Heres the message as it was sent to WF: "To whom it may concern: I'm currently on my last bit of patience with Wells Fargo. I have been dealing with my late Aunt's Estate since she passed in 10/2015 and Wells Fargo staff have made me relive this nightmare every time I contact them and every time I am transferred to another Department to deal with more inept employees. So this is my last effort to explain the situation in an effort to resolve this matter and pay Wells Fargo the money requested before we resort to attorneys and an intent to default on the mortgage. Yes, that's right, I am trying to pay YOU people and you are making it a nightmare for me. So.... in October 2015, my aunt passed away and left me as power of attorney, executor of her estate, successor trustee, and both my brother and I as beneficiaries. I am the sole person responsible for paying her debts and managing her affairs posthumously. Originally, I provided a Wells Fargo location in Alhambra on Main Street east of Fremont Avenue all of my documentation, including but not limited to: Driver's License, fingerprint, Government employee ID, an original copy of the Certificate of Death, a signed legal Trust and Will (signed by our attorney, an officer of the courts, and a notary, a officer of the state), all her information including her social security number and the tax ID number for her estate. After much fighting with WF legal through the branch, we were given access to her accounts and were able to transfer all funds into my family's name. All of this was done Nov.-Dec. 2015. Since then WF has made a demand for payment in full on her home equity line of credit. In order to secure financing to pay off your company's request, we applied for loans through two banks. Both banks independently requested that we provide a COPY of the ORIGINAL MORTGAGE NOTE that my aunt signed agreeing to pay WF for the home equity line to prove that we were not responsible for the legal obligation of paying the loan, instead that her estate is. In effect, this would prove we are not responsible for the home equity mortgage, therefore lowering our debt to income ratio monthly, allowing us to qualify for a loan TO PAY YOUR COMPANY, as requested. It has now been six weeks, and four phone calls when today (after assurance that the request was escalated and was being processed) that I was informed that because "I am not an executor on the account, I do not have access to this information." I was told that the "back office" of "Department code OQB" will only accept an order from a judge from a court to provide this information to me. Again, six weeks later when I was told everything has been moving this entire time. I specifically called today because our applications were suspended indefinitely for not providing this copy of the mortgage note. The employees of "Department OQB" are Gabriela Rios, Paula Stuart, Patricia Jordan, Jeremy Stuart, and the rudest and most inept Todd Behrends, who told me he was the highest person at Wells Fargo that he would allow me to talk to, would not provide me his supervisor's name, and would not discuss with me protocols on how they determine who is allowed to access a deceased client's information. In addition, originally Jeremy Stuart informed me that he would stay connected with me to provide me updates. Never heard anything. Every time I called I was told it was pending and that I had to explain the same situation of my aunt passing and re-provide the documentation again and again. So at this point I would like to thank you WF for making me relive this passing of my family member again and again. It is no wonder your company does not have a Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating, as they will not provide it to you till you resolve the "excessive" complaints filed with them (BBB's website). If I had to guess these probably involve the illegally opened predatory accounts that were opened on 1.5 million working Americans that resulted in an indictment and guilty charge, as well as the "resignation" of Mr. Stump less than two years ago, costing your company millions. For the record, since your employees are not capable or grasping this concept, every time one of your clients pass away, their family does NOT have to go to Probate court to retrieve financing, as I was told. It is simply unfathomable that in one department I would meet the burden of proof for you to provide me access to her significant accounts with your company, however with the exact same documentation I'm being told by Probate Department that I need to spend another $6,000 to go back to probate court to get an order to receive this copy of the original mortgage note. The reasoning that WF will not certify me as an executor on her account without the order is causing me severe stress and to relive my aunt's passing, it is not in line with the law regarding executors and power of attorney regarding the passing of family, and is flat our disrespectful to my Aunt's last will and testament that I execute her wished and speak for the decedent, especially when I have a legally signed document stating exactly that I am her executor to (but not limited to) collect and pay all debts. I would say shame on all the aforementioned employees, but after conversing I am well aware that they care about their paychecks and nothing else. Based on the news this seems to be inline with your company's core principles. Which leads me back to Todd Behrends "Executive Resolution Specialist 4," who started out by asking me why I was discussing my aunt's account and why she was unavailable at the moment to talk to him herself? Clearly your departments do not share information with each other as she passed away more than a year ago, but he's also not intuitive enough to realize if I am being transferred from Probate that probably there was a death and a beneficiary... call me crazy?!. Thanks for that Todd, appreciate it. Really appreciate you asking to talk to my deceased Aunt. He then continued to refuse flat out to provide me with the opportunity to provide him the proper documentation (again for the third time and for the third Department), and then told me he could not speak to me anymore without me confirming who I was. So at this point, the branch I visited immediately after her passing, and probate all had acknowledged that I was who the documents stated I was based on my own personal documentation, but when it came to Todd he refused to see it and therefore (based on his own inaction/unwillingness mind you) was not able to provide me any information. I asked him to get in contact with the other Departments as their burden of proof was satiated and he refused, said he couldn't contact them. I informed him this invention called the telephone and he still refused. Said WF doesn't provide emails either. This is what your "Executive Resolution Specialist 4" offered to do after asking to talk to my deceased aunt... NOTHING! Literally wouldn't even lift a phone to call legal while I waited on the phone further after an hour of being transferred. His only solution was to go back to the branch and provide them the docs there, which I already did more than a year prior. For which they then forwarded me to legal (who also had the docs), who forwarded me to probate, and then to inept Todd Behrens, and then he asked me to go back to the branch, and back to legal, and on and on.... Upon requesting his supervisor, he refused to provide me a name stating he was "at the the top of Wells Fargo that I could talk to." When I asked whether he reported to anyone or was he the owner of the entire bank, he said he reports to someone but wouldn't provide me their info "because he didn't know who I was" and wouldn't allow me to prove it either. Real "Executive" level service with this guy. To be clear: I WHOLLY EXPECT YOUR COMPANY (based on my experience so far) TO SCRUTINIZE THIS MESSAGE AND ITS CONTEXT, AND PUT THE BURDEN BACK ON ME TO PROVE ANY OF THIS, but just in case one person actually cares about their clients and reads this, please scrutinize away and review the phone call with Todd Behrends. He told me it was recorded and the date and time was today, 03/16/2017, and I spoke to this employee, who clearly needs to be supervised (since he's not at "the top") and re-trained thoroughly, between 12:00 and 12:20 pm approximately. Since I've apparently been refused by the top guy at WF, here is where I am going to leave it. I've told our attorney (who's name I provided to Todd and Patricia Jordan and her staff) to draft an Intent to Default Letter. If I don't have this resolved within two weeks and our applications with the lenders (TO PROVIDE YOU THE MONEY YOU'RE REQUESTING) are denied because WF will not provide the Mortgage Note even having been provided all the requested documentation over and over, then we will stop making the payments, as we simply can't afford it. At that point, I'm sure someone is going to want their money and will look into this, and you'll probably try and foreclose, and we'll sue in turn, and finally at some point when we are asked (probably by a judge) why we stopped paying? I'll refer to this message and the documented/recorded phone calls and names (with Todd's at the top) and how we tried for almost two months to get a copy of a piece of paper when we obviously had already met the burden of proof to have access to the aforementioned account and her funds more than a year prior. I'm almost positive this message will go no where but in case I get lucky and the reader is a human being I hope you help me to resolve this, and for the love of whatever higher power you believe, do not forward me back to Probate or Todd. Josh PS so you're aware I'll be posting this on your customer relations website and facebook page, as well as filing it with the BBB."
This corporation puts a great deal of spin on customer service. I my opinion it is all lip service.
After trying to resolve a problem with Wells Fargo Advisors, I finally asked to speak to Customer Service to file a formal complaint. Why yes of course you can file; however, we reserve the right to take 30 days to think about your complaint.................before anyone will talk to you.
30 days of silence...............might as well tell the customer.......to fxxx off