Dear Readers,
Ms. Trinh Haye apologized to me for Pete's refusing to give me a refund and said that she spoke with him about it, so I am ending my boycott of Wells Fargo. This happened a little over a week ago, but I did not have time to update this blog because I was immediately headed off to Vermont to supervise a camping trip where I had very little internet access.
If Pete would like me to remove his last name from this blog in the future as this record appears fairly high up on a google search of his full name, I would be happy to do so, but only if he writes me a written apology letter. If you see Pete's full name on this blog it means he personally has never apologized or seen the error of his ways in playing gotcha banking instead of working with customers in a reasonable and fair manner.
Sky Thoth
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Image of Misleading Wells Fargo Letter
Dear Readers,
Below is an image scanned for you of the letter Wells Fargo sent me that mislead me into keeping too much money in my savings account and too little money in my checking (I included this image in a 17 page fax to Wells Fargo which I also emailed as a PDF with an additional statement I will also copy for you below). The fundamental problem is this. Wells Fargo reversed a credit in my checking account that they had given me for a undefined length of time in my dispute with Hertz, and they told me in a letter that they had already done this when in fact they were going to do this fifteen days in the future. So fifteen days after they told me they had already reversed this credit, I did not have enough money in my checking account to cover this unexpected expense, so I was hit with overdraft fees. I did not closely audit what they told me in their letter because I read the letter from Wells Fargo and I trusted Wells Fargo. Now Wells Fargo is making me pay a penalty for trusting them. Those fees hit me on March 7, 2012 when money was automatically transferred from my savings to my checking when I wasn't expecting it based on what Wells Fargo had written to me.
This is unjust, is it not? If Wells Fargo mislead me and caused me to err, then they should give me back the fees they penalized me with for erring. That is a pretty simple request, isn't it? Let me know what you think.
Moreover, isn't it ironic that when Wells Fargo offered to help me fight an unjust charge from another company, then Wells Fargo ended up charging me unjustly themselves at the same time that the other company in question relented and decided to refund me? Remember how I just ended my boycott of Hertz because they finally wrote to me admitted that they had in fact billed me in error and promised to refund me?
In the mean time, now that my dispute is with Wells Fargo instead of Hertz ironically, I hope Wells Fargo has their fax machines convert all incoming documents into PDF files without printing them; otherwise, they are wasting a lot of paper and ink with all the evidence that I am sending via fax, in addition to the same in my email and blog postings. One way or another, I will make sure they get the message that I am 100% committed to getting a satisfactory answer from them concerning this matter, either in terms of a refund or a clear moral argument from them stating how they can possibly see these fees as being right and fair to charge me. Hertz finally saw the light when I started sending them long faxes too. They never took my emails seriously however. I don't know if they even read them. Remember to use faxes if nothing else is working. It's a good technique. Think about why that might be.
The bottom line is, so far the bank has not honored their advertised promise that they will always be "working together" with there clients. Blowing a client off is not working with a client. But I've got news for Wells Fargo in Washington, D.C. I'm not a fly: I'm the whole Sky. I can't be blown off.
Remember my friends,
Put the Other Foot Down!
Sky Thoth
The above image was included in a fax that was also emailed as an attachment with this introduction:
Attached PDF of Fax that I sent you
1 message
Below is an image scanned for you of the letter Wells Fargo sent me that mislead me into keeping too much money in my savings account and too little money in my checking (I included this image in a 17 page fax to Wells Fargo which I also emailed as a PDF with an additional statement I will also copy for you below). The fundamental problem is this. Wells Fargo reversed a credit in my checking account that they had given me for a undefined length of time in my dispute with Hertz, and they told me in a letter that they had already done this when in fact they were going to do this fifteen days in the future. So fifteen days after they told me they had already reversed this credit, I did not have enough money in my checking account to cover this unexpected expense, so I was hit with overdraft fees. I did not closely audit what they told me in their letter because I read the letter from Wells Fargo and I trusted Wells Fargo. Now Wells Fargo is making me pay a penalty for trusting them. Those fees hit me on March 7, 2012 when money was automatically transferred from my savings to my checking when I wasn't expecting it based on what Wells Fargo had written to me.
This is unjust, is it not? If Wells Fargo mislead me and caused me to err, then they should give me back the fees they penalized me with for erring. That is a pretty simple request, isn't it? Let me know what you think.
Moreover, isn't it ironic that when Wells Fargo offered to help me fight an unjust charge from another company, then Wells Fargo ended up charging me unjustly themselves at the same time that the other company in question relented and decided to refund me? Remember how I just ended my boycott of Hertz because they finally wrote to me admitted that they had in fact billed me in error and promised to refund me?
In the mean time, now that my dispute is with Wells Fargo instead of Hertz ironically, I hope Wells Fargo has their fax machines convert all incoming documents into PDF files without printing them; otherwise, they are wasting a lot of paper and ink with all the evidence that I am sending via fax, in addition to the same in my email and blog postings. One way or another, I will make sure they get the message that I am 100% committed to getting a satisfactory answer from them concerning this matter, either in terms of a refund or a clear moral argument from them stating how they can possibly see these fees as being right and fair to charge me. Hertz finally saw the light when I started sending them long faxes too. They never took my emails seriously however. I don't know if they even read them. Remember to use faxes if nothing else is working. It's a good technique. Think about why that might be.
The bottom line is, so far the bank has not honored their advertised promise that they will always be "working together" with there clients. Blowing a client off is not working with a client. But I've got news for Wells Fargo in Washington, D.C. I'm not a fly: I'm the whole Sky. I can't be blown off.
Remember my friends,
Put the Other Foot Down!
Sky Thoth
The above image was included in a fax that was also emailed as an attachment with this introduction:
Attached PDF of Fax that I sent you
1 message
Wells Fargo Service Manager Pete Kuszmaul Escalates the Deterioration of Customer Service
OPEN LETTER TO WELLS FARGO BRANCH MANAGER RE: PETE KUSZMAUL
Dear Ms. Trinh Haye,
I really want to get to the bottom of what Wells Fargo policy and intention is in the bank's relationship with me. It started with a dispute with Pete Kuszmaul in your branch yesterday about a $12.50 overdraft protection fee charged to me for money transferred from my savings to my checking that I insist was due to an error caused by a miscommunication made by Wells Fargo in a letter that the bank set to me, but it is grown into much more than that. It has become a matter of determining for me whether Wells Fargo, on a national level, really stands by its motto of "together we will go far" and its promise of always "working together.
When I used to live in California, I never had any problems with Wells Fargo when I brought errors to the bank's attention. In fact, recently I started getting charged fees on my account even though I had formally been charged no fees because of automatic transfers every month from my savings account to my checking account. When I went into your branch earlier this year to ask your banker Mariam about this, she said that nothing could be done and I'd have to pay the fees. I was also told the same when visiting a branch in Virginia. Luckily, when I went back to California on vacation and spoke with a manager at the old branch I used to visit there, the manager corrected the problem for me immediately by adjusting the label on my account type and refunding me all the fees I had been charged without my even asking him to do that or arguing with him for this assistance. I felt like I was visiting a friend who wanted to work with me and who was on my side.
On the other hand, Mariam and now Pete Kuszmaul--both in your branch--have done nothing but entrench in their positions that they were not interested in either listening to, nor responding to, nor rectifying my concerns about my service with Wells Fargo. When I came in to ask Pete Kuszmaul if he had received my email that I had sent you and him yesterday, Pete Kuszmaul told me point blank that he would not talk about my overdraft with me anymore even though he never answered my question about whether or not the bank mislead me in a letter it wrote to me about a reversal of a past credit to my account. His words yesterday were, "I will not quibble with you about grammar," in respect to fact that the letter said a credit was reversed in the past when in fact it was going to be reversed two weeks into the future. Today I asked him if he simply didn't have the authority to reverse my overdraft fee and if it was simply a matter of policy that I had to talk to the branch manager or if he disagreed with my assertion that I had been mislead by the bank's letter to me, and he still insisted he would not make any comment to me or answer any question related to this topic. And yet he never answered my initial question in the first place yesterday when I came in the first time and asked him whether or not he could see my point that the letter the bank sent me was misleading. How, I ask you, is this living up to Wells Fargo's promise to its clients of always "working together" to insure that "together we will go far." This is what I read on your website and it just doesn't make any sense in terms of how Mariam behaved with me earlier at your branch or in terms of how Pete Kuszmaul behaved so dismissively with me yesterday and again today. I quote the following from this Wells Fargo website:
https://www.wellsfargo.com/invest_relations/vision_values/4
Dear Ms. Trinh Haye,
I really want to get to the bottom of what Wells Fargo policy and intention is in the bank's relationship with me. It started with a dispute with Pete Kuszmaul in your branch yesterday about a $12.50 overdraft protection fee charged to me for money transferred from my savings to my checking that I insist was due to an error caused by a miscommunication made by Wells Fargo in a letter that the bank set to me, but it is grown into much more than that. It has become a matter of determining for me whether Wells Fargo, on a national level, really stands by its motto of "together we will go far" and its promise of always "working together.
When I used to live in California, I never had any problems with Wells Fargo when I brought errors to the bank's attention. In fact, recently I started getting charged fees on my account even though I had formally been charged no fees because of automatic transfers every month from my savings account to my checking account. When I went into your branch earlier this year to ask your banker Mariam about this, she said that nothing could be done and I'd have to pay the fees. I was also told the same when visiting a branch in Virginia. Luckily, when I went back to California on vacation and spoke with a manager at the old branch I used to visit there, the manager corrected the problem for me immediately by adjusting the label on my account type and refunding me all the fees I had been charged without my even asking him to do that or arguing with him for this assistance. I felt like I was visiting a friend who wanted to work with me and who was on my side.
On the other hand, Mariam and now Pete Kuszmaul--both in your branch--have done nothing but entrench in their positions that they were not interested in either listening to, nor responding to, nor rectifying my concerns about my service with Wells Fargo. When I came in to ask Pete Kuszmaul if he had received my email that I had sent you and him yesterday, Pete Kuszmaul told me point blank that he would not talk about my overdraft with me anymore even though he never answered my question about whether or not the bank mislead me in a letter it wrote to me about a reversal of a past credit to my account. His words yesterday were, "I will not quibble with you about grammar," in respect to fact that the letter said a credit was reversed in the past when in fact it was going to be reversed two weeks into the future. Today I asked him if he simply didn't have the authority to reverse my overdraft fee and if it was simply a matter of policy that I had to talk to the branch manager or if he disagreed with my assertion that I had been mislead by the bank's letter to me, and he still insisted he would not make any comment to me or answer any question related to this topic. And yet he never answered my initial question in the first place yesterday when I came in the first time and asked him whether or not he could see my point that the letter the bank sent me was misleading. How, I ask you, is this living up to Wells Fargo's promise to its clients of always "working together" to insure that "together we will go far." This is what I read on your website and it just doesn't make any sense in terms of how Mariam behaved with me earlier at your branch or in terms of how Pete Kuszmaul behaved so dismissively with me yesterday and again today. I quote the following from this Wells Fargo website:
https://www.wellsfargo.com/invest_relations/vision_values/4
Our brand
Our brand is what people say about Wells Fargo to their friends and family. It’s how they feel about doing business with us and how they describe those feelings. Our brand has economic value. One published study estimates it’s worth almost $25 billion. We have a strategy to protect our brand’s value. At the center of that strategy is our brand promise. It says what we stand for, how we differ from our competitors, and why customers should care. Our promise to our customers is this: We’ll take the time to understand your complete financial picture. Together, we work with you, now and over time, to provide the best information and guidance about the products and services you’ll need to help you reach your financial goals. We sum up our promise in two words: Working Together
Our brand also has a personality — traits that describe how we want customers and team members to think and feel about us:
Our brand is what people say about Wells Fargo to their friends and family. It’s how they feel about doing business with us and how they describe those feelings. Our brand has economic value. One published study estimates it’s worth almost $25 billion. We have a strategy to protect our brand’s value. At the center of that strategy is our brand promise. It says what we stand for, how we differ from our competitors, and why customers should care. Our promise to our customers is this: We’ll take the time to understand your complete financial picture. Together, we work with you, now and over time, to provide the best information and guidance about the products and services you’ll need to help you reach your financial goals. We sum up our promise in two words: Working Together
Our brand also has a personality — traits that describe how we want customers and team members to think and feel about us:
- Reliable. We want to be seen as consistent and dependable. People can count on us.
- Confident. We want to be seen as thoughtfully prepared. We’ve done our homework.
- Down-to-earth. People should feel comfortable doing business with us.
- Eager. We want to show an active interest in our colleagues’ and customers’ needs. We want to respect their time.
- Supportive. We want to show we care.
We also have what we call a “signature” for our company, to help show how our brand is different: “Together we’ll go far.” It means we want to guide and advise our customers so they’ll be more confident about their financial future. As a result, they expect to “go far” in their financial journey.
*
I want to ask you a simple question Ms. Trinh Haye, and I ask that you work with me on this. Can you or can you not see how the letter Wells Fargo Claims Assistance Center sent to me on 04/23/12 was misleading? In that letter, the bank stated that, and I quote: "The [amount of money] temporarily credited to your account ending in 8582 HAS BEEN REVERSED AS OF THE DATE OF THIS LETTER." (emphasis mine)
I had been expecting that this credit reversal was a possibility. I had been trying to make sure I always kept enough money in my account to cover this liability should it occur. Instead of having all of my money in my savings account, I had been keeping extra money for this possibility in my checking for months. Then when I got this letter from Wells Fargo in the mail, I found out the dispute about the charge on my account was decided upon, or so I thought, and that Wells Fargo had reversed the credit as stated on the date of the letter. I then personally took my fight over this old dispute to the company that had billed me erroneously, and I won. I have since received a letter from that company saying that I am being refunded this charge. However, precisely because Wells Fargo had told me that the credit HAD ALREADY BEEN REVERSED IN APRIL -- on the precise date of April 04/23/12, according to the letter from Wells Fargo in fact -- I assumed, based on communication from the bank that was FALSE that it was safe to leave my money mostly in savings in May and to charge purchases onto my Wells Fargo credit card to pay off at the end of the month when I needed to.
Pete Kuszmaul refused to work with me on understanding what the bank meant in its letter to me, and he refused to consider my request for fee wavers based on that. He has been dismissive and cavalier with me two days in a row. And I am shocked, because I used to think based on all of my experience in California that Wells Fargo wanted a mutually beneficial relationship with me and that they did honor their promise to always work with me. When Mariam earlier told me that your branch couldn't help me with a past surprise about new monthly account fees unless I set up direct deposit, and when I later found out with persistance that she was wrong, I thought that it might have just been her, and not the bank. Now however, since Pete Kuszmaul has been so shockingly dismissive and cavalier with me on top of being incompetent in finding a way to at least answer my concern if not entirely reach an agreement over it, I am at a loss to know if Wells Fargo's promise of working together still holds true.
At least Mariam told me earlier that she thought the bank no longer had an account type to meet my needs. I wasn't happy with her answer, and so I closed two of my five accounts with Wells Fargo and started preparing myself to close all of them until the banker in California showed me the bank could provide what I was looking for--but now I really don't know about Wells Fargo anymore. Is it just your branch, or is pretty much the whole bank? I really want to know? Are you going to address my concern? I ask you to do one of three things please:
1) Tell me how the letter "re: decision regarding you claim number 10125121114" was not misleading about when the credit to my account was going to be reversed, since the reversal actually happened 15 days after the letter stated it had taken place,
2) If you can't explain how the letter was not misleading, then please refund me the remaining $12.50 overdraft fee that occurred when money was transferred from my savings account to my checking account; or
3) If you are unwilling or unable to do either of those two things, please put me in touch with your regional manager or whoever you report to so that I can take this up with him or her and get to the bottom of whether Wells Fargo's signature promise of always "WORKING TOGETHER" is only dead at your particular branch (if you yourself as the branch manager can't reach a simple solution in option 1 or 2) or whether is a more widespread problem in the company now.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Sky Coon
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Now Boycotting D.C. Wells Fargo
OPEN LETTER TO WELLS FARGO ONLINE:
ATTENTION: Trinh Haye
Store Manager
NMLSR ID: 524789
MAC R0123-010
3700 Calvert St NW
Washington, DC 20007
Tel: 202 637 2514
Fax: 202 637 2786
800 TO WELLS
trinh.haye@wellsfargo.com
CC: Pete Kuszmaul
Service Manager
pete.kuszmaul@wellsfargo.com
Re: Overdraft Fees Dispute
Dear Trinh Haye,
I regret to inform you that I am now starting a tentative boycott of all business with Wells Fargo in D.C., due to the concerns that your Service Manager gave me that Wells Fargo is seeking predatory gain from me rather than seeking to foster a relationship in which we support each others mutual capacities to thrive. This precisely the issue I campaign tirelessly against on my blog, as I believe the communication revolution we are experiencing now can ultimately rectify this problem and many others in the world during my generation just as this same revolution recently torn apart abusive and unjust regimes recently in the middle east. If you want to read more about how I believe this can take place precisely, you may wish to read the first posting I made in launching my campaign online at the following address:
www.puttheotherfootdown.blogspot.com
However, I will make my point simple for you here even if you don't have interest or time to delve more deeply into my commitments to reforming the flaws I find in our social architecture in my more extended writings online. My philosophy is simply this. Unfairness and rip-offs in business dealings represent a social cancer just like cancer in the body that threatens to destroy our whole way of life. If I feel a business has ripped me off, as a matter of principle, I will not stand for this in the least until either the business presents me a convincing argument that they were not unfair to me or until they rectify the problem. Allow this to pass without consequences in our ongoing relationship is in effect my voting with my actions and economic activity for the same destructive practices to continue in our society. I believe it is everyone's personal responsibility to shun and starve out any and all forms of cancerous social behavior that grabs things and rips-off things from others unfairly until we eradicate all such forms of corruption. The bottom line then, is that I will not do any more business with Wells Fargo in D.C. until this problem is dealt with. The bank will not earn any more fees from my use of your cards when I shop. I will keep my accounts at the minimum levels that I can without being charged extra fees. And finally, I will blog online, email and fax any and all Wells Fargo managers and offices, and protest against this unfairness in any and every legal way I can until it is dealt with.
This is what I find so unfair. On 04/23/12 the Wells Fargo Claims Assistance Center in Charlotte, NC wrote to me regarding claim reference number 10125121114 regarding my dispute with some charges that I did not authorize billed to my account. Ironically, even though the company that made the charges has concluded in their own investigation that these charges were in error and that they would refund the charges to me, Wells Fargo concluded the opposite and stated that this letter was being sent to me to notify me that the money would be taken back out of my account. Specifically this is what the letter stated on 04/23/12, and I quote (with emphasis in capitalization mine):
"The $143.84 temporarily credited to your account ending in 8582 HAS BEEN REVERSED as of the date of this letter."
I was aware that this might happen and I had been keeping plenty of money in my account to cover such an eventuality. Just to be on the safe side, and to provide a little grace period even though the letter said the credit already HAS BEEN REVERSED, I keep plenty of cash in my account until the end of the month making an extra cash deposit of $1000. However, I both trust that when Wells Fargo wrote me a formal letter saying that a banking action HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE using explicit terms HAS BEEN REVERSED AS OF THE DATE OF THIS LETTER, I trusted that this was behind me during the nest calendar month and went on with my life not spending even more of my valuable time looking into this unhappy issue. Then, on May 7th, a full 15 days after the letter I received MISLEAD ME into believing that a transaction had already BEEN REVERSED as of the date of a letter last month, after those full 15 days I was blindsided by two overdraft protection fees that hit me when Wells Fargo transfer money from my savings account into my checking account to cover this credit reversal.
When I complained about having been mislead to your Service Manager, Pete Kuszmaul, he would not acknowledge anything misleading about the letter sent to me stating that the reversal had already BEEN executed on the DATE OF THE LETTER, nor did he show any respect for my time. I had made a personal trip into the bank to rectify an error that the bank had inconvenienced me with by misleading me into accidentally keeping funds in my savings account that I needed in my checking account. I spent my time on this for principle! And yet, Pete insulted me over my investment of time even further saying that I should have checked my banking history to make sure that the reversal had already taken place before I left the money I needed to cover it in my savings account. In effect, he said I should not have trusted the bank's letter to me and I should have spent MORE OF MY OWN TIME LOOKING INTO THE MATTER to protect myself. He implied to me in effect that it was my own fault that I got ripped off because I didn't spend more time reading the fine print in accounting for everything in my relationship with Wells Fargo when I trusted something simple in a one page letter sent to me in the mail that I read which said EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of what was really going to happen. The letter said the fee reversal HAS BEEN when the truth of the matter at the date of the letter was that the reversal WOULD BE taking place two weeks in the future at the date of the letter.
Pete didn't care about this or acknowledge any error in communication on the part of the bank. Instead, he insisted I was responsible for taking more time out of my life to protect myself from the bank when it sent me misleading letters. If the bank wants me to protect myself from it by spending more time--if that is the message you want to stand by Pete in sending to me--then trust me, I will spend a lot more time on this. In fact, I am dedicated to spending a life time on warning people away from you if that is what it takes. And by the way, count up the debit card fees you've gotten from stores. How long has it really taken you to earn $12.50 off of my business in a fair way that I was expecting. I know I and every other bank-card-using-American pay part of the money spent in every shopping transaction to our banks in a convenience fees built into the price of everything. That is why some gas stations charge so much less for cash payments. I will never let Wells Fargo get another penny from these fees from my choices at gas pumps or grocery stores so long as this dispute stands. Is that really a great business decision for you? Won't you loose money on my fast enough from my choice to boycott you?
If you don't change your mind, I'll start making running calculations on my blog every week of how much my personal boycott seems to be costing you in lost shopping fees. Maybe that will help you see the light. Or if I'm wrong, and you have some great principle to fight for that is worth more than money to you as my principle is clearly worth more than time and money to me by that amount of effort I am investing in this, then explain it to me. What makes you feel that Wells Fargo ought to defend the right to mislead me in a business letter and then charge me two $12.50 overdrafts fees for failing into a trap as the result of believing what the bank hand told me was already in the past when I was in fact going to be hit with it much later in the future? How does that seem fair to the bank? Refund me or explain it to me please. Otherwise, let my readers of my blog give me there opinions now into the rest of my life as I calculate every week for them how much my boycott is able to cost you.
Sincerely,
Sky Coon
ATTENTION: Trinh Haye
Store Manager
NMLSR ID: 524789
MAC R0123-010
3700 Calvert St NW
Washington, DC 20007
Tel: 202 637 2514
Fax: 202 637 2786
800 TO WELLS
trinh.haye@wellsfargo.com
CC: Pete Kuszmaul
Service Manager
pete.kuszmaul@wellsfargo.com
Re: Overdraft Fees Dispute
Dear Trinh Haye,
I regret to inform you that I am now starting a tentative boycott of all business with Wells Fargo in D.C., due to the concerns that your Service Manager gave me that Wells Fargo is seeking predatory gain from me rather than seeking to foster a relationship in which we support each others mutual capacities to thrive. This precisely the issue I campaign tirelessly against on my blog, as I believe the communication revolution we are experiencing now can ultimately rectify this problem and many others in the world during my generation just as this same revolution recently torn apart abusive and unjust regimes recently in the middle east. If you want to read more about how I believe this can take place precisely, you may wish to read the first posting I made in launching my campaign online at the following address:
www.puttheotherfootdown.blogspot.com
However, I will make my point simple for you here even if you don't have interest or time to delve more deeply into my commitments to reforming the flaws I find in our social architecture in my more extended writings online. My philosophy is simply this. Unfairness and rip-offs in business dealings represent a social cancer just like cancer in the body that threatens to destroy our whole way of life. If I feel a business has ripped me off, as a matter of principle, I will not stand for this in the least until either the business presents me a convincing argument that they were not unfair to me or until they rectify the problem. Allow this to pass without consequences in our ongoing relationship is in effect my voting with my actions and economic activity for the same destructive practices to continue in our society. I believe it is everyone's personal responsibility to shun and starve out any and all forms of cancerous social behavior that grabs things and rips-off things from others unfairly until we eradicate all such forms of corruption. The bottom line then, is that I will not do any more business with Wells Fargo in D.C. until this problem is dealt with. The bank will not earn any more fees from my use of your cards when I shop. I will keep my accounts at the minimum levels that I can without being charged extra fees. And finally, I will blog online, email and fax any and all Wells Fargo managers and offices, and protest against this unfairness in any and every legal way I can until it is dealt with.
This is what I find so unfair. On 04/23/12 the Wells Fargo Claims Assistance Center in Charlotte, NC wrote to me regarding claim reference number 10125121114 regarding my dispute with some charges that I did not authorize billed to my account. Ironically, even though the company that made the charges has concluded in their own investigation that these charges were in error and that they would refund the charges to me, Wells Fargo concluded the opposite and stated that this letter was being sent to me to notify me that the money would be taken back out of my account. Specifically this is what the letter stated on 04/23/12, and I quote (with emphasis in capitalization mine):
"The $143.84 temporarily credited to your account ending in 8582 HAS BEEN REVERSED as of the date of this letter."
I was aware that this might happen and I had been keeping plenty of money in my account to cover such an eventuality. Just to be on the safe side, and to provide a little grace period even though the letter said the credit already HAS BEEN REVERSED, I keep plenty of cash in my account until the end of the month making an extra cash deposit of $1000. However, I both trust that when Wells Fargo wrote me a formal letter saying that a banking action HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE using explicit terms HAS BEEN REVERSED AS OF THE DATE OF THIS LETTER, I trusted that this was behind me during the nest calendar month and went on with my life not spending even more of my valuable time looking into this unhappy issue. Then, on May 7th, a full 15 days after the letter I received MISLEAD ME into believing that a transaction had already BEEN REVERSED as of the date of a letter last month, after those full 15 days I was blindsided by two overdraft protection fees that hit me when Wells Fargo transfer money from my savings account into my checking account to cover this credit reversal.
When I complained about having been mislead to your Service Manager, Pete Kuszmaul, he would not acknowledge anything misleading about the letter sent to me stating that the reversal had already BEEN executed on the DATE OF THE LETTER, nor did he show any respect for my time. I had made a personal trip into the bank to rectify an error that the bank had inconvenienced me with by misleading me into accidentally keeping funds in my savings account that I needed in my checking account. I spent my time on this for principle! And yet, Pete insulted me over my investment of time even further saying that I should have checked my banking history to make sure that the reversal had already taken place before I left the money I needed to cover it in my savings account. In effect, he said I should not have trusted the bank's letter to me and I should have spent MORE OF MY OWN TIME LOOKING INTO THE MATTER to protect myself. He implied to me in effect that it was my own fault that I got ripped off because I didn't spend more time reading the fine print in accounting for everything in my relationship with Wells Fargo when I trusted something simple in a one page letter sent to me in the mail that I read which said EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of what was really going to happen. The letter said the fee reversal HAS BEEN when the truth of the matter at the date of the letter was that the reversal WOULD BE taking place two weeks in the future at the date of the letter.
Pete didn't care about this or acknowledge any error in communication on the part of the bank. Instead, he insisted I was responsible for taking more time out of my life to protect myself from the bank when it sent me misleading letters. If the bank wants me to protect myself from it by spending more time--if that is the message you want to stand by Pete in sending to me--then trust me, I will spend a lot more time on this. In fact, I am dedicated to spending a life time on warning people away from you if that is what it takes. And by the way, count up the debit card fees you've gotten from stores. How long has it really taken you to earn $12.50 off of my business in a fair way that I was expecting. I know I and every other bank-card-using-American pay part of the money spent in every shopping transaction to our banks in a convenience fees built into the price of everything. That is why some gas stations charge so much less for cash payments. I will never let Wells Fargo get another penny from these fees from my choices at gas pumps or grocery stores so long as this dispute stands. Is that really a great business decision for you? Won't you loose money on my fast enough from my choice to boycott you?
If you don't change your mind, I'll start making running calculations on my blog every week of how much my personal boycott seems to be costing you in lost shopping fees. Maybe that will help you see the light. Or if I'm wrong, and you have some great principle to fight for that is worth more than money to you as my principle is clearly worth more than time and money to me by that amount of effort I am investing in this, then explain it to me. What makes you feel that Wells Fargo ought to defend the right to mislead me in a business letter and then charge me two $12.50 overdrafts fees for failing into a trap as the result of believing what the bank hand told me was already in the past when I was in fact going to be hit with it much later in the future? How does that seem fair to the bank? Refund me or explain it to me please. Otherwise, let my readers of my blog give me there opinions now into the rest of my life as I calculate every week for them how much my boycott is able to cost you.
Sincerely,
Sky Coon
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
What is the root cause of abuse of power?
updated 07:21 AM EDT 05.08.12 'Help me,' homeless man begs as cops fatally beat him in videotaped incident
By the CNN Wire Staff
(CNN) -
A A A (resize font) A graphic video played at a hearing Monday to determine whether two California police officers should stand trial in the beating death of a homeless man showed them kicking and punching the mentally ill man as he lay on the ground --screaming in pain and begging for help.
The victim, Kelly Thomas, died five days after the beating on July 5.
Manuel Ramos, a 10-year veteran of the Fullerton, California, police department, is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, while Cpl. Jay Patrick Cicinelli faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and felony use of excessive force in the same case.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
The black-and-white video was played during a preliminary hearing for the two officers.
It begins with Thomas -- a 37-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia -- sitting and being told by Ramos to put his feet out and hands on his knees.
The officers were responding to a call about a homeless man looking into car windows and pulling on handles of parked cars.
In the video, Thomas is slow to cooperate.
Ramos then tells him: "You see my fists? They're getting ready to f--- you up."
Thomas, who is unarmed and shirtless, stands and another officer walks over. They hit him with their batons and hold him on the ground as he begs for help.
"Ok, I'm sorry, dude. I'm sorry!" he screams. At one point, Thomas says he can't breathe. The officers tell him to lie on his stomach, put his hands behind his back and relax.
"Ok, here, here, dude, please!" he says.
Other officers arrive.
At times, trees block the view of the camera and it's not always clear who is doing what as officers pile on top of Thomas.
One uses a Taser stun gun.
Thomas cries out for help and. toward the end of the beating, for his father: "Dad! Help me. Help me. Help me, dad."
His voice gets softer and trails off.
By the end of the video, he is lying in a pool of blood as the officers wonder out loud what to do next.
One can be heard saying: "We ran out of options so I got to the end of my Taser and I ... smashed his face to hell."
Thomas suffered brain injuries, facial fractures, rib fractures, and extensive bruising and abrasions, according to prosecutors.
The Orange County coroner listed his manner of death as a homicide and said he died after having his chest compressed, leaving him unable to breathe.
The FBI is investigating possible civil rights violations in his case.
Six Fullerton officers, including Ramos and Cicinelli, were put on paid leave after his death. The case drew widespread attention to the police department of Fullerton, located about 25 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Fax to Hurtful Hertz
FAX: 405-290-2899
ATTENTION:
Janet N.
Customer Correspondence Administrator
OKC Customer Services
The Hertz Corporation
P.O. Box 26120
14501 Hertz Quail Springs Parkway
Oklahoma City, OK 73134
U.S.A.
Telephone: 888-777-6095, Ext. 4812
FAX: 405-290-2899
Customer Correspondence Administrator
OKC Customer Services
The Hertz Corporation
P.O. Box 26120
14501 Hertz Quail Springs Parkway
Oklahoma City, OK 73134
U.S.A.
Telephone: 888-777-6095, Ext. 4812
FAX: 405-290-2899
Dear Janet N. of Hertz Customer Service,
Attached is my evidence that Hertz changed the fees that I
had agreed to on the LDW rate from $105.00 to $233.94. I consider it theft until Hertz gives me the
difference back. If you have evidence
that this change in rate was legal, send me evidence in the long forms of our
contract, so I don’t have to sue Hertz to see the evidence. Otherwise I will likely sue.
Either way, Hertz clearly deceived me, and I will wage a PR
campaign against Hertz for life until I am refunded my $127.94. It is your choice. Attached you will also find a copy of my
blog. If you don’t respond with more
than a generic brush off, I may write to congress and complain to all of my
representatives as well. I will also
most certainly register a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and with Rip
Off Report dot com as well. After that I
may entertain myself with picketing outside of Hertz rental locations and
posting videos of that on YouTube if I find that to be within my rights under
the law. Please inform me if you have
reason to believe that is not within my rights.
Sincerely,
Sky
Monday, May 7, 2012
Redirecting People away from Hertz
Dear Folks,
If you want to move a few things (like student belongings) across country, you do not have to rent from Hertz. Even though they seem to be the only major car rental company offering long distance one way rentals, there are still cheaper ways. Moreover, since Hertz is a disreputable company, you might not want to support them. If you do support them, they might very well rip you off and run off with a lot more of your support than you expected. If that happens to you, write to me in the comments, and I will blog about your complaints also. But back to the alternatives to Hurtful Hertz, because Hertz hurts to much...
There are a number of companies that will part a small 20 foot semi trailer in front of your house or apartment and let you rent out however many square feet you need in the front of the trailer. You load your stuff up and then lock it off with plywood. Then UPS or whatever other company uses the rest of the trailer space for other freight needs until the trailer gets to your destination and then you unload the stuff you stashed away in the front of the trailer. You will pay less than a Hertz rental, AND much, much less than a U-haul or any kind of haul your own stuff rental. And best of all, I worked with a company twice that had superb customer service. I highly recommend this company. A friend of mine moving with a few belongings and no future from Harrisonburg, VA to Tampa, FL for graduate school just asked me for my advice and this is what I just sent him in Gmail Chat:
Sent at 1:18 PM on Monday
me: Moveamerica
1-877-495-9555
If you want to move a few things (like student belongings) across country, you do not have to rent from Hertz. Even though they seem to be the only major car rental company offering long distance one way rentals, there are still cheaper ways. Moreover, since Hertz is a disreputable company, you might not want to support them. If you do support them, they might very well rip you off and run off with a lot more of your support than you expected. If that happens to you, write to me in the comments, and I will blog about your complaints also. But back to the alternatives to Hurtful Hertz, because Hertz hurts to much...
There are a number of companies that will part a small 20 foot semi trailer in front of your house or apartment and let you rent out however many square feet you need in the front of the trailer. You load your stuff up and then lock it off with plywood. Then UPS or whatever other company uses the rest of the trailer space for other freight needs until the trailer gets to your destination and then you unload the stuff you stashed away in the front of the trailer. You will pay less than a Hertz rental, AND much, much less than a U-haul or any kind of haul your own stuff rental. And best of all, I worked with a company twice that had superb customer service. I highly recommend this company. A friend of mine moving with a few belongings and no future from Harrisonburg, VA to Tampa, FL for graduate school just asked me for my advice and this is what I just sent him in Gmail Chat:
Sent at 1:18 PM on Monday
me: Moveamerica
1-877-495-9555
I used them twice and would highly recommend them
Sent at 1:28 PM on Monday
me: On
the other hand, I launched a blog today to start a boycott against
Hertz because I'm so adamantly opposed to their business practices along with 63
pages worth links to other people who also wrote online about how how
"Hertz hurts" in exactly those two words.
Every time I get others to join me in my boycott of Hertz like this, I will let you no. If Hertz makes the situation right, I will also let you know if I end my boycott.
Sky
Boycott Warning to Hurtful Hurtz
Sky Thoth <***********> Mon, May 7, 2012 at 11:02 AM
Reply-To: Sky Thoth <***********>
To: Hertz Customer Relations <CustomerRelations@hertz.com>
Dear Hertz Customer Service,
You have one last chance to refund me the extra charges you deceived me over in my quote and later ripped me off of. If you do not, I will start an online boycott of your company with the aim of seeing you driven out of business and bankrupt in my lifetime. I will never give up. Is the money you ripped off of worth it to you? You will be judged. You choose. In my world view, Civilization is at stake on this principle, and I will never back down. You can see why on my blog. Here is the link:
http://puttheotherfootdown.blogspot.com/2012/05/hertz-hurts.html
Everything I write to you and everything you write to me will now be an open letter until this issue is resolved. In the end, the record will stay online forever to document how long it takes you to wake up. This will help everyone judge whether or not you are a worthy member of the future business ecosystem in our world. So far you are not passing your test. In response to your last letter, I am telling you--YOU FAIL. Are you ready to retake your test yet?
Sincerely,
Sky
Reply-To: Sky Thoth <***********>
To: Hertz Customer Relations <CustomerRelations@hertz.com>
Dear Hertz Customer Service,
You have one last chance to refund me the extra charges you deceived me over in my quote and later ripped me off of. If you do not, I will start an online boycott of your company with the aim of seeing you driven out of business and bankrupt in my lifetime. I will never give up. Is the money you ripped off of worth it to you? You will be judged. You choose. In my world view, Civilization is at stake on this principle, and I will never back down. You can see why on my blog. Here is the link:
http://puttheotherfootdown.blogspot.com/2012/05/hertz-hurts.html
Everything I write to you and everything you write to me will now be an open letter until this issue is resolved. In the end, the record will stay online forever to document how long it takes you to wake up. This will help everyone judge whether or not you are a worthy member of the future business ecosystem in our world. So far you are not passing your test. In response to your last letter, I am telling you--YOU FAIL. Are you ready to retake your test yet?
Sincerely,
Sky
Hertz Hurts
OPEN LETTER
Hertz Customer Service:
Do you know that there are currently 63 pages on google that come up on a search limited to "Hertz hurts" in quotes? Hertz ripped me off. Hertz deceived me, pulled off some kind of fine print scan quoting on charge and then withdrawing hundreds of dollars more from my account. Hertz hurt me too. Hertz, in response to your latest email below refusing to resolve my 5 month old complaint, this is my last warning to you. If you give me back what I have shown you you deceived me over and stole from me, I will start a bouycout of your company, and I will blog about it and unite with others online for the ultimate purpose of driving you out of business. Consider yourself warned. This record will never go away. Are you ready to see this snowball?
Sincerely,
Sky
HERTZ FILE GW4611/038
1 message
Hertz Customer Service:
Do you know that there are currently 63 pages on google that come up on a search limited to "Hertz hurts" in quotes? Hertz ripped me off. Hertz deceived me, pulled off some kind of fine print scan quoting on charge and then withdrawing hundreds of dollars more from my account. Hertz hurt me too. Hertz, in response to your latest email below refusing to resolve my 5 month old complaint, this is my last warning to you. If you give me back what I have shown you you deceived me over and stole from me, I will start a bouycout of your company, and I will blog about it and unite with others online for the ultimate purpose of driving you out of business. Consider yourself warned. This record will never go away. Are you ready to see this snowball?
Sincerely,
Sky
HERTZ FILE GW4611/038
1 message
No More Limited Liabilities
The Old Corporate Concept is DEAD. After the agricultural revolution, there was the industrial revolution. After the industrial revolution, there is now a communication revolution. Corporations beware. Cease and desist with your old parasitic ways or cease to exist. You have no other option. These are the only two paths that lay before you in the woods. You decide. You have a new kind of profitability to worry about now. You have to worry about how well you FIT IN through mutualistic symbiosis. In the age of communication, where everybody can share every experience with everyone, you are accountable for everything. Hit and run rip offs won't work for you any more. Heard of www.ripoffreport.com? That's just the beginning. Your new reality is that now, even though you can rip off and run, you can't hide. If you don't "fit in" now mutualistically now, you no longer have any competitive fitness. In this new flat world, the most competitive is the most cooperative. You cooperate or you opt out--out of the whole internet united world social ecosystem. It's game over on your limited liability scam.
Limited liabilities, we have news for you: Meet limitless communication.
Protestors unite! Anonymous peoples of the internet seeking justice unite! We are the hive. So called Limited Liability Companies (LLC's) beware. Like ants, if you step on us, we will leave a patch of scent around your crime, and you will see the storm of the swarm. We will put our other collective foot down now. You have had your way with us using us and abusing us long enough. We don't need to throw bombs at you. We don't need to sue you. We don't need to "hit" you back. We will in fact destroy you peacefully by turning our other cheeks on you. This is the simple reality. We only need to do one thing to rid ourselves of you now: we only need to turn are backs on you publically. As we put both feet down walking away from you, the last thing you will see as you slip down the hill of of history into obsolescence will be the empty back pockets of pants of the masses that you have picked for far to long, as we turn those hind cheeks towards you as we march away from you. The reason that this will happen to the users and abusers who thought their liabilities were limited is simple because the age of communication is judgement day. Everyone and no one is your judge. The hive is alive, and virtue will now begin to reign for the common good. Don't dare compete or bet against the commoner who is part of the commons. Everything and everyone will be rewarded or punished for their works whether they be cooperative and for the collective or against it.
Are you ready for judgement day?
Limited liabilities, we have news for you: Meet limitless communication.
Protestors unite! Anonymous peoples of the internet seeking justice unite! We are the hive. So called Limited Liability Companies (LLC's) beware. Like ants, if you step on us, we will leave a patch of scent around your crime, and you will see the storm of the swarm. We will put our other collective foot down now. You have had your way with us using us and abusing us long enough. We don't need to throw bombs at you. We don't need to sue you. We don't need to "hit" you back. We will in fact destroy you peacefully by turning our other cheeks on you. This is the simple reality. We only need to do one thing to rid ourselves of you now: we only need to turn are backs on you publically. As we put both feet down walking away from you, the last thing you will see as you slip down the hill of of history into obsolescence will be the empty back pockets of pants of the masses that you have picked for far to long, as we turn those hind cheeks towards you as we march away from you. The reason that this will happen to the users and abusers who thought their liabilities were limited is simple because the age of communication is judgement day. Everyone and no one is your judge. The hive is alive, and virtue will now begin to reign for the common good. Don't dare compete or bet against the commoner who is part of the commons. Everything and everyone will be rewarded or punished for their works whether they be cooperative and for the collective or against it.
Are you ready for judgement day?
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