The WaMu Difference: I Found Out the Hard Way

WaMu has this lovely statement on The WaMu Difference section of their website.

“You’ll know it right away: We’re really not like other banks. In fact, we believe no one else focuses on consumers, small business and commercial customers like we do. We listen to our customers and give them what they value–yet at the same time we make banking simple and enjoyable. “

Until recently, I was a WaMu customer. As a customer I certainly didn’t feel any “value” or was I “listened to”. In fact, I was ignored and was treated with no value.

Earlier this month, I called & spoke with a WaMu representative about a $592 fraudulent charge that had been posted to my checking account. I filed a dispute against the merchant and was told it would take approx. 5 business days for the matter to be resolved. In the meantime, I was concerned I would incur insufficient fund fees. The WaMu representative informed me I would be able to file a “separate” dispute once this dispute cleared. Essentially, rack up fees, then we’ll credit your account?

Two days later, there was a credit to my acct. for $592. Yeah – problem resolved – or so I thought. I incurred over $300 in insufficient funds fees – Yikes! As instructed by the WaMu representative, I called to file an additional dispute to recover the insufficient funds fees. This is where things went from bad to to down right shitty. The WaMu representative I filed the original claim with failed to record it on my account, so they claimed to have no record of a dispute. On top of that, I was informed the merchant “credited” my acct. for the unauthorized charge. Since the merchant “credited” my account, it was no longer considered a fraudulent charge & there was no need for a dispute. What the @%&$?

I followed all of WaMu’s recommended steps to resolve this matter and was rewarded in three ways:

1) I was informed there was no dispute on file, therefore the allegation was no longer valid

2) No dispute means I’m responsible for the $300

3) It’s up to me to recover the $300 from the merchant, since they are the ones who made the “mistake”

Essentially, I’m paying for the incompetency of WaMu because their customer service representative failed to record my dispute. Guess what WaMu, I have a phone bill to prove I was on the phone with your company for nearly 30 minutes.

Here’s the real kicker. I asked the so-called manager ” When and where is the consumer protected?” His respsonse was: “Mame, if this is the only thing you want to discuss, there’s nothing more I can say, I’m tired of repeating myself.”

So the merchant can freely take my money (without authorization), the bank lets them and on top of that, the bank decides they want a piece too by adding ridiculous fees to my account?

What happened to “We listen to our customers and give them what they value”?