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My problems with WaMu actually started with Fleet Mortgage. I found that Fleet was charging me the wrong interest rate, misapplying payments, etc. I did resolve my problems with Fleet Mortgage but only by suing them. During our litigation they had their (first) lawyers (the Weston Adams Law Firm in Columbia SC) to threaten to "put me in jail" and other ugly things that they had no right to do (I did file a complaint with the bar against them). They actually foreclosed on my house at one point without even serving me with papers (I found out about it by accident), fortunately the Judge saw things my way and "vacated" the Judgment after he discovered that they had lied about serving me with the foreclosure papers. They then served me with the foreclosure papers which contained totally false allegations about my account (which fortunately I was able to disprove with my canceled checks and other documentation), and at various times they presented to the court and to myself (this was over a time period of several years) numerous sets of "doctored" accounting each alleging different facts. They also changed attorneys (the Weston Adams Law Firm was totally incompetent) and the second set of attorneys tried to play some of the same games with me but they too were not too "swuft". The fact is that Fleet was never cooperative with any of it's own attorneys and had never told them the truth or given them accurate accounting. I only briefly was represented by lawyers (both lawyers quit on me after I instructed them on how to handle the case - it seems that both attorneys were somewhat intimidated by the fact that I had learned more about foreclosure law than they knew).
Fleet did many things to harass me during this time. Fleet called my real estate agent and harassed her, Fleet contacted my insurance company and informed them that they should cancel my insurance (and they did so). One of Fleet's attorneys told the Judge that I had approached him in a threatening manner at the courthouse (absolute lie, I did not even know who he was, he saw me waiting outside the court room and he walked up to me and said "are you Mr. Donnelly" and I said "yes"). I assume that the attorney was trying to make me look like I was hostile or something. Fleet's attorneys also attempted to make me look bad when they told the Judge that I had been tape-recording my conversations with Fleet and also with Fleet's attorneys, but when they did so, it kind of back fired on them when the Judge responded "You are an attorney, you know that Mr. Donnelly has every right to do so. If you do not know that you need to go back to law school". Also they attempted to get sympathy from the Judge by telling him that I had been posting information about the case on various internet sites. He did not seem to care about that either.
During the years of litigation I attended many hearings. At first it seemed like my case would be a "slam dunk" simply because I knew that I was right and they were wrong and I had all the documentation to prove that they were wrong plus the Judge ruled in favor of me during my very first hearing. But the case just got stretched out longer and longer. Eventually I realized that the Judge was under the assumption that I was in "the wrong", nothing in particular, just little statements and remarks that he made. At one point Fleet had requested that a court date be delayed and I objected to the date being delayed. The Judge then said "that is the first time that I have ever had someone to object to delaying the foreclosure of his house" - I quickly responded that "my house will not be foreclosed on because my defense and counterclaim has merit" - the Judge responded "well, uuu, we are not discussing the merits of your case today". He granted the delay.
Then one day, when I had requested a hearing for a court order compelling Fleet to comply with my Discovery request for HUD documents, the Judges attitude changed. He started the hearing by asking if the issue of me requesting a jury trial had been resolved. I explained that I was under the impression that I would be receiving a jury trial because I had that right, Fleet responded by stating that I had not requested a jury trial during the time limitations set forth by the Rules of Court. The Judged jumped in and stated "I can not believe that you would even make that allegations. I read all the pleadings and Mr. Donnelly made that request in his very first pleading over six years ago." The attorney kind of shyly said "well, that is just my clients position." The Judge ruled in my favor. Then Fleets attorney stated that she had brought the documents that I had been requesting and that they were complete except for a three month period in which she stated the Fleet had no contact with HUD concerning my loan. I quickly realized that this was the same time period in which I had requested a HUD investigation of my account. I presented to the Judge the letters which I had received from HUD which were all dated within that same time period. The letters discussed the fact that HUD had been in contact with Fleet and that Fleet had denied my allegations. Ha! I had caught them in a red faced lie! The Judge then asked Fleets attorney again if Fleet had these documents, and she even more sheepishly replied "It is Fleets position that no such documents exist". The Judge then told me that he could not make Fleet produce what they claim they do not have, and he then recommended me to contact HUD for copies of my entire file. I actually did that but HUD said they would not do that without a federal supina (sp?).
All of a sudden, Fleet who's only previous offer to settle out of court for me to pay them money, all of a sudden was offering to pay me money. After six years in litigation they basically wore me down (or did I wear them down) and we settled out of court by them giving me my equity in the house ($11,200) and they agreed to clear my credit (which they did). I gave them the house in exchange.
Then Fleet went out of business (they had developed too bad of a reputation and no one would borrow money from them anymore - I actually had a Fleet representative to contact me and tell me that my comments on the internet was hurting Fleets business and he asked that I remove them - I responded that my comments on the internet were intended to hurt Fleets business and that I could not remove them because I did not own the sites that they were posted on). When Fleet went out of business WaMu purchased all of Fleets assets which included Fleets buildings, furniture, employees, computer systems, and other assets including loans. So essentially WaMu is the same as Fleet in my eyes.
WaMu is so screwed up that they never bothered to see if I actually still had a loan with Fleet, they just assumed that I did because I was obviously somewhere in Fleets computer system. So WaMu reported to all three credit bureaus that I was six years delinquent on my mortgage. But understand, at that point I had no mortgage. As a matter of fact by that time neither I nor Fleet/WaMu owned that house. It took me 3 months and thousands of dollars to correct this -- which entailed, a few calls to Fleets old attorney, several hundred e-mails, 40-50 phone calls, and finally, 6 straight hours of faxing. I actually think that it was the hundreds of pages of faxes that I sent to them that finally got their attention. They did then have their lies removed from my credit reports. So yes, for the time being my complaints are resolved -- but I fully expect that at some time in the future they will ruin my credit again or maybe even attempt to foreclose on that house (which I do not own or owe on). Actually I am looking forward to it.
Basically, I would highly recommend that you never have anything to do with WaMu. I get 80-100 visitors a day on my website and many of them write me and tell me there horror stories (although most of them for some reason will not give me permission to publish their letters). WaMu has to be the worst in customer service ever.
Scott
If anyone would like information about my problems with WaMu, feel free to contact me:
Scott Donnelly
864-583-8848
Fax 864-597-0726
imagep@aol.com