Furious Wells Fargo customers say bank accounts drained, overdrawn by double charges

Some Wells Fargo customers say their bank accounts were drained – and in some cases overdrawn – when their automatic bill pay setups were charged twice for payments.

Livid customers took to Twitter on Wednesday, when the problem appears to have started, to vent their frustration. Some complained of waiting for more than an hour on the phone to speak to a Wells Fargo representative.

“Today is my 9th wedding anniversary. Thanks to your double bill pay gaffe I have almost no money left in my accounts,” one person tweeted. “I also spent over 1.5 hours waiting to speak to someone. Wasted my time.”

Another person wrote, “It's a big mess!!! Double payment of bills. I paid my real estate taxes yesterday on two properties. OMG! Wiped me out and then some. #WellsFargo #fail.”

On Thursday, the company issued an apology on Twitter and said the issue had been resolved.

In a statement to the Observer, Wells Fargo spokeswoman Hilary O’Byrne said the double-billing was caused by an internal processing error that affected some customers.

“The issue was corrected overnight, and customers should now see their correct balances,” she said. “Any fees or charges that may have been incurred as a result of this error will be taken care of.”

It’s the latest problem within Wells Fargo’s community banking business, which was rocked in 2016 by a scandal over unauthorized customer accounts.

Since then, the San Francisco-based company, which has a large presence in Charlotte, has been reeling from a bevy of problems in other business lines, such as mortgage and auto lending.

Here’s a look at what some other customers said about the billing issue on Twitter:

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 9:45 AM with the headline "Furious Wells Fargo customers say bank accounts drained, overdrawn by double charges."