Wells Fargo is in the news because their excessive sales
pressure lead bankers to open over 2 million fraudulent accounts.
They have fired over 5300 employees for opening these accounts and
have been fined a measly (in comparison to their
revenue)
Chip used to work for Wells Fargo and had the same job as many
of these fired employees. He was NOT fired from Wells Fargo AND DID
NOT open any accounts that were not consented to by the employees.
He was a teller, personal banker and CSSR during his time at Wells
Fargo.
Cern said Chip was always hating his job at Wells Fargo
because of the excessive sales pressure and because Chip would
always preform at the minimum in order to hit his goals and get the
bonus.
Chip took the personal banker to heart and actually acted in
the personal interest of the customers. He had all his friends and
family ready to sign up accounts because of the service he
provided.
Wells Fargo had tiers of performance, Bronze, Silver and Gold.
For example your goal for “keeping your job” as Wells Fargo mangers
put it would be 6 solutions. Bronze would be 7, Silver 8 and Gold
10 solutions. A solution was Wells Fargo speak for a product. A
checking account was one solution, a debit card was another, a
credit card was a 3rd. So the average number of productions a
person would have would be about 5-7. Checking and savings account,
online banking, debit card and maybe a credit card. Some customers
would have their mortgage and/or a line of credit which is where
you would see some people with 7 products.
Cern brings up a good point that if you are younger and
looking for a career path you would be hard pressed to find anyone
who would actually recommend doing sales. Extremely high pressure
and a real “what have you done for me lately" type of
attitude.
John Stumpf was put to task by Senator Elizabeth Warren. That
video and link is
here.
According to Chip when a customer would come to your desk the
manager would put extreme pressure to take advantage of that
customer to maximize the amount of products/solutions that you get.
Sometimes that would even go as far as the manager standing over
your shoulder while you were talking with the customer or setting
up the account. Wells Fargo goal was always constantly increase the
amount of products a customer has. Cross selling was the term that
they used.
You don’t want to have a job where when you wake up you are
thinking how bad your life is because you have to go to work. Wells
Fargo’s sales pressure made Chip really dislike the job.
At Chip’s branch there would be some people were so over the
top with the shady practices. Chip would know certain customers
were unable to really manage one checking account let alone much
else and if they went to another banker they would open them
"secondary accounts to help them manage their money better,” which
was complete bull shit and within a month or two that account would
be closed because of overdrafts or lack of funds in the
account.
Lots of these accounts wasn’t the right thing by the customer
and Chip never really could go against that. Many times when Chip
would open just a checking account the manger would come over after
the customer had left and ask why there wasn’t a savings account
setup. Chip would explain that they didn’t want one or whatever the
reason and the manager would tell him he needed to call the
customer back and get that savings account. They didn’t care if he
had to stay overtime at work or stay until 7pm to get the account
or hit his daily numbers.
Cern tells a story of when Tony and him came down for Chip’s
birthday and they saved up for a bottle of Dom Perignon and
Wild Turkey. They beat Chip home and when he got to the door he
just said “rough day” because he had to stay an extra hour or more
at work trying to get the numbers. Chip was so bummed out that on
his birthday he was forced to stay longer.
Internally at Wells Fargo they kept preaching “customer first,
do what is right by the customer” all Wells Fargo employees knew
this was complete bull shit because the managers would be spitting
fire on you if you didn’t get your number of accounts no matter
what the customer’s situation was. Wells Fargo always said the more
products the better the customer was.
Trying to get customers to refinance their auto loan when
Wells Fargo’s rates were 5 basis points higher was a common thing
managers would try to have you do.
Stumpf, the Wells Fargo CEO, was put to task said the 5300
employees were lone actors acting on their own accord, not from the
sales pressure.
The constant script was to get your numbers no matter what. If
you were short one day the mangers would threaten to make you stay
and cold call until you got your numbers.
The thing about Wells Fargo, that Chip noticed as an ex
employee there, was that the people that did the most unethical,
shady practices were PROMOTED.
Chip recalls a story on when he had to call HR because of some
extremely “shady shit” was happening. Chip saw a banker lean over
the desk, with no customer in sight, and sign the pin pad which is
what you did when you would open a new account. This same banker
even set up a person’s PIN with no customer in sight. Two weeks
later after this call, nothing has happened and that employee was
actually promoted.
According to CNNMoney "
One former Wells Fargo human resources official even
said the bank had a method in place to retaliate against tipsters.
He said that Wells Fargo would find ways to fire employees “in
retaliation for shining light” on sales issues. It could be as
simple as monitoring the employee to find a fault, like showing up
a few minutes late on several occasions.
“If this person was supposed to be at the branch at 8:30 a.m.
and they showed up at 8:32 a.m, they would fire them,” the former
human resources official told CNNMoney, on the condition he remain
anonymous out of fear for his career.
According to this article some employees even emailed the CEO
to make him privy to the illegal tactics that was happing inside of
these branches.
During the time when Stumpf was CEO he made $200 million when
this “scam”was going on. Chip highly recommends watching Elizabeth
Warren lay into the CEO. She made the great point that if a teller
grabbed some $20’s when he was employed he would be fired and in
jail. Stumpf stole $200 MILLION and nothing negative has
happened.
Congress needs to make an example of Stumpf for this because a
vast majority of white collar executive crimes go unpunished. Cern
does think that it would cause a short term improvement with the
banking industry.
Chip was very excited when he got to put his notice in to
quit. He wanted to spend money to get a marching band to march
through shouting “I QUIT, I QUIT."
Less than a week after Chip quit he closed all his Wells Fargo
accounts because he knew all the inside dirt. All Wells Fargo
employees did the same thing.
Chip said he would rather work retail during holidays slinging
iPhone than selling checking accounts at Wells Fargo.
How is Wells Fargo going to repay these illegal accounts? How
do you put a number on it? Your credit score is lower, you have a
tarnished record and even worse you lost your job.
Literally everyday new articles are coming out about new
issues with Wells Fargo. There is now a class action law suit for
2.9 BILLION against Wells Fargo.
Cern and Tony would be down in San Francisco almost every week
so he would see how bummed out Chip was all the time and stressed.
Chip was drinking more often, over eating and generally had a lower
quality of life.
Chip is at a job now where he is happy to show up everyday. He
likes the people he works with, for and is happy to be working
there. Yes there is still stressful times, but it is such a better
environment.
Chip thinks that the fine against Wells Fargo wasn’t enough.
The fine needs to hurt Wells Fargo. 100% of the reports that are
coming out have rang true to Chip, every single one. People who
broke the rules were promoted or moved to a different branch, never
in 5 years did Chip see anyone who broke the rules get fired. Chip
has seen some shady ass shit in his days at Wells Fargo.
If you are going to subpoena Chip please give a shout out to
Chip and Cern Show cause we could really use the plug. If you have
any questions for Chip or Cern email
chipandcernshow@gmail.com
The branch managers, as Chip confirms, were mostly aware of
everything that was going on. The district managers were more than
likely aware of the activities.
This was a therapy session for Chip about his Wells Fargo
days. It was good that Chip now knows what a real miserable job is
like. Cern closed all his Wells Fargo accounts when Chip left
because he was his banker.
Jump into January was a massive deal for Wells Fargo. They
would force you to have 10 members of your friends and family open
new accounts every year. There are too many stories to get into and
it would take 2 hours to tell them all.
If you worked for Wells Fargo and want to vent to us Tweet us
at @chipandcernshow or on Facebook at Chip and Cern
Show.
Cern has been going hog wild on the Twitter account retweeting
Rams’ tweets.