My Nightmare Experience With RSUs

Oh, Wells Fargo… why do I put up with the abuse?  Why do I… 

In my previous post you learned about what RSUs are and how mine are set up.  Now, I’m going to tell you the frustrating story of my battle to access the money that was mine. 

Yep, welcome to a Q-FI bitch-fest… 

There are two days during the year that I get excited regarding money: April 15^th I get my variable comp and July 1^st my restricted stock options vest.   And yes, July 1^st 2020 just passed 25 days ago as of this writing Saturday morning. 

In addition, July 1^st also marked the first time my initial tranche of RSU restrictions would be lifted.  Cha-ching!  So, when that day finally hit last month, I pulled out my contracts to refresh myself on the process to transfer these shares to my own personal brokerage account.  The instructions were simple enough, link a checking account and your brokerage account.  So I went through the necessary process, received all the confirmations that my accounts were linked and headed to the transfer page. 

Hmmmmm… I scratched my head.  That’s funny, there’s no option to transfer the stock units, it only says I can sell them.  After refreshing the screen a couple times, I decided to stop wasting my time and just call customer service.  The woman who answered had a very cool British accent and graciously said she’d walk me through exactly what to do.  But, when we got to the transfer page, she was stumped too.  There was no option to transfer.  After being on hold awhile, she finally got back to me and advised I needed to talk to my administrator (my company) directly. 

Receiving this news, sent tremors of fear throughout my body.  My company’s HR department is beyond terrible.  I have yet to have one question answered by them and always have to look up policies on my own.  But, I didn’t have a choice.  After being redirected by three HR people I was finally transferred to our director of compensation for the US.  Unfortunately, since I mentioned in Part I, my RSUs are on a foreign stock exchange, so he directed me to our Long-Term Benefits Advisor in said country. 

And I’ll pause here to say that this guy was great.  This was my first experience with superb customer service at my company and I was beyond impressed.  Too bad he wasn’t in the US – maybe that has something to do with why he was so great!  Hahaha.  I don’t know.  Let’s call him Fernando. 

Fernando tells me, that in order to transfer my units, they first must be converted to ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) so that they can trade on the NYSE.  He sends me a spread sheet to fill out with my accounts and advises there will be a small fee to complete the process.  And of course, the only way to pay this small fee is to wire the money to the transfer agent.  Hahahaha.  So, I had to transact a $30 wire to pay a $27 conversion fee.  Once again, our banking system is fucking amazing.  Yes, wall street are some shady ass bastards when it comes to nickel and diming you with their conveniently profitable inefficiencies. 

Okay, so more hoops to jump through – no problem.  I’m motivated to get this shit done. 

Quickly I send the spreadsheet back to Fernando and painfully wire my transaction fee.  The entire process takes a week and then next Monday I get my email from the transfer agent that the shares have been delivered to my brokerage and I need to verify receipt. 

I’m beyond excited.  Here we go!  I finally get my money!  

And then the world fell apart… 

(Deep exhalation and sigh).  My broker is Wells Fargo.  They have been in the news fairly often lately for how bad of a company they are.  And as a longtime client of theirs, yes, they suck.  But moving significant assets from one company to another takes time and effort.  So even though I’ve never been relatively happy with their service, they never fucked anything up too bad that warranted a full separation of business… until now. 

If you take one thing away from this article, never use Wells Fargo as your broker… never! 

Let’s preface with Wells Fargo’s customer service structure: 

For their brokerage arm, Wells Fargo Advisors, they have one call center that puts you in a queue.  When you finally get a rep to speak to, they have no number for you to call them back at or email.  After you hang up with them, if you need further help, you call in again and start the process all over again with a new rep.  Each time you need to explain your situation as if it is the first time they are dealing with it.  It’s as if Wells Fargo set up the perfect structure to make sure your problem never gets solved. 

(The no email part is almost more critical than the no call back number.  When I’m trying to show them the SWIFT receipt of the transfer, as my transfer agent is advising me – you can’t!  They only receive faxes, and that’s official faxed forms… not faxes of emails for them to help you with.) 

And I’m not blaming the customer service reps here, they are just doing their job. I’m blaming Wells Fargo for trying to screw its customers with such an outsourced and ridiculous customer service system. 

Back to my story, prior to Fernando transferring my shares, I called Wells Fargo and walked them through the situation.  They told me, no problem, your transfer agent will call our back office and they’ll process the transaction, all you need is the institution, unit amount and DTC Code. 

Perfect, I thought to myself.  This is in the bag.  Wow, Wells is really coming through this time. 

So, when I called Wells Fargo on Monday afternoon to verify the transfer, they told me there was no incoming trade.  The transfer agent must not have sent it. 

And this is when the merry-go round began.  The problem had nothing to do with my tricky RSUs.  They had been converted to ADRs and all Wells Fargo had to do was accept a simple broker transfer.  Nothing less, nothing more. 

After many calls back and forth between Fernando and Wells Fargo customer service, it was apparent my dilemma wouldn’t be solved any time soon.  First the trade didn’t match, then I needed this form, then the transfer agent didn’t fill out the DTC trade correctly.  It was fucking insane. 

It’s the first time, in a very long time, besides addiction, that I have felt that terrible feeling of utter helplessness.  I keep calling, I keep getting different answers.  No sir, there is no manager to talk to.  No sir, you cannot speak directly to the clearing agent.  No sir, you cannot speak directly to the back office.  And the worst part, is I’m trying to give Wells my money, my business.  This is only benefiting them, yet they just keep fucking me.  It’s almost as if they are unconsciously begging me to take my business elsewhere. 

It felt like it would never end.  And at this point, I’m feeling more and more pathetic as the transfer agent keeps delivering the shares that are rejected.  They tell me they’ve never had a problem with this before.  I can’t tell you how embarrassing it is to have them keep asking you to accept the transfer on your own money.  Hahahaha.  Eventually they must think you’re a fucking idiot and beyond incompetent. 

I’ll leave the Wells catastrophe at that. 

After two more weeks of calling Wells Fargo daily, 2-3 hour of hold time, dropped calls and then starting the process again, 13 different customer service reps, countless calls and emails to the clearing agent (First Clearing LLC – Well’s subsidiary, of course) that never responded once, filling out 3 different forms that never worked… the transaction finally went through. 

The miracle happened.  How? – you’re on the edge of your seat wondering? 

I actually don’t know. 

After six of the previous exact same conversations with the Wells rep going back and forth with the back office (which I’m holding back another tirade on, who the fuck are these mysterious bullshit back office mother fuckers?  And why can’t you talk to them?  It’s like some behind the curtain Wizard of OZ shit!), I’m advised – “Sir, your transfer will go through.  Please give it one business day to settle.” 

I pause, I’m in shock.  “You mean it was accepted… you finally accepted the transfer?”  I stammered breathlessly. 

“Yes,” was all she replied.  “Is there anything I can help you with?” 

“No,” I answered happily, as if the Sun had just emerged from behind clouds.  “You are the 13^th customer service rep I have talked to.  And you just solved my unsolvable problem.  Thank you.” 

When it came to the poor customer service reps, I did my best to be as cordial as I could.  But once you’re on hold for over two hours and you get disconnected and have to explain your situation all over again to a new rep, it is hard not to be snippy.  I’m usually a pretty patient guy and very respectful, but I caught myself a couple times feeling that anger boil over.  But I always apologized at the end of each conversation if any of my frustration bled through the phone.  I know it’s not them, they aren’t my problem, it’s the company, my shittier than shit brokerage – Wells Fargo Advisors. 

In the end, this truly is a failed customer service and broker problem, not RSUs.  But it was one of those learning experiences that I hope no one else ever has to go through.  Unfortunately, with customer service almost dead in America, I’m not that optimistic. 

‘Til next time. 

-Q-FI 

— 

P.S. Ever go through a fucking customer service nightmare like this?  When you constantly get the runaround and there’s no end in sight?  I never realized how much it can crush you and take the wind right out of your sails.