Recieved on 9/6/04

I am a former employee of Washington Mutual. I worked in the Correspondence Department in Milwaukee, WI. We wrote letters back to mortgage holders whom wrote correspondence to us regarding their accounts.

I am truly sorry for the issues that you and countless others have suffered from this horrible bank. I worked for "WAMU" from March 2003 to June 2004. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. I can't even convey to you the full horror of being an employee there. We were treated like robots. I can't say that it was all terrible, but in my position, it was 95% really bad.

I was fired from my position because I had the audacity to challenge policy and procedure. I was fired because I dared to ask "why?" Most of the people that work there really are good, honest people, that want to help the customer. But the managers there...not so much. My manager in particular changed policy and procedure to fit his needs. If you set one toe out of line, you were blacklisted, and put on a performance plan. Which, about 3 weeks later, leads to termination.

I urge anyone that reads this letter to stay as far away from "WAMU" as you possibly can! Don't use any of their banking, mortgage, etc, products!!! Problem is, they were buying so many loans, that as soon as you would refinance to get away from them, your loan was bought right back. I saw SO MUCH incompetence and flat-out gross negligence on the part of bad employees (and most especially management) that it would make your stomach turn. That is why there are so many issues. They'll pay your taxes early, but on the wrong parcel #, because they are too lazy to call and confirm the payment due. Don't bother with insurance, or the management of your escrow account. It will get screwed up regardless of your vigilance.

In closing, WAMU is a terrible company, that really doesn't care about anything but the bottom line. They treated the employees so poorly, all in the guise of "servicing the customer," which was a joke. There was no dedication except for charging exorbitant fees and stealing from homeowners.

Thank you,

Recieved on 4/22/04

Scott: Today, for about the 4th time, I got out my picketing sign, which I had printed at Kinko's and walked back and forth in front of a WM branch in Pasadena. It is a busy corner and lots of people stopped to ask me what the problem was. I gave them a flyer, which I had made before, and had put in an apron pocket which I had around my waist. I told them of my issues with this dreadful bank. The people who stopped were very concerned and had all kinds of suggestions. One man is going to set up a web site for me. Another lady told me to go down to the radio station in Los Angeles and picket in front of the radio studio. I will do it. Many suggested an attorney; others suggested going to TV stations.. I will no doubt do that too . Others suggested getting other customers of WM to picket with me.

The reason I write this to you is to ask you to please ask people who live in So. California, who have had issues with WM to please get in touch with me and picket with me. I have found it to be very effective, because the police have been called and the branch managers have come out to talk to me and ask me to leave. Some branch manages (one) was quite nice and asked me to come in and talk to him to see if he could help me. Thru this person, I got the phone number of Cindy Modica, the VP in charge of quality management. (818 775 6307. Fax number is 818 775 2456). I have called her every day for a week. She have never returned my calls of course. But then, that is what WM has done for 7 years with me...ignore, ignore, ignore.

Please, would you put something on the internet to see if anyone would come and picket with me anywhere in the Los Angeles or San Diego or Long Beach area. Pasadena would be great too, in fact, I am quite willing to travel.

I will not quit until I get restitution from those creeps. I know there is a way and I will find it. I will find a way with help or alone. Never never never never quit. Thanks Violet

purple60006@aol.com Oh, and by the way, before I even had my sign made, I went to the police dept in each city that I planned to picket and asked if it were legal to do so. Pasadena police told me that if I had trouble with WM, to call them. They would help me.
Freedom of Speech, you know.....as long as you don't block their door and stay on public property.

Suggestion and TV Transcript Received on 2/20/04

Contact all the major TV News Programs (48 minutes - 20/20 and the rest) and ask them to profile Washington Mutual and all the horror stories that resulted from anyone's association with them.

Channel 4 News -New York news on 2/18/04 had a story about a couple who had their own run in with Washington Mutual - they went to the TV station for help. Asa Aronson, Channel 4 - 6 PM News - Washington Mutual appears was nice to them only after a major TV station was brought into play. Bad Publicity can work wonders.

Clerical Error Almost Costs Family Their Home
Asa Comes To Rescue
It's not uncommon for people to struggle to keep up their home mortgage payments. For a Long Island couple, that struggle turned into a desperate battle to keep from losing their home altogether.

It's not the biggest house on the block or the most expensive, but the Santiagos call it home.

David, Nancy and their two sons have lived, laughed and lately cried in the house for a little over two years.

The problem started when David Santiago was laid off.

Their mortgage holder, Washington Mutual, was patient with the couple and, according to David Santiago, told them they would work with them on a payment plan. The Santiago's at first noticed their payment checks where not being cashed.

"So I started sending registered mail," David Santiago said.

Later the payment schedule escalated into a major issue.

"They actually foreclosed on my house," he said. David Santiago says the family made every attempt to contact Washington Mutual and tell them a mistake was being made.

As the foreclosure action loomed larger, the Santiago's say their lawyer advised them to file bankruptcy just to stop it.

Ask Asa contacted Washington Mutual to see if there was any way to help the family. After some checking, it turned out a clerical error committed had turned into an avalanche ready to sweep the house from under them.

In less than 24 hours, the foreclosure action was halted and the Santiago's received full credit for their payments.

Asa would like to thank Derek Ainey from Washington Mutual for responding so quickly to his call. What really saved the day was the fact that Santiago documented everything and could produce hard records of all payments. Something everyone should remember because one mistake could wind up costing a home.

Received on 2/19/04

Hi Scott

WOW!

I just read the one from the spouse of the ex-employee. That's EXACTLY what goes on in the customer service call center! What he forgot to mention, or probably doesn't realize, is that the reason the CSR's are under so much pressure from the mgrs is because THE MGR'S BONUS IS BASED ON THE STATS, I.E. THE TURN-AROUND TIME. MORE TURN AROUND, MORE $ IN THE MGR'S POCKET!

I was especially intrigued by this quote: "This is a very parochial company that insists that you follow all of the rules exactly as there written and do not ask any questions. And, if you do they become very belligerent and threatening. If anything needs to go above your CSM, you had better watch out."

That's EXACTLY why they fired me! My boss and her boss felt threatened because I asked too many questions and put them on the spot! They were looking for an excuse to fire me, they finally found one in the form of the stats, but they were trumped up (more about that whole story later). I was in the HR call center at the time I left (I've done many jobs for them in the last 10 years), which wasn't as bad (but still hard) because there is no pressure to handle a call w/in X amount of time, we could take as much time as we needed and it wasn't supposed to impact our bonuses. At least, on paper it was that way, but the mgr would give out "cudos" at meetings to those employee's who DID handle the calls w/in a couple of minutes, plus when it came time for bonuses, the mgr had a lot of "discretion" available. Just where do you think a lot of those "discretionary" bonus funds went? (And don't be naive!)

I applaud the guy's wife for getting some training in something else. That's what I'm going to do also. I will never, ever work in any call center ever again, and never anything with WAMU. Feel free to forward my email address to him, I would love to swap horror stories!

Sign me,

Getting happier every day I'm gone from the employer from HELL!

Received 2/18/04

I' m in the service and while fighting for my country while in germany and
Iraq. I had some terrible experience with Wamu. I would send my payments in
a timely manner and they would not post them until after the past due date
and have the nerve to charge me late fees. When I contacted them Keep in
mind that there was an 8 hr difference. They would state it was late and that
there was nothing they could do. at one point they charge me $2500.00
because they neglected to tell me that my payment went up and when I could
finally get a hold of them they stated that there was nothing they could do.
Of course they sent that to credit bureau. They told me that they could not
send me payment notices to Germany because my house was in Texas.

Received 2/16/04

I'm writing up my own story as a now ex-employee. Sorry, I wasn't in the mortgage field, but I did spend some time in general customer service, the one you call regarding your checking/savings account. It was a job from HELL. For the most part, we were poorly trained, poorly paid, over-worked and treated like dirt. A high stress atmosphere with high-handed, incompetent managers and back-stabbing, unfriendly co-workers. Typical scenario: A mailing goes out to customers regarding a change, something new, etc, about this or that, with the wording "for questions, call customer service at 800-whatever." Do you think we were experts at whatever it is? Silly you! At best, they hand us a sheet of scant info regarding the matter (if anything at all) or a brief email and we were expected to keep it handy amongst the pile of crap they gave us that didn't relate to anything anybody called about, and we were supposed to be able to answer all the questions that came pouring in. If we didn't, the customer gets upset and we get written up. Many times it was just a phone # to give to customers to call someone else. Why don't they just print THAT # on the mailing instead of telling them to call us? I usually had about 2 or 3 pages of just phone #s to hand out, i.e. we were glorified switchboard operators. Often, we would not even hear of a matter until a customer called about it. Often the info we needed only got down as far as the ass-kissing leads and not out to the reps on the phone who need it. Go out of our way to actually resolve a customer's problem, even if you have to bend the rules a bit? Want to get FIRED? Forget IT!

I specifically remember a call where a customer needed a copy of something (I don't remember exactly what it was, but it wasn't a statement) because she lost her copy and was headed to court in a couple of hours. I knew exactly where the documents she needed were kept, a few strides away in a room with file cabinets. It would have been a simple matter to by-pass the usual procedure of handing it off to a lead who would do it in a day or two when they got around to it (and then just put it in snail mail), and just go get the file, make a copy, and fax it to the customer right then and there. Take only a few minutes. What do you think happened when my supe caught me in the file room? That's right, you guessed it, I GOT WRITTEN UP FOR GOING THE EXTRA MILE FOR THE CUSTOMER AND USING INITIATIVE! Can't have any of that now, can we? The customer must not be made happy, but super frustrated!

I do know this about WAMU's mortgage servicing. Several years ago, before the acqusition spree, around 95-96, when WAMU only had one loan servicing dept, some exec with too much time on their hands got a wild hair up his/her ass and decided that not only could we handle questions about checking/savings accounts, but they were going to cross train us (AND the loan servicing reps) to handle BOTH.

The result was an utter disaster. Loan servicing is so highly specialized and technical and the general customer service is so high-volume that nobody could possibly assimulate all that information and be able to efficiently handle both types of customers and stay pleasant all the while. To add insult to injury, they turned around AND CUT OUR PAY. Many of the employees in loan servicing and customer service walked out the door with their middle finger up in the air, including some of their top supervisors. I would have too if I had some other means of support. Some of the supervisor's paychecks were getting cut by $300-400 a month! The training for the loan servicing side was very piss-poor. We were handed a loan manual and given a one-hour crash course. The manual wasn't even a procedure manual, it was a technical manual about ARMS and other alien crap. The customer would get someone like myself who didn't know squat about loans, (Do you have a checking account? I can help you with that!) the poor loan servicing lead was never available to answer questions because she was inundated with questions from the other reps, and the customer was getting super-shitty service. Seriously, I got so frustrated that I started hanging up on customers as soon as they said it was about a loan or mortgage! My solution was to go to the graveyard shift. No loan calls and I got paid more. I eventually transfered out of customer service. Even on graveyard shift it was still a job from HELL.

My own personal experience with trying to get a loan for a used vehicle from my employer was a bad joke. I called the employee lending dept and told them I wanted to get an auto loan. They sent me a blue book work sheet with instructions. When I picked out the car I wanted, the dealer was to fill out the blue book work sheet, and I had to take it to the nearest branch to have them verify the mileage and take a photo. I shopped around and when I picked out my vehicle, I explained to the business manager at the dealership that I was an employee of WAMU, and explained to him the procedure they wanted me to go through. He said, and I quote verbatim "That's why I HATE Washington Mutual! They're a pain in the ass! If I can get you a better deal with Seafirst, will you go through them?" (end of quote). I told the business manager that I needed to call employee lending because I wasn't sure if that would place me in a conflict of interest situation or what, i.e I was just trying to be a loyal employee.

I called employee lending and told them the situation. They're only response was "No, that's not a problem." I was agahst at their indifference. No counter-offer or anything. So I said to the business manager "Apparently they don't give a rip, what can you get me from Seafirst Bank?" He got me 1% less on the interest, and no red tape what-so-ever. I have not bothered with WAMU employee lending since then.

I sympathize with all the unhappy customers who were fucked over by WAMU. Believe me, they don't treat their employees any better!. But my current situation isn't really related to that. I'm interested in any other former WAMU employees who were fired because of a weasle boss who fucked them over. Is there a Web site for that?

Sincerly yours,

Former employee

Received 2/13/04

I just wanted to let you know that I am the spouse of a Washington Mutual employee and I though that I would pass onto you some of the things that they have there CSR's doing. First, your average CSR only has 177 seconds to deal with you on the phone. Within this amount of time they need to take all the details of the call and get you the information that you need or take care of what the customer needs done, order new checks, cancel credit/debit cards, defend there policies etc.....For most normal transactions this is no problem, but for anything out of the norm it takes much longer. The result is that the CSR is under great pressure to turn you around in this amount of time. Thus, many customers are turned around very quickly, but many times they do not receive all of the information that they need. These types of problems arise quite frequently and they are things such as, the customer has been robbed, id theft, natural catastrophe at home etc. When you are such a large company you will run across many of these types of problems and quite frequently. When my spouse asked there CSM about the way that they handle them with no compassion what so ever, she was told that there job is to get the information and turn them around ASAP. So because she is much more compassionate than her employer, she suffers on her call time while trying to console the customer. She repeatedly receives calls from customers that have just previously hung up from a "rude" CSR to only have them call back to get more complete information. Many of the folks at her call center comment to one another about how callous and rude some of the CSR's are to there customers. But, these CSR's always tend to be the ones in the top 20-25% that excel on there KPI scores.

The Washington Mutual CSR is evaluated on 3 items once every month. The categories are how quickly they handle the call, how congenial they are to the customer, and there information accuracy. They claim that they weight them all equally when they are rated, but the biggest emphasis is on there call time. If you don't keep it under 177 seconds you will not excel in this company, no matter how good you are at the other two categories. One thing that bugs her, is that her CSM mentions that she should not be asking questions such as, Is there anymore information I can get you, May I help you anymore, Is there anything I can do for you. This she does as she is getting ready to leave the customer. They claim that it provokes more questions and elongates there time with the customer. She has been involved with the public for many years and has dealt with them one on one all this time and these are things that she has learned to do to help make the customer happy. Not here, time is money.. Yup, that's how they treat there customers, as dollars. Your final rating score needs to be +100 in order to receive any type of a bonus for the month.
The company has just gone through a shift re-alignment. They have basically said that no matter what hours you were working, these are the new ones and they have many schedules to chose from. These schedules that you are presented with will in one form or manner include a weekend day. Now when WAMU acquired this facility there was no mention made of having to do this, but all new hires, were hired knowing full well they would be working weekends. Now it's a take it or leave it attitude. I know of many people that would not have transferred from the old company to the new, because of the separation pay they were offering and the chance to collect and retrain while collecting unemployment. But, they promised them the best of a new world. I understand it's there business and they need to do what they have to, but there has been absolutely no compassion shown in this what-so-ever. It sounds like there absentee rate will jump from what I am hearing.. LOL LOL The other day they fired a 30+ year employee for refusing to sign to work weekends. My kind of company !!!!! I understand that there is a possibility of a union attempt and I do know folks that will be calling the NLRB and Labor department.Now again, they ranked all of there employee's, but, the categories this time were, 50% of it was your time with the company and 50% your call time score. Now again, they have only taken one part of the monthly evaluation and used it to determine where they stood in the ranking.


I sorry I took so long, but I have needed a place to vent. We believe that it is important for people to try and understand the pressure that average CSR is under in order to perform in this environment. I myself work for a large international company, but I am appalled at the way Washington Mutual treats there employee's. I understand that even in today's atmosphere of jobs that they still have a rather high turn-over in employee's. We both understand the facelessness of corporate America and the need to turn a profit. But, this is how this company treats it's employee's and customers... We are all just dollars to them. But, with the loss of the real estate revenue they are under great constraints to control costs and add revenue because they need the "BILLION" dollar quarters. You would not believe some of the articles that are printed in there internal newspaper, and there RA RA attitude to there employee's, but there downright viciousness if you do not conform to the WAMU ways. This is a very parochial company that insists that you follow all of the rules exactly as there written and do not ask any questions. And, if you do they become very belligerent and threatening. If anything needs to go above your CSM, you had better watch out.

I want to say that she is currently looking for a different position outside if this company, or going back to school, so she is not just complaining and nothing else. Good things do come from a bad experience

Until the time she leaves and if anyone is interested I can and will provide phone numbers upon request. As they change them I will be able to update them also.

Thanks for this site. It brings out the real Washington Mutual company. As many people know and has been stated before, Washington Mutual has a very large customer base and as a whole the complaints are very small, or maybe there not. If you use the formula that my company uses to gauge complaints it would be tremendously different. We are told that for every written complaint there are 9 that did not get reported. In the United States we as consumers tend not to complain, we are silent and tolerate what is happening. Not so in other industrialized areas of the world, were 9 out of 10 complaints are filed and followed up on. So how many complaints are there really about Washington Mutual?

Received 01/19/04

Scott,

I accidentally ran across your site tonight and found it to be very entertaining, however I am confused on one point. Why are you bashing WAMU when your beef was with Fleet ? Yes I know WAMU bought Fleet but from your story that was after your legal battles were through. Having been involved in the credit reporting process I can assure you that getting credit data corrected within 3 months is very good considering how atrocious the reporting agencies are. As a neutral third party it seems like they corrected bad info that was inherited from Fleet with the purchase which makes me wonder if this website parody of WAMU is a misguided attempt of venting against a company because Fleet no longer exists but please correct me if I interpeted the info incorrectly. I ask these questions because I am about to do business with WAMU on a home loan and my previous dealings with them have been nothing but positive. I know my comments do not fit the " theme " of the website but I do give permission to include this letter in your website in the hopes that you will give the website a fair and honest reporting of the feedback you receive.

Thanks,


PS If you ever start a webpage against AOL please let me know, I could fill up a whole site with my horror story dealings with them !!

My response (on 1/20/04)

I appreciate your input. Most of WaMu's customers are indeed satisfied. But wait until someone makes a mistake on your account. You will have a much different attitude towards WaMu when you try to have the mistake corrected. I understand that you think that I am venting my frustrations about Fleet onto WaMu but my problems only started with Fleet and then transfered to WaMu. WaMu was just as incompetant in handling my problems as Fleet (and maybe worse).

Fleet is a large part of WaMu. As a matter of fact Fleet is the largest of the many companies which have become WaMu, and if you call many of the old Fleet phone numbers they will answer as being WaMu and if you ask the WaMu rep about Fleet they will tell you that they "are Fleet" (I know because I have done this on several occasions).

WaMu did not simply inherit bad information. Fleet had honored their agreement with me and fixed the problems - however WaMu resurrected the problem. The only way that I got the situation resolved was by dedicating 40+ hours per week to the matter for three months. Yes, this became my fulltime job. WaMu has (or had) no complaint resolution process. When I would call their numbers the rep. would simply say: "If you used to have a loan with Fleet then you now have your loan with Washington Mutual." The reps. would not even listen to a word that I was saying. They would not transfer me to a supervisor, they would not let me speak to anyone higher than the person who happened to answer the phone.

When I learned of the problem with WaMu the were extremely uncooperative with me - I do not mean a little uncooperative I am saying that they would repeatedly hang up on me, they would claim that I "must owe them money because that is what their computer says", they would not even cooperate with Fleets attorney (they did not return his calls, or correspond with him or anything on the matter). At times I was actually tying up 4 telephone lines contacting WaMu simultaniously (usually on hold on all three lines). I probably raised the biggest stink that WaMu had ever heard. Simple fact is that if I had not gone after them so agressivley the problem would had never been resolved (it would have never gone higher that the CSR level).

Most of the old Fleet Employees accepted jobs with WaMu (including management who are the real villains). And WaMu has continued the tradition of Fleet bad customer services with the added problems of all the other bad companies which they have bought up. Fleet currently operates at least 12 different computer systems and none of these are integrated or compatible. I frequently receive information from Fleet employees regarding such problems.

The good news is that Washington Mutual has really been beat up by the press. I am sure that you are aware of the horror stories published several national magazines. Maybe this publicity plus the publicity of the many sites like my own are helping to motivate WaMu to become a more responsible company.

Also, I have read of a recent (a few months ago) agreement that WaMu came to (to resolve a class action lawsuit) that WaMu would increase its ratio of CSR's/customers and also set up a complaint resolution department of some sort.

I do believe that "if one is not part of the solution that one is part of the problem." I, along with many others, have indeed played some small part in correcting some of the mortgage company abuses. The Gramm-Leach-Blyey Act of 1999 was partially enacted because of my efforts and the efforts of the many people who I have corresponded with. The part of that act which I am proudest is the part which requires Mortgage lenders to send monthly statements to all customers. Now when I get my monthly statement I know exactly how my payments are being credited. Prior to this law, no one really knew if the mortgage company was properly crediting their payments. If this law had been passed 10 years earlier then I could have fixed my problems with Fleet the first month that it happened instead of problems continuing for years.

It has amazed me that WaMu has never contacted me "officially" about my site. From time to time I will get e-mails from WaMu employees discussing the site (as individuals not as representative of the company). Sometimes these are disgruntled employees, sometimes these are employees telling me that it is not their fault that WaMu is so screwed up. I have been told on numerous occasions that they expect to have some unhappy customers and some mistakes because their company is just so big (inferring that it is OK for a big company to destroy someone's credit, marriage and life - but it is not OK for a small company). I don't buy this. A big company should have the resources to better handle problems resolution.

WaMu monitors my site daily (I can prove this with my Web Logs). All WaMu would have to do to get me to remove the site would be to send me a letter explaining to me exactly what they are doing to fix their problems and ask me to remove the site. I would!

No one at WaMu gives a crap! They are all just employees. No pride in their company. No compassion or sympathy for their victims. To WaMu employees, "a customer is just another voice on the phone" (exact quote from a WaMu employee). They are not personally held responsible for anything. All they have to do is to put in their 8 hours a day and get their paycheck. "No one in particular" (another WaMu employee quote) is responsible for any individual customer, and their "is nothing that the Supervisor can do...because it is in the computer".

WaMu is Fleet all grown up but with the same reckless nature, lack of responsibility and full of contempt for their customers. They act like their customers are adversaries and friends. I am sure that you know someone who is 45 years old but acts like a 13 year old. I do not run my business that way (I do own a small corporation) and they should not be allowed to run their business that way just because they are so big.

I hope that this letter gives you some insight into my contempt for WaMu. I have a right to express it and many would say that I also have that obligation to express it.

Scott

His retort to my response (01/20/04)

Scott,

I completely agree that you have the right to voice your displeasure with a company if you feel you have been wronged. As a consumer it is my obligation to get all the facts I can prior to making a large monetary decision, hence the inquiry to you. I am sure that WAMU like any other company has its share of bad employees who as you say do not give a crap but your assertion that " No one at WaMu gives a crap! " is simply ludicrous and quite frankly casts the rest of your assertions in a dim light of believability. The sophompihooric and juvenile action of stealing and writing " sucks " all over a company webpagsoe does indeed seem like dealing with " someone who is 45 years old but acts like a 13 year old ". It makes me wonder if the lions share of the problems you stated you had were caused by incompetent and uncaring employees or a belligerent and irrational customer. I thank you for clearing up any misgivings I had with giving WAMU my business. Again you have my permission to post this letter to your website in the hopes you will create some credibility to your site by including this differing view, knowing full well of course that you will not.

FYI Your assertion that WAMU is running 12 different systems gave me some serious concern as I am in the IT field. I contacted the WAMU customer service number ( my call was answered by a rep in 14 seconds, yes I timed it with a stopwatch ) and asked about this. I spoke with a pleasant and knowledgeable young lady named Shandra who stated that she can view all of the accounts in one system that is broken up into three " portfolios " and that the accounts from acquired companies have long since been integrated into the main system. She did state that in some cases research has to be done on legacy systems for information that is older than 2 years ( account info older than 2 years is archived from the main system ) but that is done by a separate research department. I was able to also get a hold of " Hank " in the IT department by posing as a vendor to the operator, he also confirmed this information and added the loans were broken up into three " portfolios " called client 150, client 156 and client 908 in order to spread the data evenly across the system and improve system response time.

Thanks for your time,

My response to his retort (1/20/04)

Alan,

I am glad to hear that they are apparently fixing their problems. I hope that my site and the many others like mine have played at least some part in pressuring them into becoming a better company.

I do agree that the phone response time you had with them is great! It is very contrary to ALL of my previous dealings with them. So I called them at the most recent Customer Service Department number of 800-333-9999 and although I was not able to speak to a live person, they were able to give me a lot of information via automation (and this time they actually had nearly 100% of the information correct).

This consolidation of computer systems is obviously something new (as I was told differently by a WaMu employee just a few months ago). That is great news! That sounds like a significant step in the right direction.

And I admit that I was wrong when I said that no one at WaMu gives a crap. They are a large company and as with any organization there are many levels of employee skill, ability, and willingness to cooperate. But it has been my personal experience that MOST of their employees have been totally unwilling to do anything about the situation. I am glad and excited that you have found your experience with WaMu employees pleasant. It has also been my experience that employees who work for managers who "don't give a crap" pick up the managers attitude and do as the managers do. Thus, maybe I should be more direct about blaming the management of the company rather than the individual employees.

Based on the information which you have presented with me, it does indeed sound like WaMu has taken a turn for the better. I am thrilled with this news. I have my own business to run. The last thing that I wish to do with the rest of my life is to continue to spend a few hours each week corresponding with people and explaining why I have been so unhappy with WaMu and hearing why they are also unhappy with WaMu. But please understand that your experience with WaMu is very different from mine (and the many other people, who I am quite sure are not all "belligerent and irrational customers", which I have communicated with).

I do take offense to the personal attack which you have made on me. I made no such attack on you. I could easily attack you the same way, but I am mature enough to choose not to. I am just glad that I could help motivate you to further research WaMu (not many people would have made the effort). That is the whole point of my site. As far as your comment about me being

I appreciate your comments and investigation into the matter. That proves that the Internet is becoming an exceptionally valuable tool in business research - as well as porn distribution;).

As far as me stealing their website and writing "sucks" all over it, that is what I have had to do to get attention. After all, you found my site and it obviously got your attention! I think that the site has been the best tool that I have to correct the problems at WaMu (which is my ultimate goal). Thousands of people have viewed the site and many of them are WaMu employees. I do believe that the site may be helping WaMu become a better company due in part to my efforts.

I will gladly change the tone and attitude of my site if I continue to receive positive responses (about WaMu) like yours - or as I had previously suggested - if WaMu would write me and explain what actions they are taking to improve the company. My contact information is clearly posted on the site and this is intentional. I am willing to let the world know who I am. WaMu is more than welcome to contact me.

I wish you luck in all of your business dealings in the future, and in fairness I will gladly post your letters.

Sincerly,

Scott Donnelly

P.S. I did notice your "P.S.". If you are as frustrurated with AOL as I have been with Fleet/WaMu then do the world a favor and let us all know about your problems. Surely since you are in I.T. you are plenty knowlegable about the internet and you can easily start your own "AOLsucks" website. It will only cost you $9 to register the name and as we have proven it will get attention!

However I have used AOL for many years. I have never had any displeasure with AOL what so ever and I continue to pay for AOL despite the fact that I also am paying for two other broadband service providers (cable and DSL). Is it not weird how different people can have vastly different experiances with the same company?

Received 12/31/03 - Letter from WaMu employee...waiting for permission to publish

...employee of Washington Mutual I would have to say that all of
the comments and problems are true. ...

Received 8/7/03

I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through so much. My mortgage company Homesside Lending was also bought by WAMU almost a year ago. They attached additional insurance to my loan which increased my payment and took 6 months to finally have removed. Now they have screwed up my escrow and show it negative due to their posting errors. They began sending me bills that had my payments doubled (1000.00) I have contacted an attorney in regard to a civil lawsuit. I cannot refinance my home as my escrow is negative and will not pay the difference as I do not owe the amount. As far as their customer service...do you have to even complete highschool to work their. I am in the customer service field and have worked in accounting and have more common sense and intelligence than their whole office combined.
Thanks for taking the time to reply

Received 8/7/03

Love the site- keep up the good work!

Here's my WAMU story. I got screwed on my WAMU Home Equity Line of Credit after I reponded to a "PRIME PLUS ZERO" offer. I read through the disclosure documents and signed the closing papers. Since the disclosures prior to document signing were straigthforward and the loan "rate and margin" were in the ad and the disclosures (prime plus zero), the closing went quickly.
It wasn't until I used the loan that I found out it had a minimum interest rate of 5%! When I called to have what I though was an interest rate error changed from my bill, I was told of the "5% minimum", which wasn't previously disclosed. I went back in the closing documents and found it in the fine print. WAMU said that I should have backed out within three days, I said that giving a customer the option to opt out for 72 hours is not the same as disclosing the true terms of the loan up front. WAMU sucks. I am now refinanncing with Citibank at "Prime for Life- no minimum".

Received 8/7/03

Hey! Thanks for the great website, at least I'm not the only person WaMu
has screwed! I haven't had any problems w/ thier Loan programs, mainly
b/c thanks to them I never have enough money in my accounts to qualify for
a frikkin loan!

So yeah, here's more to add on your complaints:

1- The fallacy of thier "free" checking program. I'm a college student, I
don't make that much money, I live paycheck to paycheck and pretty much
have to balance my checkbook about 5 times a day to make sure I have
enough money. Now, I had balanced my checkbook one day, all outstanding
checks had cleared, I had taken money out to use until payday and was very
happy when I had about $4 left in the bank. "Woo hoo, I'm still solvent
and have enough cash to last the two days until my paycheck is directly
deposited," I said. Imagine my suprise when I receive a notice of
insufficient funds. "What the heck?!?" The notice states that I had
insufficient funds for a "checking fee" of $6. "What fee, this is free
checking, how can there be a fee?" So I march myself to my local branch
(where I stood in line for about 45mins while all the tellers one by one
left for their lunch leaving the rest of us to be late back to work!) and
politely asked them what this fee was. I was informed that there was a
monthly $6 fee taken out of the account each month, held for about 29-30
days (dependign on the month, then deposited back into the account for a
24 hour period. I said, "Well that's funny because I signed on for the
free checking account that you advertise everywhere." The reply, well it
is free, because we give you back the $6. What the f????? That isn't
free, that's a $6 monthly fee for a checking account, how is that free!!!?
And how is it free when this $6 fee throws me over the limit causing a
$25 overdraft fee!??!!!??? Never mind that it bounced by about $1.20.
Last time I checked a bank could easily afford to eat $1.25 to pay for a
"fee" on a free checking account. But, no they aren't that service
oriented when it comes to reaping in profits. This has happened to me on
multiple occassions b/c they don't have a set date they remove the $6 on!
I've also been told many reasons why they take $6 from me; for example,
"You have less than $1,000 in your account (don't get me started on this
one, I don't have anymoney, so you're charging me a "poverty fee?"), "You
don't have the free checking account" (I thought all your checking
accounts are free, isn't that what you adverstise?), and my personal
favorite, "We didn't take $6 from your account. We have free checking
here, must have been another bank." (RIIIIGGGHHHTT, that's why the notice
says Washinton Mutual, came in a Washington Mutual envelope, and I only
have accounts at Washington Mutual.)

2- I get my paycheck direct deposited into my checking account for
convienence reasons. Anytime my account balance is under $100 (which is
about 110% of the time right before payday) they will hold my meger
paycheck (under $1,000) for at least 2 business days!!!! I've inquired
quite a few times about that and I was told that they have to make sure
the funds are there. I would understand if I worked for an individual
that pays me in personal checks, but I work for a huge
corporation!!!!!!!!!!!!! Many times checks I'm floating or direct
withdrawals have bounced because of thier holding of my money. I'm sure
it sits in some bank account that WaMu itself gains interest on for those
two days, instead of my savings account.

3- They've "misplaced" my funds at least 10 times over the life of my
account. Many of these times were teller error that doesn't get
"remedied" for a good week. I had to cancel a vacation to Lake Tahoe a
few years ago b/c an incompetent teller put my money in the wrong account,
that person spent it and I was moneyless for close to a month because they
had to reasearh where the money went and then they had to get the money
back from the person who spent it before they can put it in my account
they try and tell me. I'm blonde, but not that stupid! I told them to go
into their vault, deposit the cash into my account or I was going to start
yelling really loudly what they just told me. The teller gets the manager
who threatens to remove me from the bank for making a scene! Uhhhh, damn
right I'm going to make a scene if you don't give me my fing money!!!!
Customer service my arse! The money got into my account a week later
after a nasty letter from an attorney friend of mine. If it wasn't for
her, I'm sure I'd still be trying to get it!

4- The latest and greatest scam. I opened a savings account so that I
could transfer money in case checking got low. Makes sense right? So the
first time I realize that I have less money in the account than
outstanding bills, I transfer $200 on thier website. Now I'm pretty sure
I said to transfer the money from savings into checking. Imagine my
suprise when I was over $400 overdrawn in my checking account by weeks
end. When I checked my savings balance I realized that they had taken the
money from checking and put it into savings. I call up thier customer
service line to explain the situation and to get all this reversed b/c its
in error. I was informed that it was my error so I had to transfer all my
money out of savings to put into the checking account to cover the
overdrafts. I immediatley asked to speak to a supervisor of course. The
supervisor informed me that "there was no way the system made the error,
it was you so no reimbursement of the 20+(!) overdraft fees. I informed
her that the system had misplaced my money before, that the system should
have never taken $200 that didn't exist in my checking account, and that
yes they were reimbursing me ALL the fees b/c it was in error. Again she
informed me that they won't reimburse for customer error. I said, "Prove
to me that it is my error, I'm sure I marked from savings to checking."
She said, "Well we can reimburse you for 3 overdraft fees." I in turn
said, "That's only $75, you've taken over $200, I want it back NOW." She
balked, so I wanted to speak to her supervisor, who of course wasn't there
but would call me back within 24 hours. It's been over a month and I
still haven't been contacted by this mystery supervisor. I do have to say
when I went to the branch and explaned everything, they reimbursed me in
full and were very apologetic about thier call center. Still, very very
very irritating.

Also, I am aware of quite a few lawsuits where WaMu had "siphoned" money
out of elderly persons accounts (mainly trusts and estate accounts) over
long periods of time. WaMu's response to why they won't refund the money,
"The account holders should have paid closer attention to thier monthly
statements." Oh so, if you aren't diligent in your review of your
statements they can steal from you, but it's ok in their eyes. Fing
BastardS!!!!!!

When oh when will American learn that its probably not in our best
interest to have a for-profit institution "watch over" our money. I for
one am ready to start cutting holes in my matteress and digging holes for
coffee cans in my backyard.

Received 7/14/03

WaMu is the worst company to handle business in the world. My family bought a new house and eveything was going fine until WaMu bought our home loan. Since then, all this takes place in one year, we have $5000 over in our ecrow account and more and more money is being put into it, we have had to call about the school taxes from the first part of the year because they DID NOT PAY IT we called them about 4 times about this, the we had to call them again about 6 more times casue they did not pay the HOUSE INSURANCE, now we have recieved ANOTHER NOTICE that they did not PAY the SCHOOL TAXES AGAIN!!! and we know this because we got a notice of a TAX LIEN!! for about $310 .
SO I SAY F~&* WASHINGTON MUTUAL!!!

Received 7/09/03

Im refinancing with Bank of America and Im going to closing in the next few days. Well, Washington Mutual is howing that myu account is past due by two months. So, im going to miss out on my 5.5% interest rate because Washington Mutaul can't record their checks properly. I have mailed them my bank statements showing them that the money was pulled from my account by them. But all i get is person after person that keeps telling me to fax the bank statments, no one responds to the fax. So i call again, and they tell me to fax the statement. Ive faxed the damn bank statements 3 times now!! Now if that aint being screwed i dont know what is......Updated on 7/16/03...Well, i finally got the situation fixed. However, its going to cost me 300 dollars to extend my Refi Loan. WaMu lost my checks then decided to cash 2 of them at one time. It caused all kinds of problems with my checking account which i paid for. But since my loan status was deliquent i had to fix it before I could go to closing on my Refi Loan. I feel lucky to get out of it with only paying this amount. Its incredible that you can't ask to get the same person when you call WaMu. I talked to at least 25 different people from that company in 3 days. I had to tell the story , over and over and over again. Im glad that I'm getting out of WaMu. But with my luck Bank of America will sell the loan back to them in a couple of years.

Received 6/15/03

I am a college student who goes to New York University. I needed a Free Checking Account for my expenses and I thought that I would give WAMU a try. This of course was the worst decision ever.

On March 17, 2003 I made a deposit of $300 dollars into my new account. My father gave me the money in the form of a check. Because I did not receive any of the preprinted deposit slips for the account yet, a teller at my branch "helped" me with the deposit. Three later, when I go to withdraw cash from an ATM at another branch, it no funds available for withdrawal. I go into the bank itself and the teller says there is no record of my transaction. I return home completely pissed off, and call the shitty customer service. They said there was still no record of any transaction but "research will be done." . 4/8/03 Tuesday I go back to my original branch and talk to another lady. BY THE LUCK OF GOD, I had found my receipt in the pocket of my pants. So I told myself ok, they will just correct this right away.

I politely told teller my problem and handed her the receipt. She said this to me: "Mr. Roth, the check for $300 was deposited into your account, it should be there."

"MY NAME IS NOT MR. ROTH."

She looked at the floor, and then muttered, "Uh oh"

It turned out the first teller deposited my check into SOMEONE ELSE's account, some other guy got $300 of my money! She said it would be corrected but "research needed to be done." She said wait 5 says. I waited and called, came back, called, came back and more than 2 weeks went by. Nothing was done. I had to contact my father's bank, Chase and obtain check images in order to provide proof for them.

Finally around easter sunday I spoke to the manager and the problem was FINALLY solved.

How stupid can you be, to not check the name on the account to see if it matches the name on the cheque?! The absent-minded teller simply typed in an account number (which I might add did not in THE LEAST resemble mine) and sent off the money to that location. I am just so lucky I somehow found the receipt or I'd have been up shit's creek. In case you are wondering, the branch at which this occurred was #7497 and the person responsible for this was named MARISOL.

WAMU never again. I will make it a rule never to patronize a bank which sells action figures of the tellers and has arcade games inside the bank. No joke.

Received 4/8/03

Back in December of 2002, I made a call to Washington Mutual to find out if we could defer one mortgage payment due to my husband being laid off. They sent me all this paperwork to fill out and after reviewing, they would determine how they could help. I sent all the info requested the 1st week of January 2003. I never received a call to let me know they got my packet. I had to call numerous times just to find out if they got it. Customer service is atrocious, as not a one could tell me anything. And that was only if I even got through to them. Most of the time another state was handling the overflow of calls and they could not look up my information. Then I kept calling for the status as February was coming and going. They told me it was still in judgment and not to send payments while it was in judgment. (I should have known the trouble would start there). I could never get anyone to tell me where they were in the process, customer service apparently knows nothing and is just there to answered the phone. They even have laughed at me in my frustration to try and get ahold of someone with knowledge. I then called in March of 2003 and said I can make payments again, but was told that if I didn't have the full amount owed since December, that I could not send any money at all. Why would any company owed money not want any of it? In the meantime, I am getting threat letters of disclosure for non-payment. And of course I do not have the full amount since I was originally asking for help!!!!!!! I then called and demanded to speak to someone knowledgeable and was told that my case was being looked at by Felicia. I have been transferred to her voice mail so many times and left messages every time. No calls back. She is never available or at her desk. I always get voice mail. And the last time I was sent to voice mail, her mailbox was full!! I then called back and demanded again to speak to someone and customer service again laughed at me and said he could have a supervisor call me back. At last, I thought I was getting somewhere. But then he tells me it will take 2 days for the supervisor to call me. That was over 2 weeks ago. I then got my lawyer involved and they will not speak with him or return his calls, even after we sent a letter that he is authorized to discuss our case. Now they are going to take my home over one payment that I wanted deferred. I was also recently told that they don't defer payments, and that they actually decide on a lower payment for that month. I was also told it would take up to 3 months for the judgment. They did not tell me this in the beginning. They don't even send me statements anymore. I am so afraid that me, my husband, and our 3 young children will be throw out of here. We just wanted help for one month. And now we can't take our loan elsewhere as they have trashed our credit. They have reported to the agencies and never told us they would do so. They truly are ruining people's lives.