Wells Fargo says customers gave up right to sue by having signatures forged
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Re: Wells Fargo says customers gave up right to sue by having signatures forged
#2Outrageous! This is like a software company which pushes unwanted OS upgrades on its customers and then hides behind customers agreeing to a nag-screen exploding "offer" when the upgrade bricks some of the previously fine computers. Thankfully we in the software business don't have to worry about such things, because we are above such tactics.
All you little people, its really your fault for being such small fry...
Re: Wells Fargo says customers gave up right to sue by having signatures forged
#3Despite the histrionics of this article, its actually an interesting question from a legal perspective. In the case of an account the customer never agreed to open - are they bound by the agreement which opened their primary account, or is there no legal agreement in place?
Assuming the original arbitration clause covered the entire business relationship - not just matters specific to the account opened at signing then it ultimately is a question of whether the fraudulent account is a new business "relationship".
Re: Wells Fargo says customers gave up right to sue by having signatures forged
#4Despite the histrionics of this article, its actually an interesting question from a legal perspective. In the case of an account the customer never agreed to open - are they bound by the agreement which opened their primary account, or is there no legal agreement in place? Assuming the original arbitration clause covered the entire business relationship - not just matters specific to the account opened at signing th…
TIL histrionic (it looked like a misspelling)
histrionic
ˌhɪstrɪˈɒnɪk
noun
plural noun: histrionics
1. melodramatic behaviour designed to attract attention.
"by now, Anna was accustomed to her mother's histrionics" synonyms: dramatics, drama, theatrics, theatricality, tantrums
archaic
dramatic performances; the theatre.
"he loved the theatre and everything which savoured of histrionics"
2. archaic an actor.
Re: Wells Fargo says customers gave up right to sue by having signatures forged
#5Despite the histrionics of this article, its actually an interesting question from a legal perspective. In the case of an account the customer never agreed to open - are they bound by the agreement which opened their primary account, or is there no legal agreement in place? Assuming the original arbitration clause covered the entire business relationship - not just matters specific to the account opened at signing th…
How is it "histrionics"?
"are they bound by the agreement which opened their primary account, or is there no legal agreement in place?"
How can you be bound by things you never agreed to?
"We signed you up for more services, but because you said yes once that means you are always ours."
Re: Wells Fargo says customers gave up right to sue by having signatures forged
#6[deleted]
Re: Wells Fargo says customers gave up right to sue by having signatures forged
#7Despite the histrionics of this article, its actually an interesting question from a legal perspective. In the case of an account the customer never agreed to open - are they bound by the agreement which opened their primary account, or is there no legal agreement in place? Assuming the original arbitration clause covered the entire business relationship - not just matters specific to the account opened at signing th…
How is it "histrionics"? "are they bound by the agreement which opened their primary account, or is there no legal agreement in place?" How can you be bound by things you never agreed to? "We signed you up for more services, but because you said yes once that means you are always ours."
I think the argument (speculating - the article isn't clear on this) is that the customers were bound to that agreement when they legitimately opened their first account.
I agree that the article sounds like histrionics because it doesn't explain the situation clearly. The article makes it sound like the customers are being bound somehow based on their forged signatures, which sounds like hogwash to me.
My suspicion is that the customers were bound to this term by opening their original account -- or at least, that's Wells Fargo's argument. The legal debate seems to be about whether the terms of service signed by the customer at that time would prevent them from suing over the additional fraudulent accounts. Basically, whether those terms of service apply to that situation or not.
Re: Wells Fargo says customers gave up right to sue by having signatures forged
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is it "histrionics"? "are they bound by the agreement which opened their primary account, or is there no legal agreement in place?" How can you be bound by things you never agreed to? "We signed you up for more services, but because you said yes once that means you are always ours."
I think the argument (speculating - the article isn't clear on this) is that the customers were bound to that agreement when they legitimately opened their first account. I agree that the article sounds like histrionics because it doesn't explain the situation clearly. The article makes it sound like the customers are being bound somehow based on their forged signatures, which sounds like hogwash to me. My suspicion…
I'm a bit of a numbskull when it comes to legal matters, but wouldn't any previous agreement between the bank and its customer become null and void when the bank willfully and egregiously commits criminal acts by forging signatures and signing them up for services they didn't agree to?
For me, this is one of the scariest issues USA faces, a de facto loss to right of trial via binding arbitation
Re: Wells Fargo says customers gave up right to sue by having signatures forged
#9The Boing Boing article basically quotes this Reuters article, so I think the Reuters one should be the one linked as it is the source and is more in-depth:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-wellsfargo-accounts-lawsui...
Re: Wells Fargo says customers gave up right to sue by having signatures forged
#10There is an obvious legal gap at work here and it isnt just wells fargo exploiting it.
Once a business has your info on file they can effectively open additional accounts or services for you at will. It can be difficult to seek any sort of remedy because it would be hard to prove damages except in extreme cases.