Those of you that know me know that I have very conservative political views. I believe in capitalism, business, and working hard for what you want. I have nothing against big business in fact, I believe without it we would have no chance of digging ourselves out of this mess of an economy we have. With that said, I don’t appreciate being told to bend over and take it up the you-know-where by anyone. Not my husband, and not YOU, Wells Fargo.

Allow me to clarify: As much as I believe that American’s should be able to work hard and profit, it must be done with a certain level of decency, morals, and respect for your customers and fellow citizens.

Let me tell you a story that began about 2 1/2 weeks ago in the little town of Ketchum, Idaho, and continues to go… and on… and on here in Boise. Like most families, Scott and I live pretty much paycheck to paycheck. By the time pay-day comes around, we’re nervously biting our fingernails waiting for that deposit to be made. This last pay period was no different. Our deposit was made at the Wells Fargo branch in Ketchum, Idaho on Tuesday, October 4th. Like always, it was deposited by Scott’s employer. His company does not offer direct deposit and being that the main office for the company is in a different town, this arrangement works well for both parties. Equipped with a voided check of ours to ensure correct account information, the money was put in the bank. Or, so we thought. It never showed up in our account. After verification from the employer that the money was deposited, I put in several calls to Wells Fargo – To no avail.

The following day we received the deposit receipt in the mail from his employer, as always. It was then that I realized what happened – The teller put the money in the wrong account. An account that I had prior to marriage, and account that has been closed for years, an account that Scott isn’t on (his paycheck, remember?), an account that doesn’t even have our last name on it – it had my maiden name. I quickly called the branch once I realized what happened. They owned their mistake, apologized – and apologized – and apologized. I was assured that the money would be credited to our account THAT night.

The next morning, when the money wasn’t there, I began calling around 8:00 am. The local branch was closed, so I started with the customer service line. That was a waste of time. To avoid making this story as agonizingly long and painful as my last few wweeks have been, I’m going to cut to the chase. The money was not credited to my account until that following Friday. The week was full of endless phone calls to Wells Fargo here locally, in Ketchum, and the call center. The reason it took so long? I’m told it was because, instead of them pushing that money back to the depositor’s account, they put it in some “catch all” account that Wells has set up for misc money, and there is endless amounts of paperwork that needs to be done to get it out. SHOULDN’T BE MY PROBLEM. You lost my money – give it back to me, THEN do what you need to do on your side.

Well, the ordeal was FINALLY over – right? NO. That next Monday I went to the grocery store. With a cart full of food, 3 kids running in circles around me, and the “please God, just let this be over” look on my face, I run my card at the checkout. DENIED. I pull up my account on my phone right there. The money had been taken back out. The Ketchum branch was already closed, but my local branch was still open for another 5 minutes so, I called them. And called, and called, and called. Couple days later, I was told that the credit made to my account to “fix” the problem was done incorrectly by their branch manager – So, they took it back during processing. Now, don’t forget – time didn’t stand still during all of this, I have stuff coming out of my account – FEES, FEES, FEES.

What I haven’t seen come out yet? My rent check that was dropped off the Friday the first credit was made to fix the problem. I called our landlord and asked if she had deposited the check. YEP. It was deposited the Monday after she got it – The Monday that I went grocery shopping and the Monday that the money was taken back out by Wells Fargo. This phone call took place a week after she had deposited the money, so I was extremely concerned. I went back over my now clusterfuck of an account and couldn’t find any evidence of that check having gone through. No pending, no fee, no nothing. I told her that if it came out of her account to let me know, but for now let’s just wait and see if it comes through on my end. We waited, and waited, and waited. Fast forward to now – our landlord called, saying that the money came out of her account and she is now overdrawn, too. Still, no evidence of it ever even hitting my account on the day it was deposited (and that the money wasn’t there – because of the manager’s error). Thanks, Wells Fargo.

Let’s talk about the fees:

Now, for those of you that don’t know, banks manipulate transactions to maximize overdraft fees. Sorry – NSF fees. Since overdraft fees are now “illegal” they had to change the name so they can continue the practice. For example, you make 3 charges over the weekend in this order: one for $3, one for $5, and one for $100. When the charges are put through for processing Monday night, they change it to read $100, $5, then $3. That way, if your account is going to be overdrawn, they get 3 NSF fees, instead of just 1 or 2. Judging by the amount of law suits filed, fought, and won in regards to this matter, it’s safe to say that it’s been deemed unconstitutional. So I ask you, why is it still common practice for big banks? Or, an even better question, why is it still being allowed by government? I don’t believe our government has a right to run big business, but the ONE thing that is undeniably their job is to ensure that our constitution is being upheld. Right??

So, just how many law suits for overdraft manipulation have already been filed, fought, and won? Just Google “Overdraft Manipulation” and be prepared to get pissed off.