Submitted:
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Last posting: Monday, September 29, 2003
Cary,
Illinois
I had just read the other reports on some of the practices that WaMu (Washington Mutual) has scammed customers with. We got caught in the escrow account doubling scheme.
In September of last year we received a copy of their Annual Escrow Account Disclosure Statement. In this statement they said that our county taxes were going to billed at $12,092.40 for the next year. Now I know that we live in a fairly high tax district but my taxes for the year before were only $6311.36. I called them and said that there must be some mistake and they said that my case would be put into a work order. I have a bi-weekly direct payment plan and in the next billing period we were stung with an increase of $450.00, an increase of $900.00 a month!
I called them again to point out the error of their ways and again they said there was this "work order". This went on through another billing period so I called my tax assesors office to get documentation from them. The first words out of their mouth was "This wouldn't be a loan with Washington Mutual would it?". They then faxed me the proper information which I in turn forwarded on to WaMu.
This went on for three months. I stopped payments in December, informing WaMu that they have to get this resolved. I kept getting this run around about the "work order" that was supposed to have been filed in my behalf. I had to continually call and fax information to them until this whole thing was finally resolved in February.
I cannot understand why, with all the documentation I had sent,it took four months to correct what a few keystrokes in their computer system would resolve. I was accusing them of using the same creative accounting practices that Enron had. I am definitely taking my business elsewhere when we go to refinance at a lower rate. They handled the whole thing like they hire managers out of grade school (Bubba was 21 when he made it out of sixth grade!).
Gary
Cary, Illinois