Jun 16 2009
Dear Wellsfargo: You screwed up, now fix it. kthxbi
UPDATE: After tweeting, posting to facebook, telling everyone I know verbally, filing a formal objection on Experian and — probably most importantly — contacting my mortgage broker (who does a ton of business with Wellsfargo and has high level contacts there) I received a response from Wellsfargo. They are agreeing to fix it! Kudos to them for taking my complaint seriously and for doing the right thing. They have now sent an update to all credit agencies to fix the previous error. This is a huge relief, as I did not intend to wait 7 years for this to go away. Obviously, I would have preferred not to go through this time wasting ordeal in the first place, but i am glad I got a positive (and fair) resolution.
[ORIGINAL POST BELOW]:
Dear Wellsfargo,
I have been a loyal customer for over 10 years – closer to 20 in fact. After I refinanced my mortgage in January of 2009 via a mortgage broker (capstar lending), I was actually delighted to learn that wellsfargo had purchased the loan. After all, I have been happy with your service for years. However, you really screwed up this time. Despite your assurances to the contrary, your screw up has now impacted my credit, and you need to fix it. now.
Here’s the deal:
I have never received a single statement, bill, payment coupon book, or anything that might facilitate making payments. Ever — to this day in June 2009! The first correspondence I received from you stated that I was 3 months past due with a handy pamphlet on how to avoid foreclosure. FORECLOSURE! Are you effing kidding me?
I immediately called (4 times in fact) and cleared up the issue (so I thought). I was told that in your records I was set up to receive electronic statements. However, 1) I was never sent any electronic communication from Wellsfargo regarding my mortgage (I checked again, including SPAM folders) 2) I never elected this option and 3) I was told by the 4th person I talked to that it was impossible for me to get my first statement electronically for a new refinance, as a matter of wellsfargo policy.
My guess is that the error in your system is rooted in the fact that I am also a wellsfargo checking (and saving) account customer, where I DO have online statements set up. When you bought my loan, it appears you linked the accounts (without my knowledge), which inherited the “online statements” setting, but that was impossible since the first bill (according to the 4th wellsfargo representative) must be a mailed, paper bill according to your own policy. After talking to you 4 times I logged in (to my old checking account) and attempted to view the online statement you claimed were beint “sent” to me, and was given the following error message: “This account is not currently eligible for online statements”. To document the absurdity of the situation I captured a screen shot and am hosting it here (account info masked for security):
Wellsfargo you screwed up, now fix it.
Mind you — this is 3 or 4 MONTHS after I was supposedly receiving electronic statements in lieu of paper statements. This error confirmed positively that I had never received any statements electronically – and as I have stated I never have (even to this day) received anything via u.s. mail.
After settling up on the 3 months of past due bills I was assured 1) I would receive a bill for the next month (due June 1st) after paying the 3 months past due — that never happened (I STILL have NEVER received a bill) and 2) that this incident — entirely Wellsfargo’s fault — would NOT be filed as a negative incident on my credit report. Obviously both of these statements by welslfargo have turned out to be false. At this point I have still not received a bill, though my account is now current (You are finally allowing me to access the site electronically and I am making electronic payments now).
Bottom line: The account would have never been past due if you had billed me a single time, ever, and as documented above I also did not have access to electronic statements. You also informed me that you didn’t have my phone number, which you obviously should have gotten from the company you purchased the loan from, as I never contracted directly with Wellsfargo for this home loan refinance (again, I used Capstar – a broker).
In summary, I request that Wellsfargo remove this negative credit reference from my file, and if you value my business as a customer of over 10 years with 4 accounts, issue an apology for wasting my valuable time with this nonsense.
Mark Collier
P.S. I am forced to document this here because the experian dispute path only allows 120 characters. Even Twitter gives you 140!!