WaMu Washington Mutual Aggravation: Part IV

I think I understand why some people decide to rob a bank. As in this morning brought fresh HELL from Washington Mutual.

You may remember me mentioning 2 checks from the State of Texas were deposited on September 19, a few days before WaMu's meltdown.

I'd already endured one round of WaMu not crediting the account deposited and a check written on it. That one was no big deal.

This morning I found 2 letters from WaMu in the mailbox. Keep in mind it is now October 2, thirteen days after the deposit was made.

The first letter was written, according to the date at the top of the letter, on September 20, the day after the deposit was made. I got the letter today, October 2. This letter says...

"We are contacting you today to let you know that a hold has been placed on your account to allow time to collect the amount of the check(s) you deposited into your account.

From your deposit, $2,300.00 has been delayed.

On 09/23/08, $2,300.00 from this deposit will be available.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

We're always here for you."

Please note the line in bold & underlined above, saying on 9/23 the funds would be available.

So, like I said there were two letters from WaMu this morning. The second letter is dated September 25, 2008.

"You've had one (or more) non-sufficient funds (NSF) transaction that couldn't be covered by the available balance on your account at the time it was processed."

I'm not gonna bother typing the rest of it. The letter goes on to itemize the overdraft fee charges and then says, "The fees charged here total $0.00."

A chart below that details the check #, the amount, the action (returned), the fee ($0.00) and the date 9/24/08. One day after the other letter said the funds would be fully in the account.

So. I called my local WaMu branch. They told me to bring in the letters and they'd look into whether they'd made a mistake. In the meantime I called the party to whom the bounced check had been written, explaining the situation, she told me just to get a certified check and add $25 to cover the fee her bank will charge her.

I go to WaMu. The manager looks at the letters and the account, says they clearly made a mistake, makes me out a certified check. And tells me to get a copy of what is charged to the account of the party who WaMu bounced the check on and WaMu would reimburse me.

I'm thinking, how does that reimburse me? How do I get back the time this has taken? The gas I burned driving to WaMu. If WaMu can so casually throw about fees, why can't I? Like maybe $100 fee for wrongly claiming their were insufficient funds to cover a check that had been presented for payment.

I'm still not sure this nightmare is over. The party who I wrote the check to said she'd not heard from her bank, Wells Fargo, that a check had been returned NSF. I half except Wells Fargo to re-submit the check and for WaMu to then pay it, that it was a computer paperwork error that generated the second letter I got today.

But, the WaMu manager looked at the account and told me there was no other bad activity going on.

I don't trust them. Why didn't I bail on this bank way back when I first started reading about their problems? Oh, I remember, up til this month, I've never had a problem with them.