Wachovia Corp Consumer Reviews - Page 2

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA -- Unfortunately the company that I work for pays all bonuses to a Wachovia direct pay card. As I am in sales, the majority of my paycheck is processed that way. In order to remove funds, I must must ATM withdrawals of the funds. I am unable to make withdrawals inside a Wachovia branch. When my card expired, I called to request a new card which they said would be delivered within 7-10 business days. On the 10th day, I still had not received my card and so I called again. They assured me it was on its way. Several days later, I called again where I was informed that the card had never been ordered.

They told me that to have the card within 3 days I could pay an additional fee and would receive the card within 3 business days. On the third day, I still had not received my card so I called again. I was told that the card had only been ordered the day before so to wait 2 more days and I would have my card. The two days passed again no card. I called again to speak with a manager, the representative hung up. I called back and asked again to speak to a manager. They told me a manager would call me back within 2 days. The manager called left a message that my card was on its way. No apologies. Nothing.

Now each time I have called I have had to pay $1.50 plus the cost of the expedited card with I still have not received. So in total, I have paid over $30 in fees to get a card I do not have. I called again to speak to a manager asking for the routing number for my card which they swear is on its way via FedEx. As of this moment, I have yet to hear from the manager. This has now been going on for over a month. Imagine basically being unable to access your paycheck for a month. If this is not resolved within the next day or so I plan on complaining to not only the Better Business Bureau but also writing a complaint letter to each member of their Board of Directors which they were kind enough to list on the internet.

Back in April of 2009 we began the process of requesting a loan modification. We found the process very complicated BUT did copy and send all of the requested documents in a timely manner. In fact over the months they were sent 3 different times. We are in our 70's and have suffered a severe hardship due to an embezzlement. The business of 48 years was a custom cabinet shop, the former bookkeeper took 258. thousand, from the business and got a good deal of the retirement we had worked for and set aside for these years.

The former employee was found guilty and sentenced to jail. All of that paperwork from the District Attorney as well as bank statements & tax returns plus all requested were submitted. In March of 2010 we got one letter stating we did NOT show severe hardship or ANY hardship. The next day we received a phone call stating that we DO NOT have enough money.

The Wachovia people do not seem to know from the right hand to the left what is going on. We are barely surviving, however have kept up with our loan commitment. We asked for a lower interest rate and/or (hopefully both) an extension on the mortgage loan. The Home Affordability and two other programs are in fact available. Why are we denied?

We qualify and are not an excessive risk. We asked for a second chance, not due to our actions but due to a major theft. Did not ask for something for nothing, but to be able at this age have a bit of peace and continue to have this house, which is our home. Some assistance, we would still pay as we have for years and years. Over the months from April 2009 until May of 2010 we spent lots & lots of time and many dollars getting information requested, say nothing of the mental strain and all of the phone calls and effort, it causes undue stress and should NOT be the way it is. Hoping for some assistance.

NEWTOWN SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA -- I opened an account not too long ago because I had a Wachovia written check and they refused to cash it unless I opened an account or waited a few days for the check to clear. First of all it is your friggin check from your bank and you know whether or not the funds are there!!! So, I break down and open the account just so I can hurry up and get paid. I'm the average American just living hand to mouth and need my money as soon as I get it, there is no cushion.

Well, a few deposits later I find out that my account is overdrawn by approximately $300. How could this be? I know exactly what I spent and how much I deposited but a Wachovia employee told me on the down-low that the bank shuffles money around like a shell game until they cause your account to become overdrawn and then they hit you for overdraft charges. On this same day the teller informed me that if I could cash my checks that are written on other banks and then deposit the cash it would immediately clear my account.

Today I did just that. I deposited $600 cash into my account and received a piece of paper that says my available balance is six and some change. I go home to pay bills online and badda-Bing!!! No friggin money has cleared my account. I could've just gone to Western Union and purchased a prepaid debit card and then money would have been readily available!!!

I call the 800 number and the lady tells me it might be a few days. It's cash!!! It should've cleared my account 5 seconds after I deposited it!!! By golly! The large corporations can suck money out of my account at 3 a.m. on a Saturday morning but I have to wait many days to retrieve or have use of my funds that are deposited in cash. I'm sooo mad. I'm going to shut this account down as soon as I can. ** this!

Wachovia has the worst customer service that I have ever encountered. I would not recommend this bank to any new customers. In fact, I would say to stay away from them as much as possible! Twice now, they have charged me for overdraft fees that were a bank error. The first time it had occurred, they were able to refund me back my money, however, the second time around they refused to rightfully refund back the money they charged. My paper statement says otherwise from what their customer service "thinks." Not only that but the treatment I had received was concerning on the part of a customer. I was treated with nothing but dis-respect.

Another incident was when there were fraudulent charges on my account from another company that had gotten my card number online. As it was a fraudulent charge, I immediately contacted Wachovia and explained to customer service the problem. I spoke with their Fraudulent Customer Service. They said that their purpose was to handle all accounts that had charges such as that and it was their job to help their customers with what to do to right the problem. Unfortunately, when I spoke with their customer service, they told me to do it all myself and would not even point me in the right direction. What good is a bank if they cannot even help their customers?

I researched them more online and found that there were many other sites dedicated to showing just how bad of a company they are. Unfortunately for me it was too late. It seems that they will charge their customers for overdraft fees while they are still in the positive and then because of how many overdraft fees they charge it will bring you into the negative. I am not the first person they have stolen money from in this sense. There seem to be hundreds of other customers as well. I would recommend choosing a different bank altogether. Clearly, they are unethical and do not believe in treating their customers with respect.

When someone use online bill pay the amount should automatically be deducted from the account (to be more user friendly). I also changed banks to Wachovia because I heard that you have outstanding customer service. I did not get that experience today when I called to inquire about my account. This is not the first time I have had problems with a representatives at Wachovia. She would not let me complete a sentence and refused to listen to anything I had to say. I was told that a check was written and sent out. I can do this, I have checks. Online means the payment is paid online, this is false advertisement.

I was then told by your representative that the company I was trying to pay does not accept electronic payment. This is also a lie because I have made electronic payments this company. I can say my overall customer service experience with you has NOT been outstanding; I have been harassed by your representatives, after I set up a hardship payment plan. I was still harassed at my job and had to make a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission in order to get them to stop calling. There has been several letters sent and request made to stop the harassment for payment, I did not receive any help until I made my complaint with FTC.

I am completely unsatisfied with Wachovia. I tried to hold off closing my account to see if the merger with Wells Fargo would help with the services provided, but it has not. I left Bank of America to come to Wachovia and now I see the grass is NOT greener on the other side. After much research I have found out that there are hundreds of complaints of steeling customer's money, overdraft charges, and fees for "other" whatever "other" means.

Wachovia is a money making scam and I will stop at nothing until the word is out of your lack of integrity, customer service, honesty, and Ethics. The BBB will also get a copy of this letter so that other customers will know that Wachovia Bank is a law breaking facade that will stop at nothing to make a dollar. Your very unsatisfied ex customer!!!

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA -- I am so grateful to have a decent job, but I still live paycheck to paycheck. So a few days before payday I look at my account every day to see what's cleared. This past Thursday, September 24th, I checked my account. Two small transactions, one for $3.96 and one for $1.92, were processing, and I had a $7.01 balance...not bad for the day before payday.

I checked my account the next morning to make certain my direct deposit went through, which it did, but it was over $100.00 short! I look and Wachovia had moved a $13.00 transaction that had not even registered the afternoon before the two small transactions, and they charged me $105.00 for transactions totaling less than $18.88! I understand that the $13.00 transaction did exceed the $7.01 that was in my account, but what should have been a $35.00 insufficient funds charge became $105.00.

At first they told me they deduct transactions by the time they were made, NOT when they reach the bank. Then I was told the highest amounts are deducted first!? WTH? I asked them to refund TWO of those charges, not all three, but they have refused to do so. SO, the two transactions totaled $5.88 but cost me an additional $70.00 in penalties?! How is this legal? I could get a better rate from the Mafia.

I have no doubt that Wachovia has tons of fine print that says it is legal to do this, but I want to file a formal complaint on behalf of all us hardworking Americans that live paycheck to paycheck, have KEPT our homes through this recession, received no bailout, $4.00 a gallon gas, and historic high unemployment rates. For all of us who have to tread water to keep from drowning, ridiculously high fees for small transactions (we're not talking spending sprees here!).

But $70.00 punishment for a two transactions that totaled less than 6 dollars? It's like stealing. Stealing from people who losing $100 from their check means a bill will be late, or groceries will be a sandwich week. I know I was over, and for that I should be charged for Wachovia's trouble, but if they think that $35 PER transaction, even a $2 transaction, there's something really wrong with that. Now I know how they are paying for hundreds of thousands in bonuses.

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA -- I'm a student and in the past years, I have had no problems with Wachovia when I first banked with them in 2005. But ever since Wells Fargo bought Wachovia it has been downhill for me from there. One of the problems I had was when I went to deposit a work check about 500.00 and had about 200.00 in the checking account already. So I had to pay rent the next day, which was 300.00. I asked the teller when the funds were going to be available and she said tomorrow (Wednesday) since I had deposited the check before 2 pm (Tuesday).

So I wrote a check to my landlord and put a date for Thursday. Then on Friday, when I checked my account, the funds from my work check still was not in my account! So my landlord calls me the following Monday and charges me a 30.00 return check fee. On top of that Wachovia charges me a 60.00 NSF fee!! So that was 90.00 down the drain. Plus, I was paying for my other bills during those 4 days too so I got 3 overdrafts charges totaling 90.00 (because I only had 200.00 to start with)!

So I go talk to them that Monday, and they said that they can't do nothing about it. So now they tell me that it wasn't guaranteed for my funds to be in the next day and the manager tries to give me some tips to prevent me from over drafting in the future (like it was my fault) and tries to get me to sign up for that stupid save program. So the manager knew that I was pissed and finally said, "I'll refund you 60.00 back into your account."

That made me even more furious because they took 150.00 from me NOT 60. So I was like screw you guys and stormed out the bank. Later that night when I checked my account I got only 60.00 refunded back into my account. And so now I'm calling my bro for money because they done took all my money, and I still haven't purchased any of my books for classes.

Wachovia just started getting bad after this few past months. I never had check deposits take that long to go through before. All the overdrafts are from their super slow service now. For example cash deposits used to show up the same day, but now sometimes it shows up the next day or later that night. Wachovia is unpredictable now and just trying cheat me money. I used to tell friends about how great of a bank Wachovia was but now I feel like a fool. So I'm changing banks in a few weeks when I've decided where my hard earned money should be kept. I possibly might fall in the same ** hole if I go Bank of America...

We have a loan for a multi-use or also referred to as mixed-use property which is our primary residence. We called our lender, Wachovia, to inquire if we could refinance at a lower rate or if we could obtain a loan to complete an interior reconstruction that we started 3 years ago. After being shuffled from one representative to another we were finally put in touch with Craig ** in the North Carolina home office of Wachovia.

As of Friday August 21, 2009 (which was the first time that Craig ** spoke to us after we left him a message on Thursday August 20, 2009), he informed us that we were sent a demand letter of payment in full (for our entire loan amount) within 10 days! He sent this letter out without any prior conversation, and he stated that he sent the letter to protect Wachovia if he was unable to contact us. (Please note we called him and left a message as we had been in touch with several other representatives from Wachovia all whom had our contact information).

We are not late and have never been late with any payments to Wachovia. In fact we have had 3 loans on different properties with Wachovia over a 5 year period – all of which have been paid in full. Instead of receiving information or assistance we now have to pay for an attorney to protect our investment that we have diligently paid for on a timely basis. Regarding obtaining a revision for a loan on our property, the style of property that we own as our home was not considered when President Obama rewrote the conditions of a loan through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac so we are unable to modify our loan in any way through any bank.

Craig ** who is the Wachovia representative told us to go to another bank and have them refinance us. So after doing nothing more than asking several questions we are now paying more money to hire an attorney to protect our interest. What's next?

I wanted to take a moment to write and express my great disappointment in the Wachovia's customer service and handling of unavailable funds charges & deposit holds. I have had several banks in my lifetime and like most people have had issues from time to time but never have I been so outraged or disgusted by one as I am in Wachovia. I have also filed a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to try to prompt a Congressional investigation and I hope others will follow my lead.

I have repeatedly been charged fees for items that were paid for with my debit Visa card and the funds were there and immediately taken out of my available balance. Their processing of transactions is handled to make the most money they can and in no way for the benefit of their customers. This past weekend we went away and as always I lived via my debit Visa card and as always the funds were there and immediately taken out of my available balance. My fault but I completely forgot about a car insurance payment that was to hit on Monday.

Wachovia decided to pay the car insurance payment even though the funds were not in my available balance and charge my $490 in fees for all my transactions from over the weekend. I spoke to customer service and asked for them to explain to me why if the available funds were not there to cover the car insurance payment would they pay it and not simply return it and charge me the $35 fee and then I would never have been charged the $490 in fees.

Their response was because I was a valued customer!! Are they kidding with that?? They also gave me back their customary 20% of fees back, what a gift. I highly suggest everyone run--not walk--away from this bank and open an account anywhere else. I am sure the devil has a better bank available in hell.

SOUTH CAROLINA -- I have a custodial account for my teenage brother. He has a job and has his check direct deposited. His check card only has his name on it because the account is for him. Apparently Wachovia says that even when you use online banking it is not correct. The situation is this, my brother's available balance was $46.04 the 7/6/09 the day his check was directed deposited in the amount of 279.08. That leaves a balance of 343.12. Online banking shows transactions being deducted from his account leaving him with 36.11 left as of 7/6/09. (I have the printout from online and 2 from 2 different bank personnel, a teller and account manager) Every thing is the same.

Then the banks posts a 245.00 unavailable funds fee to his account putting it at -208.89. Now I asked customer service on the phone and the account manager and his supervisor at the local branch to explain how this is possible. Their answer is that There are holds on the account in the amount of 54.08 that have not been posted yet.

The manager states that all the transactions that have been posted and are showing taken out of the account are the cause of the unavailable funds fee. He says that even though it shows it cleared and money still available, the holds have not posted so theoretically the money that paid for the posted purchases has not been taken and is not available even though it is showing that it has been. So they charge fees for everything that cleared and posted leaving a positive balance. Then charged additional overdraft fees of 70.00 for a 21.75 and 7.10 purchase even though his balance showed 36.11 and those purchases totaled 28.85 together.

Explain to me how is these fees fair when it is obvious the bank picks and chooses what they want to clear even though it is posted and subtracted from the account in an effort of charge obscene fees and rob a child of his hard earned money. WHAT IS THAT TEACHING OUR CHILDREN?