As a former loyal Washington Mutual customer I wasn’t too thrilled to hear that they were merging with a larger financial entity that I knew nothing about. Toward the end of July I received a few emails about the changes being made and I took them with a grain of salt since they didn’t allude to the complete take over that it is.
Since it seems that EVERY MONTH my bank statement is lost in the mail, I made the recent decision to register my account online. At the time I went through what I believed was Washington Mutual’s website (www.WAMU.com) where I was asked for my account number as well as my social security number. While I thought this to be strange I was also aware that there were probably some process changes since the “merge” had taken place, so I thought nothing of it as I’ve been with Washington Mutual since I graduated from high school and problems in our relationship have always been minimal.
About a week and a half later I received a call from a CHASE BANK affiliate about some large purchases made on my account that appeared questionable. The largest “purchase” that I make on any given normal month is the check that I write for my rent. After a few questions asked fraudulent activity was determined to be the culprit for the issue. My account was frozen though they continued to allow the fraudulent activity on my account to go through and I had to go into my branch to open a new one, in which I informed the financial advisor that my direct deposit is linked to the frozen account. She gave me the information needed to switch accounts for my direct deposit and a temporary ATM card that she said I could use anywhere so I only withdrew $20.00 in case I had any “problems” with being able to use the card. Very quickly I learned that it was widely unaccepted EVERYWHERE, this was very frustrating to figure out as I was already having a bit of a financial problem since I missed some work hours due to illness and forgot to use my sick leave. I rely on public transportation and by time I get off work the closest branch to me is closed. Two days later I spent 30mins on the phone with a CHASE BANK customer service supervisor who assisted in the “clean up” process that would allow me access to my money. Two more days later the bank card overnighted to me arrived and I spent another 15mins on the phone with CHASE BANK to reverse the accounts that my cards were linked to. The following morning I decided to check my account online and found that CHASE BANK had ordered checks on my account unauthorized so I spent about 15mins with a customer service agent to void out the checks and reverse the charge. Then, on my way to my branch CHASE BANK called me again in regards to my account. When I reached my branch I discovered that they had not started the dispute process for any of my claims and I spent about an hour with a financial advisor clearing up what charges needed to be disputed. When I returned home and checked my mail the checks and two letters for insufficient funds paid were waiting for me but I beat them all to the punch, this time…….
EB N' FLOW 