Washington Mutual took over for Home Savings in San Diego as it did in many other parts of the country. My experience with the front desk people at Home Savings was that they were friendly and well trained. They knew what they could do, and knew when to call in an expert so as not to waste their time or their customers' time. I'm sorry to say that since the change over to Washington Mutual things have gone downhill

Washington Mutual does not give its front desk people enough training. "Teller" is an entry level position, but people do not have enough training even for that job. Simple deposits and withdrawls create no difficulty, but with ATMs, I rarely come in for these simple functions.

A sample of some of the difficulties involved in dealing with front desk personnel is as follows. Before leaving I for Israel, I went to get traveler's cheques. The teller did not know how much the cheques cost. First he said, "I think they're $7." When asked "$7 for how many?" he was lost. Then when told that I thought I got them free with my checking account he said, "No, not with a 'key' account." He said I could get them free with a 'gold' account. When asked how to upgrade, he told me there would be a $6 per month charge for a gold account. Another teller then walked by and said "traveler's cheques are $6." After insisting to speak to a supervisor, that person finally came up with the information that "Traveler's cheques are one percent of the total value sold, but with my 'key' account, they were free."

Another example of difficulties came after I arrived in Israel and wanted to have money wired into my new account here. This is an expensive transaction, but is much faster than sending a check and having it clear. My parents had all the information about my account in Israel. I recognize this is not a transaction that tellers encounter daily, but after 25 minutes of false starts, my father finally insisted on speaking with a manager. The manager was able to complete the transaction in under five minutes. I do not mind having tellers who do not know how to conduct this odd transaction, but get someone who does.

Other problems have arisen this year with ordering of cashiers cheques to make payments. In one case, a friend required a cashier's cheque. A cashiers cheque was requested and the teller made out a money order instead because "it's cheaper." Cheaper or not, it was not what was ordered or desired. It would have been nice to have had the teller pass on the information, but in the end, give the customer what they want.

I have had many friends who formerly kept accounts at Home Savings who have taken their business elsewhere because of the lack of training given to Washington Mutual's tellers. This is not to say that these tellers are not capable people or lack ability. It is merely that the corporation hasn't seen fit to give them what they need to do their jobs at the highest possible professional level. It's too bad. When I come back to the states, I'll be living in California again, but I won't be banking in Washington.

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Update:

Though I long ago pulled my accounts from Washington Mutual, my parents have maintained accounts there in order to qualify for free safety deposit boxes. (They had 2.) Recently, however, they received a notice that their branch was doing away with the boxes and they would have to come empty theirs.

It was because of this that one Saturday morning they arrived at the bank. They were taken into the vault where they quickly found the first of the boxes. They were told, however, that there was no such number as the box listed for the second one. This is interesting since my parents had the key and have kept two boxes since long before the bank was Washington Mutual.

A little research on the part of the clerk showed that during a remodel a year earlier, a group of boxes had been eliminated. My parents MUST have been notified, they were told. Perhaps, they had simply not read the notification. (My father balances all his accounts to the penny every month and has copies of bank statements going back to 1954. He reads everything the bank sends.) Perhaps the bank didn't have the right address for them. (They've lived in the same house since 1967.) In any case, the issue was the contents of the missing box.

My parents were told that it would require some research to figure out what had happened, but they would get a call before the end of the day letting them know what could be found out. The bank closes at 6 p.m., so at 5:30 when no call had been received, my parents returned to the bank. They had located the contents of the missing box. They were in a plastic bag somewhere after having been removed. There was an inventory sheet indicating all the contents.

I had several problems with this incident. The first was the desire of the clerk to lay the blame on my parents for what happened. The next problem was the lack of a phone call when the plastic bag with my parents' things had been retrieved. My parents spent the better part of a day worrying about this matter. Had they not gone in, they could have worried all day Sunday, too.

Washington Mutual once again has shown they don't care about their customers.

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