Wells Fargo: Agree Now or Else

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

David Lazarus of the San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting piece today about a surprise Wells Fargo online customers had this week when logging into their accounts on the Internet. They were presented with an online access agreement, consisting of 11,000 words, that they had to accept before they would be able to login again. Many apparently accepted simply because they felt they had no choice — they wanted to get into their accounts. Few, if any, took the time to read the 11,000 word document (which of course was full of legalese).

Many customers reading through the initial screens (not through the whole document) felt it was a fairly oppressive change, though it you read the full article, it’s clear it’s not as bad as it seemed. But Wells Fargo has been inundated by customers calling in about the agreement, and many are upset about how it was handled rather than the actual content.

“Who has the time to sift through 11,000 words?” responded (Mark) Wiker, who works for a San Francisco law firm. “Nobody does. A summary would have been nice.” For Jesse Dunn, a San Francisco Web developer, what really rankled was the way Wells just sprang the two documents on customers. There was no prior notice, no grace period in which the contracts could be considered. “It was just waiting for people when they tried to log in,” Dunn said. “You either accepted or you couldn’t access your accounts.” Source: SF Gate

We Say: Most of the changes are not surprising or especially onerous, so in reality this is not as big a deal as people originally thought, but I agree — a little warning would be nice. When my bank (not Wells Fargo) has made announcements or changes in the past, it has always communicated via email and or snail mail that such a change would be upcoming, as well as summarizing the full change in the communication.