Overdraft notification… three days later, by mail, no rush

Steve had an overdraft but they waited three business days to put a notice in the MAIL while he got charged daily overdraft fees. Is Chase doing this to make more in overdraft fees? Why didn’t they call him? My current bank (First Republic) calls me within an hour if there is an insufficient funds situation. (story)

Closing branches

Here is one customer complaining of a lot of WaMu branches being closed near them. Have they closed branches near you?

Thanks for the memories

Goodbye WaMu, and thanks for all the memories. A 12 year customer leaves and they don’t even ask why? (story)

Chase turns back the clock on WaMu branches

As reported in the WSJ (WaMu’s Branches Lose Their Smiles 4/7/09) Chase is ripping out all of WaMu’s “customer friendly” branch designs and replacing them with a traditional teller window (with bullet-proof glass) configuration.

I find it interesting that anything about WaMu would be considered customer friendly, as they have had a reputation for poor customer service (including a BBB ‘F’ rating), which has only intensified since the crisis began for them in the middle of last year.

I personally bank at First Republic Bank, which has a very non-traditional branch setup; their branches consist entirely of personal bankers sitting at desks. You develop a relationship with a personal banker (although anyone in a branch will help you) rather than the next-in-line mentality. It is also nice to have my bankers email address, so I can deal with some things without going into the branch or phoning and have access to someone who knows me personally. On the rare occasion when I overdraft (before I had an overdraft protection credit line) someone from the bank would call personally to let us know there was a problem.

Other banks seem to go out of their way to NOT use all the contact information they have for you when there is a problem. Countrywide did this when I accidentally missed a mortgage payment when on vacaction (forgot to pay it before we left). They left 9 automated messages on our home number but never once tried to contact me using other information they readily had – my mobile number and email address. Banks like WaMu, Chase, and others have become too dependent on fees and don’t seem to want to jeopardize the fee stream by making things easier.

But I digress.

It sounds like WaMu’s “radical” branch configurations were mostly cosmetic, not a redesign of how business is done. It seems to be coming more clear that Chase is more interested in moving backwards with WaMu than forwards. Too bad.

Good bye WaMu name (California)

Apparently Chase is starting its rebranding of WaMu branches in California in March 09, spending $300 million on the effort. They will no doubt be spending a bundle more to rebrand the rest of the WaMu branches in the US which they say will be done by 2009.

Did anyone see the Apple commercial that insinuated Microsoft was spending a LOT of money on advertising and only a little money on fixing Vista?

Hey Chase, how about spending some of that money on fixing customer service?????

Can’t access accounts

Tim writes:

“They do not have 24 hour HUMAN customer service. Enough said.

I have 3 accounts with Washington Mutual and I cannot access any of them. Their online site has delivered me the following message for the past 24 hours: “We’re sorry, our system is currently unavailable. We are unable to process your request at this time. Please try again in a while. ”

When I told a customer service rep, she said, that’s the first time she’s heard of that one. I read it to her from the screen I am looking at and she repeats she hasn’t heard of it and tells me I must be behind a firewall. I tell her I am not behind a firewall and I’ve tried it from 2 different browsers on 2 different computers and an iPhone – got the same message everytime. She tells me to see my branch…. tomorrow.

I tell her the online phone system is not working either. It tells me none of my accounts match my password, even though it’s the same information I’ve always had. She tells me to try again using my social. That didn’t work. Then when I tried to transfer back to the customer no-service rep, I was notified that it was after business hours and I would have to try again tomorrow.

So here I sit without any way to get access to any of my accounts. No live person I can talk to about it. No automated phone service that works. No website that works. This is 2008, there is no excuse for this.

Yep, Washington Mutual sucks.”

Where do missing payments go?

Vicki writes:

“am currently a victim of Washington Mutual’s Deceptive Practices. I made my on-line payment in September on wamucards.com and received a confirmation number for my payment. Several days later, I received mail from Washington Mutual stating that my account was overdue! I immediately called the number on the back of my card and explained to them that I had allready made a payment. The center in the Phillipines told me they had no record of my payment! They asked me to make a minimum payment over the phone which I did, but since then my account has been overdue for almost 2 months!
I have made numerous phone calls since then trying to resolve the issue. They kept assessing me late fees because the “innitial payment in September was not enough” even though the agent told me that my account would be brought current after I make that payment.
It has seriously been a hassle – Washington Mutual kept calling my house and my work asking for payments after I have made them (2 payments in 11 days this month only)!!! This has also been extremely time consuming with all the phone calls, harassments at home and work, script reading from Philippines and no real help….Just horrible!
I am happy to have found this website and glad that I have learned that many other customers had horrible experiences with Washington Mutual.
They must change their business practices! This is unacceptable!”

Apparently Chase sucks too!

A reader writes:

“First I want to say how ironic this is to have a site decided to people like me frustrated with washington mutual/jp morgan bank. Okay, I just got off the line with a representive from jpmorgan and google to see if anyone other than me is frustrated with the customer service jpmorgan bank! And, yes to my surprise here you are!

I HAVE WASHINGTON MUTUAL BANK AND JP MORGAN CUSTOMER SERVICE! IF I GET TRANSFERED TO FREAKING COSTA RICA ONE MORE TIME I AM GOING TO PULL MY HAIR EXTENTIONS OUT”