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Report: #342291

Complaint Review: Washington Mutual - Scottsdale Arizona

  • Submitted:
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  • Reported By: Scottsdale Arizona
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
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  • Washington Mutual United States Scottsdale, Arizona U.S.A.
  • Phone: 623-221-1865
  • Web:
  • Category: Banks

Washington Mutual exercising their rights and stepping all over the consumer Scottsdale Arizona

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I will admit I am not the world's best checkbook reconciler and with some recent situations, looking at my on-line banking proved to be depressing to say the least so I stopped logging in. However, one day, my friend and I were trying to pull up some old bank statements for a mortgage issue and I noticed I was locked out of my account. I called the number indicated on my display and after entering my account information - was immediately transferred to Risk Operations. I spoke to a gentleman who after making inquiries as to how many accounts I was linked to. I didn't quite understand the nature of the question, so I started rattling off my daughter's savings account, my checking account, Paypal and I had just added my fiance to my account. He then asked me about an account that I was attempting to add under my WAMU account that was an issue from a year prior, which I had resolved at the same time it occurred. I didn't understand why he was asking me about something that was resolved a year earlier. He informed me that he would unlock my internet access in 5 minutes and to try logging back in after 5 minutes had elapsed. I had to leave my friends house so I didn't bother logging back in at that time. This was on a Thursday night.

That same Thursday night I went to the grocery store. I went to pay for my purchases and when my debit card was swiped, it read "account not recognized". I didn't panic because I had just spoken to WAMU and they were working on my account, so I just wrote a check at the check out. However, I did call once I got out to my car. I got a customer service rep. who said that I needed to speak to Fraud Prevention and that my account appeared to be closed. I told her that I had just gotten off the phone with Risk Operations and that there was an internet access issue but that nobody said my account was closed. The CSR said there was nothing she could do, she had to transfer me, so she did and of course, they were closed for the day. But my direct deposit was supposed to hit the next day, I needed to talk to someone about this. Nobody would help me and was repeatedly transferred to the Fraud department where the line disconnected the call after hours.

After a sleepless night, I woke up early and logged into my WAMU online only to get the same message that I was locked out. The same one that I spoke to Risk Operations about, the same one that the Rep was unlocking for me. I then called. I punched in my account number and my balance was NOT what it should have been on the morning of payday. I immediately transferred to Customer Service to finally be transferred to the now open Fraud Department. A very curt woman informed me that WAMU was exercising their rights to terminate their relationship with me. Horrified, I inquired as to why? What had I done and where in the h*ll was my paycheck. The woman was very nasty and informed me that unauthorized accounts were attempting to be linked to mine (I kept asking what that meant, with no clear explanation), suspicious card activity (I inquired again; such as?? No explanation) and an instance 3 months earlier where I pushed the deposit button on the ATM rather than the withdrawl button and I couldn't get my card back - so I put an empty envelope in the depository and entered $1 as the deposit amount because $0 was invalid. Those were the reasons that WAMU was - without notice, closing my checking account. THey were also conducting an investigation... Please by all means, investigate me - was my response, thinking it was going to exonerate me from whatever they were accusing me of.

I had no opportunity to notify ANY of my creditors, the bank returned my paycheck back to my company and they froze the money that was in my account, my daughter's savings account and my fiance's own personal checking account (he was on mine, but I wasn't on his). In addition to this, my son's birthday was the following Tuesday and WAMU cut me off from access to any money I did have in my account. I had nothing - they left me financially stranded (and I have two kids) without so much as a letter.

I finally received a letter 5 days after they closed my account. The letter informed me that they were closing my account. Thank you very much for the advanced notice. What was not contained in the letter nor revealed in a trip to the local branch, was WHY? What accounts linked? What suspicious card activity? Yes, I did put an empty envelope in the depository, but your machines don't give you your card back in the event you hit the wrong button and press clear/cancel until your fingers fall off. And why did you wait 3 months to notify me that they had an issue with it - despite the fact that they did not even credit my account the $1.

After about 3 weeks they finally released the money that they had frozen in my accounts but the weekend that they left me with nothing had already come and gone. The aftermath of charges and fines I had to pay for not cancelling my automatic monthly payments for my car payment and a few loans is still screwing up my finances.

The entire thing is maddening and they reported me to ChexSystems for something I can't even challenge because I don't know what I did wrong. I was also never notified as to what the investigation's final conclusion was. The saddest thing of all, is they are well within their rights to do something as horrifying as this was - if you read the very fine print in the paperwork they give you when you open up your account.

Way to treat the consumers WAMU with customer service and inadequate notification processes like that in place - people should just stick with the big commercial banking moguls. You people need to get your act together because eventually you will have to be accountable to someone for your irratic actions.

Np
Scottsdale, Arizona
U.S.A.

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This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 06/20/2008 07:47 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/washington-mutual/scottsdale-arizona/washington-mutual-exercising-their-rights-and-stepping-all-over-the-consumer-scottsdale-ar-342291. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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