Litigation against Wells Fargo Consumer Credit Card Division

From R. Terrell 05-18-08:

I am in State and Federal Court against Wells Fargo Bank, N.A re Credit Cards. Asserting, Failure to Disclose, and Unfair Business Practice’s, Fraud, RICO, Credit Slander and etc.
I am seeking former employees of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. regardless of location to provide insight as to the internal operations Wells Fargo Bank, N.A, consumer credit card division. If you are such an individual or know of such an individual your assistance will be greatly appreciated.
In addition, if you are aware of other similar litigation I am very interested in knowing that information as well.
Anonymity is assured. Please feel free to contact me at terrell2007@gmail.com.

Thank you.

Wells Fargos' Autopsy

You'll want to check out the blog at http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/2007/03/would_you_miss__4.html.
Here's a sample:

Posted by: | April 17, 2007 at 02:49 AM

From the moment Norwest purchased Wells Fargo it already deceived its customers. Who the heck knows anything about Norwest in the West Coast?

Wells Fargo says it advocates diversity, yet their executive board is ran by a bunch of rednecks. Name a single african american person serving it's executive board, who reports to DICK?

Wells Fargo says it advocates community support, yet it does not have programs for low income customers. I challenge you to walk at a branch wearing a t-shirt and a simple pair of jeans, and see how they'll treat you.

Wells Fargo says it encourages growth and retention of their employees, yet the turn-over of tellers and bankers are extremely high.

They have a good marketing strategy, and that is to lure consumers to get all their banking services through them - a Norwest principle. You get a discount for bundled services. Is this really safe? Think again.

The head of their marketing introduced a strategy called "value proposition", this is designed to make consumers "feel good", through photographs, brochures, media. The idea was, how to make consumers feel good, so they would borrow more money. One of their tag line for a home equity loan was "smart management of your home asset". If you were smart, should you put your property on the line of possible foreclosure?

Look at the junk mails you received for Mortgage or Home Equity loans, does it say anything about risk about foreclosure? Look at the fine print in the back. I bet you there's none.

I know one thing for certain because I worked there before. I am never coming back. I'll advise friends, family, and just about anyone I know to put their money elsewhere.

Banking with a local credit union is SMARTER.
Hope somebody trademarks this last phrase!

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More "Valued" Team Members

The following testimonials appear at: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/123/RipOff0123540.htm

Wells Fargo Financial branch managers harrass their employees and threaten California

I have been an employee of Wells Fargo Financial in California for the past 16 months. I've been ripped off of my peace of mind by my manager. I am a credit manager, this position is all about sales. I had previously worked in sales for Citibank, but it wasn't as cut-throat as Wells Fargo Financial.

First of all, I never received any formal training, just learned as I went. My job performance was rated as average or fully satisfactory for the first 2 months. All the other employees had quit so it was just me and another guy. My manager met w/ us every few days and banged on tables and cussed up a storm b/c we weren't performing to his satisfaction.

He pulled me in to an office and yelled at me til I broke down and started crying. Needless to say, rather than improving my sales actually got worse b/c every time I made a sales call he would be sitting there behind me pressuring me to say certain things and not let the customer off the phone.

I started seeing a psychiatrist b/c I was under so much stress. The Dr. suggested that I quit and look for another job. Just when I had decided to quit, he pulled me aside and accused me of lying on some tracking sheets! I was outraged b/c I never lied so I decided not to quit b/c he threatened me by saying if I quit he wouldn't tell anyone I had lied! I told him I wasn't quitting but that I did want to transfer out of his office!

The transfer process has been going on for months now, and during that time I have put up w/SO much emotional abuse! I stay just b/c I know he wants me to quit and it bothers me that during the course of 12 months he has forced 6, yes SIX people to resign! Its an office of four, so you do the math on how many times he's restaffed the whole office!

The strange thing is he thinks he's had 'problem' employees, he doesn't see himself as a problem manager!

I've finally had it last week he told me that Wells Fargo Financial wasn't going to transfer me and that 'in his humble opinion' I should quit, after all, I'll be getting 'two weeks severance'...I've been fretting ever since.

I'm a mother, I have responsibilities, I can't afford to be w/out a job for even one day! I don't know what to do, ever since the day we had that last talk, he doesn't speak to me or respond when I speak to him and he has me doing all the menial clerical functions in the office... I am a college graduate, and I want to keep my job, just in a different office.

Is there anything I can do?

Gloria

Ontario, California

Braxton

West Hollywood, California

U.S.A.

Beware of the HR practices at Wells Fargo Financial, too!

To follow-up regarding contacting WFF's HR Department. I am an ex-employee, and did exactly that as I had a supervisor who was pressuring me so unfairly it had made me an emotional wreck, creating an unhealthy work environment, he was enjoying destroying me, and I had had it.

'Somehow' my supervisor found out exactly what I had told the women in HR. That being said, within weeks, they pushed me out uncerimoniously after well over 10 years of service, using the 'Bad Attitude, non-team player' excuse, which was furthest from the truth, but we know what hell is like in the corporate world when they want somebody out. It was so wrong.

HR at Wells Fargo Financial cannot be trusted! They failed to protect my confidentiality, failed to address my concerns, and deceived an employee at a time when they were to step up to the plate. I consulted an attorney who agreed with my accusations, but advised to simply move on as these corporations can intentionally prolong these cases, ruin my name further, and have the $$ to milk me in the process. Plus, it's not the greatest thing for your new employer to find out.

Employee Harrassment, Unfair Treatment, Terrible Loans

The following information appeared at http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/328/ripoff0328824.htm

I was a Credit Manager for Wells Fargo Financial for almost 2 1/2 years, and I cannot believe I stayed that long. In the time I was there, I had gone through 2 managers, 2 DM's, 2 RM's, and maybe 15 other Credit Managers whom which either were fired, quit, or made-to-quit.

I should have known I was stepping into a bad career when within the first 2 months, I had already seen 3 employees quit, one in which started after I begun working, only to leave about a month later.

My first manager was dishonest about everything from money to be made, job satisfaction, and even to the customers. He told me I would be making $60k a year, loving life, enjoying a fun work place. After the fact, my starting salary was $30k, and my bonuses couldn't ever be more than $2500, and that was if you ended up closing 4 or more mortgages, which we all know, in that place, is nearly impossible to do on a consistent basis. Some people did it, but just found out they were fired for manipulation of data and forging signatures!

I was working far more than the 40 hours I was told I would work, and never got paid overtime. I confronted my manager after 2 months and asked about overtime in front of the other employees (they had told me we won't ever be paid OT), and he pulled me in the booth (I'm sure we've all been in there at some point), and screamed at for bringing up that subject with everyone around. And it never got resolved.

A few months later, he was fired because so many employees had resigned and complained about him, only to be replaced by someone with a bigger ego that him.

At first, we all were excited to have someone fresh to the office who would give us some good direction. However, he belittled everyone who was working there, not only in front of the whole office, but outside of work too. We would get harassed for not going out to drink with him after work or the weekends (he just got a DUI a few months ago). My best friend just got laid off there by him, right as he was leaving for vacation. Taking PTO was like pulling teeth. I felt like I could never take a vacation because it was too nerve-racking to hear what his response would be.

Onto the products and loans. I have never seen so many high-rate credit cards in my life, with annual fees on top of that!!! We were made to sell so many of them, all to people with enough credit card debt to force them into bankruptcy. I felt sick everyday because I would have to sell people things I knew wouldn't benefit them. Granted, some loans were the only thing they would have left, but come on, 4 points on every mortgage sold to customers. And auto loans that would leave these people stuck in their cars they thought they could get rid of. And the rates on the mortgages were outrageous! I would never refi my house will Wells, even if it were the last place I could go.

Now that I have a new job, in a completely different field, I have been so much happier, and everyone can tell. I hope whoever works at Wells never has the experience I had, and the majority of the other people who are still working there too.

Nick
Farmington Hills, Michigan
U.S.A.

Contact Information for Wells Fargo Departments and Employees

If you are a Wells Fargo shareholder, customer, employee, and/or ex-employee and you want to contact Wells Fargo regarding your concerns or complaints, you may want to check out the contact information for numerous Wells Fargo departments and employees at http://www.wellsfargoinjustice.com-a.googlepages.com/email. Please let us know what sort of response (if any) you receive from Chairman Dick Kovacevich or others at Wells Fargo. And if you know how to contact specific Wells Fargo employees who are not currently listed on our site, please send us this information. We will be happy to include it on our website for informational purposes only.

Comment from a Former Employee

In response to a Craigslist advertisement promoting wellsfargoinjustice.com, the following response was posted. God bless free speech in America!

Reply to: comm-641023960@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-04-13, 3:11PM CDT


I worked for these f**kers when they merged with Norwest. Wells Fargo squeezes every bit of fun and life out of its employees. I would advise anyone thinking of working for them to not do it. Let your friends and family know as well.

Information Security & Data Privacy

The following email was sent to Wells Fargo Policy Works (policyworks@wellsfargo.com) in 2007:

"Currently, Wells Fargo has approximately 363 inventoried yet unencrypted laptop computers on 44 LAN servers. Is this is a critical security vulnerability?"

Wells Fargo "addressed" this potential breach of information security and consumer data privacy with the following dismissive response:

"Please keep in mind that we know that there are unencrypted laptops / desktops out there, for a variety of reasons."

I am sure Wells Fargo customers will be relieved to know their confidential data (including social security numbers, Wells Fargo account numbers, addresses, income, and other information) may be stored on hundreds of unencrypted laptop computers and over 4,000 unencrypted desktop computers.

Potential Conflict of Interest or Violation of Code of Ethics?

The following email was sent to policyworks@wellsfargo.com. Wells Fargo also did not deem this issue worthy of a reply:

I assume Wells Fargo pre-approved Mr. Kovacevich's nomination and election to the Cisco board of directors in January 2005, as required by the Wells Fargo Code of Ethics. However, this same code stipulates all team members , "must avoid conflicts of interests or the appearance of conflicts in your personal and business activities. In many cases, the appearance of a conflict may be just as damaging to Wells Fargo and its reputation as an actual conflict of interest."

Based on publicly available information, there appear to be several conflicts of interest between Mr. Kovacevich's personal business pursuits and the corporate financial objectives and reputation of the Wells Fargo Enterprise. To wit:

1.) Mr. Richard Kovacevich was elected a director at Cisco in January 2005 and he now currently holds 30,629 common stock shares valued at $798,804.31. SEC Form 4 dated 11-17-06 also indicates Mr. Kovacevich has an option to buy 15,000 Cisco common stock shares at $26.60. Unfortunately, the public at large does not know whether these shares and options have trade restrictions or whether Mr. Kovacevich is prohibited from buying or selling Cisco stock during his tenure as a Cisco director. This appearance of a conflict of interest may have already directly or indirectly damaged the Wells Fargo Enterprise and its shareholders.

2.) As a recent prospectus indicates, Cisco and Wells Fargo & Company share financial interests: Wells Fargo Securities LLC acts as an underwriter and co-manager for notes issued by Cisco (these notes are valued at $142,498,000) and Cisco may pay fees to Wells Fargo for commercial banking services. A recent Cisco prospectus quite correctly acknowledges Mr. Kovacevich is both a Cisco director and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wells Fargo & Company. However, I have been unable to uncover any Wells Fargo communications or publications that identify and properly address the financial conflict of interest that appears to exist between the Enterprise, one of its business partners or customers (Cisco), and a Wells Fargo team member and company officer who has been personally and amply compensated for his services as a Cisco director.

3.) A document (StrategicPartnerUpdateCISCO_PEAP.doc) published on the Wells Fargo intranet stresses Cisco's relevance as a "strategic partner" and "leading vendor" of the Enterprise. Once again, I have been unable to uncover any documents that properly disclose this potential conflict of interest caused by an Enterprise officer who can influence or approve purchasing decisions and who at the same time, has personally profited from a relationship with one of the Enterprises' leading vendors.

As a Wells Fargo shareholder and Team Member, I look forward to a detailed response to these concerns.

Does Wells Fargo CEO and Wife Conduct Personal Business on Company Premises? Potential Conflict of Interest?

Alarmed the Chairman, President and CEO of Wells Fargo and his wife (who is not an employee of the firm) may be habitually violating company policies by conducting their personal business on company premises, I sent the following email to policyworks@wellsfargo.com in early 2007. Wells Fargo did not deem my concerns worthy of a reply:

Over the years, Mr. Richard Marco Kovacevich, Wells Fargo Chairman, President & CEO and his wife Mrs. Mary Jo Kovacevich, have made a number of individual contributions to state and national political campaigns and committees as reported to the Federal Election Commission. No one can dispute or deny these private citizens have the right to join the democratic process by making these donations. However, a conflict of interest appears to exist because these individual contributors have reported their mailing address to be the same as that of Wells Fargo's Corporate Headquarters (420 Montgomery St., Floor 12, San Francisco, CA 94104).

Outside observers may accordingly arrive at one or more of the following conclusions:

1.) Mr. & Mrs. Kovacevich have established a personal residence on the 12th floor at 420 Montgomery St.

2.) Wells Fargo condones and permits all of its Team Members and their immediate family members to use a Wells Fargo property address for their own personal and non-work related activities. This is in clear violation of company policies as detailed in the Team Member handbook at http://teamworks.wellsfargo.com/handbook/HB_Online.pdf.

3.) The Wells Fargo enterprise, Mr. Kovacevich and Mrs. Kovacevich all actively and publicly support the very same political candidates and committees. This is the most serious assumption the public might make because as you know, corporations are not legally permitted to make political contributions.

To address any concerns the public and Wells Fargo Team Members may have regarding this potential conflict of interest, I suggest Mr. & Mrs. Kovacevich ensure that amended forms indicating their proper mailing address are submitted to the FEC posthaste. If the couple understandably is concerned about keeping their home address private, they might consider renting a post-office mailbox.

Wells Fargo's Image

E-mail received on March 9, 2008:

Wells Fargo does not care for the little guy !!! I give up on them!!!!! :(

As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.

Hiring Practices

Email received from a contributor on 02-01-2008:

I’ve applied for employment with wellsfargo before and I was called twice for 2 different jobs.

I was interviewed on the phoned and was later called in to be interviewed in the downtown location.

I kept calling to know the status of the position but no body replied until I got an email stating that they have been cancelled.

This happened to me twice.

Actually I heard about the discrimination within the employees but I thought this was just a general issue.

My sister-in-law works for wellsfargo and she’s been there for like 3yrs now she encouraged me to keep trying.

Until she later told me that the 2 positions I applied and interviewed for was not cancelled but someone else was picked for it because they were candidates of the managers.

This is very heartbreaking and depressing.

I stopped applying for an opportunity there cos I know it will end up the same way. They know who they want but they just want to waste our time applying.

Retaliation for Hiring a Racial Minority

Email received from a contributor on 01-17-08:

Hey I have a great one for you...
I was a service manager Ii when I was fired for hiring a black man, whose qualifications were twice as good as the next two people in line who I was "encouraged" to hire instead.
Anyhow I just thought you would like to know, if you want a more detailed story let me know, you have my email address above.
I hope that this will do something to change things over at WellsFargo.