Complaint Review: Washington Mutual - Seattle Washington

I want to share my story with anyone who is banking Washington Mutual. If you are like me, and like to be provided with decent customer service WAMU is not that bank. I understand that my situation had a bit of bad luck involved, but there was absolutely NO EXCUSE why they treated me the way they did. Hopefully, hearing my story will make you think twice.

Last summer, someone had hacked into my checking account. They spent my money at big chains like Best Buy, Wal-mart, fast food places, and gas stations just a few hours from where I lived. I noticed the unauthorized charges immediately since I check my account online daily. In one day, they managed to spend over $500.

Immediately, I called WAMU's customer service line to file a report. After waiting for a good half hour, I got a hold of an operator and explained my situation. She told me she was going to transfer me to another line so I can file my report.

I must have waited about 3 hours on the phone listening to some of the worst elevator music and then I heard a click. Yep, the phone got disconnected. I call the customer service line again and wait some more. When I finally got a hold of a operator, I told them I got disconnected when they tried to transfer me and I asked for the phone number directly. She told me that she was 'terribly sorry' and their phones sometimes disconnected people when they try to transfer.

The department she transfers me to must take care of some unusually large number of cases or they are very short-staffed. I waited another several hours to get an operator and was finally able to file the claim. I called WAMU after work around 7pm, and did not get off the phone until 2am. The whole time, I was worried that whoever had hacked my account was still using it! If I had found out while I was at work or school, there would have been no way for me to sit on the phone for that long.

Anyways, the lady told me that she was cancelling my card and sending me a new one. She then told me that WAMU will be investigating my claim and it could take up to 60 days before the money gets credited into my account. I then ask her should I cancel my account and make a new one since my account was hacked? She told me not I didn't need to worry since they were only using my card number.

It did not take more than a week before I noticed another $300+ fradulent charges in my account. I started kicking myself for not listening to my gut and cancelled my account.

I called WAMU again waited another several hours. When I finally reached the person I was suppose to talk to, she tells me that my card was NEVER CANCELLED!! Again, they are 'terribly sorry'. They are cancelling my card right away and sending me a new one.

A couple days later, while paying for groceries with a check since I didn't have my debit card, the check didn't go through. I was very confused since I had enough money in my account. I had sent out several checks to pay my bills which also bounced! It turned out that WAMU had put a hold on my account because I had filed a claim. I would have appreciated it, if they had inform me about this. To this day, WAMU has not reimbursed me for the bounced check fees.

The icing on the cake was when I received my card in the mail. They sent me a regular ATM card, without a Mastercard or Visa logo.

To make a really long story short, I spent the next couple of months calling WAMU when I can. I'm a full-time student and a full-time employee so it was hard to make time when you know filing a complaint takes outrageous amount of time. I ended up making the phone calls when I would go to sleep. I put my phone on speaker and slept with the phone next to my head and I would wake up when someone would go 'Can I have your first and last name?'

Their customer service staff has a lot they can improve on. Most of them have very thick accents so it is difficult to understand them. They do not know how to answer your questions because they are not trained well. They like to answer your with 'i believe so' or 'let me check with my supervisor' (don't let them check, they will put you on hold forever!). Not a definate YES or NO.

Once I asked where I can find my account number on my online account page and the operator when into a 5 minute tangent why they are not allowed to post your account number on your account page. A little bit of looking around on the page, my account number was easily found.

In the end, I eventually got my money back after several weeks. But those bounced checks resulted as late payments on my credit history. I later found out when I bought my Scion. Since I'm only 21 and only have 2 credit cards which I rarely use, I had to call my mom to fax over a sheet to co-sign... more embarrassment.

The manager gave me a number to a credit agency and he told me I can dispute those late payments, but happened to lost the number. Does anyone know more information about this?

And if anyone is curious, I closed my account as soon as my claim was closed. I bank with Wachovia now and used their customer service line a couple of times. I am satisfied with their wait times and seem to be better trained to answer your questions than WAMU.

Clara

Chatsworth, California

U.S.A.

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Washington Mutual