Hello, my name is Erica. I’m a CODA. My mom, dad, aunts, uncle, and cousin all deaf. Today I want to talk about Wells Fargo. A few months ago in July, my family went down to Florida. My mom didn’t know to inform WF we left, so a few days into our trip, WF informed my mom they turned off her credit card for possible fraud and she needs to go into a store to fix. We go in Ft.Walton, I think. My mom goes in alone and I wait in the car. I wait, wait wait. An hour passes, I go in to see what’s up. I go in a room with my mom and a woman on the phone. Woman explains to me the person on the phone said they cannot take off the flag until my mom voices ‘approval.’ I explain “no no no that’s not okay. My mom is not comfortable using her voice. She’s deaf. You know this, she has been with you for 30 years.” They say there’s nothing to do without voice. We argue argue argue but they say can’t do anything without voice. The woman kept apologizing and said this is not right. My mom was upset and embarrassed but she voiced ‘approval.’ Bad experience and frustrating, so my brother is CODA, too, called WF 1800 number.. Person on the phone apologized, “this wasn’t a good experience and I’m sorry. The [previous] person on the phone was not right. We will train our staff better. I’m sorry.” Still frustrated, but okay, fine.
This month in Nov, again happened here in Nebaska–Omaha. My mom went in with new credit card to get turned on, had to go in. The same thing happened person on phone said, ‘we need a voice ‘approval.’ She tried arguing again, saying, “this is not okay, this is not right, you cannot force a Deaf person to speak,” but there was nothing they could do but voice ‘approval.’ Same anger, upset, embarrassment.
This is not okay. I expect more from my bank. I expect more from Wells Fargo.http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7163254
Especially terrible since they did this ad.
(via clatterbane)
