSLY: Maxed Out: Take It For What It's Worth
(Photo: Orin Optiglot)

I'm looking for some help for my kids. My daughter and son-in-law bought a house a bit over a year ago that sits up on a hillside, approximately 50' higher than the surrounding area. At some point Wells Fargo bought their paper and then arbitrarily decided they were in a flood plain. Without contacting them, they sold them a flood policy for $1,000 and removed that amount from their escrow account, resulting in a negative balance. To make this up so their homeowner's and taxes were paid promptly required an additional $200 a month...

The kids are trying to get the flood policy through the same insurance company as their homeowner's policy at a substantial amount less than Wells Fargo charged them (about 450 annually I believe). The insurance company asked for an elevation certificate and stated that there should be a copy of that in their mortgage paperwork, insinuating that it is required to write flood insurance, or is used as proof of a requirement for flood insurance. There is nothing in their copy of the mortgage paperwork. They called Wells Fargo and requested a copy of that certificate to provide the insurance company and Wells Fargo has nothing. We have contacted the city planner for their area and he is currently looking for any information they may already have on that area. However he did explain that if the city hasn't surveyed that area the kids might have to hire someone to do the survey themselves and that would probably be another 300 bucks.

I don't know about flood insurance requirements and can't find anyone to give me a straight answer. I've been reading consumerist for some time now and thought I might throw this out there to see if anyone could offer advice. Our concerns are:

1. Wells Fargo buying the paper and charging $1k for a flood policy without any notification. Flood insurance was not required for the mortgage.
2. Their lack of any evidence to support this house being in a flood plain.
3. What action to take if Wells Fargo is out of their minds and just took $1000 from these kids who are just starting out. That is a lot of money to them with a 2 year old and newborn.

Any advice you and/or your reader's might offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Brett S.

That does sound rather unfair. Any advice or suggestions for Brett's kids? — BEN POPKEN

(Photo: Getty Images)

The Top 10 Biggest Banks for Online Banking Are:

• Bank of America
• Citibank
• SunTrust
• National City
• ING Direct
• Wells Fargo
• Washington Mutual
• Wachovia
• U.S. Bank
• Chase

Of those banks, here are the best ones for customer service:

• Wachovia
• Washington Mutual
• Chase
• Bank of America
• Wells Fargo

The source for this list was the 2007 comScore Online Banking Report, which conducts the survey "based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing." —MEGHANN MARCO

Wachovia Tops Online Bank Survey; Citibank, WaMu Show Gains [MediaPost]

comScore Reports Increasing Importance of Customer Satisfaction in Online Banking as Industry Matures and Competition Heats Up [comSCORE]
(Photo: spcoon)

That's why Cedric's advice is: If your checks get stolen, don't tell your bank... — BEN POPKEN

Advice if your checks ever get stolen: don't tell your bank [Otaku] (Thanks to Nick, Ramit and Michael!)

• Purchase fee: $2.50
• Online shipping/handling: $2.50
• Reissue fee (for balances remaining after three years): $7.50
• Manual check issuance fee (to get remaining balance on card): $15.00
• Monthly maintenance fee after one year: $2.50
• Lost card replacement: $7.50
• Foreign currency conversion fee: 3%

Last time we consulted the pages of MAKE, you can't construct a home-made pre-loaded gift card, at least not legally. — BEN POPKEN

Wells Fargo Gift Cards: The Perfect Gift*? [Mouse Print]

A cautionary tale, in the form of a reader letter, inside...

M. Maldonado writes:

— BEN POPKEN

Mike explains:

As you can see from the red box around the section titled "Extended Protection," towards the bottom of the image, this program will "extend your original manufacturer's warranty on eligible purchases made entirely of on your enrolled credit card up to 12 additional months on eligible warranties of 3 years or less" and then at the very bottom of the page, there is text that refers the reader to "See Important Disclosure enclosed for more details."

Well that Disclosure is printed on the *inside of the back cover of the envelope!*

The "important disclosure" can't be seen unless you rip apart the envelope, and most people would have already thrown away the envelope after opening it and removing the contents!

Which is a pretty good way of keeping customers uninformed of their rights, when you think about it. Even more bizarre, the terms and conditions of the extended protection plan does not include damaged or non-working goods. Making it good for... what, exactly?

Broken: Wells Fargo buyer's defense program [This is Broken]

The laptop contained his name, address, Social Security number and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Loan Account information.

The letter states that, "the computer had two layers of security, and [Wells Fargo has] no indication that the information has been accessed or misused." That part is underlined.

The computer was being shipped by a global express shipping company between Wells Fargo facilities. According to the letter, Law enforcement directed Wells Fargo to delay notifying all affected customers because they were concerned it would jeopardize their investigation. The missive goes on to detail and advise on various ways in which Lee could safeguard his data against identity theft.

Here's the letter Wells Fargo sent him. [PDF]

Seems like a lot of laptops containing customers personal data have gotten misplaced lately. Maybe now is about time to stop putting customers data on them. Whaddya say, boys?

From a reader:

"I've been reading your articles about tracking the time it takes to reach a human with some interest. I run an internal service department for the company I work for and in our business it's important for me that our internal customers get someone on the line to resolve their problems as quickly as is physically and fiscally possible. But today I was reminded viscerally that getting a warm body on the other end of the line isn't as important as getting an intelligent and capable brain to deal with your problem..."

Joe continues:

"Today I went to lunch and stopped in at the local Rubio's. I placed my order and handed my Wells Fargo check card to the cashier. The payment for my order was declined. Since the cashier hasn't got a phone (or much inclination to call a bank over a declined charge for a $4.79 taco combo meal) and I didn't have any cash on hand I had to bow out of the line and go hungry. I called Wells Fargo to find out what was up. I got a human right away, but she was unable to tell me anything. All she could do was transfer me, which she did ineptly, to the Check Card fraud division to see if they'd put a hold on my card. Instead of transferring me she hung up on me, and since she hadn't given me, or even offered, the number to call these folks back at I had to start the process all over again. This time I got disconnected by the menu when I tried to select 0 for a live CSR.

Out of time I had to head back to work hungry. When I got home there were three automated messages from Wells Fargo's fraud division. This is the third time in a month that I've had such messages on my answering machine and each time they make me want to punch kittens. The automated message system they use assumes it is talking to a person when it connects with your answering machine, so it spews a useless message that identifies where the call orginates from and instructs you to press 1 on your phone to speak to a representative. At no point does this message give you the phone number you need to call back.

I eventually managed to find the correct number and to talk to a CSR in Fraud Prevention. It seems that Debit/Check Card fraud is on the rise so steeply that Wells Fargo have decided to address it with a sort of "burn the fields and salt the earth" tactic. Each time that my card has been disabled by their automated system it has happened, well, basically because I have used my card. Today I paid my Earthlink bill ($21.95 to maintain my old email address for a year), bought a latte at Starbucks ($3.00) and tried to buy a couple of tacos at Rubios ($4.79). This apparently qualifies as suspicious activity. When I tried to challenge the CSR I was speaking with about their tactics he basically told me to suck it. When I suggested that WFB is basically discouraging their customers from using their Debit cards as check cards he parrotted a very well rehearsed line about how Debit card fraud is on the rise and they have to do something about it. When I suggested that what they're effectively doing is wiping out the usefulness of the VISA portion of the Debit card program he was stumped.

Honestly, I'd have willingly waiting for hours on the line for someone who could have actually provided some intelligent help. As it stands I probably won't use my check card now unless I absolutely have to. Seems to me that WFB is going to lose a lot of business over this."

A tight race this week. It'll be interesting to see Monday how the time between airlines, banks and cellphone companies stack up against each other.

Previously: Time to Human thread.

Apparently at Citibank, 420 is a bank holiday...

Does the excitement ever stop?!?!

Previously: Time to Human thread.

In a stunning upset, Commerce Bank moved to first place and US Bank, yesterday's champion, staggered and fell behind. MBNA, while shaving off about four minutes time from yesterday, still finished amongst the laggards. Impressive gains for Washington Mutual as well.

We should convert this into a race track game and take bets on it. We would get Fidelity to underwrite it but what if we had to contact their customer service?

Previously: Time to Human thread.

For those playing at home, we apologize but this week the data is presented in seconds instead of minutes. For some reason, excel doesn't like playing with a base 60 system this week.

Washington Mutual, despite launching a campaign recently touting their friendliness and how much they're not old, white, bankers, performed poorly. And despite being overwhelmingly perceived as evil, Citbank was quick on the phone draw.

Last week we did airlines and before that, cell phone companies.