My experience, a novel
Written: Aug 23 '02 (Updated Aug 23 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Um, pretty good rates.
Cons: Terrible customer service, shifty mortgage agents.
The Bottom Line: The 401k service was sub par, the banking rules were retarded, the mortgage folk were worse than car salemen.
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| skintigh's Full Review: Wells Fargo |
I've now had experience with Wells Fargo 401k, online retirement, regular banking, and home mortgage. I also have experience with "Wells Fargo Mortgage" which is completely different than "Wells Fargo" mortgage, as you'll learn. I am not expert on banking, but I think I've had enough of a taste of Wells Fargo to share an opinion. A low opinion.
My previous employer had a 401k that was moved to Wells Fargo. This had the added benefit of online account access. It worked, once. After that, it wouldn't even accept my username, and the "help" links told me to call "my local help representative." And that would be who? And at what number? NOT helpful.
A few months later I actually needed to access my account so I called Wells Fargo, was on hold, was transferred, was on hold, transferred some more, yada yada. Eventually, they someone explained that the website moved and the one I was accessing was now for something/one else. They also mailed me a new password, but I can't remember if that ever showed up. I couldn't add money to my account as I had switched jobs, I couldn't get info on my account over the phone, I couldn't even change my mailing address without going through my previous employer. Oh, and about adding more money to a 401k after switching jobs, I wasn't sure this was possible, but I had contacted them previously about this and they didn't say there would be any problem, and they even mailed me a form... A crooked photocopy of a fax of a form dated from the late 90s. It was almost readable.
Having moved from NH to Texas I needed a new bank. Since I was there asking about mortgages, and had a 401k there, I thought I might as well open an account there. The mortgage lady I talked to was talking about how loud the bank was, and told us a story about how some lady had ordered checks twice online and had waited almost 2 months and still didn't have checks or temporary checks and was yelling about it. That didn't inspire much confidence in this bank, but whatever.
I sat down with a rep to open an account. She informed me they needed to run a credit check.
"You need to run a credit check for me to deposit/give you money?!?"
"Yes."
They asked for a photo ID. I gave them my NH license.
"This license is expired."
"It is? Well, I'm not planning on driving my account anywhere..."
"We require a valid picture ID"
"That is a state issued picture ID."
"It's expired"
"My name hasn't changed, my picture is still the same..."
"It's our policy. Would you like to talk to a manager?"
"No."
I guess if you don't have a license or you're not 16+ you just can't get an account there.
So, I left and opened an account at Security Service Federal Credit Union. They are open NORMAL hours, not bankers hours, and they are even open on SATURDAY and SUNDAY!!! They even have convenient locations! Unfortunately, they used CheckSystems to verify me, which thanks to the incompetence of CheckSystems reported me as being a female Hispanic in Florida, using SunTrust bank, and bouncing checks. SunTrust was extremely slow in helping fix this error, and Check Systems was even slower. But I digress.
Anyway, I decided to get a mortgage through Wells Fargo as they had good rates. But I later learned that every other bank offered a special San Antonio program at 6.25% and 0 down. I only could afford 0 down... After several tries, I left a message saying I'd like to ask my mortgage rep a question. She left a message for me, at home, saying she had scheduled me an appointment in one hour...!? I went, and she was quite annoyed that I was shopping around and wasting her time with all these appointments...!?!? The best she could do for me was 7.25% and I should take it or leave her the hell alone. I didn't go back.
I later learned that "Wells Fargo" and "Wells Fargo Mortgage" are completely separate entities. Wells Fargo Mortgage does mortgages, and offers them trough other middle men and brokers. One of these middle men is Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo Mortgage offered me 6.375%, 1% orig fee, 0 down. It was the best I had qualified for yet. I didn't want any points at all, but I could afford 1 if I had to. Besides, they could roll it in. Fennimore Johnson, who apparently had great resemblance to Mr. Mcgoo (I never actually met him - my fiancée did) sent me a good faith estimate.
I talked to him a few times, and eventually locked in that rate, but for 0.25% discount points I "bought it down" to 6.25%, 1.25% points, 0 down. I could afford 0.25% out of pocket, and it would pay for itself in 3-5 years out of a 30 year mortgage.
I heard USAA had lower rates afterwards, but I had had enough shopping.
We were all set to close the following Wednesday, except for one problem. Wells Fargo Mortgage in San Antonio is just a shell company or something, and they have no power. Fennimore, who is impossible to contact and always late in sending info, had to get everything approved by another Johnson in MD. She didn't/couldn't fax the papers until 6pm on Tues, which made it impossible to close Wed.
On Thurs we all met, I was all ready to sign, when the title lady just had me confirm a few things. SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!! Fennimore had snuck in another 1% fee!!!!!!!
To make a very long, very angry story short, we speaker-phone called him and asked him what the deal was. He talked really slow and rambles like an invalid, and answered every question by starting a 10-15 minute blabber about "when you first came into my office I estimated this and that..." and concluded much later with "so this is still working out as what I estimated." He tried to sell this increase as a fudge factor to make it easier to do the paperwork. I asked for that in writing. That changed his story to that it wasn't a fudge factor but it was something else, followed with a 15 minute version of the story above. He tried to say it all worked out and this is what we agreed to. I asked if basically, what he was saying was that there was extra money left over from the estimate and he was pocketing it. That launched another ramble. He made it sound like there was no way he could change the paperwork now. The title agent said can't you do such-and-such, to which Fennimore rambled about a bunch of unrelated items, ruling them all out after several minutes. "Yes, so that leaves such-and-such" quoth the title agent. "Well, yes..." You could HEAR the eyeballs rolling,
I said we never agreed to this new fee, to which he replied with a 15 minute version of the above story. I attempted several times to interrupt saying "YES, I know BUT" and "I UNDERSTAND that" and "WE ALLLL understand that" but he would just talk louder and finish his blather.
Eventually he made a slip and said something about how this was always in our agreement. I pointed out I was only ever interested in 0 down and 0 points, and that was all I could afford, and I only ate the "origination fee" because I had to everywhere, and I couldn't afford extra points, and if I knew there were extra points I never would have been interested.
Mistake #2: He now claimed this extra fee was in the good faith estimate. Bzzzzz. I'm sorry, thanks for playing. This changed his tune a little. He had never mentioned this when Val met with him, it was not in the good faith estimate, he never said it to me over the phone, and he never mentioned it when I locked in the rate. The title agent asked if I had that in writing, I produced it, and whispered "You got him!" and made an elbow-pumping motion.
His tone changed dramatically, he rambled about it was a mistake and there is always a 1% fee for this program, and how he couldn't just eat the whole point, and wanted me to buy more discounts, and did everything he could to make the situation even more complicated. Eventually, we compromised and I ended up agreeing to pay .375 extra or something like that.
All that took about 2 hours.
But, this would delay the closing for another day. That night the phone rings and it's Fennimore on the caller ID. I didn't want to answer, but did on the 4th ring. Fennimore must have gotten into trouble for his "submarine-ing" of the fee, as he now said I would get the rate I had locked in, no extra fees. Yay.
Well, that opinion turned into a novel, didn't it. Hmm, that seems with happen to me a lot. Well, you get the idea, and my hand is cramping.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
skintigh
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Member: Seth Kintigh
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 6 members
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