... I'm compelled to recycle an image and a theme and a rant that I used just a few months ago (see my post on 1.12.13) -- as I've had another run-in with the local Wells Fargo (the bank where my dad had an account before his passing early this year).
So here's the letter I felt I just had to write and share with the branch manager and other corporate contacts that I could find online.
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Dear Ike Patton:
If I had known how interested you were in my father's last $40 dollars, I would have seen to it that you were invited to his funeral so you could have checked his pockets for loose change as he lay in the coffin.
Today, when closing out his account, it was brought to my attention that Wells Fargo cancelled the automatic transfers to and from a savings account (a feature that your own employee suggested when the account was created so that my old man could avoid a monthly $10 checking account fee as he was living off just his $45 monthly government-permitted allowance as per federal/state laws). Which, of course, allowed the bank to suddenly start charging that $10 fee against his account until that last $45 of his was reduced to just $5. And when it was suggested to you that said fees should be waived, you told the teller performing the close-of-account task that you had no control over that type of thing.
But hey, what's $40 between a monolithic bank with a less-than-reputable reputation and the estate of a 90 year old veteran of the 99% variety? Well -- apparently, it's quite important to you and your company. [P.S. -- And if the store manager of a bank does not have the discretionary authority over something as minimal as $40 in fees, may I suggest that the title of "manager" be reconsidered, as, it would seem to me, the corporation for which you work doesn't seem to trust you with much.]
Here's what your insistence on keeping that $40 has "bought" for you and your company -- my allegiance to go to my grave making certain that I will never be a customer of your bank (so as not to put my heirs in this kind of situation). Plus -- I promise to give you more "bang for that buck", because I'll be sure to tell forty of my friends (and to ask that they, in turn, tell forty of theirs) to stay away from your place of business. Maybe that's the idea -- maybe this is some kind of innovative marketing strategy that I just don't understand?
By the way, I know it is way outside of the realm of your influence, but I'm not looking for that $40 to be returned to me now that all of my transactions with Wells Fargo are complete. But I would recommend sensitivity training for you and your staff, so that you don't leave your customers with the impression that corpses are nothing other than money-making opportunities. And, if you (or your direct reports), are the kind that might be driven to penance, perhaps you could transform that essential $40 into a donation to an organization that raises funds for cancer research (as, that is the disease that took his life, not that it came up in any conversation with you or your employees).
Or -- you could really challenge the system and increase the donation tenfold and really make a difference. If you do, feel free to make it in my father's name.
Disappointed and determined to spread the word about this experience,
Troy A. Neidermyer
I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER
http://capcognition.blogspot.com/2013/01/random-soapbox-for-saturday-11213.html
OTHERS EXPRESS CONCERN ON THE INTERWEBS:
http://wellsfargowarning.com/
THE SOURCE OF THE LOGO:
http://mythreecents.com/showReview.cgi?id=82063
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