PM for details
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Because of stories like yours, I’m in the habit now of recording all of my dealings with banks and other big corporations. When I phone, I use SkypeOut with automatic call record turned on. So far I’ve had to dig through my archives just once to confirm what I thought was said, actually was said. Sufficiently emboldened, I argued and won. In short, thanks for sharing; your pain isn’t for naught.
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How does WF continue to exist?
Why would a business ever open an account with WF?
Why would an individual ever open an account with WF?
How is it that their growth needs to be halted? Shouldn’t their business be shrinking on its own?
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Seriously, if I were to steal one person’s credit card info and get caught stealing a few thousand dollars, I’d be both financially ruined by the courts, and also fined a financially ruinous amount of money, and very likely be thrown in prison.
But when a corporation defrauds thousands of people for over a decade, making millions in illegal profits in the process, the corporation gets to still exist and do business.
Moral of the story: A corporation is a legal entity designed to be given the responsibilities you give a toddler, but the power of a government.
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IMHO the overemphasis on growth is due to stock prices that can’t be justified on dividends. Remember, higher stock prices are good for people selling their stocks, but it means that buyers are paying more today to secure future dividends. If the dividends don’t provide enough return on a stock price, than the only way that ever higher stock prices can be justified is the hope that the company will grow enough to make the stock worth more in the future.
I was thinking of one of those rawhide or rubber mallets designed to put stuff together without marring the finish.
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I’ve considered recording phone conversations, but what seems like it would hold up best in court is paper. When I close accounts, I write a letter and mail it via good ol’ USPS. I haven’t done any receipt confirmation, but that would be another step available to us. Sorry to hear about them WF basterds keeping your account open, @Pinkerton.
Hopefully they still had your info on file when they had to hand it over to those class action attorneys.
If you want to see them sweat, get yourself a ticket to the annual shareholders meeting. You can go as a proxy for a conscientious group of shareholders and when it’s time for Q&A you can get up and tell your story and say you still have not been compensated for the trouble.
There are two organizations with very similar names: IRRC and ICCR.
The Investor Responsibility Research Center researches the effectiveness of corporate activism and as such they know just about everyone who’s doing anything. During the anti-apartheid campaign years, IRRC published the definitive list of who was doing business in South Africa sent monthly updates to subscribers which included numerous cities, counties and states which had enacted selective contracting policies.
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is more directly tied in to shareholders who advocate with shareholder voting initiatives. You’ll technically be representing a religious organization, but they may be happy to have you simply ask a question and tell your story. (if your story gets too long the board may cut you off, then you can ask if they’re a board member who’s staying or leaving, but likely they’ll have announced the three retirements right before the next meeting (the last Tuesday in April, I believe))
You could buy some shares of Wells Fargo stock and go in that way. I’m a little shaky on the rules - I don’t think a small # of shares will prevent them from letting you speak, but you may need to have owned them for a certain amount of time prior to the meeting. If you get into the shareholder meeting, you may see employee groups with their own grievances. Make friends with them - you can learn a lot.
And follow on with, Why would an individual or a business keep an account open with WF?
Seems to me this is kind of like a domestic abuse situation. “But I’ve been with them for so long…!”
Thoughts about how this will work in practice? To stay under the asset cap, can they loan $$ to another bank which will hold title to real estate properties?
Per CNN:
Wells Fargo admitted that its workers responded to wildly unrealistic sales goals by creating as many as 3.5 million fake accounts.
Ah yes. Workers.
By September 30, Wells Fargo must engage a third party to review how the bank is executing those plans.
Get me Arthur Andersen!!!
Annd, this is very worth noting:
Under pressure from the Fed, the bank agreed to remove three people from the board of directors by April and a fourth by the end of the year.
Sure, they’ll probably keep their sports club memberships. Sometimes the greatest chance at effecting major change at a corporation is via an outside board member (typically an academic who has not had a career at the company). Some are asleep at the wheel, but some are not.
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Going directly after the board members is what seems to have made the difference in this case. It also has a salutary effect for business in general because these people usually serve on multiple boards.
From now on you have to pay for your own hookers and blow.
No jail. Beauteousness abounds.
Based on @Pinkerton’s story, it sounds like WF is something of a Hotel California; even if you want to close your account, they mysteriously never actually do what you tell them. Multiple times.
Aside from that, I’m definitely with you. When Bank of America announced that everyone with less than $1000 in their checking account would have to start paying $12/month to keep their accounts open, the number of “well, now I’m going to have to seriously start thinking about maybe pulling my money out of there some day, eventually, if I don’t forget by the time I get home from work”-esque reactions I saw on Twitter was … impressive.
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But dad said it was OK to go play!!
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