Washington Mutual Bank: The WORST Bank EVER!!!
Written: Aug 22 '03
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Pros: Free Checking, good website, lots of locations
Cons: HORRIBLE customer service, hidden fees EVERYWHERE
The Bottom Line: Free checking? Definitely not worth the aggravation.
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| Candice923's Full Review: Washington Mutual Bank |
Okay, maybe I should stop writing reviews when I'm royally ticked off. Then again, this is when you, my faithful readers, are able to see my raw and true emotions.
Right now my raw and true emotions about Washington Mutual is: I HATE THIS FRICKIN' BANK!!!
Seriously, they are SO much more of a headache than they are worth. The poor customer service is exactly why their checking accounts are free. NO ONE WANTS TO BANK THERE!!! The free checking accounts are just a ploy to obtain public notice, then charge you up the wazoo for things you didn't even know that you could be charged for.
I joined Washington Mutual when I first moved to Los Angeles in 2001. The reason was because there are so many different branches around. There are also a lot of billboards boasting their free checking. Hey, I didn't have a lot of money, and free checking sure was appealing to me. So I signed up.
A few months later, I was able to add my husband- not even a U.S. resident with a Social Security Number - onto the account. I suppose that should have sent up some red flags. But, I was just thrilled that Jared and I had a bank account together. Unfortunately, that was the beginning of the end.
Since Jared and I started our account together, we have had nothing but problems with Washington Mutual. We have had to close three different accounts and open new ones. One reason was because some company took $1400 out of our bank account, and Washington Mutual never paid the money back to us. We never authorized the charges. NEVER. Did Washington Mutual care? No. The money was gone, and never going to come back. There wasn't a darned thing that Jared and I could do about it, either. Needless to say, the security with Washington Mutual stinks. What ever happened to fraud protection and customer care?
There is so much miscommunication with Washington Mutual and its customers, it is ridiculous. For example, I just deposited a check for a little over $35,000 into our account. When I deposited this money, I was told that $5,000 would be released immediately, and the remainder would be released on 8/16. I wrote out a bunch of checks, which did NOT total the $5,000 and the money that I had in there previously. Guess what? Washington Mutual decided to release to me only $2,500 and NOT TELL ME ABOUT IT. So, these checks bounced. It is the first time that I have ever bounced checks, and I am mortified. I mean, really. Plus, I was charged $21 for each of the four checks that bounced. Julie even said to me, "Well, you've got plenty of money in your account. I don't see why you should worry." The nerve!
So, I called Washington Mutual to take care of it. I spoke with Julie, a supervisor, who said that she would get back to me by the close of business that day. Of course, that was three days ago, and I never heard from her. Today, I called Washington Mutual again, and spoke with a new supervisor, Kelly. Kelly pulled up my record and saw that Julie wrote that she was going to call me back, but she never did. So, Kelly apologized for Julie and gave me $63 back into my account. Of course, I'm still going to get hit with the fees from the companies that I wrote the checks to. Terrific.
This isn't the first time that Washington Mutual has held funds from me and not told me about it. As a matter of fact, it has happened on several occasions. And, quite frankly, I'm getting very sick of it. As if I don't have enough on my plate to worry about my banking.
In my humble opinion, banking is supposed to be easy and convenient. Most important, I believe that a person's money should be accessible to them at any time, and they shouldn't have to worry about it. Banks should keep the money of their customers safe. Period.
And the "free checking" Washington Mutual offers isn't so free. You get free checks, which is nice. But, the names on my checks were spelled wrong FOUR different times. I wound up going to Checks Unlimited to purchase my checks because our names were spelled wrong. Our address was even wrong. Plus, the fees they hit you with for ATM usage is ridiculous. Every month, I have at least a $10 fee for domestic ATM use. to be honest, I don't use any other ATMs besides Washington Mutual! It is SO frustrating. I don't know where these charges are coming from. Plus the $21 they hit me with every now and again for "returned items" even though I've got plenty of money in my bank account as well as a $1,000 overdraft limit.
Customer service leaves much to be desired. Sure, the people at the bank are terrific, but most have no idea as to what they are doing. They tell me one thing and the people at the "Customer Service" Center tell me something entirely different. The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing!
Here is another case of miscommunication and customer dissatisfaction. My mother cosigned on my house. She was refinancing her house and needed proof that I was paying my mortgage by myself. I needed copies of the checks that I wrote to Washington Mutual for my homeloan. (They bought out Homeside Lending, who had my original loan.) First of all, they topped sending my my canceled checks, for some strange reason. Seriously, they just stopped coming. Why? I found out later that someone "accidentally" chose that I don't receive these checks when I opened a new account. Ridiculous. Anyway, I was told that they would fax the checks that I needed to the Washington Mutual branch that I go to right by my house, and I should go there at 4:00 and pick them up. So, at 4:00, I headed over to Washington Mutual to pick up the fax. Karen, the branch manager there (whom I love), told me that no faxes had come in for me. She went to check the fax machine. Guess what? It was broken. So, they fixed it and about 200 pages came out. And not one was for me. By this time, it is 4:45, and I call the Customer Care Center to speak with Gail, the woman that was supposedly faxing me the checks. She insisted that they were sent and asked to speak with Karen. Karen got on the phone and told her that they didn't arrive. They spoke for a little, then Karen's eyes got wide. After Karen hung up, she told me that they accidentally faxed my canceled checks to another bank-- In Chino, CA. Gail actually asked Karen if I could drive to Chino (over an hour) to pick them up.
Of course, I called Gail and explained to her how far Chino was. Since it was after 5:00, they couldn't fax the checks. I had to come back at 11am the following day. So, I go there the following day and -- guess what? -- no checks. I get on the phone with Gail once again, and she informs me that they lost the fax number for the branch, and they were waiting for my call to give it to them.
At 5:00 that night, the fax FINALLY comes through. And, it is completely illegible. It's black in some places and completely unreadable in others. I was MIFFED.
We finally got this entire fiasco taken care of the following day, and mom got to refinance her house. But, Jared (my husband) and I were really put out by this entire situation. That was a few months ago. We should have switched banks then. Oh, well. Hindsight is 20/20.
When the Washington Mutual website is up and running, it is pretty good. There is a lot of information about their services, and you can access all of your accounts. But, the server is constantly down. (Don't worry-- I'll write a review about this at some point in the category for it.)
Do yourself a favor when you are looking for a bank: Avoid Washington Mutual at all costs.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Candice923
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 - Top 500 |
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Location: Brookhaven, NY
Reviews written: 707
Trusted by: 199 members
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