Keith has had the same bank account for eight years, but during that time “his” bank has been four different banks thanks to mergers. Ameribank became First Union, which became Wachovia, which in turn was gobbled by Wells Fargo. That’s just how the history of American banking has worked: what’s the big deal? For the first time in all of these mergers, additional fees will be imposed on Keith’s account. He wants to keep things the way they’ve been for the last eight years, and Wells Fargo wants to move on. Well, it wants to move on to taking more money out of Keith’s wallet.

Wells Fargo sent letters, and brochures galore informing us that the
merger with Wachovia was no big deal, and killed even more trees with
large pamphlets explaining the terms of our “new”/old accounts. Now
that Wells Fargo has fully integrated us Wachovia customers they are
trying to now change our terms of account to add additional fees like
they do with all the other accounts they offer.

I feel a little betrayed at this reversal of what was promised. I
tried to call them at their customer service number and speak to
someone to air my grievances, however the CSR couldn’t care less and
parroted the line “Change is inevitable”. He refused to transfer me to
a supervisor, or have anyone call me back to discuss my concerns. He
suggested I go into a bank branch to talk about it. I advised him with
my work hours that was not possible as they open and close while I’m
already at work.

Do I have any recourse to get them to keep me on my grandfathered
account without these new changes?

If at all possible, try to speak with someone in person at the branch. If visiting on your lunch hour isn’t possible, obtain a phone number and see whether you can deal with someone local over the phone during a break from work. Someone who lives in your community and is invested in keeping customers around is always preferable to a powerless, faceless customer service drone.

We know that there are a lot of former Wachovia customers out there in the Consumerist Hive Mind. Did you manage keep your old account terms? How did you do it?

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