FYI: All correspondence thus far has been submitted via Certified Mail w/Return Receipt in order to ensure 100% accurate record keeping, something that you will find out Washington Mutual Bank FA a.K.A. WAMU (should be called WASHOUT Mutual), after reading this usacomplaints.com, has absolutely no concept off not to mention their illicit actions thus far.
Prior to this dreadful bank, my policy has been (and will be) simple in my relations thereof, the banks works for us and NOT the other way around.
On April 5 I reported my debit card as stolen due to suspicious activities against my checking account# *-*174-4 in excess of $4500.00. Assuming the protection of my account was in full effect with this report, I allowed till April 8 to complete a transaction dispute form at my local branch at 2744 N CLARK ST, CHICAGO, IL 60614.
Not only having my account and financial security violated at this point but I was further informed at my branch that my card was never cancelled in the first place. Not withstanding my complete annoyance at the lack of care and legal respect given to the security of my account, I completed the necessary Unauthorized ATM/Check Card Transaction Dispute Declaration and ensured that my check card was cancelled and requested a re-issue thereof.
By April 14 a provisional credit was provided, a new check card issued and my hopes in that a slight hiccup thus far in the corporate machine of WAMU could be excused considering the necessary steps were now taken to ensure the safety of my checking account. Furthermore, the receipt of a letter, Claim# 050408543, indicating that the investigation of this fraud would be concluded by July 1 put me as a customer at ease and assured, at that time, that this investigation would be taken seriously.
By June 20 I returned a call to Yolanda Torno from Check Card Services, where she requested verbatim, What exactly it was I was claiming? If that statement alone doesn't speak to the extreme level of incompetence, then what does? I indicated to her that upon further scrutiny of my bank statement, that I was further amending my claim as afforded under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act & Regulation E, in noting that my PIN was compromised as well, as there was a fraudulent ATM cash withdrawal of $300.00 initiated on 3/29. Also including the point that my ID was lost/stolen at the same time of my check card in order to help expedite a conclusion to the investigation of this fraudulence. After much frustration with her ineptitude, she declared that it was her supervisor that would be empowered to uphold a claim of this nature. So I asked to be transferred and after a lengthy wait, I got to speak to Rosie (I might add that she dodged the point of her last name). I relayed the same issue of amending my claim (as already-mentioned), and she indicated that I should fax in a new copy of my ID thus allowing her the ability to uphold this claim of fraudulent activity.
By June 22 I faxed over a copy of my ID and included the oral amendment to my claim in writing and further Express Mailed a copy of this fax on June 30 (a copy thereof included - verify at (ROR redacted link) EO 005 165 505 US). No further contact was initiated on the part of WAMU regarding this fraudulence.
Come July 8, I was informed in writing (letter dated July 1) that my claim of the original amount in excess of $4500.00 (NOT including the additional amount of $300.00 placed in my oral AND written amendment on June 20) of $4583.98 was to be reversed on July 13. No basis as to its denial was provided nor was the above-mentioned oral AND written amendment included either. An alleged receipt was to be included but no sign of it was in sight with this correspondence.
I did include a written request as of July 23 for set investigative material to be provided to me for the above-mentioned claim as afforded to the consumer under the EFTA, considering the lack of provision of a basis for the denial of my claim, and I have yet to hear from Check Card Services regarding this matter.
Mind you in the meantime, I did file a subsequent complaint with the Office of Thrift Supervision a.K.A. OTS on July 28 indicating that WAMU was in violation of the EFTA and Regulation E and deliberately obfuscating the truth of this fraud in order to excuse itself from upholding my claim of fraud. As of late, the general trend with banks and their debit cards, more with some than most, is to shift the onus of the financial burden of fraud DIRECTLY onto the consumer. Why you ask? Simple, the customer is protected by the Credit Card Act with American Express, for example, where his/her maximum liability is $50 whereas with debit cards with a VISA/MC logo, the complication of the EFTA & now Regulation E allows banks to play games with your checking account that you couldn't imagine. So, in effect, how could you possibly file a complaint when you're out of funds eventually? Let's provide a PROVISIONAL credit to your account within 10 days to your checking account and then proceed to find whatever excuse we can to deny your claim of fraud 10 days prior to the expiration of the maximum legal time limit of 90 days to investigate the fraud and subsequently take that money back and which often puts your account in arrears (and need I mention Non-sufficient funds charges?) That's the general modus operandi of criminal banks such as Washington Mutual FA hit you when you're down and proceed to hammer nails into your financial coffin whilst they can do whatever the heck pleases them under their concoctions of the law and attempt to make more money.
Even though, my complaint to the OTS was acknowledged under Case No. 051462 it was then only forwarded back to the original source of this problem, Washington Mutual FA, to respond. So in effect this regulatory board, the OTS, it's approach is to allow the criminal, in this case WAMU, to be judge and jury of the problem they created. And the only reason this happens is due to Kerry K Killinger, CEO of WAMU, was on the board of directors on the OTS talk about conflict of interest and blind deception. A convenient quid pro quo in effect.
Thus, my eventual response from WAMU was in the form of a jargon filled circumventing corporate wish-wash spilled out by Andrew Samuel of Quality Management Services on September 7 indicating that there were no mishandlings of my fraud claim. What he failed to mention or declare in writing was that the account which by that time was in arrears was illegally (mind you even when the account or its amounts are in legal dispute) sold to a debt collector, ERS Solutions Inc., 500 SW 7th St, #A100, P O Box 9004, Renton, WA 98057 who proceeded to falsely furnish information to Experian, Equifax and TransUnion that I owed $4742.48.
Understanding my rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, I managed to have this negative information excised from my stellar credit report (which I have worked very hard for) by the beginning of September and indicated legal action to this debt collector in the event of further machination on their part.
And this is when Washington Mutual FA, knowing their wrongdoing, but obviously having no regard for the law takes the matter one step further and closes my checking account # *-*174-4 and negatively reports the matter to ChexSystems on September 13 as an overdraft. Which effectively left me stuck in the mud for months to come as I could no longer open accounts anywhere else except maintain the ones I did have and this is when the clear cut dishonest and criminal behavior (if not already apparent) of Washington Mutual FA comes to the fore. They forward me a letter dated September 22 from Jason Callaghan, Quality Management Service, indicating a tradeline deletion of the above-mentioned account. At this point, I took it as a corporate wink whereby the bank avoids liability and admits no wrongdoing and still allows me to enact a removal of the negative remark from ChexSystems.
*Exhibit A (September 22 letter from WAMU) coming soon:
Not being completely nave, I understood that this was the only way I could allow myself the freedom to choose another bank by using this tradeline deletion letter to remove any negative remarks by Washington Mutual FA against my ChexSystems credit report, take a loss on the approximate $4500.00 fraud as attempting to pursue this legally would never be beneficial in any way from the perspective of time, money and hassle.
At this point, I have one other personal checking account and 2 corporate business accounts (not sole proprietorship) with this iniquitous bank and I have to bear with this entire debacle until I've rectified the illegal actions of Washington Mutual FA with ChexSystems and move my money to an honest law-abiding bank. If anyone has dealt with ChexSystems, know in advance, it's an upward battle and from September till the beginning of April is where the greatest deal of dishonesty in my lifetime was experienced with ANY corporate entity, and guess who that was? Oh yes, Washington Mutual FA.
As per the FCRA, if you are afforded documented proof, as in this case the letter dated September 22 by a financial entity, as in this case Washington Mutual FA, indicating removal of any negative remarks to a credit reporting agency, as in this case, ChexSystems, Inc., then by law, they have to remove it otherwise face punitive damages starting at $2500.00 and up, per incident. Of course, ChexSystems, being the idiotically belligerent CRA that it is, refused to budge. This occurred from September up until April.
Bear in mind, that I still had to run my own business and life goes on regardless. So by January a family practice attorney friend of mine decided to take the matter on pro bono with ChexSystems, Inc. As I had no luck with them thus far. His approach was to deal with the false furnisher of the information, namely Washington Mutual FA directly. He seemed to take my dealings with them, lightly and informed me that it wouldn't be long before the issue was rectified. So much for hopeful thinking!
By April was when the behemoth of lying, cheating and stealing, Washington Mutual FA, came to make my life a misery. I had gotten married in March and my wife and myself, decided to open a JOINT checking account that month and HER preference was this hell hole of a bank, Washington Mutual FA. I had no option to object as (1) I loved her (2) False furnishings from Washington Mutual FA wouldn't allow me to open an account anywhere else.
At first, our account was opened with no problems whatsoever, until April 20. This grand day I was met with frustration, immense stress and deliberate criminal incompetence on the part of Washington Mutual FA. I get a call from my wife, that she couldn't get access to her funds from OUR joint account. So I call my branch and eventually have to go over where, Priscilla Munoz (the epitome of a corporate lackey = no brain, just adherence to a crookish corporate policy) informs me that ALL my accounts have been seized until further notice and that I'd be informed by mail as to when my BUSINESS account money would be available which I might add was in total $28,266.35. But in the meantime, the total amount from my JOINT checking account#*-*5-182 held with my wife, in the amount of $121.58 (which was part of her paycheck and she had NO legal liability in this case and was further noted in the ledger as a customer withdrawal which it was NOT!) and my other personal checking account# *-*8-690 of $199.93 was unlawfully applied to a false debt arising from the debit card fraud to account# *-*174-4 $4,742.48 and bringing this amount to $4,742.48 ($121.58 199.93) = $4,420.97 according to Washington Mutual FA.
The best is yet to come, they then go one step further to remark ALL of my accounts held with them INCLUDING my corporate accounts (when did alleged personal liability include corporate accounts? Only at Washington Mutual FA) against my ChexSystems credit report as suspected fraud activity. Why did this occur? Well according to the tabernacle of truth a.K.A. Washington Mutual FA (note the sarcasm), the letter of September 22 was fabricated and that the person who wrote this letter, Jason Callaghan, never worked for them as per the letter received from Gayla Spohr dated April 27 of the Executive Response Team and ALL my accounts would be closed as afforded under their Account Disclosures & Regulations.
From what I gathered, someone's head was on the chopping block in making an extreme blunder and what better cover-up than to say that the customer lied. Then obstruct his/her effort to rectify the situation by illegally remarking all of his accounts as suspected fraud activity against ChexSystems while casting aspersions on his character and take away all of his operating capital from his business thus removing any opportunities for him to correct the issue legally and we won't lose out jobs for stealing over $28K for the bank, Washington Mutual FA.
Eventually, I receive a letter from Washington Mutual referencing all closed accounts:
(a) Personal JOINT checking account#*-*5-182 - $121.58 (amount illegally confiscated)
(b) Personal account# *-*8-690 - $199.93 (amount illegally confiscated)
(c) Business checking account# *7709 - $27,266.35 (illegally withheld)
(d) Business checking account# *2922 - $1,000.00 (illegally withheld)
And that accounts referenced in (c) & (d) would be closed as of May 19 and any remaining funds would be mailed to me in the form of an official check. Another lie!
*Exhibit B (April 19 letter from WAMU) coming soon:
Now I may have been without money for a while but I certainly was not without intelligence, determination and knowledge of the LAW. I no longer availed of the services of my pro-bono attorney and concentrated on ensuring that the FCRA was upheld in clearing my name with ChexSystems which took time effort and dedication and was finally achieved by June 7 with the aid of ensuring that the Fair Credit Reporting Act was maintained and highlighting the skullduggery Washington Mutual FA was up to at this point. My business irrespective was harmed beyond measure and my ability to further eek out a living was truly put to test with the deceitful actions of Washington Mutual FA.
As of September 4 (Labor Day) I still am here and ready to lay claim to monies owed and restitution brought forth. It takes a lot to get my attention but now, Washington Mutual FA has my FULL attention. Due to the illegal actions of this bank, I have since suffered intense emotional distress, defamation of my character and outright thefts of my corporate and personal funds with deliberate undue delay on its release.
This is my final good faith attempt in rectifying the situation with Washington Mutual FA and I know public scrutiny will do wonders for your stock price, image and advertising budget.
I've thus far made the effort to ensure that the Office of Thrift Supervision is well aware of your consumer deception with subsequent complaints to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Furthermore, the BBB has been informed of my complaint and has taken appropriate action. Also Illinois is the only state in the country that has a Consumer Protection Division of the Illinois Attorney General with dedicated advocates in dealing with ripoffs such as that committed by Washington Mutual FA and yes they're onto you. The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, as well as the local news stations, NBC5 (Target5), ABC7 and CBS2 have been made aware of this complaint, hmmm, I only can wonder what they'll do? And I've only just begun.
A legal claim would include and would not be limited to:
(1) Defamation
(2) Willful Injury
(3) Negligent enablement of fraud
(4) Intractable Emotional Distress
(5) Deceptive Practice
(6) Breach of Contract
(7) Violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act
(8) Violations of the Expedited Funds Availability Act
And thus seeking an excess of $900,000.00 in settlement and that's just the beginning. Considering arbitration? It's illusionary at this point taking Washington Mutual FA's illicit scheming actions thus far into consideration. Now that's without a creative firm of financial attorneys behind me. I can only begin to imagine what that figure would go up to with solid money hungry counsel on my side. Not to mention the dangerous precedent this case would set for Washington Mutual Inc once my legal claim is upheld because I find it hard to believe that I'm in the minority in your customer base that experiences such egregious deceptive practices on your part. And that confidence comes from the point that funny things happen when the FACTS (so libel is out the door) are on my side!
Still hard to believe? Take their shenanigans on their mortgage end into consideration such as the Securities Class Action filed in court on 7/20 as South Ferry LP #2, et al. V. Washington Mutual, Inc., et al. At the Western District of Washington at Seattle CLASS ACTION for Violations of the Federal Securities Laws; KARL CLARK, Class Action complaint CV4 1617C on 7/21 at the Western District of Washington at Seattle for Violations of the Federal Securities Laws; and JOSEPH R RUSSO 04-CV-1693 at the Western District of Washington at Seattle for Violations of Federal Securities Laws to mention just a few.
After this entire debacle, Washington Mutual should call itself not WAMU rather WASHOUT Mutual. Beyond a crisis of confidence, a lack of BASIC business ethics and outright THEFT! And to say I am disgusted is putting it mildly. What makes me more irate, is what if I'd been a single blue collar father with kids and then this was done to me? It's banks like Washington Mutual that creates environments of waging a living than making a living wage.
This bank has denied me the ability to eek out an existence since April 20 in both personal and corporate financial matters and put me through denotative hell with your flagrant unlawful actions. If its counsel is really worth their salt, a very swift settlement would be in order because other than its BAD business practices, it has since proved and will continue to be BAD FOR business otherwise.
Lessons to other swindled customers, steer CLEAR of this bank and remember you're never down on out until you decide that for yourself. Use your rights afforded to you as a consumer to the fullest extent otherwise criminal banks of this nature will do everything in their power to ensure you lose them in the future!
Navneet
Chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.
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