Wednesday May 9th. 11:00 a.m. Arrived in San Luis Obispo with my
friend Melanie, a veteran, and my service dog Raphael accompanying me. Parked in
the lot of Wells Fargo Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, 665 Broad Street,
San Luis Obispo, California 93401. Occupy SLO was conspicuously absent; perhaps
they no longer exist. Down the street, two men were setting up a KSBY-TV camera.
We approached these cameramen who then asked me for a short interview. I was
more than happy to comply.
Again they filmed the large, bound petition book I
was carrying, and asked many questions about Change.Org. I told them how
supportive Change.Org’s staff had been to me, but I re-emphasized that these
opinions of Wells Fargo were my own, not those of Change.Org. I explained that Change.Org
only provides a platform and voice for me and the thousands of others who
signed up with them. Then KSBY-TV supposedly filmed us walking into the front
doors of the bank, but instead filmed another woman walking into the side door.
This weakened the spot on the local 6:00 news. Still, I was grateful for the coverage.
11:35 a.m. Melanie, Raphael and I entered Wells Fargo Bank.
As we looked around for the staircase to the Home Mortgage Division on the
second floor, a man in a suit politely approached us and asked if he could help
us. I saw right away he was waiting for us. He introduced himself as Mark
Corella, the district manager for the Central Coast Market.
Ah, see there! I hadn’t known the Central Coast was a
“market” for Wells Fargo. Silly me; I’d thought this was a geographic area.
Mr. Corella told me that he and the branch president, Mike
Henson, had been waiting for us. Mr. Henson arrived and shook my hand. Both men
escorted me and my companions upstairs where we were invited into a conference
room to sit down and talk. On my way up the sweeping staircase, I observed that
the building’s interior was round with a domed roof, along the Byzantine
architectural style of cathedrals, temples, and mosques. A fitting sanctuary, I
mused, for the altar of the almighty dollar.
Melanie noticed that the mortgage department, which took up
the whole second floor, was bereft of customers that day. Interesting. Keeping
the children out of the busy street?
Both men immediately expressed great sorrow at the fact that
I had suffered so much at the hands of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, and begged to
hear my story. Mr. Corella seemed especially sympathetic, and claimed he had
“no idea” this was going on in his community until he saw the newscast on KSBY
the night before.
(Scary, huh?)
To their credit, the men tried to make me feel welcome and
comfortable. Before I launched into my story, I let them know that I was aware
that Mr. Henson’s domain was generating new mortgages and not dealing
with loan modifications. However, I softly chided them, this has been a sore issue:
The ironically named “Home Preservation Department” is a warehouse of, I
suspect, temporary, untrained employees without face-to-face presence. But I
was here demanding that the bank
sit up and pay attention to this issue face-to-face, i.e., this issue of
endless runarounds, bad faith, dual-tracking, lies.
They asked if they could look at the petition, and I told
them, “Here! It’s yours. This is what I am presenting today.” They were quite
astonished to see so many signatures from all around the country and, I pray,
embarrassed.
From about 11:45 to 12:30, I spoke, telling them every
detail I could squeeze in, and how I was shafted by the bank at every turn.
Both Corella and Henson appeared to listen attentively. I explained about how I
had so far received good media attention, much of it from the almost 17K
signatures.
I recounted some examples of other people’s miserable
experiences with Wells Fargo, and that many were horrific and morally repugnant
(not to mention criminal, but this was not a tribunal. Yet.) I explained how
the banks had created this economic downfall to begin with and had unleashed an
American tragedy. These Wells Fargo representatives could hardly believe their
ears because “we always try to help people and do the best for our customers—and
our community right here in San Luis Obispo.”
To this form of dangerous and willful ignorance, I suggested
that first, they drive around and see the empty houses in their community; and second, they pay more attention to the
walloping the WF Brand is getting on the Internet and in other media. “Oh, not
just from me but from thousands of customers—and, uh, former customers,”
I drawled sweetly.
Near the end, Mr. Henson asked what they could do to help
me.
Someone suggested that he call the Executive offices in Des
Moines to see if he could bring attention to this matter. At that I reeled off
the names of people in that executive office I had spoken to in the past, and
how they no longer answered my calls or returned my messages, at least as of
March. Yes, even Ms. Dawn Nelson, from the Media Division, who chatted so
amiably with me and insisted I reapply for a loan mod. Ms. Nelson recited all
the perfect formulaic hogwash previously spewed at me, such as how she would
“be there” for me and serve as my exclusive point of contact, and how she would
help me with the new application, and so on.
Okay. Now let’s break and try out your psychic abilities:
How many times since that call do you think Ms. Nelson talked to me or even
returned my calls? Yes, by golly, zero times. How many times did I call leaving
frustrated messages only to hear that Ms. Nelson was “out of the office” for
weeks on end? Bingo! Yes, every time.
After this, Mr. Henson declared that I had ventured closer
to the President’s Office than any of them ever had. I told them that was
thanks to my enlisting the help of U.S. Congresswoman Lois Capps’ office. As to my attempts to open a case with the
OCC, that was a waste of time. The OCC, not surprisingly, did nothing but stick
up for Wells Fargo and tell me that WF did not have to follow any regulations. No, those OCC
“regulations” I was quoting, the OCC person told me, were really only guidelines, for did I not know that “the
banks can do what they want?”
Do I know that. Ya think? That’s exactly what I’m fighting
to change.
The meeting with Corella and Henson ended by Mr. Henson
promising to contact the executive offices in Des Moines, send them the petition,
and let them know they I had spoken with them, and as a result, they, Henson
and Corella, wanted to try and help me succeed in obtaining this loan
modification. Henson frankly admitted that it would probably do no good as he
was “small fry,” but at least he was willing to try.
Back in the car, I asked Melanie’s opinion. Melanie is a U.S. Marine veteran with her feet squarely on the ground, so her opinion counts.
“A game of
Klingon Boggle would prove more productive," she sighed. "Seems like the same dog-and-pony
act from what you described before: they’re nice, they listen, they do
absolutely nothing.”
“Then, while they have you on infinite hold, they send the
foreclosure attorneys out. Don’t forget that step.”
“Even in there, I was worried that the nice guys in suits
might just be shape-shifters and any minute would revert to their true form of
cosmic gases.”
“Oh, Melanie. Don’t be so unkind. I’m sure Star Trek
does not want to be associated with…such…deceptive practices.”
Friday May 14, 2012. Not
a word from Wells Fargo in SLO, a word like, “I phoned the executive offices in
Des Moines but they will be closed for three months while renovations and
remodeling take place. I’ll try back in early September.”
I couldn’t stand it, so I phoned Mark Corella, the more
sympathetic one. He answered, but seemed very surprised to hear from me.
“Uh..oh…Maria!” he exclaimed. “Uh,
remember I said that mortgages were not my area? I gave your case to Mike
Henson to take care of.”
“Well, then let me speak to
Mike, please.”
“He’s not here.”
“Aha. Where might he be?”
“Well, he and his whole group
are out of town. In a training session. Yes, they are all in Santa Barbara at a
training session. I won’t see him till Monday morning or so.”
“Can you at least tell him I
called? Give him a message?”
“Yes, sure. In fact I’ll call
him right now on his cell phone. But—he probably won’t be able to get back to
me. But I’ll try. I know before he left he did send some emails to the
executive offices, but I don’t know any more."
A few hours later, Mr. Corella left a message on my home phone stating that he
did indeed put that message on Henson’s cell phone.
Monday, May 14, 2012, 4:44 p.m. No word. No calls. SUPPORTERS: You are WONDERFUL! Couldn’t do
this without you. More updates soon!