Free round-trip tickets came with $1,200 strings attached

Last update: August 2, 2008 - 10:22 PM

In April, Kathryn Hansen was ordering some new checks from Wells Fargo Bank when the agent on the phone made her an offer. Open a home equity line of credit and you'll get two free plane tickets to London. That's easily $1,000 per person, she determined, well worth paying the $275 closing costs for a HELOC, which she was interested in anyway.

Hansen, who lives in St. Paul and works for Target in real estate development, settled on the dates for the trip. Then she learned the tickets came with a condition: you have to pay for a week's stay in a hotel. She and her partner were going to have to stay somewhere anyway, so that was acceptable. Then came the unacceptable.

When Hansen called to make the reservations, the company handling the promotions informed her that she would have to pay $600 per ticket "for taxes and a surcharge." Translation: The free tickets would actually cost $1,200.

"I just couldn't believe what they were telling me," Hansen said.

Hansen did a little investigation, and managed to get Wells Fargo to fax her something that looked like an internal document about the promotional program, which ran from April to June. On page 2 of the three-page document, there it was: "Two Free Round-Trip Airline tickets to Mexico, Hawaii or London with the purchase of accommodations at a participating hotel for 7 nights."

When she had the document, Hansen had the goods. She said a Wells Fargo vice president in California called her, and it was clear that the executive was perturbed that someone had let this paperwork out of the building.

I contacted Wells Fargo to inquire about the situation on Monday. On Wednesday morning, Hansen got a FedEx package from Wells Fargo. Inside were three Visa gift cards totaling $1,250.

"Our folks have been working with her, prior to your call," said Peggy Gunn, a Wells Fargo spokesperson. "There was just a miscommunication about the details of the offer."

Hansen isn't sure she's going to London, since she's not thrilled with her choice of hotels. But she does know something: "It pays to look into things. When something's not right, it's not right. You need to pursue it."

JAMES ELI SHIFFER

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