What is Digg?190 Comments
- NeoZenkai, on 10/12/2007, -22/+150Actually, Wells Fargo is right in this case, even if it seems that they're being *****. There is more information on a check than just the check itself. The account number, routing number, and private information is on the check, which someone could use to make an automatic withdrawal on your account, or steal your identity. Any time your account number might be stolen, you are advised to close the account and open a new one. You don't want that information out there for people to see.
- m3mn0n, on 10/12/2007, -22/+92"I'm not afraid of transferring them to a new account, but I am concerned that I might forget to transfer one"
I stopped reading here. This guy is an idiot. How do you not know how all the places taking and giving money to your account?
NOTE THEM ALL. DOUBLE CHECK. TRIPLE CHECK. MOVE OVER TO NEW BANK. END OF PROBLEMS. - bitt3n, on 10/12/2007, -7/+54tally ho good chap, these boffins don't know to spell what for! blimey!
- digitalsin, on 10/12/2007, -9/+49You must not have an account with wells fargo. On their checks is a horse and carriage. Apparently technology escapes them.
- Y2JCrisis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+40Banks are worthless as far as customer service goes. I also had my checks stolen. only 3. I went up to the bank in person to let them know about it, give them the numbers and have them put a stop on them. They notified me that the only way they would do it is if i paid $30 (per check). The person who stole them probably wouldn't even write the checks for more than $90, and I'd rather get ripped off by the thief than by the bank. So I told them I'd take my chances. Sure enough, the thief (I know who it was and she had stolen checks before, forged them, and cashed them at this same bank) forged a horrible signature, they cashed it for her even though the amount of the check was different on the line and in the box, and "my" signature was in the same handwriting as the fake signature on the back. I went back to the bank, let them know, showed them legitimate checks that I had written and the clear differences in signatures, etc. Showed them why they should not have even cashed the check in the first place. Their reply was that I needed a police report in order to do anything about it, and I needed it within 6 days. Long story short, I ended up just eating the loss. Only one check was cashed and it was for $50, so the thief was less of a thief than the bank would have been had i shelled out the $90. I closed my accounts and moved my money to a credit union.
Typical behavior for banks like this. Especially large chains. - Matt2k, on 10/12/2007, -19/+56> In this day in age they should be able to re-assign new information including account & routing numbers
Yeah, uhhh. That's called "A NEW ACCOUNT".
That's like saying. I shouldn't have to change my identity to go into witness protection! They should just be able to change my name and social security number.
I'll be here all week folks - weneedsound, on 10/12/2007, -17/+51"Wells Fargo is right in this case, even if it seems that they're being *****"
In this day in age they should be able to re-assign new information including account & routing numbers if it really is that big of a deal. Sounds like sucky database normalization. - elroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27@gypsi
Don't you mean civilised countries? - shartman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21What kind of F'ing moron would even consider keeping the account open?
- downlo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20Wells-Fargo, the most robbed stage coach in history.
Yeah, they get my money. - mediaphile, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19When I lost my Wells Fargo Checking Card, they closed the account and gave me a new card with a new number. Pretty simple. Perhaps the customer service reps didn't explain the situation to him well enough, but it sounds to me like the guy just couldn't understand a simple concept. It always amazes me when people have such a hard time with customer service. Am I the only person that has never had a problem that couldn't be resolved?
A bit of advice: when you lose your Checks/Checking Card/ATM Card/Credit Card--close the account. They suggest you do it for a reason. If you leave the account open, you're just going to be disputing fraudulent transaction after transaction. Close it and move on. - CarbonX, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16I didn't read the whole thing, admittedly, but in the first conversation it sounds like they gave him the proper advice...close the account. It may have been a pain to re-establish all his direct debits, etc; but that's a lot better than dealing with these stolen checks for the next several months and cheaper then paying an unknown number of stop payment orders.
- killinger777, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Wells Fargo killed my mom and raped my dad.
- ldkronos, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13"What kind of F'ing moron would even consider keeping the account open?"
Probably the kind of moron that would see a box in his mailbox, realize that the box contains his checks, and then proceed to leave the box of checks in the mailbox until night. Why didn't he just staple his Social Security card up to the grocery store bulletin board? - Matt2k, on 10/12/2007, -7/+17The guy is a idiot for even considering keeping his account open. If people had any idea how fragile the banking system really is, no one would use checks.
You know we had a company check forged, and for the next few weeks we had checks from all over the world being deposited under the company's name for tens of thousands of dollars. The only solution is to close the bank account ASAP and pray they don't feel like doing it again. - spookyct, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I had the same situation happen to me... @ Washington Mutual. They accepted stolen checks that were signed by random people, and cashed AT WASHINGTON MUTUAL made out to CASH.
- DyDx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Yes, you usually have to pay rent and utilities with checks. More and more places are getting online bill paying, but many still do not have it.
- wintermute0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10I almost feel sorry for the Wells Fargo agents on the line, more than for the customer at least, for a couple of reasons:
1: dealing with people like this on what I'll assume is a fairly regular basis. Duplicating his account and taking care of any automatic transactions using that checking account would have been relatively painless for the operator and the customer
2: why he was at more risk having his account information floating around than just having a few lost checks, and how the information on those could be used to hijack his entire customer profile, especially if the thief had also lifted any other useful identity information
3: not having the balls to tell him to shut up and, really the part that turned this into a horror story for the guy
4: not having the wording to explain to him why their answer made sense - corndogup10, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11i work for a bank and while all banks are different... my understanding (since it works this way at mine) is that anyone could have put a stop payment on "check # x- x" and that would have solved that problem. Also, they can put warnings on the account checking for ID... but the stop payments really can be put through any number the banker wants to... i do it daily.
- SoundJudgment, on 10/12/2007, -8/+16Wait... wait. Is this some old transcript or something? Are you actually saying that people still write out paper-checks today??
- ArmchairAthlete, on 10/17/2007, -2/+10This blogger is a tard. All it takes is one missing check and someone can order new ones and start using them. It doesn't matter if you "cancel the range of checks". Someone can take a single bill you're paying out of your mailbox and do this (happened to me). The bank MUST close the account and open a new one, it's the only safe thing to do.
Depending where they spend the check, you won't see the scanned image of the check in your history. Some places just have an electronic system (Wal-Mart). - bmatherlyjr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10He should be thankful that they could only cancel 6, because many financial institutions charge a "service fee" for each check they have to cancel.
That's probably why the limit was imposed to begin with, because realistically no person could afford the "service fee" associated with the cancellation of an abundant of checks.
Assuming there was 50 checks in a book and the service fee was $17.50 it would cost $875.00 to cancel them all. - atommclain, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9@shreweduser
"I stopped reading here. This guy is an idiot. How do you not know how all the places taking and giving money to your account?"
"your missing the point.... who cares how complex his checking accounts are, he did the right thing and got completely burned for it.... it would have been a piece of pie for the bank to just cancel the checks but instead they removed his protection for doing the right thing and reporting the theft."
I see where your coming from, but its not that simple. First of all in the narrative, the customer didn't even know what checks numbers were missing (how many were stolen/lost), best case scenario they play it safe and cancel a range of checks. If he knows what checks hes written and makes sure that he doesn't write anymore checks in the range they've canceled he would be safe from someone trying use the checks he lost.
However the real danger is not in someone trying to forge blank checks, the danger is that a stranger now has his checking account number which is on the bottom of his checks. They can use that in conjunction with his mailing address to make ach payments (think online or over the phone), or print thier own checks with unique check numbers to avoid any stop payments placed on his account. And no ammount of stop payments can protect him from that.
Whats odd to me is that, anyone has this capability once you give them one of your checks for legitimate reasons. - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8"yeah, but you can't stop someone from going to a separate bank to cash the checks."
That bank won't cash the checks until they have confirmation from wells fargo that they're valid. - digitalsin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8He should have said "Oh wait, here are those blasted checks after all. I sure hope they never get stolen...especially in the next 4 weeks..."
- NeoZenkai, on 10/12/2007, -15/+21@shrewduster
Agreed, they should have explained to him that usually your personal CIF (customer information file) can have multiple accounts, and that to create another account would be effortless for them, and all your customer history would remain in-tact (basically just changing account numbers). They're customer service does suck, I know from personal experience.
@weneedsound
And that's probably what they would've done if he wouldn't have flown off the handle. - Tr3vor, on 10/12/2007, -10/+15are they not spelled cheques?
- Ansible, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Exactly. They probably have to type in the number of each check to cancel, by hand. So, what's easier for the bank, type in a couple hundred check numbers, or just close the freaking account and start a new one? And what if they miss one check number? Or put in the wrong range (which he can't remember anyway). They are trying to tell him that he needs to close the account if he is really concerned about someone using the checks, and wants to be 100% safe. And he just doesn't listen!
Its like the mechanic saying, look you need to keep changing your oil, and the customer saying, I don't want to, I just want my car to run and not worry about it! - digitalsin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5ouch
- MikeOSX, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9I willing to bet at least 90% of bill payers still use paper checks.
- merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"the 30 dollar fee is NOT issued by the bank... the bank does not get any of this money... the Federal Reserve makes banks charge this..."
That's funny. If that's the way it works, then why is the over draft charge at WaMu half of what it is at Wells Fargo?
Does the federal reserve only take half from WaMu, 'cause they like them better or something? - monkeycatDx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Put your Credit card number on the back, your checks will be good as safe!
- Chrissilvanet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4So let me get this straight....he moved from a crappy bank to an even crappier bank....GOOD MOVE.
- amohongos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"the 30 dollar fee is NOT issued by the bank... the bank does not get any of this money... the Federal Reserve makes banks charge this.."
That's completely untrue. I read somewhere that banks make a majority of their money nowadays from bounced check fees. Conveniently enough, low-income people, who are the most likely to bounce checks, are also the least able to pay the fees. There's a bank in my area that charges $35 for an overdraft, and then $10 for each day the account's overdrawn. My own bank charges me $4 every month because I don't use direct deposit. That's ridiculous. - spinchange, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5the damn stagecoach trampled me to death.
- orbit1979, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"If he had been persistent he would have won in the end."
Not necessarily. - oksufi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Always close the account. And what the heck...he saw the checks in his mailbox in the morning and he left them there?! What a moron.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9mediaphile...it sure seems liek they DID explain things to him. He just wasn't smart enough to understand the simple explanation, and also it appears that he wanted to start trouble.
weneedsound...that is basically what they WANTED to do. Transferring accout information, etc. is the same thing as closing and opening a new account. This little baby bitched that he didn't want to change his account inforamtion, and THAT is where hte conflict was.
Had he agreed to close his account and open a new one, everything would have been solved in a matter of 5 minutes or less. - slasherx, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Don't get me started on a 30 dollar overdraft chage for a 25 cent overdrawn account. :/ I feel really bad for that guy and his issues, I hate banks and the run around they always give you.
- Katore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My checks and ATM card were stolen about 9 months ago. I went and spoke with someone at a Wells Fargo branch. They recommended I close my account and open a new account. They were able to close it due to possible fraudulent activity and transfer all of my direct deposits and bill pays over to the new account. 9 months later, I have yet to have any problems with my new account. According to my banker, they have a system to set up new accounts for people who may have fraud on their old account. It worked for me.
Maybe this guy just didn't want to listen, or the CSRs were not clear or poorly trained etc... Maybe this is different depending on state, I dunno. Either way, when something serious like this happens, I always go talk to someone face to face; just seems to go smoother (although not always). If something messes up, you can walk back into the bank and talk to the same person (or know who to avoid/blame).
My $0.02 - CompIsMyRx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As a now unemployed teller at Washington Mutual, I can tell you that what happened is what I would like to call "***** Retarded". First off, most banks give the customer a decent amount of fraud protection free on the most basic accounts (notify the banks within ~5 business days, $0 out of pocket, etc.). The "we can't cancel more than six checks" is either a bold-faced lie, or Wells Fargo has about the most ancient system known to man. I could cancel any range of checks easily on a system that looked like it ran the first version of Unix. It's actually close to breaking a law to not be able to block electronic transfers as well from his account (Regulation E: Electronic Funds Transfer Act section 903 paragraph 11 and section 909)http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/6500-1350.html
While opening a new account is the standard procedure for such an event, it is not the only method acceptable and in now way should it invalidate your fraud protection. - armbar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I used to write checks to Bank of America because they were unwilling (or too stupid) to set up online payment abilities for my car loan. The great part is that we have a credit card through BofA, and we pay that online. I realize it's not the same account, but it's still a DOH! situation.
- zanzzz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think Thomas Jefferson had it about right:
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." - Smegzor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3People still use cheques? O.o That is so last century!
I use online banking and bank cards for everything. Anyone who can't be paid that way doesn't get my business. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9Well, i was going to consider a mainstream bank like wells fargo when i move away after college, but im going to have to say they just lost my business, and the business of anyone i decide to tell this to
- siszam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Exactly! My bank is WM and they bend over backwards and kiss my butt. They have never given me a problem. In fact they go out of their way to fix any problem I have. I've never paid the first fee. I've bought checks but other than that no fees. Not ATM fees. Nothing.
Find a bank that appreciates your service. They work for you. Not the other way around. - harpwn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3HAY WHO USES CHEX N E MOAR LOL U PPL R SO DUM I CANT BELEIVE U GUYS USE PAPER
Fault lies with WF on this one. Yes, he should not have left his checks in his mailbox, but the bank could easily have put a stop payment on the check numbers.
Yes, check numbers. That's how it's spelled in America, so go drink some bagged milk that you paid for with a cheque, a-holes - blackmariah, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Then they should have ***** explained that to him instead of just giving him the ***** they did. Wells Fargo's customer service is the banking equivalent of a pile of *****.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9Anyone who reads this diary without a LOT of skepticsm is extremely naive.
At worst it is completely fabricated. At best it is an extreme exaggeration to state his side.
And what kind of idito with an insecure mailbox leaves checks in it? - Nighthawke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Who uses checks anymore?" Two words; Paper Trail. Credit card bills notwithstanding, checks are legitimate forms of currency that are traceable back to the source with records found at any reputable banking institution that houses the account holder. Credit cards, yeah, you can do the same thing with them on that, but oftentimes you run into a company or person that does not have or could not have a merchant's account with a CC clearinghouse. Checks are great paper trails for both sides of the money trail have records. If they make a deposit with their bank, it'll be on file with them. Your bank will have either paper records or images in file when they receive the check and process it. Even if they cash it, their bank or financial institution might require them to have their account # on the back for endorsement. Oh sure, they can use Mr Payroll to cash the check, but it costs them a percentage of the amount of the check, perhaps some verification that they have an account with a financial institution.
Odds are if the merchie wants cash or money orders, no CC's or checks, that person reeks of something funny. Walk on. -
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