My experience calling Wells Fargo was quite odd. Eventually, I was able to talk to a customer service representative, but it took me a while to get to one, and the phone map was really weird. I didn't have my bank account number handy since I was driving, which may have been half of the problem. I think that if I did have it available, it would have streamlined the process, but I still feel like they could have identified me in better ways.
I imagine that a lot of people call Wells Fargo on a regular basis. Between loans, savings accounts, bank accounts, retirement accounts, mortgages, etc, there are a lot of reasons why people would call Wells Fargo. Therefore, I would have been okay with waiting on hold for a while, which is actually why I called while I was driving. I knew that I would be stuck in the car during my commute, so I might as well sit on hold. I just didn't realize I would have to navigate through the menu so much. I wanted to talk to someone about the interest charges on my car loan. I thought that was already calculated when I took the loan, but that is not what it looks like now.
I actually never even had a chance to choose a car loan as an option, which is also curious, but nevertheless, I was able to get there eventually. This may be in part because my loan was secured through the dealer but is still a Wells Fargo loan.
When I first called, I had the standard welcome message and then a message about the call being monitored. It then asked me to say my card number followed by the pound sign. I told it that I don't have the card, and it repeated the same message so I said the same thing. Then, it repeated back to me, "I think you said you don’t have your credit card number handy. Is that right? " I said, "Yes," and it repeated the same thing, which was frustrating.
The second time it seemed to register it and said, "If you aren’t sure where to find your account number, I can help you. It can be found on the front of your card number or on the bottom of your bank statement. Now, if you have the number, please say it; however, if you still don’t have it, then say, banker." I said, "banker," and it once again ignored me and repeated the message a second time before catching it.
Once it caught my answer, it asked what I was calling about, and I said, "customer service," and then, it launched into a message about how this was an attempt to collect a debt. That was very weird, but the next thing it did was finally put me on hold. They need to iron out some kinks with their virtual assistant, but I did eventually get to a live person, and the hold time was only about 10 minutes.