Dear Wells Fargo

I am not banking w/you because I chose you.  You bought Wachovia, who bought SouthTrust, where I banked when I first moved to GA.

I like the local branch in Kennesaw GA, now and back when it was Wachovia, and SouthTrust before that.

But I am doubting your wisdom.

I have worked in financial services now for 1.5 decades.  I have done so previously in my 5 decade career in IT.  I am an investor, including several financial/financial services firms, and have been for over 4 decades.  At the moment, that part of my portfolio is overallocated.

1. I got an email from your head of mortgages.  This is right off a bit dodgy.  But to send an email w/a link to a website that is not identifiable from the URL as a Wells Fargo website is just stupid.  I don't think you want to encourage your customers to do risky things, do you?  You don't want them to become victims of identity theft, do you? Well, taking unverified links can lead just to that.  Someone should go to either a timeout, the dog house, or the penalty box.  Someone who understands compliance and information security should have vetted that email.  And responsibility should be taken at a higher level rather a lower level.


2. I have a number of accounts w/y'all.  I received notice from you that you were changing your service fee policy.  I understand this.  Congress nailed issuers of debit cards and you lost a considerable amount of income.  But:
   
   At least 4 decades ago, banks automated customer relationship management by inventing CIF applications, which tied information about all accounts in the relationship together.  One of the benefits of this was to be able to calculate the profitability of the relationship, instead of just the accounts, something intelligent bankers once did by hand.  This allowed identification of profitable relationships, which hopefully WF still sees as a desirable goal.
   
   From what I have learned from the helpful people at the branch and your letters to me is that you seem to have abandoned that idea.  While helpful people found a way around the problem (techie nerds like myself call this a work around - others might call it a jury rig, or something unprintable and unmentionable), is this any way to run a bank?  Most institutions today are trying strengthen customer relationships, e.g by cross selling other products.  You have sold me 4 of your products, multiples of some.  They have been useful in solving challenges in various parts of my life.

For now I am still a customer.  You admirably have made less stupid mistakes than your larger competitors. And banks I might have used are not available to me to use.  But I think I can rule you out as an investment and will not recommend you to others as same.

I would say good luck but you know you need more than luck these days.

So be very careful out there in the jungle that is the world.

Sincerely yours

thePup