Is "change" coming to Wells Fargo Bank?
I'm in Henderson, Nevada at Green Valley Ranch preparing to speech at James Malinchak's Millionaire Success Secrets event.
The topic for my talk is "How to Get Google to Send You Money", which is about making money with AdSense.
As part of my AdSense presentation, I use $50 - $75 in pennies to illustrate how little clicks add up to real money.
So every time I visit a new town to do my presentation, I need to locate two props... up to $75 in pennies and a clear fish bowl, jar or vase to pour them in.
Usually someone at the hotel's finance department will aid in acquiring the pennies I need. We call ahead and they bill us for the pennies when we arrive.
Most times the venue will also have a container I can use to dump the pennies into. One time I broke a vase even though I promised I wouldn't. The thing shattered into a hundred pieces. Oops.
Anyhow, Green Valley Ranch was not helpful with the pennies, so I sent my VP of Sales, Joey Montez, out to find a bank and exchange my green currency for tons of little coins.
Joey came back to the hotel over an hour later, exasperated and beaten by the Vegas heat. (It's brutal here... I don't know why anyone would voluntarily choose to live in the desert.)
He explained that he took a cab to the Wells Fargo Bank at 900 N Green Valley Pkwy in Henderson. It was about a mile or so from the hotel.
He asked the teller if he could exchange currency for a few bricks of pennies.
From the back of the teller area another teller yelled out, "Do you have an account with us?"
Joey responded "I am a prospect!"
Apparently she didn't hear him and walked back to the vault to get the pennies.
Joey waited patiently while the meter for the cab was running. The teller knew he was in a hurry, but it seemed like she was taking her sweet time.
She finally came back and stacked the bricks of pennies on the counter. She then asked again, "Do you have an account with us?"
Joey said, "You know, I can look into getting an account with you guys, but right now I just need to exchange the cash for pennies."
The stack of pennies was on the counter right in front of Joey.
The teller replied, "Sorry we don't do that. It's only for our merchants."
Joey is waving the cash right in front of her and she couldn't care less. He was asking if he needed to open an account to get the pennies and she replied that it was a minimum of $100 to open the account.
He told me that they were clearly giving him "attitude" because he wasn't a customer. He felt like they weren't taking him seriously. He felt humiliated by the teller.
At that point, he left the bank.
Joey walked across the street to U.S. Bank at 1000 North Green Valley Parkway and made the same request.
The tellers were extremely helpful and kind, going from drawer to drawer and to the safe to find the $75 in pennies requested.
No qualms. No attitude. No fees. They acted like they actually wanted to help.
When Joey told me this story I suggested we pay a visit to the manager at Wells Fargo.
We needed to go back out to get something anyhow, so I thought we'd throw in an extra stop. I wanted to share my thoughts and feelings with the teller with attitude.
We arrived at the bank and asked the cab driver to wait. It wouldn't take long.
The manager was out to lunch, but the greeter pointed us to the assistant manager. It just happened to be the teller that was so unhelpful!
I calmly and kindly smiled and introduced myself. I'm standing in shorts, t-shirt and flip flops, so I'm sure the teller placed judgment on me.
I told her I run a number of businesses out of Northern Colorado and there happens to be a Wells Fargo Bank in my town.
I also told her that while I am not a customer, Wells Fargo has been on my radar.
I then proceeded to explain my problem with their bank not being able to service a simple request to exchange currency because I am not a current customer.
She was clearly not happy to see me, but she calmly replied that their system will not let them do an exchange without a customer account number. And apparently they sometimes charge their own customers a fee to exchange currency!
My mind went to a commercial spoof that Saturday Night Live did many years ago called "First CityWide Change Bank".
Here was a spoof on a bank that did nothing but make change and I couldn't get a so-called REAL bank to make change! The irony was amazing.
I proceeded to speak with the teller and suggested that the policy was not a very good way to turn a prospect into a customer.
She told me that she couldn't comment on bank policy and that she didn't have any control over it.
She was nice, but I am going to take Joey's word that he was treated unkindly.
We left the bank content that a statement was made.
The final word on that statement is to the CEO of Wells Fargo Bank.
Why in the world would you charge your own customers to exchange currency? Shouldn't that just be a value-added service?
And why wouldn't you seek to exchange currency from a non-customer? Here's a basic rule of business. When you treat the prospect like a customer they are more likely to become a customer. And besides, it's not like you are losing any money.
But you have lost any and all hope of EVER having me as a customer, Wells Fargo.
And I am certain that every time I drive by the Wells Fargo brand on Highway 34 in Loveland, Colorado, this story will come to mind. I will remember the bank that would not make change.
Oh, and to the nice tellers at U.S. Bank in Henderson. Thank you for being decent human beings and helping us out.
Let the pennies flow!
They obviously had no idea who you are! You should have stuck the ifart app under her chair!
Wait until I tell my readers. No wonder banks are failing. They won't lend any money and they won't even exchange pennies. They will never handle my payroll. Thanks Joel.
Did you at least optimize this post so that when someone searches for this bank...they find this post?
Whitney, it doesn't matter who he is, or who anybody else is.
People - all people - deserve solid service. What message is sent when employees are trained to discriminate by going the 2nd mile with one group, while shunning another...especially when the request is so ridiculously simple and easy.
That's great Joel! Reminds me of the time I went to Wells Fargo (I was and still am a customer) to deposit a check into my account. I asked if they could make a copy of it for me first so I could keep the copy and they could have the check (I needed it for record keeping). She said she could make a copy of it for me for $2. At first I thought she was joking, but it was no joke. I politely pointed out to her that there was a copier right behind her and couldn't she just make a quick copy of it for me? No was her reply. If they let anyone make copies, then it would snowball out of control.
So... I don't think Wells Fargo treats anyone like a customer. It's probably because they don't treat their employees well. If you had happy employees, they wouldn't treat customers like tools.
This is actually very interesting to hear as well as NOT surprising in the least. We have actually banked with Wachovia in Atlanta for years and always been extremely happy with their service and support. Since Wells Fargo has taken the reigns, we have been utterly frustrated at all the "new policies, red tape, and harassment! Yes, I did say harassment as we have received no less than 8-9 calls monthly from Wells Fargo or someone on their behalf trying to gimmick us into this free gas card, free trial life insurance in exchange for a $25 gift card, or discount health insurance plan...which by is called enticement and against the law in virtually all 50 states (I know b/c I have been in insurance for 10+ years).
You might be inclined to think well why don't I ask to have my # removed, add it to the do not call list etc....well as a matter of fact I have. I even have taken a formal letter with every personal, cell, & biz # I have and had my local branch manager sign it, make me a copy, and forward it to the appropriate people internally...by the way did I mention my branch manager who has become a good friend was thoroughly embarrased, apologetic, and told me I "was definitely not the only one.". Apparently, the letter did make it's way to the appropriate place as I received a letter stating they had received my letter and would add me to their "preferred not to be solicited list" yet I might continue to get calls for a brief perio as it takes approx. 4-8 weeks for the request to be processed. It also stated that since I was a customer, I still would continue to receive mail an occasional calls regarding "value added services". Seriously?!?! What part of I don't want or like your green eggs an ham don't you understand???
All I can say is... Vote with your pennies AND dollars!!! If enough people make intentional decisions about whom, how and where they support businesses with their money, time, etc then eventually they will be forced to change or go out of business....except Wells Fargo .....they'll have the gov't bail them out!!!!
Andrew
Http://AndrewWindham.com
Hi Joel,
It's funny that you wrote about this today. I had a check from a client that I wanted to cash that was drawn on Wells Fargo. I went to an in-store branch and as I was cashing the check, the teller asked me if I wanted to open an account. I explained to her that I had an account at another institution, she continued to try to get me to open an account.
Finally, I told her that I would think about it, but now that I have read about your experience I think I will pass. I realize it could have been an isolated experience but then I think about how many other "bank policies" do they have that are inline with the one that you guys encountered.
On a side note, I worked in the customer service field for almost 12 years. The one principal that rung truest was that a bad experience spreads 10 times faster than a good one. So you have to work harder to make sure that everyone gets the best possible service because one bad experience will negate the previous 10 good experiences.
Thanks for sharing this!
Mosiekk Conley
http://www.1moinc.com
That's why you never invest into Wells Fargo!!! Bank of America is the same way! The best is not to deal with Banks at all!!!
I'm glad you said something to Wells Fargo. It's much better to actually tell them what you're thinking rather than complaining and not telling the company. I've made an effort to tell anyone when I don't get good customer service and give the store another chance. If it hasn't improved, I tell them again and then don't return. Customers are the life blood of any company, so I hope people are paying attention to the message of this blog post. And, way to go US Bank!
I'm an ex-Wells Fargo customer (NEVER going back). You are fortunate that you had the bad experience early and will never make the mistake of being a customer.
It's hard to believe banks continue to provide such poor service in today's economic environment. We can all learn from their mistakes.
Have fun in Vegas!
I've actually had this happen at multiple banks. And yes, I'll never do business with those banks. Wells Fargo had crap for customer service way back when they were still Norwest.
@Andrew: The reason they have to maintain a "do not call" list is due to the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Act. If they make ANY marketing calls to you after you request to be put on their Do Not Call List, they are liable for between $500-$1500 per call in small claims court.
They have a ONE TIME exemption from the Federal Do Not Call list if you're a customer, but if you specifically request they put you on their own Do Not Call list, they cannot make ANY further marketing calls to you.
Hello Joel,
I hope the folks at Wells Fargo Bank are getting multiple copies of this article! What is going on with the banking industry? I wanted to get a document notarized and called Key Bank here in Colorado Springs. Yes, they had Notary services... no they wouldn't do it for me if I wasn't a customer! What a great way to win customers. You would think that common sense would take precedence instead of some goofy internal bank rules!
Funny you should mention Wells Fargo. They now own the bank I deal with, Wachovia,and beginning next month they are going to start charging me $5.95 a month to use Quicken to access the 6 accounts I have with them. I told customer service that what I was hearing is "Your 20 year relationship with us is not as important as us getting $5.95 a month from you". I have an appointment with a credit union on Saturday so I can start the process of moving my money out of Wachovia (Wells Fargo).
Thomas
Apparently Wells Fargo just doesn't have very good customer service all around! Unfortunately, I'm trying to buy a home using Wells Fargo Home Mortgage as my lender, and we've been in escrow for 3 months! Everything is approved, they're just moving so slowly to get the final review process done, and they've made so many typos along the way. It usually takes me at least 3 calls to get my loan officer on the phone, and no one has ever answered the main branch number when I've called. No one responds to emails either, but they criticized Human Resources at my place of employment for not responding quickly enough...but when I called HR, they said they never even received the request. Once they received the request it was completed within an hour. Then they criticized the Home Owner's Association for the property we are trying to buy for being "difficult to work with".
Unprofessional, slow, and rude has been the norm of my experience. I will NEVER use Wells Fargo for any other account, and hope to refinance as soon as possible with someone that actually cares about the customer.
Excellent report, Joel. What merchants and customer service should start asking is, "Do you have a gajillion friends on Twitter or Facebook or Linkedin?" Ya gotta watch who you're messin' with in the electronic age. I tell all my audiences: "Build your networks. You never know when (or how) they will be useful to you. I'll bet you receive an apology from Wells Fargo within a week, Joel.
wow... joel, nothing i can say.. but i believe that the teller that wont help you to exchange the cash for pennies had a problem... and their bank policy had a problem too.. lols...
That is NOTHING! I bank in Colorado too and went to a bank (TCF) that I DO have an account with. I had wrapped coins and they said that they do not accept wrapped change and that I would have to go to another branch where I would be able to UNWRAP my coins and drop them in a machine. ARGGGG
Chase is right across the street where I DO NOT have an account. A really nice young man there changed my coins in between servicing his actual customers with a smile on his face the whole time.
Gotta tell you, I see those Chase commercials and can tell that there is an extra warm fuzzy because of how nice they were to a "prospect"!
You are just like me Joel. Even I make it a point to make a statement with the company I am not happy with. I do it with an email. That has more weight. Just recently Singapore airlines sent me a gift voucher of $50 when I complained about their inflight service.
Thanks for that Joel. My question is isn't that illegal to charge for conversion. Especially when the currency is same and conversion is in the same country?
What happened to me is still the craziest thing I've ever heard of as far as bad treatment from a bank. I swear it is true, and it's absolutely bizarre!
In the mid-90's in Scottsdale, AZ, I went into a branch of BankOne located in a grocery store. I was a BankOne customer. I tried to deposit my paycheck with a teller. I was dressed professionally having come from work. This is a paycheck I had been receiving every two weeks for at least a year, by the way. The teller refused to accept my deposit and would give no explanation, except that the check was "too much", and believe me I was not rich. I told her she could look back and see that I always deposited the same amount of money every other Friday. I also said that I knew they may not allow it all to be withdrawn immediately. She insisted that it could not be deposited at all and would not take it. We argued about the bank it was drawn on (a large, well-known bank) and the company I worked for (also a large company and well-known in Phoenix). And yes, this was a payroll check, not a handwritten check.
I finally had to leave the bank without depositing my paycheck into my account. The only explanation I could come to was that I was a young(ish) person of 27 and my husband was with me. He was a couple years younger than me and was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. He'd met me there having ridden his bike in the Arizona heat (he biked everywhere!) and looked pretty bedraggled. I hate to think it, but he is a mixed-race person, and I wonder if these older ladies at the bank thought he and I were trying to pull something over on them.
All they needed to do was check my account though to see the history of the exact same check being deposited every two weeks.
I did call the bank's downtown headquarters the next day and got nowhere. I switched banks shortly thereafter. They didn't seem to miss me.
That's 15 years ago, and I've still never heard of a bank refusing anyone else's deposit.
I can't say I've ever heard a positive comment about Wells Fargo. Your story isn't isolated, Joel. I'm pretty sure this is the corporate culture. This is how the employees are trained to operate.
In '96, I had an urgent need to cash out some savings bonds to pay a bill from another large, soulless corporation. I stopped in B of A. They wouldn't deal with me. Wells Fargo would take my savings bonds, but it would take 6 weeks to process them, then I'd have to come back in to pick up the cash. What? The next bank was willing to cash my savings bonds for me on the spot without an account.
I've been a content credit union customer for years. I have no idea why anybody would use a bank.
Well Joel, w/ WF it's pretty common. My old company used them as their bank and when I went in there once to cash my paycheck (I was in a diff town and needed the cash then), I was told that since I was not a customer, I was going to be charged $5. or something like that. For a check DRAWN on THEIR BANK?!? WTH? In the years I worked for that company, I had a number of irritations w/ WF... and YES, they always hit me up to open up an account--No matter what I told them, they wouldn't stop. Guess what, no account for me.
What you probably do not know is that Wells Fargo has a secret army that seeks out people that post negative information about them. They use "disciplinary actions" that range from a simple talking to all the way up to death by firing squad. Your post probably falls somewhere in the middle. Apparently, you automatically agree to the terms of these actions when you walk through their doors. It was nice knowing you, Joel.
And this is exactly why I left Wells Fargo ten years ago. Even when I was a customer, I did not feel that they appreciated my business. Many of the tellers were friendly and kind, but the bank policies and ever-increasing fees eventually drove me away to a much more customer-oriented local bank.
Wells Fargo Bank Sucks!
Thanks
Jason Berkes
I'm a Wachovia customer, and it was recently purchased by Wells Fargo. I'm seriously considering changing banks on principle alone, because Wells Fargo quietly owns most of the check cashing places and pawn shops in poor neighborhoods across the country, intentionally perpetuating the cycle of poverty. That is not a business with which I wish to be associated.
I should of stopped reading when I hit "preparing to speech at James Malinchak's Millionaire Success Secrets event." but I didn't... so sad.
How are you surprised that banks charge to convert currency? Its industry standard to charge currency exchange fees. Walk into 100 different banks and then tell me how many would convert 10 grand of your money into euros for free. I'm guessing none of them. Especially community banks because they usually have to get the currency through an overnight delivery from a correspondent banking service. Which costs a lot of money. I can guarantee you that none of them would help you out without an account.
Now I know that in this case it was just dollars to pennies... and it wasn't 10 grand either... but it was 75 dollars worth of pennies - in a society that has had serious arguments about getting rid of the penny all together - you don't think 75 dollars worth of pennies is something that might just clean a bank out of those coins leaving them penniless until the next currency delivery? 7500 pennies... because you do the presentation - you should have known and told your readers that 75 bucks worht of pennies is 41 POUNDS of pennies - 150 rolls... Enough, by your own admission to break a vase. Meaning real customers with existing relationships might not be able to be serviced when requesting pennies until the next currency delivery. Studies show that existing customers are easier and cheaper to keep while new customers are more expensive and difficult to come by. I'd say Wells made the right decision on this. If they just happen to be running low that day on pennies - I can't blame them at all.
Besides your request being a surprisingly large burden on a local branch which was given no warning that it would need the currency on hand - all banks have to watch for fraud due to provisions in dozens of laws. Tellers and banks are required by law to report suspicious activities and whenever they suspect fraud. BTW, fraud exists in every banking product but is statistically more likely in transactions involving cash. While your friend may have sensed a bit of attitude with the teller - perhaps she seemed a bit suspicious of your friend. while she isn't supposed to deny service based off of suspicion.. you can hardly blame her for not wanting to do the paper work for someone who isn't even a customer.
I'm guessing you are not the type of customer any bank wants Joel. You give financial advice to people - and you clearly don't know a thing about how the banking industry works and the operating rules and laws they have to deal with on a daily basis. Wells has a lot of the benefits of a national bank - while having far more decent fee rates than its customers. While non customers might not be able to come in and ask for 41 pounds of pennies - wells banking customers don't have to pay for these silly non customer requests with higher banking fees.
Also.. I don't work for Wells.
A similar thing happened to be at Bank of America when I was working retail during my teen years. My manager asked me to walk across the street and get change for the register. When I told the teller what I needed, she asked if I was a customer. I told her I wasn't, but I was there on behalf of my employer across the street. She proceeded to ask if the retail store was a customer, which I had no idea. They ended up charging me an exchange fee, and did the transaction. I can assure you that I will never be banking with BofA after that experience.
This is typical of bank "service" in the post bailout era. Tight fisted on their loans, lending and other "services," while they make bundles on customers' credit cards and other interest charging products. I got gouged recently by JP Morgan Chase, which took over Washington Mutual (and my little branch) during the bank bailout, all helped by our government money. When my $10,000 CD rolled over, the interest rate fell from 2% to .2% (that's one-fifth of 1 percent). They do this automatically under the CD agreement--unless you call them or go in and talk to a "personal banker". I missed their notification (which comes in the mail and is a vague reminder, not mentioning that their "current rate" could be well below the market") When I went into the bank to complain, the "personal banker" told me there was nothing he could do till the term was up--oh, I could pull the $$ out but it would be a $300 fee (a "change in the conditions" under Chase) "sorry it's up to you to figure out and we did send out the letter," he said. Get the picture with the banks? And these are the guys we bailed out after years of greedy, risky investments...(read: The End of Wall STreet, brilliant account of the financial debacle) Guess it's their way of repaying the taxpayer.
I bank at Wells Fargo, and although I'm a little concerned about the home mortgage policies I have to say that lately I've been pleasantly surprised about the service I've received with my normal banking (checking and savings). Their customer service has exceeded my expectations several times.
Maybe you just got a bad teller or someone was having a bad day...
Interesting post!
Jeff
http://www.godsurfer.com/
Thank you for writing about this Joel. I totally agree with you. It's U.S. currency and we should not have to pay to exchange it. It should be law. If it isn't already. Unfortunately, my Wachovia Bank was purchased by Wells Fargo. So, I expect the great customer service offered by Wachovia to go by the wayside when WF finally brings their management team in.
About another bank, BANK OF AMERICA. In Doral, Florida (Miami), Bank of America will not take non-customers at their regular tellers. You have to go to a side room that contains a monitor and camera (just like at the local county jail). They speak to you through the camera and monitor. Once you are done you have to leave out the side door. The whole treatment is as if you were a second class citizen.
Shame on you Wells Fargo and Bank of America and others that want to charge by mother for changing her pennies. Maybe you should start a blog or web site to diss on companies who misbehave or treat customers badly.
P.S. My mother was charged to view my aunt at Florida Funeral home $100 because my cousins did not pay for a funeral for her. My mom just wanted to see my aunt one last time to pay her respects. Shame on Florida Funeral home.
Thank you for caring, Joel. You are an awesome individual!
Manny Sarmiento - Miami, FL
I've been a customer of US Bank since it was Central Bank in Colorado, about the 1990s. Several times I've been approached to change banks, including when my husband wanted to bank at another bank when we got married. I keep coming back to US Bank because of their stellar customer service. 24-hour banking online and on the phone, no charge. The tellers at my local branch know me by name. After my personal banker moved to another branch, he called me to give me his new information.
US Bank feels like my local hometown bank and they were very helpful as I learned how to run a business over the last few years. I'm not surprised you got great service here!
Mr. Comm, I’m sorry to read about this negative experience in our store. We discovered your post when it was published last week, but are researching the issue for you. Sorry for the delay, we should be back to you soon.
Incredible attitude, but it's good that they get some publicity... ;-)
Thank you so much for publicly exposing your treatment. Money can be a scarce commodity for some of us. I work in the customer service industry and know the value of a potential customer. You really never get a second chance to make that first impression.
Glad you did not become a customer!!
Shelley
Wells Fargo is apparently in the business of losing customers. They have treated me so badly I have been so happy to tweet about how I am closing each one of my Wells Fargo bank accounts one by one. Wells Fargo, and particularly Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, cannot seem to get their act together. I have in fact filed 2 OCC complaints against Wells Fargo in the last year.
That is a pretty humerous story. But that is just how things go sometimes. Thanks for sharing the story Joel!
Mr. Comm, we reviewed your particular situation and are sorry you had an unpleasant experience in one of our stores. It is our goal to serve customers and prospective customers with great care and respect. To clear the record, as a general rule, we accommodate small currency or coin exchanges without assessing a fee for our retail banking customers. We are sorry for any inconvenience this experience may have caused.
What can I say, simply, check it out
by joel;
http://www.Pagli.tv
Is the idea of getting people to comment so you do a popup to promote your book?
I just yesterday has the most marvelous banking experience here in Boulder on Canyon with WellsFargo, I was shocked how nice they were.
So, its probably just a branch issue.
I can relate and sympathize 100%. All big banks make money from exchanging counts (including U.S. Bank)- its been that way for a long time. I'm actually surprised you didn't encounter this difficulty sooner.
One of the problems with the Chase, BofA, Wells, and Citi is their sheer size. They have too many customers. I don't mean to provide excuses, but these large banks have understaffed. More staff means less profit. Smaller banks have more time to spend with customers and to go the extra mile.
Big bank culture is strong and doesn't always allow employees to put their best foot forward. I've seen tellers get reprimanded for exchanging coins for free, making free copies, etc.
You were the one with the high ended attitude, I mean why should any bank do you a favor if you are not their customer? You needed something bad and you barged in throwing your Internet Marketers weight and how you can bad mouth Wells Fargo to the rest of the world. You got treated right and now here on your little dinky platform you happen to bad mouthed the 4 the largest Bank in the US ? Next time go with some humble attitude , If I was the teller I would have kicked you out of the bank or had 2 burly guards make you eat the hot Nevada pavement..,
Richards, do you know anything about business? Joel went in looking to make change and they refused to serve him. He didn't demand anything. If Wells Fargo is interested in new customers they should treat prospects with respect. Nice to know you would resort to violence just because someone isn't a customer. I guess you could call your bank "First Bank of Thugs and Bones"
I've been a Wells Fargo Customer for over 30 years and I must say things have changed for the worse, especially during the last 8 years or so. They bought Barclays Bank, Security Pacific, Crocker, and their customer service went down more and more but
NOT if you were one of their preferred customers with an average daily balance of $100K or more, you didn't wait in lines or even have to go to the bank at all, they come to you. Nobody could touch them for a business line of credit for about 3 years.
They have a sweep account that pays you interest on the balance you're not using - every night it gets "swept" out and back in to use the next morning. That adds up when the unused balance is over 3 or 4 hundred thousand. That's what they're good for but sooner or later that kind of "attitude" will catch up with them...I think it's starting to catch up now.
I think it's a farce when the banks do this kind of thing. It's funny how they'd take money from the taxpayer to save themselves from collapse, wheather that money comes from people with accounts with them or not.
Wells Fargo is now an impersonal business even though the people you might have direct contact with are friendly. I lost my job and my income 8 months ago and although I have remained in close contact with Wells Fargo and have expressed my desire to keep my home they are foreclosing. They took billions in bailout money to remain afloat but could care less if I sink and drown. Thanks for kicking me when i'm down, I hope I can repay the favor someday.
Try this on for size with Wachovia, soon to be Wells Fargo, in PA. I own a funeral home and on occasion I am paid in cash by the families I serve. Wells Fargo rules charge me a fee to deposit $5000 or more in cash during a calendar month...for each account receiving a deposit! It used to be just for business checking accounts, but July 1, 2010, they added other account types to this rule. When are we going to show them we are in charge of our money and not put up with these rediculous bank rules?
Great story Joel and I'm glad you published it. I've been teaching the importance of giving excellent customer services for years and it's funny how many people think "this is boring" or "I know that, nothing new here" and so on.
The sad truth is so many people don't practice those common customer service laws that will keep you in business and not out of it. It baffles me why people work so hard to create a business and then jeopardize losing it because they haven't a clue who's funding it (their customers).
It all comes to the customer service attitude. For people to be successful in business they need to serve their clients and take customer service far more seriously than they most likely are. Sad to say, I see poor customer service all the time and it happens everywhere. Wells Fargo is a great example.
Thanks again Joel,
Kevin (Mister SelfHelp)
I stopped reading after this person couldn't figure out how to obtain pennies from a casino.
I love it! Am glad to see that am not alone on my feelings about Wells Fargo. I will be taking my ching-ching elsewhere. There are actually some really online banks right now with some really great APRs and I can't thank you enough for telling it how it is to the Wells Fargo CEO!! Good one. I enjoyed this blog. =D
Reminds me of a true story...
One day I walked into a branch of Charles Schwab and asked someone for the latest quote on a stock.
"Do you have an account with us?" he asked.
"Not yet", I replied.
He cheerfully got me the quote, along with some literature about opening an account.
That was 20 years ago, and I've had an account with Charles Schwab ever since. I'm not making a statement about the business, but it's the people on the front lines, serving customers and prospects that have tremendous leverage, based on how they act.
Joel is absolutely correct: Treating a prospect like a customer is one of the best ways to make them one.
There seems to be Corporate Insanity everywhere!
The German Poet & Philosopher, Goethe said, 'treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat him as he should be and he can become as he should.' JOEL, that's your 'Treat a Prospect like a Customer,' then maybe ....
I recently suffered the same kind of insanity. I was Forced To Resign for making an "inappropriate" racial remark about My Wife of 29 Years. I was teaching anti-discrimination law and pointed out that even though I'm ann older white guy, my wife is black. I told a story of a broker who made a racist comment in front of me because he didn't know my dark secret (with a laugh)." After telling that story for 5 years, Kaplan kicks me out or sign a confession I'm a racist and get counseling. Has the world gone insane?
Hey Joel!
I closed my Wells Fargo account 3 years ago. It's a VERY long saga over 8 years, but they are not a bank to do business with. Bad news. (Sometime look into what your money would go to fund if you put it into Wells Fargo. Don't know how you feel about your money funding war, but where we choose to put our money definitely does make a difference in the world.)
Sorry you had a similar experience.
Warmest,
Jonathan
...I do work for Wells, and I can say that seventy five dollars of pennies would come close to cleaning out the entire branch. I work at a location that helps out plenty of merchants with multiple change orders a day. We would have said that we couldn't do it and refer them to A) a bank that they banked with or B) multiple Wells Fargos so that it didn't wipe out change orders for all the merchants nearby.
There have been a few times when people that DO bank with us come in and demand twenty thousand in cash. I'm terribly sorry, but it's not like in movies anymore with a giant vault with gold bricks and stacks of money to the ceiling.
Another example of misconception in banking is foreign currency. We keep standard currencies for the most traveled places, but if you were say, looking for Thailand Baht, we would have to special order it. It takes a few days to ship, but we can still get it. I can't tell you how many times that someone will come in looking for some sort of exotic currency that they need THAT DAY because they're leaving THAT NIGHT. They didn't bother to call ahead so the bank could order or prepare, instead they think we keep a magical money printer in the back that can print out any foreign denomination you can imagine.
Moral: Call ahead if you have something out of the ordinary so a bank can prepare for it. Otherwise, you'll be either really lucky or sorely disappointed.
Joel,
I know this is an old post, but after reading it I felt I must also comment.
Wells Fargo in my city of Cedar Rapids, IA had handled my grandmother's affairs for years. It was a great locally owned bank before being bought out by Wells Fargo. They handled her affairs and invested her monies and charged her $250 a month to do so.
Before she passed away in 2006 then made some very poor choices with her funds and basically lost over $200K for her in the last year she was living. They dragged out the settlement of the estate with my mother and aunt, who had no complaints with the will or anything else. They outsourced everything at twice the expense it should have been and dragged it out over two years, still charging the $250 a month do basically do NOTHING. Only after my mother and aunt threatened to sue, did they finish the estate.
I would NEVER EVER bank with Wells Fargo and frankly wasn't surprised at all by your story.
Rod Myers
I'm proud to say I bank with Guaranty Bank in Loveland and also with USAA and I LOVE them both. Never have a problem with any of them and Guaranty is great--I love it when people like to talk to me and don't respond in a manner of "you are wasting my time". Bank of America-I would NEVER use them again.
Why in the world would you expect any company, bank or otherwise, to help you out if you weren't a customer? What's in it for them? Just reading this, is a clear indicator that you don't understand business and you don't understand how to make money. I think I'll pass on your seminars...
Wells Fargo charged me $100 to process an illegal garnishment. I proved it was illegal, but it didn't matter to the pompous ass who worked at the legal department in AZ. I only had $6 in the account, so they turned me over to a collection agency for $93. I had banked with them for years. No more!