ODU student recoups 30-cent Haiti donation fee

NORFOLK

Disturbed about a small fee tacked onto her donation for earthquake relief in Haiti, Heather Lynn turned first to her bank. Then she turned to Facebook.

The 30-cent fee that Wachovia Bank imposed wasn’t the issue, said Lynn, a fine arts student at Old Dominion University, on Thursday. It was the indifference that she encountered when inquiring about the fee. 

“I called and basically said, 'You’re charging me for a donation to Haiti?’ and the customer service representative said, “Yes,’’’ Lynn recalled. “She didn’t seem concerned at all. ”

Lynn, a 22-year-old Virginia Beach resident, said TV coverage of the devastation in Haiti in mid-January prompted her to make the donation with her debit card. “I could only afford ten bucks, but I wanted to help any way possible,” she said. 

At a cousin’s suggestion, she created a Facebook group calling attention to the 3 percent fee charged on international debit and credit card transactions, and the Wachovia employee’s reaction to her inquiry. The exposure set off a torrent of comments via Facebook, e-mail and coverage by the online news service Huffington Post.

The comments, including those from 3,400 fans who joined the Facebook group, were generally laudatory, Lynn said. One memorable response was: “Young people like you make me happy in my old age,” said Lynn, whose art studies at ODU include concentrations in weaving and ceramics.

The exposure also prompted Wachovia and its parent, Wells Fargo & Co., to look more closely at the fees being paid by other donors to Haitian relief efforts. The banks had waived certain fees for donations to 19 large charitable organizations involved in those efforts, said Aimee Worsley, a Wachovia spokeswoman, on Thursday.  

However, Wachovia and Wells Fargo weren’t aware that Lynn and others who sent contributions overseas were being charged an international service fee, she said.

“It was an oversight,” Worsley said. “We are grateful that she brought it to our attention so we could act on it.” 

Wells Fargo, which is based in San Francisco, acquired Charlotte-based Wachovia in late 2008. Since then it has been gradually consolidating the two companies’ operations.

Lynn said she received an e-mail from a Wells Fargo executive vice president thanking her for calling the banks’ attention to the fee and apologizing for the way her inquiry was treated. 

“When you contacted us, there was a misunderstanding and we mishandled the communication,” wrote Edward Kadletz , head of Wells Fargo Debit and Prepaid Products, in the e-mail.

Lynn said she deleted the Facebook group about a week after learning in early February that Wells Fargo and Wachovia changed their policy on fees for contributions to Haitian relief.  

In his e-mail, Kadletz expressed hope that Wachovia and Wells Fargo “have an opportunity to earn back your trust.”

But it was too late, Lynn said. She already had transferred most of the money in her Wachovia checking account to a new account at Bank of Hampton Roads. She moved to the Norfolk-based bank, she said, because it is a local institution.

Wachovia did send a check for 30 cents to reimburse her for the international service fee. Rather than cash it, she probably will frame it, Lynn said.

Tom Shean, (757) 446-2379, tom.shean@pilotonline.com