PSA: Don't Bank With Washington Mutual

[ZTAngel]

I'm going to trash talk them to everyone. I'm done with them.

For starters, they're not big in Georgia so the closest bank to me is over 5 miles from my house. This is a town where there's a SunTrust on every corner. On top of it, there's no Wamu ATMs so I'm stuck using a SunTrust or Wachovia ATM. I get charged by SunTrust or Wachovia from using their ATMs and then Wamu charges me again for not using their ATM. Yes, because it costs the banks soooo much money to have their customers using someone else's ATM. It's a useless fee.

As for the other reasons I hate them....

Last year, I wrote a check to my roommate's parents for $550 for rent (her parents owned the house I lived in). I also wrote a check to Burdines to pay off my bill for $30-something. When mailing out the checks, I accidently switched them in the mail. My roommate's parents called me to let me know the mistake. Oops. I called Washington Mutual to put a stop on the check. They told me not to worry about it - Burdines couldn't cash a check that wasn't written to them. Oh, but they did. Washington Mutual allowed a check to go through that wasn't even written to the party that cashed it. When I complained to a supervisor, the supervisor said, "We have a million checks coming to us everyday. You expect to check all of them?" Unbelieveable. They wouldn't even apologize for the mistake. Why I stayed with them after that is beyond me.

Less than a year later, they have screwed me over again.

I can't get to the bank before they close on the weekdays because I don't get off work until late. I can't get there on Saturdays because...well...I'm too hungover. Therefore, I make my deposits by ATM. I guess this is my first mistake but it's not my fault that they're morons. I made a deposit last week with 3 checks. The idiots only counted 1 check. They lost the other 2. A supervisor is telling me it will take five days to figure out everything. How the hell do you lose checks that are in an envelope? The best part is that they have me on camera putting 3 checks into the envelope but the person who checked the ATM in the morning counted only 1 check. Now I get to go to the people who wrote me checks and ask them to put a stop payment on them and write me a new one.

Needless to say, I am done with them. As soon as my last check goes through, I am taking my money out of my accounts and I'm switching to SunTrust. They are less than a mile down the street from my house, conveniently located all over Atlanta and friends who use them have NEVER had the problems that I've had with Wamu.

Don't bank with Washington Mutual.

This public service announcement has been brought to you by an extremely pissed off ex-customer.

[AznSAE]

i bank with wells fargo and have not had any problems since switching over. if i had to choose, it would be either wells fargo or bank of america.

[polarpi]

I'm sorry to hear that, ZTAngel

Luckily, I haven't had any major problems with WaMu (as of yet). I also didn't get charged by them when I've used other bank's ATMs (which is the one reason I chose to bank with them). I've had problems with many banks in the past, so Washington Mutual has been a relief for me.

I hope SunTrust works out wonderfully for you!

[Peaches-n-Cream]

I really like WaMu. I pass about four of the daily including the one across the street from my home. I only use WaMu ATMs so I haven't had to pay any fees. They are very nice and helpful at my branch.

[hoosier]

WaMu is also a pretty good stock to be accumulating.

I've only been a customer for a month, so we'll see if there are any problems. I wouldn't give the people at the Toco Hills branch much for personality, though.

[Rudey]

You are freaking me out because I never check to see if my deposits are made and I never get ATM receipts to make sure everything went OK.

-Rudey

[ZTAngel]

Originally posted by Rudey
You are freaking me out because I never check to see if my deposits are made and I never get ATM receipts to make sure everything went OK.

-Rudey

Check everything and keep everything! When I told my mom what happened, she said that the reason she never makes ATM deposits is because she's heard of stuff like this happening.

As for what's going on now...
I asked my work today if the 2 other checks had cleared. They did. One of the ladies in the accounting department was nice enough to provide me with a copy of the checks WaMu had processed. Funny...they have some other WaMu customer's account number on them. This goes into the "I can't make this up" file. Unbelieveable. Some dude is richer from my money.

I called the branch manager at the bank to give him a piece of my mind. Turns out ATM deposits are processed somewhere else so it's not his fault. Of course not. It's never anyone's fault at WaMu. I told him that I always thought when you make a deposit to your account that it goes into your account and not someone else's. I faxed him my copy of the cleared checks. I felt bad because he was really nice about everything and I could tell he felt bad and was just as surprised as me that it happend.

He called the processing center and they told him that it would take 5 business days to sort it out. Arrrgh. The branch manager said that they have to research it and find out why it was not deposited into my account. Here's a simple answer: Because your company personnel is filled with a bunch of idiots.

My biggest fear is that they find some way to give me the run around or not place the checks back into my account. The manager says he can't imagine why that would happen considering he has copies of the checks but I'm only 45% convinced that this will get resolved. After what happened last year with my rent check, I don't put anything past them.

[Lindz928]

Originally posted by AznSAE
i bank with wells fargo and have not had any problems since switching over. if i had to choose, it would be either wells fargo or bank of america.

I have Wells Fargo too, and I don't like them much at all. Their customer service really leaves something to be desired, and when they started charging me $3 just to talk to a person on the phone, I thought that was a little bit rediculous.

[BobbyTheDon]

Switch over to Citi.

Citi is the shit.

[Xylochick216]

I've heard some bad stories about WaMu. I've had Wachovia pretty much my entire life. I love all the perks, and they don't charge me a dime if I have to use anyone else's ATM, which was super helpful when I was overseas.

[JenMarie]

I've been issue free with WaMu so far. I don't like paying service charges for banking unless I have direct deposit. That's why I stopped BofA. And I don't make enough cash to keep their minimum balance anyway.

Though, I find it lame that they charge you a $3 service charge if you have less than $300 in your savings, but then put it back once they realize that you do the automatic $25 a month savings thing. Since I do my savings elsewhere... it seems like a huge waste of paperwork.

I been banking with washington mutual for a very long time and never once had a mishap with my acct or anything. the only complaint i have is they just need more tellers and another location where i am at.