WaMu Sides With Thieves Stealing Your $373.64
Brian writes:
I've been fighting with WaMu on the same fraudulent transaction now since August 24th. They sent me a fraud affidavit, which I quickly signed, and sent back to them, both by fax, and by registered mail. They are playing the "We never got the paperwork game" in September of Last year. I started dealing with a Lilly, & a Rosie from WaMu (Rosie being the supervisor) both of them actually at the executive offices, I got in touch with Rosie because I purchased a share of Wamu's public stock and started complaining to investor relations. I may try that method again...
I *FLOODED* them with faxed copies of the dispute form and October 9th they relented and gave the credit back, because they received paperwork. OK That's fine. But wait... Out of no where, with no "We didn't get your paperwork, so we're going to reverse this credit on such and such date" Nothing, Just takes the money back. Contact CS, Contact Debit disputes. Now I'm sending everything to you the consumerist, as well, as printing the e-mail out to begin the fax flooding again. Let the paper wasting begin! Washington Mutual Inc,That's a tough one. You're already dealing with the executive offices and yet nothing positive is happening on your account. Consider sending in the materials again by registered mail? Then they can't pretend like they never received them.1301 Second Ave.
Seattle, WA 98101
206-461-2000
Fax: 469-549-5961 Attn: Lilly X450
ATTN Jeanie X 452 Added 2-1-08
Fax: 925-738-5607 Attn: Card Risk Operations Claim # 070818316
Fax (206) 965-3082
Fax: 1-800-423-3246To Whom It May Concern:
I contacted your bank via customer service after signing up for Microsoft Money which would do daily updates of my bank balance for our records and found a lot of unauthorized debit card activity, I attempted to locate said card within my house in case someone within the household had been using it unauthorized before I attempted to contact your bank. On the day I contacted your bank, two transactions had not posted, Cracker Barrel & Speedway. At that time the total provisional credit was 295.81 and not the full 373.64 that was taken from me without the authorization of myself. I have been trying to get an actual affidavit from your bank since this has been filed, as well as reversed with no luck. I received a letter dated August 23rd 2007 telling him to "Please complete, sign and return the enclosed affidavit to us within 15 days from the date of this letter" except for one thing that was the "ONLY" sheet of paper within the envelope that your bank sent to the residence of Mr. B. I contacted your bank via customer service, as well as in the branch several times until receiving a second letter dated September 12th telling me the funds would be reversed because the said affidavit still was not received. Upon receiving that letter on September 14th I contacted Lilly Extension 450 from the Executive C.S. office. She assured me she would contact me the next business day after she had a chance to review all the paperwork I had sent her that was copies of everything that I received, but still no affidavit. I finally received an affidavit today, September 26th 2007 from a CS rep who personally walked herself and grabbed a form and went to a fax machine for me after over 1 month of fighting to get this resolved. It is still not resolved but at least I have an affidavit.As of today, September 26th 2007 you finally reversed the provisional credit, which means your bank sides with the people who have stolen my money!!!!
This letter, as well as all supporting documentation will be faxed, daily, along with all transmittal sheets to each fax number on this list. I will also be forwarding this complaint onto MasterCard itself to let them know how your bank has disgraced their logo, and if the fax numbers of share holders are obtained, they also will be notified.I can be contacted by Postal mail at
Brian B.
[redacted]My Phone number is [redacted] and the number listed on my account is being changed to reflect that as the only number because I should not waste my money on cell phone air time to speak to people from a bank who allows others to openly steal my money. The highlight of all of this is, my joint account owner still can not even get his debit card activated because the pin is so super impossible for him to even open. The line at the banking center takes several HOURS to get assistance unless you speak Spanish, then you're in the front of the line. Over all, in your effort to save a buck and promote profits, customers are deflecting and taking their serious banking to real banks like Chase, National City & Bank of America, all 3 of those "Serious" banks are where my credit cards, CD's, Money Market, Stock Portfolios, and the other $200,000.00 of my net worth resides. I only give banks a chunk of that when they give me a credit card, because debit cards, as you can see, are useless, and unsecured, and I never keep more than $500.00 in ANY checking account longer than 48 hours.
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Comments:
Just watch out for those "deflecting" customers, huh? Yeah, I'm sure WaMu horribly screwed something up here, but I'm left a bit scratching my head trying to figure out exactly what happened. There's something about a joint account owner, something about provisional credit, and some problem with faxes. That's about all I can discern.
Lily and Rosie? What? Were Daisy and Iris busy?
The problem with registered mail is that, while it gives you a signature confirmation of delivery, it still goes to the same mail room, and is still delivered internally in exactly the same manner as standard mail.
All it'll prove is that the mail reached the building. Admittedly, it'll make a difference in court (should it come to that), but in the short term, the higher-ups can still play dumb.
The stock idea is kinda clever, actually. Granted, its a single share, but then you can go around saying you're gonna dump their stock because of bad service.
Its like that old post on using prominent investor forums to get help from the company, only on steroids!
i got issues with them too... screw them...
Small claims court, here he comes!
Threaten them with mail fraud?
Fax a black piece of paper or two. After awhile you'll get your costs back in the amount if fax machine ink they'll have to purchase.
Unless all their faxes are digital, but then how'd they lose the documents....?
Take some of that $200,000 and hire an editor, preferably one that can spell check.
Great idea with the stock purchase, I am going to try that with Comcast
i think he should sell the $373.00 debt to a collection agency!
Did you not send the affidavit back to them via certified mail? Or fax it?
The letter is a little rambling and off topic. Stick to the point. Don't point out little details that annoy you (like lines too long) because it may lead someone to believe you don't have a valid complaint.
This line is completely out there:
"...my joint account owner still can not even get his debit card activated because the pin is so super impossible for him to even open."
If it made any sense, so?
I do not understand half the things in that letter...typos, grammatical errors, ramblings.
Sorry dude, but if I'm having trouble understanding you, I bet they are too. That might be part of the problem.
Just stick to the facts and what you want done. Leave everything else out so they don't get distracted.
This really makes you wonder how effective the Visa and Mastercard "Zero Liability" policies are. Here's the one for Mastercard...
If WaMu isn't taking care of you, perhaps Mastercard will? Good luck!
Visa/MasterCard are not in it to protect you; they work on behalf of the issuing banks as a middleman information-transfer agent.
Did you note their "exceptions" to the liability policy...interesting chaps.
Their upcoming IPO should be a knockout.
Virtually every consumer complaint letter, that is posted here is too long, but I hope he gets it resolved. A long time ago, I heard that using one's debit card outside of cash at your actual bank, was a big mistake. It makes sense, because it's not their money and they have no incentive to get it back.
On second thought, maybe it's time to quit using ATM/debit cards all together and go into the bank to get cash with an old-fashioned check.
Never send ANYTHING important without getting it certified. That way they won't even try to play the 'we didn't get it' card. Trust me, I couldn't live without it.
Wow 200K in net worth...Perhaps, maybe this one time, THEY DID NOT RECEIVE THE PAPERWORK. Why why people say that people immediately think scam. Christ...its 200 bucks and you have over 200K in net worth....that letter is poorly written and I would be confused as shit following it...but i digress.
This was basically impossible to read. All I know is, this guy is pissed because someone stole some money, and the bank hasn't received his fraud claim.. is that right?
On that note, I wonder what kind of job he has, and if I, although not perfect in my writings either, could possibly take it from him so I too can have $200k.
Never send ANYTHING important without getting it certified. That way they won't even try to play the 'we didn't get it' card. Trust me, I couldn't live without it.
Words of wisdom by Nursethalia. I second that strongly!
Ben, second sentence. he did send it registered mail.
//I've been fighting with WaMu on the same fraudulent transaction now since August 24th. They sent me a fraud affidavit, which I quickly signed, and sent back to them, both by fax, and by registered mail. //
Screw small claims (for now), Call the Comptroller of Money for your state.
Take that, BoA haters.
quite the manifesto
reads more like the writer is setting himself up for a restraining order from the banks legal department
These banks do not have to have notarized, certified copies of affidavits in order to process fraud complaints. Doing so only makes the customer's life more difficult. I've had a couple of invalid charges with my Citibank account, every time a phone call has resulted in a temporary credit and they've only required signed paperwork when the charge-accepting vendor challenged the charge-back, which they usually don't because they know they're in bed with criminals and don't want to lose their charging privileges.
His rambling and poorly written complaint aside, it's asinine for WaMu to require this much work from their customers in order to reverse a fraudulent charge.
That may be the worst customer complaint letter I've ever read.
I bet they have that thing framed and posted all over the walls of the customer service office as an example of the awful attempts at communication they have to deal with.
In light of the substandard education of the author, I wonder if the difficulties with the bank may have been self-induced.
Hopefully he'll take the refund and use it to pay tuition for a GED.
haha. in this day and age i doubt any of his faxes ever get printed anywhere. they probably have this line on a fax server. which isn't going to accompish anything.
WAMU really sucks. all of their numbers customers get routed to are all on a different page. I cannot stand how when they make a mistake the consumer pays the price. Right now they are reporting to creditors that I am deliquent on my mortgage. I am NOT at all but according to their computers and records I am. I received by mail when my mortgage, taxes, etc were to increase. It was supposed to be February. Those clowns tried to take the new amount from my checking account in January instead, which made my account go negative, and then the payment for my January mortgage bounced back unpaid. I call them on average at least once, sometimes twice a week. I get the same lack of customer support saying, "our records show you now owe this much, blah, blah, blah and our letter we sent says your payment will increase in January 2008" That is when I tell them I don't care what your computers say it is INCORRECT and I have a letter from you to prove it!! I have faxed this letter over 3 times already and am told by phone by one that all's well but the other hands keep calling me from the Collection side of WAMU to state otherwise. My epic continues....
Here is the problem with this whole story. The story is that someone took his card and used it to get gas and go eat this does not sound like some one stole your information. What i do believe is that this charge is valid and here is why... first in your own words ou looked for the card inside the home to make sue no one else had used it. That suggest to me that you live with some dishonest folks and you know this. secondly it was not used in a large amount, but instead for something everyday and avg. My guess is that it was also in the same area in which you live in. I don't think that this is valid fraud i do think that you know the perp abd should be collecting from them.
That letter could have been written a lot more clearly. It is a little hard to follow, the way it is.