Another Wells Fargo story . . .

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As if there weren’t enough reasons to stay away from Wells Fargo Bank, here’s another.

There was a brief article in the Thursday, March 15, 2012, edition of The Roanoke Times about some guy getting sentenced for identity theft. It seems that in 2010, Wachovia Bank (then owned by Wells Fargo; now actually called Wells Fargo) sent someone else’s social security number to the criminal who used it to open a bunch of accounts and charged at least $11,000.00. The Roanoke Times article

Excerpts from the story:

[The Victim] had a terrible time straightening out the credit history and Social Security information, but that is under way,” [the prosecuting attorney] said of the victim during the hearing.

[The Judge] asked [the prosecutor] whether [Wells Fargo] had been approached about the mistake, and whether the bank was willing to “step up to the plate” and help with a resolution to the matter.

“We suggested that but were soundly rebuffed,” [the prosecutor] said.

We all make mistakes;  I certainly have and probably more than my share. But when you make a mistake, you help fix it. If you’re honorable. If you care about people and your customers. If you’re NOT Wells Fargo.
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Citizenship qualifications

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The Christian Science Monitor has an on line Citizenship test which those immigrants who wish to become citizens must pass (58 out of 96 questions). You can find it here:  Citizenship Test

Yeah, I passed with 94 of 96 (over-thought two questions).

This reminded me of when I taught a night course in Government at a local proprietary business school. On the first night I wanted to know the base line of the students, a mix of just-graduated from high school to been in the real world for a while.

The results were abysmal.  (That's worse than horrible). As I recall the highest score was 85% (naming elected folks was the toughest question). The lowest was one correct answer.  Mr. Porterfield (my High School Government teacher at PH) would have been horrified.

Here's that test:

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Your name is optional:                        

FIRST NIGHT QUIZ
US Government    Instructor:  Ross C. Hart, JD
September 14, 1998

The purpose of this quiz is to see how much you know about the government so I can better plan the course materials.  It will not count against you, however those students who are brave enough to put their name on it and who answer all questions perfectly will not have to take the first test.

1. Name the three constitutional branches of the Federal Government.
2. What are the two halves of Congress?  How many members in each half?
3. How many years do members of each half of Congress serve before re-election?  How many terms can they serve?
4. Where in the Constitution is the “Bill of Rights” found?
5. Which amendment protects private property from being taken by the Government without due process?
6. Which amendment protects the right to petition the government?
7. What part of the Federal Government “has the sole power of impeachment”.  What part of the Federal Government can try an impeachment?[NOTE:  this was around the time Clinton got a "Lewinsky" so impeachment was in the news]
8. Are you registered to vote?  If not, why not?
9. What City or County do you live in?  Who is your Congressional Representative?
10. Name all the Virginia members of the U.S. Senate.
11. How many justices are on the highest Court in the United States?  How long is their term of office?
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Wells Fargo Is Stupid (in my opinion)

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I’m guardian for a guy (“Irving”) who is in a nursing home for the rest of his life.  He owns a house purchased for too much money by a agent under a power of attorney that was fired by the Court after which I was appointed. The guy owns a house with a Veterans Administration loan administered by Wells Fargo. I just had ANOTHER frustrating discussion with Wells Fargo which, in my opinion, is corporately too stupid to exist.

The value of the house is $115,000.00;  the loan balance is $135,000.00 (not counting late charges, interest, etc. because I'm not going to waste his money).  I filed a motion to abandon the property and allow it to be foreclosed as it’s upside down, and the motion explains that he’s in a nursing home and his income has to pay for his care, not for property that he’ll never get back.

Wells Fargo got a copy of all the court papers; a while ago I got a call and was assigned a ‘single point of contact’ (which OF CURSE has changed) (pun intended). Today I was called by the ‘new’ point of contact.

First, the ‘contact’ called me his power of attorney;  I’m the GUARDIAN with a court order – that trumps a POA any day of the week, but (in my opinion) Wells Fargo is too stupid to know that.

Then I was told that they were abandoning the ‘deed in lieu’ process because:
“Irving” hadn’t written a hardship letter. All that information is in the Motion to abandon property I filed, but (in my opinion) Wells Fargo is too stupid to know that.

They wanted an income worksheet, but that information for a worksheet is in the Motion to abandon property I filed, but (in my opinion) Wells Fargo is too stupid to know that.

In my opinion, and I told the poor individual this on the phone in my best Rossiferous voice and manner, Wells Fargo will make more money with a foreclosure, and make the Veterans Administration waste taxpayer's dollars on the foreclosure in this day of our Veterans needing all the help available. In my opinion, Wells Fargo is more interested in its own profit than saving the Government money (can anyone say ‘bailout’??).  Of course, they’ve paid for what is probably a wasted appraisal and title examination, so they get those dollars from the taxpayer also.

My frustration boiled over.  I told the representative that she’s only a small cog for a very stupid bank, and asked her to put in the notes, in all caps, that “WELLS FARGO CAN *&$# GO TO HELL”, and hung up.

Any question why I’ve closed over one-half million dollars of accounts with those idiots in the past year?

Any question why I urge my friends and clients (and blog readers) to leave Wells Fargo?
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