Washington Mutual Bank Fsb
Holding $100,000 check hostage

I was going to be out of town for two weeks and knew a big check was going to be ready for me. I asked it to be mailed to the nearest WaMu office for deposit - which was in New York City.instead of depositing it they MAILED IT by US MAIL to Seattle for the "Bank By Mail" service. Not FedEx - but MAILED it regular mail ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE COUNTRY!

This risked the loss of the check (it did vanish for over a week until I finally contacted my attorney), this cost something in postage, this wasted my time, wasted the time of the person who mailed it and the person who received it and now I've been calling on it for days wasting hours of everyone's time (and had the first branch just deposited it, it would have been waiting for me when I returned home and NO ONE's time would have been wasted).

Why on EARTH they didn't just deposit it at the branch is beyond me. All other banks just deposit it (well, maybe 10 or so others that I've tried it with). Easy, makes sense - branches are set up to make deposits. It's insane to mail it all that way and waste the time of so many employees (even if it had gone smoothly, it's STILL a huge waste of effort and time!).

Well now it will be TWO WEEKS tomorrow since they received it and STILL they refuse to release the funds (they tried to put a 21 - yes, TWENTY ONE - day hold on a check last summer). The local branch can't do it EVEN THOUGH the bank the check was drawn on has verified the funds have been transferred. It has to be a "Bank By Mail" manager ("But if you'd deposited at a branch, that manager could release the funds" - Yeah? I TRIED to deposit it at a branch!).

So after a dozen plus calls to the original branch that sent my check in to space, the local branch AND Seattle, I finally had a nice woman tell me that, "they aren't going to call for you. They don't want to do any work there at Bank By Mail and make you do all the work. You need to fax a statement from the other bank."

Huh??!?

I can't do this, obviously. The other bank would never talk to me. And Bank By Mail won't take the word of my local bank who HAS verified the check, apparently.

Putting beside the incredibly bad policy of refusing to deposit checks mailed to branches, to completely (well, my local branch manager has been great but he can't do anything) refuse to help a guy who is depositing a single check over $100,000 shows they REALLY don't care over there any longer. I wouldn't be surprised if WaMu goes Tango Uniform in the next few days - a few weeks at the most. I just hope I can get my money out and close my account before they do. Or at least get my checking below $99,000 so the FDIC will eventually reimburse me.

And WaMu USED to be the best. Low fees, friendly people, all that free stuff. I should have left them when the free stuff dried up. I rarely wanted the little trinkets but it was nice that they were there. When they vanished and the fees went up it was a sign. I'll miss the old WaMu but not the current one.

(PS: I have shipper's confirmation of delivery of the check initially, I have email from the branch manager that the missing check has been found and I emails to and from my attorney regarding the lost check; this ain't [sic] no made up story!)

Company: Washington Mutual Bank Fsb
Country: USA
State: Washington
City: Seattle
Address: 1301 Second Ave
Phone: 8007887000

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