@Anonymous wrote:The penalty needs to fit the crime. In far to many cases the fines are looked as just a cost of doing business.
It's only cheating if you get caught? 
If the fines aren't high enough to discourage bad behavior (banks committing fraud qualifies in my opinion) then they need to be raised to where they're effective; if they can be justified as the cost of doing business, they are not useful. Won't happen but someday I wish they slip a digit and tack a zero on the end of one of these things which will probably end the issue overnight or at least until a new banker generation starts pushing the envelope of what's acceptable.
@Revelate wrote:
@mitchblue wrote:My mortage is with Wells Fargo but I believe they sold it to someone else though I stil go to their website for my account.. Never banked with them, but when I was first moved to Arizona I went online looking for reviews of banks in the area, and every bank I came across, even Chase, had so many bad reviews. It's hard to pick a bank.. They all seem to have people that say they suck..
True that, as nobody really posts about banks they love (well, not in any appreciable amount compared to people that have problems).
That said, I think it's clear that WF sucks more than others currently and that's nearly unarguable I'd suggest both from media reports and court findings... and serves them bloody right. Buffet was spot on in saying they deserved this for simply figuring the fine would be small (it was) but I'm more than happy at the righteous public backlash.
I worked in restaurant management years ago, and we have saying in the restaurant biz: If customer has a good experience - enjoys the food & service - they might tell someone. If they have a bad experience, they'll tell anyone who will listen. 
Wells Fargo has always been arrogant and rude toward customers, I now wonder how I put up with them for 11 years, or anyone does now. One experience I had was when I rolled over n former employer 401k account into an IRA. They sent me a check for around $35k, and I fo a WF branch to deposit it into my checking account. At this point I'd been with them for 8 years, never a returned deposit item or any other problem. The teller looks at the check and without saying a word walks over to a guy at a desk, I assume a manager. They look at the check, look up at me several times. From the way they acted you would think I had handed her a note that said "Give me all you money and no one gets hurt". She comes back and again without saying a word picks up the phone & makes a call. So I finally ask "If there a problem?", and she says she's calling the bank that issued the check to make sure it is good. I tell her that I'm depositing the check, not trying to cash it, and I expect there to be a hold on the funds. She shakes her head and tells me the manager told her she had to verify the check was good before she could accept it an give me a receipt. She verifies the check is good, and hands me a receipt - with a 10 business day hold on every last cent. I was going to roll the IRA into a WF retirement account, I decided to look elsewhere.
Yes, that piddly fine was just a cost of business, they'll no doubt look to where they can raise fees to make it back. I hope the public backlash not only continues, but grows - Wells Fargo does not deserve your business or your money.
@DaveInAZ wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@mitchblue wrote:My mortage is with Wells Fargo but I believe they sold it to someone else though I stil go to their website for my account.. Never banked with them, but when I was first moved to Arizona I went online looking for reviews of banks in the area, and every bank I came across, even Chase, had so many bad reviews. It's hard to pick a bank.. They all seem to have people that say they suck..
True that, as nobody really posts about banks they love (well, not in any appreciable amount compared to people that have problems).
That said, I think it's clear that WF sucks more than others currently and that's nearly unarguable I'd suggest both from media reports and court findings... and serves them bloody right. Buffet was spot on in saying they deserved this for simply figuring the fine would be small (it was) but I'm more than happy at the righteous public backlash.
I worked in restaurant management years ago, and we have saying in the restaurant biz: If customer has a good experience - enjoys the food & service - they might tell someone. If they have a bad experience, they'll anyone who will listen.
Wells Fargo has always been arrogant and rude toward customers, I now wonder how I put up with them for 11 years, or anyone does now. One experience I had was when I rolled over n former employer 401k account into an IRA. They sent me a check for around $35k, and I fo a WF branch to deposit it into my checking account. At this point I'd been with them for 8 years, never a returned deposit item or any other problem. The teller looks at the check and without saying a word walks over to a guy at a desk, I assume a manager. They look at the check, look up at me several times. From the way they acted you would think I had handed her a note that said "Give me all you money and no one gets hurt". She comes back and again without saying a word picks up the phone & makes a call. So I finally ask "If there a problem?", and she says she's calling the bank that issued the check to make sure it is good. I tell her that I'm depositing the check, not trying to cash it, and I expect there to be a hold on the funds. She shakes her head and tells me the manager told her she had to verify the check was good before she could accept it an give me a receipt. She verifies the check is good, and hands me a receipt - with a 10 business day hold on every last cent. I was going to roll the IRA into a WF retirement account, I decided to look elsewhere.
Yes, that piddly fine was just a cost of business, they'll no doubt look to where they can raise fees to make it back. I hope the public backlash not only continues, but grows - Wells Fargo does not deserve your business or your money.
Wow... that would have turned me off as well... big time. 
I have had accounts with them for years, and while there's no excusing their now well-documented behavior I have to say I've actually had good luck with them locally (I'm in the Southeast). I partially attribute that to the branches here previously being Wachovia, who at least in this area were known for good customer service (at least when I first opened my account).
I'm honestly speechless over your experience making your deposit. I once made a large check deposit at a branch I had never been to, and I expected it to be a hassle or a minimum a lengthy hold. It turned out to be no big deal at all; the only thing that was out-of-the-ordinary was that the teller had to call over the branch manager because the amount was above her level (until then I didn't know that was a 'thing'). He walked over, took a quick look at the check, did some quick typing on the teller's computer that might have taken 15 seconds and that was all. I'm not really sure what I was expecting but it was drama-free. The manager even handed me his business card before he walked away and told me to let him know if I ever needed anything; all-in-all I left feeling good.
As much as I would like to think my positive experience was 'routine' clearly that's not the case for everybody, which is a shame. If the people at my local branches ever start giving me issues similar to what I've read about on here, I will walk in a heartbeat.
Side note: The experience you describe with WF closely mirrors my own experience a few years ago with BBVA Compass. With Compass, as long as I used the branch by my house everything was fine, but if I used a branch where I wasn't "known" I couldn't sneeze without them acting like I was trying to rob the bank, and a hold was all but guaranteed on all but the most trivial check deposits. (Ironically, that's what made me change to Wachovia.)
@UncleB wrote:Wow... that would have turned me off as well... big time.
I have had accounts with them for years, and while there's no excusing their now well-documented behavior I have to say I've actually had good luck with them locally (I'm in the Southeast). I partially attribute that to the branches here previously being Wachovia, who at least in this area were known for good customer service (at least when I first opened my account).
I'm honestly speechless over your experience making your deposit. I once made a large check deposit at a branch I had never been to, and I expected it to be a hassle or a minimum a lengthy hold. It turned out to be no big deal at all; the only thing that was out-of-the-ordinary was that the teller had to call over the branch manager because the amount was above her level (until then I didn't know that was a 'thing'). He walked over, took a quick look at the check, did some quick typing on the teller's computer that might have taken 15 seconds and that was all. I'm not really sure what I was expecting but it was drama-free. The manager even handed me his business card before he walked away and told me to let him know if I ever needed anything; all-in-all I left feeling good.
As much as I would like to think my positive experience was 'routine' clearly that's not the case for everybody, which is a shame. If the people at my local branches ever start giving me issues similar to what I've read about on here, I will walk in a heartbeat.
Side note: The experience you describe with WF closely mirrors my own experience a few years ago with BBVA Compass. With Compass, as long as I used the branch by my house everything was fine, but if I used a branch where I wasn't "known" I couldn't sneeze without them acting like I was trying to rob the bank, and a hold was all but guaranteed on all but the most trivial check deposits. (Ironically, that's what made me change to Wachovia.)
I have read here - might have been you, UncleB, that the former Wachovia WF branches in the SE have very friendly, efficient employees. I worked in hotel management as financial controller for a company with 20 hotels across the country, and the hotel in Nashville had Wachovia for banking and they were very nice to work with. On the other hand the hotel in Modesto CA used WF, and the hotel manager and I went to the WF branch there once. I noticed there were 1 or 2 people waiting in line for most tellers but one teller had a long line, so I asked the branch manager what that teller did. With a note of pride in his voice the manager told me that non-WF customers just wanting to cash WF checks had to use that teller. So I said: "So, our hotel employees wanting to cash our paychecks have to wait in that line??? Our company is a Wells Fargo customer, and when we pay them with Wells Fargo checks I think you should treat them as your customers as well".
The manager realized he had screwed up, and walked over to the long line and waved them over to use the other tellers. But I'm sure that as soon as we left non-customers were all sent back to the non-customer line to wait.
@DaveInAZ wrote:
@UncleB wrote:Wow... that would have turned me off as well... big time.
I have had accounts with them for years, and while there's no excusing their now well-documented behavior I have to say I've actually had good luck with them locally (I'm in the Southeast). I partially attribute that to the branches here previously being Wachovia, who at least in this area were known for good customer service (at least when I first opened my account).
I'm honestly speechless over your experience making your deposit. I once made a large check deposit at a branch I had never been to, and I expected it to be a hassle or a minimum a lengthy hold. It turned out to be no big deal at all; the only thing that was out-of-the-ordinary was that the teller had to call over the branch manager because the amount was above her level (until then I didn't know that was a 'thing'). He walked over, took a quick look at the check, did some quick typing on the teller's computer that might have taken 15 seconds and that was all. I'm not really sure what I was expecting but it was drama-free. The manager even handed me his business card before he walked away and told me to let him know if I ever needed anything; all-in-all I left feeling good.
As much as I would like to think my positive experience was 'routine' clearly that's not the case for everybody, which is a shame. If the people at my local branches ever start giving me issues similar to what I've read about on here, I will walk in a heartbeat.
Side note: The experience you describe with WF closely mirrors my own experience a few years ago with BBVA Compass. With Compass, as long as I used the branch by my house everything was fine, but if I used a branch where I wasn't "known" I couldn't sneeze without them acting like I was trying to rob the bank, and a hold was all but guaranteed on all but the most trivial check deposits. (Ironically, that's what made me change to Wachovia.)
I have read here - might have been you, UncleB, that the former Wachovia WF branches in the SE have very friendly, efficient employees. I worked in hotel management as financial controller for a company with 20 hotels across the country, and the hotel in Nashville had Wachovia for banking and they were very nice to work with. On the other hand the hotel in Modesto CA used WF, and the hotel manager and I went to the WF branch there once. I noticed there were 1 or 2 people waiting in line for most tellers but one teller had a long line, so I asked the branch manager what that teller did. With a note of pride in his voice the manager told me that non-WF customers just wanting to cash WF checks had to use that teller. So I said: "So, our hotel employees wanting to cash our paychecks have to wait in that line??? Our company is a Wells Fargo customer, and when we pay them with Wells Fargo checks I think you should treat them as your customers as well".
The manager realized he had screwed up, and walked over to the long line and waved them over to use the other tellers. But I'm sure that as soon as we left non-customers were all sent back to the non-customer line to wait.
The very first bank I ever had an account of my own with was Wachovia, 35+ years ago when I was in college; I opened that account a few months before I opened my account with what eventually became my Bank of America checking account. I never had a bad experience with Wachovia.
Why does the Church Lady come to mind with statement? LOL