How should I fight with Washington Mutaul?

Question

How do I need to complain Washington Mutual's stupid insulting?
My wife opended on-line free checking account at Washington Mutual few month ago. The bank service is terrible and ridiculous. The worst thing was that they closed her account simply because she didn't sign the beck of her check when she deposited her check into ATM. Then they distributed this to other banks and ask not to set up account for my wife. We just found this because her new bank (Wells Fargo) said that they need to close her account yesterday. We complained for this at Washington mutual this morning and they said my wife volunteerly closed the account and they don't know what's going on. My wife checked again in other local back to set up her checking account and they said that Washington Mutual circulated my wife name to all banks not to set up her account.
This is ridiculous to me. What's wrong with Washington Mutual? I consider this serious insult and am ready to fight. Any advie to my family?

Sombody below said that I am lying. Gee..Why should I lie in public with this thing? For what? Even local bank people said that they have never seen this kind of issue in their careers. They asked my wife to fight. I know this is ridiculous but if you experience Washington Mutual's lack of customer services and insaneness about on-line bank system,you will realize it.

One more addition. Thanks for comments and recommendations. By the way, I have a joint checking account with my wife. Yes Iwe are 8 yr BoA customer. My wife just wanted to have second checking account for her own management. We don't have any problem without having her checing account outside BoA. However,why should we treated by Washington Mutual like this? Why does hell Washington Mutual block her to open her account in other banks after they closed her account with no sense???? I know there are many things in our life with no common sense. However,this is too ridiculous to be just quite. I will fight for us, customers who should be treated much better than this.

Reviewing customer complaints on other web site,I feel WAMU is really ridiculous. After they closed her account,they haven't sent $300 balance check yet. Why should we as customer be treated like this?

To trumania and others who think there is other reason.

1. My wife's credit score is 760. Not perfect but pretty good.
2. The check that she forgot to sign was BoA check she just simply want to transfer from her BoA account. BoA Balance was more than $8000 and check amount was $2000.
Not fraud or fake checks.

3. her Washington Mutual balance was around $350. WAMU promosed to send her the check. So there was no negative balance or something.

I think many people don't believe this. Yeah,I cannot believe this. As soon as my wife receives the balance from WAMU,we will go the the branche and will fight.

Answer 1

This story does sound fishy. Washington Mutual would not close the account just because your wife didn't sign a deposited check. There has to be something else going on that you're either unaware of or haven't told us.

Some ideas of why the account was closed is that she is already on ChexSystems (which would be how other banks would not open the account). Perhaps the check she tried depositing was a forged/fake? check. Not saying you are guilty or innocent in that, but deposit fraud would be a valid reason for the bank to close the account.

How long ago did she open the account? Did it have a positive or negative balance? Was it at a zero balance for more then a month? (with no money the bank can close the account). Did you wife file a dispute recently or in the history of the account? Is it possible the account was compromised forcing the bank to close the account. Is there anything negative that would come up on your wife's credit report? (If she was on chexsystems previously wamu would close the account even if they did open it for her before they knew about that).

Well... if the account was closed. Not to be confused with frozen then you can call Washington Mutual's Risk Operations department (You need to get to Offset Review, they work with accounts WaMu closed for being overdrawn or fraud).

[phone]
M-F 6am-6pm Pacific Time.

Accounts don't just close. WaMu doesn't target people to screw up their lives. There is a reason they closed the account. Now you just need to get all the information collected to find out why exactly it was closed.

Good Luck.

UPDATE:

Try calling Wamu's Customer Service line, 800-788-7000. (Make sure your wife is availible in case they need to identify her and talk to her first. If they do they will identify her and then she can tell them "I give my husband permission to talk on behalf of my accounts")Then ask the 1st banker the account was closed and your trying to find out why. If they don't know, ask for a manager. They will send you to a level 2 banker (which is a manager banker). They should be able to pull up some additional information. If they can not, or can't find the reason, very politely ask them to generate a Senior Manager Call Back Request. They should be able to have a senior call center manager call you back within a day or two. The phone manager would be to able to clarify in the call back request to have the reason why the account was closed.

If not when you speak to the Sr. Manager and explain the situation they should be able to do the research for you and call you back. Also ask the Sr. Manager for a number you can reach them at so you can call them back if you don't hear from him/her within a few days. Make sure you get their full name as well, that way in case you can't get a phone number you can get another manager to submit a call back request for the same manager in the future (if needed).

Remember, I understand this situation is extremely frustrating for you, but the call center personnel don't respond to yelling, cussing, finger pointing name calling. It's not going to get them to move any faster if at all.

Try to stay calm, and try to explain the situation as clearly as possible, don't speak with slang words and try to sound professional.. Tell them you understand it's going to take some time for the research to come back and that is not a problem as long as you can get an answer to why the account was closed. And don't be surprised if you call them and you're on the phone for at least 30 minutes. So make sure you call when you have some time. Right now WaMu doesn't really have a queue when you call so you should get to the first banker within a minute.

remember STAY CALM. It's easy to get frustrated on the phone but you need to stand out and be the customer that really needs help instead of all the other customers who are yelling and cursing and cutting the telephone bankers off. Allow them to say what they need to and then ask your questions, don't interrupt them because they will consider you rude.

Good Luck Again.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I advise you to stop lying. I don't believe one word you said. Why in God's name would Washington Mutual tell other banks not to give you a checking account AND to close your current accounts just because your wife forgot to endorse a check??? AND on top of that why the hell would the other banks listen to this and lose a customer??? This makes absolutely no sense at all.

Answer 4

That thing happened to me but the other way around.

Bank of America was messing with me and charging me hidden fees. Then I closed my account and they CHARGED ME TO CLOSE MY ACCOUNT!!!

Now I'm happy with my Washington Mutual account. They don't charge me for anything.

Other banks hate Washington Mutual because they offer free services.

Answer 5

Do you have a checking account, and can you add her to your account and just have one checking account for the two of you, and then you don't have to deal with these fools.

Since you are married, you should really be thinking of money as ours, not mine and hers. When you work together, you can accomplish amazing things.

Take a look at the book Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey. I believe he talks about some of this there.

Answer 6

WM has had problems in the customer service department. Tell the problem to your state's bank regulators. Find them at
http://library.hsh.com/?row_id=67.

Answer 7

I would consult an attorney take them to court and tell them what going. the WM bank really suck their service not good at all. I have wels fargo bank too and they are very good bank another bank is god you can go with bank of america. do not go with citibank their service charge are expensive. your best bet would be bank of america their service charge are reasonable and it worldwode too. Most of the WM are really screwed up.

Answer 8

i would think that they didnt set out to screw you, but rather something in a system flagged an identity issue on your wifes name and social security number. call the consumer protection agency in your area and ask how to get it straight.

Answer 9

Sounds to me there is a little more to this story.

Answer 10

This whole story sound fishy.