Wells Fargo Bank, ARVADA WEST BRANCH

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by tjbeck73, Jul. 17, 2012

The only reason I am giving one star is because 1 is required.  Dealing with this bank has been a nightmare. Sure they greet you with a smile, but what's behind that smile is ignorance.  I'm certain if we can put a man on the moon, one of the biggest banks in America can hire Bankers who aren't complete idiots.  Too much to ask for?  Apparently so at Wells Fargo. We chose Wells Fargo as a secondary bank that was national for travel purposes.  The history of events is below, but what is important to know is this bank is NOT a customer service friendly bank.  I've always been one who cannot stand when people yell at customer service reps because it's generally not heir fault.  I've decided to be more forgiving of these people because for all I know, they were dealing with crooks as well. After 10 or 11 visits to our branch and countless phone calls, notification that I will be contacting the Department Of Regulatory Agencies, over the period of 6 weeks and on the last day, a threat to take legal action, we finally got them to reimburse our money to us.  My issue is that we were treated poorly when all we wanted was the fraudulent charges removed and to close the account and refund our money.  It felt like we were under investigation.  June 6th my wife's purse was stolen at a baseball game.  We called WF within minutes.  They placed a hold on the account and assured us no money would go in or out.  On June 14th, our online banking reflected a negative balance including NSF charges as 2 checks for $990 were cashed in Omaha.  We notified WF and asked them how it happened if a hard hold had been placed on the account.  No one could provide an answer.  After I went to our local branch, the Arvada West Branch and got all the paperwork together showing the fraudulent signatures on the checks etc.  I was told to contact the fraud dept.  when I received notification from them.  A few days passed and we heard nothing, then WF called.  Not the fraud dept. but the collections dept. saying that we had a negative balance and to avoid additional fees and charges as well as reflection on our credit we needed to pay the balance.  So I contacted the collections dept. and then the fraud dept. and they had no record of there being any fraudulent activity on the account.  Both departments told me they could not communicate with other departments and both told me that the issues were not their departments responsibility.  I then went into the Arvada West Branch and this time spoke with a Banker named Kimberly Willis.  She was pleasant enough but basically told me that we had to resubmit paperwork.  She gave me the paperwork and I left for the office and filled it out.  I returned to the Arvada West branch and Kimberly was not available so I spoke with a gentleman that took the paperwork and told me he "captured" it into their system and said I could follow up with the fraud dept./ Loss prevention to monitor the progress.  The next day I called in and they had not received the paper work.  I went to the branch, the same gentleman told me he would resend it but "they'll get it when they get it".  I called the next day, no record of it.  I said "how can that be?" The fraud dept. gal asked me what number he faxed it to.  I said he didn't fax it he "captured" it and sent it to you.  She said "They need to be faxed, the number is blah blah blah".  So again, I went to the Arvada West branch.  I spoke to the same gentleman and gave him the fax number.  He said "oh wow, I didn't know we had to fax these".  so he faxed it.  I called Fraud the next day, they received it but it was not notarized.  I go back to the branch and tell the guy, it needed to be notarized.  Not so surprisingly, He claimed ignorance about that. He called his Asst. Manager, Leah Current, over to go over the protocol.  They both had the confused look on their faces.  Well...there was no notary there that day and the back up notary didn't have his stamp.  I would have to go elsewhere or come back.  My wife finally had it notarized and they faxed it in.  I called the next day and they asked if this was my signature.  I said yes.  They said it needed to be my wife's signature.  Back to the Arvada West Branch and talked to the same gentleman.  "oops" was his reply.  I have to admit, this is when I started to lose it.  I had already been to the branch 5 or 6 times.  It was like a three ring circus.  I had to have my wife go through all these steps and fill the paperwork out and sign.  She took it to the branch and they faxed it in.   a few days later I called to confirm they received it.  They had.  It would need to be reviewed.  Fine...a week passes, I call and they let me know that it is under review.  Even though the geniuses at the Arvada West Branch told me I would have my money back in 72 hours. Finally Finally Finally on July 11th the online acct. balance showed they credited us back the fraudulent charges.  I went to the Arvada West Branch on Friday the 13th at 2:00 PM and found myself with the very polite, yet completely clueless Kimberly Willis.  She remembered me of course, and got her little fingers typing away and said there was a hard hold on the account and so I couldn't get my money back.  After I picked my jaw up off of the floor I said "can you explain to me how some scum bag in Omaha can cash 2 checks within 24 hours of each other with no problem, but I can't get my money back and I'm on the account?". She said "As I told you, there is a hard hold on the account".  I replied "yes.  I'm aware of the hold.  I notified you of the fraudulent activity".  She said she could not do anything.  I would have to contact the fraud dept. because they placed the hold.  I said "no.  You will contact them right now".  So she calls the fraud dept.  and they're CLOSED.  The Asst. Manager had come over by this point as my voice was beginning to raise.  She told me they could not release the funds and I would have to do as Kimberly said and contact the fraud dept.  I was traveling for the weekend so on Tuesday, the 17th.  I called the fraud dept. and got Jessica.  Of course Jessica told me she could not do that.  I would have to go to my local branch to handle that.  I relayed the entire history to Jessica, who acted like she was doing her nails and would throw in an occasional "mmm hmm".  I then told Jessica to hold while I contacted Leah Current, the Asst. manager at the Arvada West Branch.  I said "Hey Leah, remember you told me you couldn't remove that hold.  Only the Fraud dept. could?  Well they say it has to be you..." I then told her that I had spoken to an attorney and that if this was not resolved today, I was moving forward with legal action.  Miraculously enough she then tells me that she has called and that yes, she can remove the hold from the branch location, but I will need to come to the branch and bring 2 forms of ID. Apparently, they are taking this fraud stuff seriously now and need 2 forms of ID to get my money.  It would have been helpful if they required 2 forms of ID when the scumbags cashed those 2 checks in Omaha, but whatever.  Bottom line: They will give you the runaround, but you have got to be persistent.   

* this reviewer has be with this bank for 1 - 3 years
* this reviewer had 1 - 2 banks before.
* this review was made on Wells Fargo Bank, Arvada West Branch at Golden, CO
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