I just got word that our PPP application for @awfulannouncing was approved. Here is some info on how that went for those interested.

We initially applied the first week through our main bank, Wells Fargo. Six weeks later, that has been a TOTAL disaster (continued....)

Last week Wells Fargo mailed me two different letters (thus far the process had only been done via email).

The first letter asked for documents to be faxed to them which were sent in mid April and they confirmed they had so basically it's beyond a fucking a mess over there.

The second letter I got told me that yes this is going slowly and also my complaint that our application was being discriminated based on race had been investigated and did not have merit. Here is the weird thing....

I never said that. No fucking clue where that came from

Wells Fargo has the whole PPP operation siloed from the rest of the company. I tried my best to get people I know there to checkin or provide some feedback. I kept getting "there is nothing we can do.... Hang in there!"

I'll spare you the amount of business of mine they've had

Wells Fargo basically in 6.5 weeks did absolutely nothing but wants me to know that in no ways is it because they are racist.

Initially, the feedback was DO NOT apply through multiple banks/lenders. This could start a fraud investigation. After more guidance, we said fuck it.

We applied through Paypal as we do a lot of business with them (5 figures in and 5 figures out a month).

Within a week, Paypal replied that we were rejected. It had no info why and never returned any email as to why. They just said, "na" and that was that. No idea why that was.

Someone mentioned BlueVine as an option as they were getting a lot of people approved. I have no idea what BlueVine is tbh but PPP money was dwindling and we were hurting so fuck it, why not?

That was three weeks ago. It was very smooth to apply but 2 weeks of silence since.

Our 4th door (which is a great sign that something is DEFINITELY not working well) was a local bank here in Ohio we use because Wells Fargo does not have a branch here.

I checked twice and they were not doing PPP loans but last week I checked again and now they were

I applied a week ago. It got approved today. I'm told funds hopefully by the weekend. I got an email from AN ACTUAL PERSON saying they got my application and it looked thorough and complete (hard to screw up on your 4th try!) and he'd followup if needed anything THE DAY I APPLIED

This was insanely stressful and by no means are we through the woods here. We'll have to make some more changes to stay viable but I share because a) maybe helpful/insightful for some in similar positions.
b) Large banks are soulless entities who don't care about you at all

The local bank here has maybe 2% of my banking business for ~2 years and made this happen in a week.

I have 5 long standing accounts with Wells Fargo between my business and personal with one of them being a mortgage. For 7 weeks, I was flying my business totally blind.

The PPP is a lifeline to businesses like mine and many others. We needed it....

It's troubling we had to apply with 4 different companies and that Wells Fargo completely failed in every regard imaginable given the long term relationship.

I've learned, I hope you did too