John S.

This repair shop, in Bend, Oregon, specializes in Toyota and Mercedes and the rebadged Dodge Sprinter. They do superb work. They're friendly and professional - and the turnaround is usually pretty quick.

Because I am a long time customer who has navigated what the company offers for a variety of my needs, you may find what I have experienced to be helpful. Some Wells employees and departments have been golden, which is to say very helpful. It reflects well on the company. But others have wasted my time, manifesting either indifference or incompetence.

Wells' investment advisor has been very helpful, often in unexpected ways. Wells' retail bank tellers have been friendly and professional. Their branch supervisors (the bank managers' bosses) have been superb in taking care of pesky customer service issues - but they won't insert themselves between you and Wells' escalation folks (more about them coming up). So I suggest contacting a branch supervisor next, if the branch can't/won't help you. As for the bankers who sit at the desks inside the banks, they have sometimes been very helpful, but they've also sometimes failed to followthrough on commitments.

Next, Wells employees I found pretty useless. Remember, we all have off days - and the Great Recession and the pandemic played havoc with hiring and retaining experienced people. Your results may vary. BTW, I have never had a problem with the creation of fraudulent accounts.

Be all that as it may. I found Wells' corporate call center to be pointless. They were not empowered, nor were they inclined, to solve problems. And I got straight up bad information from them. I don't know why they exist. Like most businesses of any size, Wells also has a corporate customer service escalation department ("Executive Office Case Specialists,"). Unlike most businesses, Wells' escalation folks don't seem to have much discretion to fix stuff. I not only found them useless, but one of them didn't even deign to return calls.

Of course, you can always go to the top. I wrote separate letters to Wells' COO and CEO. Neither responded directly. Rather, they kicked the can down the road to the escalation people who, per above, did nothing.

Lastly, a word about my experience with one of their east coast mortgage writers. He sat on my application for a long time before rejecting it, really putting me in a time bind until my investment advisor came through with a great alternative. The mortgage guy rejected my application w/o realizing that retired people who no longer have a paycheck may qualify on the basis of their unencumbered securities.