Washington Mutual review: Anyone that considers opening accounts with them should beware! 103

OH MY GOD, WHAT ARE PEOPLE LIKE HER DOING IN CUSTOMER SERVICE. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO.
I WORK IN CUSTOMER SERVICE DAILY, AND HAVE ENCOUNTERED PEOPLE LIKE HER AT INS. CO.
NO TRAINING TO DEAL WITH THE PUBLIC. PAID A MINIMUM WAGE, AND THEY COULDN'T CARE LESS WHAT THEY SAY OR DO TO HELP YOU.

I had a mortgage with WashingtonMutual for four years. I have tried to delete PMI, WaMu sent a letter indicating that I must have an appraisal done at my expense. I found an appraiser in my area for $275.00. However, Wamu told me that it is there choice on selecting an appraiser though it's at my expense. So I had to pay $335.00 directly to Wamu. After I followed all guidelines for PMI deletion needless to say Wamu declined to delete this senseless charge. Wamu is a fraud.

We have been with wamu 2+ years and have NEVER been late on a credit bill. We recieved our statement this month at a phenomenol hike in interest rate, our monthly bill went up $120 this month after being respected customers for our length of time. We called to see WHAT happened and why our interest rate was raised and all they could say was that the apr changed and that was it. This is an outrage on these companies and should be handled accordingly. If there is a class action lawsuit count us in. My email is "malindawalsh@embarqmail.com."

I believe there main goal from a corporate level is to cheat anyone who doesnt have funds to fight them. Probable cause for all the class action lawsuits. check it out

I have an idea about how to stop the harassment...leave Washington Mutual. I plan to close my accounts at WaMu within the next couple of weeks because the last couple times I had to call customer service I was obviously calling to a foreign country because I could barely understand the people. Sorry but I don't want to have to deal with foreigners regarding such sensitive information as my personal finances. I am switching to a more local bank in California, whose headquarters are even in California, so any issues I may have will definitely be resolved locally.

I guess it may not be easy to leave a bank that owns 2 mortgages in your name, but if I were you I would at least explore my options. Washington Mutual has become a typical corporate America business endeavor whose only concern is their bottom line, and customers are just another number in the book.

For all of you with a WaMu negative, I have at least one positive. My wife and I have a second with WaMu with the first held by CountryWide (arm.) With the arm coming due, CountryWide would not work with us so I went to another lender and found an FHA first. Before the FHA first would fund, they instructed us that WaMu would have to sign off on subordinating to second. At first WaMu said that was against their current policy but then they finally stated policy had changed and they subordinated against the the new FHA first. This pretty much saved out home as there was no way we could pay a 12% first!

WaMu 1, CountryWide 0.
My 2 cents worth.

Hello I had the same problem as darius didnt know they were going to raise my interest to I had 8.99% and it jumped to 17.99% and I had never been late either. To my suprise I called them and they told me the same thing we sent you a notice and basically tough luck they didnt care when I told them I was not paying anymore they sent me a copy of the notice and didnt really care. I feel the same way you do. Not sure what I can do I dont live in New York I live In Indiana.

I hear you on their customer service. This morning I tried to call customer service to get some help on my account. I called the 800# and was talking with someone in Canada, I asked to talk with someone from the United States. After being transferred 8 times I was never able to speak with a representative of Washington Mutual in the United States. I finally gave up. So in other words our so called confidential information does not stay with in the United States where we are citizens. I am so frustrated right now. I would like to share this information with someone who could be an advocate for us WAMU customers who thought we were doing business in AMERICA. Apparently we are not. And apparently instead of WAMU paying employees here in the USA they are supporting foreigners in other countries to handle our USA accounts.
Ugh!

I too was surprised by the jump in rate of interest with no warning. I also had paid mine without missing a payment. I feel it is not fair and measures should be taken.

Maybe you were just confused, you obviously don't speak english. What is that, text message language or something?

As I sit here typing this, I have now been on hold for 1 hour and 49 minutes. It wouldn't be a problem but this is not the first time I have experienced this with Wamu. Some background: I went online to check my balance and saw some charges on my account that I had not made. I called the 1-800 number provided by the website only to spend the next 10 minutes in automatic response purgatory. There are simply no options for speaking to a representative.

When I finally managed to get through, the girl I spoke to told me I had to speak with someone in another department, and that I would be on hold for "up to 15 minutes" due to a large call volume.

That was almost 2 hours ago.

I am still on hold and am basically a prisoner to my phone (and Wamu) on a lovely Saturday afternoon. Swell.

I would be slightly less furious if this hadn't just happened to me LAST WEEKEND when I was in Canada for a visit. After an embarrassing refusal of my card at an upscale restaurant, I called and learned that a security hold had been placed on my account and I would have to remove it. It was irritating enough that this hold had been placed without ANY communication to me, but to add salt to my wound, I had to *again!* be placed on hold for excruciatingly long periods of time (especially given that I was on my vacation - I hadn't planned on spending hours on the phone w/ Wamu). I had to call three times before the issue was resolved (the first two times I was inexplicably CUT OFF right when I had gotten through to a representative after waiting on hold for 20 minutes each time, the second time it happened I almost cried I was so frustrated).

Washington Mutual's customer service is the absolute pits. I see those "customer friendly" commercials on TV and I literally laugh (bitterly, it's a very bitter laugh).

Two hours and 1 minute. Still holding...

I think it is rediculous, these interest rates. over 7% jump. I would like the opportunity to close my account at the previous with payments continuing monthly until 0 balance. I have also never been late with payments. what's the deal? they do anything, anyway they want, regardless of customer loyalty? yes, that's it. I guess next it will be 40%. why stop there. why not make it 50% just because we can. shame on you wamu.

I financed my mortgage with WAMU, paid off the account in full and with interest and late fees. Then I found out this week that Washington Mutual (WOOHOOWAMU) has been reporting me as a Foreclosure. Now I have to dance around the phone lines and non-english speaking customer service reps. at WAMU, woo hooo. I guess I should get on the ban wagon and sue to defamation of character.

Who do i call? Loanbusters? I have had Lexington Law Firm handle this once before with no results. Now I have to hire another lawyer to sue these ###, well thats not a problem.

I have been a customer of WAMU for years, always paid on time, no issues, recently I made a charge on my credit card within my limit, after the finance charges were assessed, i was over limit by $4 which they promptly charges a $39 over limit fee. Apparently I am a mathematician know, because their response was I should of accounted for the finance charges. Then I started looking into my account and realized, that they have been charging 30.3% apr for the last 6 months. Of course I thought the rate was FAR less. No wonder I didn't account for the interest correctly. Their response-by the script reading managers- I was sent a letter in April (which I did not receive) saying I could have closed my account within 30 days if I did not like it. The only answer for the hike-they reviewed my credit. My accounts have always been in good standing, never late etc, and the other cards I have are all under 10% and my FICOS are considered average plus to good. They wont help me, and I am closing all my accounts-business and personal with them.

My payment was due on 09/11/2008, I couldn't make the payment until then, I went online to make the payment and it wouldn't let me schedule it for the 11th, I called customer service and she told me to schedule it for the 12th and it would show I paid it on the 11th, I just got my statement for Oct. and it shows a late charge of $39.00. I called and talked to Rena which is the customer service represenative from Washington mutual I told her the situation and what the other rep. told me, she asked why I didn't chose the speedy payment for $14.95, I told her I was told that I didn't have to chose the speedy payment because it would show I paid it on the 11th of Sept, even if I posted it for the 12th of Sept, and I told her that it was against the law for what they did.The rep. Rena started arguing with me so I told her I wanted to speak to her supervisor and she hung up on me.

I was shocked to discover that the aforementioned credit card company increased my interest rate in excess of 50%. More importantly this increase occurred without my knowledge. To date I've never been late on a payment. Additionally, I always pay a significantly more than the minimum payment.

Currently my credit score is higher than when the company issued me the card! When I inquired about the rate increase WAMU could not provide me with adequate justification. Their response was ' We sent out a letter in April'! It is my intent to pay off this card as soon as possible!

I have filed a complaint with my state representatives urging them to support HR 5546, The Credit Card Fair Fee Act. Please pass the word; acts of consumer abuse such, as this should not be tolerated. Without the consumer this company would cease to exist.

Additionally, I will do what ever I can to help stop these abusive practices. If an individual or family were experiencing financial difficulties these practices only compound the issue! This is criminal. If you have been victimized by this company please consider utilizing the following is the link to contact your representative:

UnfairCreditCardFees.com

I believe that included in this current government repair for our economy there should be a cap on interest that credit card companies can charge.

No one can get any type of interest return on their money that is in the 18 to 30 % range. HOW DID WAMU GET AWAY WITH IT.

I want to pay off the cards...lets help the public and let them do it on the acutal balance they have. WAMU HAS MADE ENOUGH ON THE INTEREST THEY COLLECTED FROM ME IN THE PAST 3YRS TO PAY FOR THE USE OF THAT MONEY.

WAMU's customer service specially the fraud unit is a disgrace. WAMU notified me that I deposited an "empty" envelop thefore they are taking the money out of my account. I looked at my account and found a series of fraudulent transactions. When I reported this to WAMU they declined my claim right away. No investigation, no nothing. Reason for denial is because I did not lose my ATM card nor did I share my PIN with anybody. That the PIN is a personal ID. How stupid can that be? So what is the use of the camera that are installed in each ATM, what is the use of a fraud department if they do not want to investigate. And this transaction was done the same night that WAMU was bought by JP Morgan. Is this an inside job or what.

I have been with this bank for more than 10 years and this is the kind of service I got. First day: I waited 1 1/2 hours and 6 transfers. Second day, customer service said "I cannot help you, you have to call this number, Can I help you with anything else?", 3rd try, I went to the branch office, branch office called the department and transferred the phone to me saying they are declining again. That a manager will call me within 48 hours to explain why I was declined, 24 hours had passed, I am still waiting. They could not even give me the name of the manager.

Is this the kind of service you give to your customers? You're like a Goliath treating small hard working people like dirt. LOUSY customer service, the tone and attitude are condescending. if you cannot do your job or unhappy with your work, just QUIT. Other people who really need jobs can provide better service than you.

I wonder how many fraudulent transactions were committed on 9/24/08. if you have the same experience, please, let your voice be heard. I am all alone here trying to fight this giant institution.

In June my debit card was cloned when i used my card in a fake computer in kiosk fedex, some body make Unauthorized transactions bought flowers and charged to my account. I called to WAMU customer service and they resend to me to the claim and fraud department i was on the phone over 45 minutes for make the first report. They told me about beginning the investigation and they will put my money back on my account. In those days i was moved to new home and they send me the form to the old place, i never knew about these steps and forms must be signed. In August the money was took back from my account

Again and generate to me 4 overdrafts. I call intermediately, somebody (very rude) explain to me about the forms never signed and told me the next step was a re send the form to the right address. I am call intermediately, somebody (very rude) explain to me about the forms never signed and tell me the next step was a re send the form to the right address. Wamu make a mistake sending the letter again to my first address (when i open my account) i call again and some body tell me send a fax with my sign, i did last week but today i received a Collection letter from the bank for the money never i used.

I too would like to know who I may call to help sue WaMu. Any help would be appreciated.

I beg to disagree with you, Ms. Herbst, when you say that we Filipinos cannot speak English. It might be possible that you had an agent on the other line who still needs to improve the fluency and the accent of the English language, but Filipnos spent their school lives understanding and learning English.

Yes, outsourcing has now been a corporate standard. To be realistic, we are cheaper in terms of labor than our American counterparts. But the delivery of the service is very much like the same as you have in the mainland. Some of the biggest clients like Dell, Microsoft, Verizon, Sprint, American Express, Hewlett Packard, Siemens and IBM have been doing business with us for the last 10 years and you have to admit it, the reason why these companies are patronized is because they, together with US OUTSOURCERS, provide the quality service that you demand. You may be one dissatisfied customer, but we keep the rest of our happy customers HAPPY.

At any rate, I hope you take this as a constructive comment rather than a personal rant on racism. You may had one issue with one Filipino, but please, do not take the whole country down simply because your demands were not fulfilled the way you like it.

We have ways to improve our English. And believe me, I think we're getting better at it. I do apologize if you don't get your jobs, but I guess you have to have better PATIENCE to endure American haughtiness. And our numbers fare better than our other counterparts.

So there.

We bought our house 3 years ago from Wa-Mu.Last year we went bankrupt on a another house.We re affirm with Wa_mu on our current property 4 times because of some odd reason no one there could find the paperwork.We thought all was ok until we pulled a credit report and found our current house was discharged in the bankruptcky.We also found out that they filed with the county a paper called aAffdavit of Lost Security Instrument in Jan of 2008.So they cannot produce any original paperwork on our home, Which means the mortage deed of trust cannot be found and cannot be duplicated.So we quit making payments 2 months ago, we do not ever hear from the 1st only the 2nd.We have talked to lawyer after lawyer and they say there is no way they can collect on the 1st being they have no proof of the mortage.I hate what they have put us though in the last couple of months when we were doing right up until we ound out that they did not reaffirm on our home which was up to date on payments and never late.I hope they ro in Hell!

Does anyone agree $30 is way too much to charge on an over draft fee. And they mislead you by not charging your account right away when you buy something, tricking you into thinking you have a certain amount of money so you can spend and get slapped with an overdraft charge. i made a few purchases at different times with my debit card and i don't keep track of all the purchases all the time i make. the purchases did not show up on my account for 5 days. I called to check my account on day four and i still had a bit of money . Everything was OK until i bought subway sandwich and my account became over drawn and got lighting fast charged $30. when i called the 1800 number TO tell them why the auto system lied to me by misleading me to think i had more money then i did? they told me its my job to keep track of my money. my life is go-go-go i don't have time to do their job by sitting down with paper and pencil . and the dates of purchases are somehow wrong . I can understand if i pay with a check it takes time but with technology and fast computers and i.d come on! i think its purposely done on people who let their guard down. And i know the difference between account balance and available account balance when i call the 1800 number ! even if someone steals your card they still post it through i don't understand why the 5 day dam delay? its all a trick if you ask me! Washington mutual has made so much money from me this way.

I was also shocked to see my rate change from 9% to 23% no late payments. When I called them to ask why they said they now use our entire credit history, not just your history with them. It was stated in the July 08 statement that this was a new change. This can't be legal. Sign me up for a class action lawsuit!

I also received a letter along with my statement that they are raising my rate from 13.99 to 25.99. I have never missed a payment or been late. I have paid more than the minimum every month. This is outrageous. I called the day I received my statement and the rep said they would send a letter explaining the rate increase. I'm still awaiting the letter. I will not pay 25.99% I'll just close the account but they shouldn't make us pay for their mistakes

WAMU is one of the worst! As a warning, the only one worse that I have found is the JUNIPER card offered at the APPLE stores, through BARCLAYS BANK. BARCLAY'S BANK OF DELAWARE/JUNIPER raised my interest from 0% to 29.99% because I DIDN'T USE IT within 30 days of my application, which was not mentioned by the Apple store employee. After immediate approval at the store, I found out my dad had died suddenly, so by the time I returned to CA, and used the JUNIPER card, it had been over 30 days (32 days) and now the interest was almost 30% and no one was even interested in trying to lower it. WAMU raised mine without any reason! I cancelled both and will never use either again!

This company bombarded my mailbox with pre-approved credit cards just as soon as my chapter 7 bankruptcy was completed, after dozens of these were trashed I decided to actually take them up on their "generosity". I was approved for a meager $500 limit card to which I truly tried to use responsibly to help rebuild my credit. This was a HUGE mistake on my part. I kept the balance below the limit of $500 until a few hidden fees later I was well over my limit. Now every month I'm penalized for being over the limit, and my intrest is through the roof. If I am 1 day late on a payment these people would call my home at least 10 times a day. Finally after researching my legal rights I sent them a letter stating they could no longer contact me via phone, only mail. I reccomend this to anyone who is in my dire situation. I quit paying these ### after they became completely out of line with the harrassment. In the past year I have paid WaMu at least two thousand dollars to keep my balance around $670 never making any headway with these jerkwads. They now have turned my debt over to a collection agency and I keep telling these people to F off. They do not controll my finances, I do and no credit report is going to scare me and no threats of bad credit is ever going to dictate who I pay and when. If everyone did this credit reports would be meaningless, stand up to the financial bullies of the world, WaMu is no one to judge anyones finacial mistakes. I could not in a million years rack up the debt they owe...

So I dont know what to do with them. They seem to have a scheme in which they dont seem to get in troupble for, half of which I am at fault for but it shouldnt cost me 400% interest. So I work in a driving position and I primarilly pay for gas and get reimbursed for at the end of the week. Over the past 2 years I have been trying to get them to give me a 100-150 dollar overdraft protection type thing for this occasion, or a small line of credit to attach to my checking account but instead I keep getting declined from this minimal line of credit. So the thievery is this when it comes to processing my charges they seem to adjust the charges to there advantage by putting through the larger sum charge. example I would have a charge $2.50 x3 for parking and later that day fill up for 50.00 for a total of 57.50 in charges and say I have 48.50 in acount the route the charges so that the 50.00 goes through that is 33.00 overdraft for going 1.50 over then they decide it is time for them to put the 3x2.50 in for 33.00 each so I went from being over drawn by 9.00 to an outstanding 141.00 in the hole. how is this legal getting a 1500% markup on 9.00 dollars and unwillingness to work with me in any way. Then I get up one morning and check my account in which I do daily and realize that I have a ballance of -23, 000.00 dollars in which at fault of there own the froze my account of all funds for a week. I have direct deposit so you kinda get an idea of the problem. So im am debating on filing some class action suit to get this out in the air. they are doing what they can to screw the people that are barely making it through this rough time while spending the tax money of mine to benefit them, bailout and such, kind of tired of it but what options do I have

Many banks have policies such as this for checks. The idea behind it is that it works to your advantage because large items (rent/mortgage/insurance) which might cause serious disruption will be paid before the smaller, less important ones.

It sounds like you're talking about debit card charges, though, which are completely beyond the control of the bank (charges get posted as the merchants and interchange companies process them). I won't make any defense of the $33 NSF fees, though.

You're spot on about the threats, the fees, all of it..I've had the unfortunate luck of bieng in debt with this company, and even AFTER the merger/buyout, the shady practices continue! I'm now up to 30...That's right, 30% interest with them. The one time THEY "misplaced" my payment ended up in nearly two months of harassing phonecalls/threats even AFTER it was resolved..This is one company that should've been allowed to sink.

I have recently notice a charge made to my personal bank account, in which i did not make. the fraud title is MC-RESERVATION REWARDS (with a bunch of numbers that follow).When i first started to notice these, they didn't make any sense, and i thought they were actually rewards. Somehow it just doesn't ad up. A few months ago, i went through something similar, where it says TRANSACTION TYPE: debit with out PIN. and someone took my card and made a bill charge through T-mobile. of a charge of $250.00. I caught that right away and got that taken care of. I basically had to 'kill' my card, so no one else could made fraud charges, and now its happening again with my new card!

You are agreed to Reservation Rewards while internet shopping and YOUR FAILURE TO PAY ATTENTION to the disclosures provided. You either completed a survey or took the $$ off offer. Both have full disclosure that you are signing up for a free trial and will be charged if you do not cancel it.

The Today show did a piece on this a few months ago, based on complaints sent to them. Every website they investigated had full disclosure that no one bothered to read.

The companies behind these worthless membership programs KNOW that most people MAKE A CHOICE not to read the info provided and take full advantage of it.

Dear Kimberly:

Webloyalty.com protects its reputation and monitorsthe blogosphere to ensure information posted on our company is truthful and accurate. Through this monitoring, we found your comments posted here about our membership program, Reservation Rewards.

We would like to speak with you directly to address your concerns but do not have your contact information. If you are unhappy with your subscription or have any questions regarding your membership to Reservation Rewards please contact Webloyalty.com Customer Service at [protected] or send an email message to consumeraffairs@webloyalty.com. We will be happy to help you.

Regards,
Mary O'Reilly
Webloyalty Consumer Affairs
Reservation Rewards

Washington Mutual, Stole me home. It all started with me wanting a truck to, well get to work every day. So I go to the bank that was handling my mortgage. They give me credit line of 48, 000. I use 3, 800 of this money.I payoff the loan and two years later, there foreclosing on my home. Not because I was late on my mortgage or that I never paid it. They went over the junior loan of not 3, 800 but of 48, 00 and took my home for the 130, 000 I had on my mortgage.

Approximately one year ago I took the offer for 0% interest for one year on a balance transfer. Trying to make on line payments have always been a hassle. Three or four months ago there was a glitch in the on line payment and I did not get a confirmation #. It never was credited to my account. I did not find this out till the next billing cycle. Upon speaking with the representative she said there was nothing she could do except take the payment in full and charge me $9.95 for the payment. I also noticed the interest had been raised to 24.24%. I questioned the representative and once again she said there was nothing she could do and I had to call customer service. So I did and was told that was part of the fine print and that is what my interest rate would be till I paid off the balance. It is very convienant for WaMu or JP Morgan or whom ever now owns the account to not notify me that the rate had gone up to the max and I only found that out on my next billing cycle. I have since stopped using the WaMu card since the interest rate on new purchases went to 25.49% and I can only feel for all the other account holders that have fell victum to this outrageous percentage for a computer glitch. The customer service representative even said my account had been paid on time except for the one error. The monthly amount I am now required to pay has went up by approximately $27.00 which is all interest. I feel the establishment once again has taken advantage of middle America. Of course what else is new.

J.W. Coons

I also had an ordeal. sent in a payment a week or more early. just to be told they had not been received and charged my account 40.00 for being late. and today received another letter in the mail stating that if i didn't send in another 187.00 before 1/22/09 i would be in default again. I believe i seen some where in a book written by Kevin Trudo or something like that. That banking places do this to you so they can make hundreds of thousands of extra dollars a year.

HSBC Finance Auto Loan — hsbc killed my credit!

Check this out.
It talks about how the American Arbitration Association ( AAA ) can be contacted and used to get these crooked lenders to cooperate.
I have a loan with these crooks. I have to work them myself. Right now I am taking down Beneficial. Got them on the ropes. To loose their AAA status.
becuase if your loan or contract calls for arbitration and you demand it by filing with AAA. Then the company must abide and the Courts can't hearthe cases filied by these crooks that disregard the laws they hide behind to limit you and manipulate.

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 canceling 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 canceled 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 canceling 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 definite 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.

I lost my job in May due to the company's filing a Chapter 11. As a result, I paid my mortgage until last October. Prior to that, I sent WaMu letters, copies of which I have (sent certified, return receipt requested) indicating my problem and what I planned to do to rectify the situation, to wit: I would, at the earliest possible time, withdraw a sum of money from my IRA to cover the back payments and to proceed with timely payments from that point. I had sent them the following: a letter to my financial planner, indicating he was to sell part of my IRA, a letter from my financial planner to Wa Mu indicating what he would do, a copy of the check I got from my IRA which needed to be placed in a bank for 11 business days prior to clearing, and two checks for the "reinstatement" and "assorted fees" to their vulture of a lawyer, amounting to some $4, 500.00. To be fair, I still owe them $128.96 -- a letter to them was enclosed with the checks and the schedule of payment for this coming Friday to send the rest of the money by Fed Ex to some clown in Jacksonville.

What did I get for my pains? Harrassing phone calls sometimes 4 times a day, and just yesterday, a notice my home was to be placed on a sale on April 15, 2009! Tell me the old guy from It's A Wonderful Life doesn't run this outfit!

WaMu is even worse about holding checks now that Chase has taken over. I had a check deposited 1/15/09, it was paid by the bank upon which it was written 1/20/09. I did not get access to the funds until 1/27/09!

WaMu/Chase STINKS. DO NOT BANK THERE!