Complaint Review: Washington Mutual Chase

About a month ago my Washington Mutual debit card was denied twice when trying to make a purchase. I immediately went home to check my account online to see if there were any suspicious transactions made and sure enough, someone had made about $700 worth of fraudulant transactions on my debit card in Las Vegas. I immediately called Chase to cancel my card and file a claim.

Upon calling Chase, I was told that the reason my card was denied was that they had put a hold on it because of suspicious activity (but never contacted me to tell me) and that they would cancel my card and transfer me to the claim department to file a claim. I talked to a nice gentleman who told me that since they didn't file claims on Saturdays, I should call back on Monday to do so.

On Monday I filed my claim, but could only file 5 of the 7 fraudulent transactions because the other two were still pending and was told to file the other two as a second claim the next day. I did so and each employee told me that I would be refunded in 3-5 days for each respective claim. For the record, the first claim was for about $650 and the second was only for about $50.

Within two days, the second claim had been honored, but my first claim had still not been honored even 7 days later(even though it was filed first). I called Chase to see what was up and was told that every transaction of my $650 claim was denied. I asked why and was told they had record of me checking my account online that previous Saturday (which was true), but didn't file a claim until Monday and that was suspicious.

I told them that I tried to file one Saturday but was told I couldn't until Monday. She laughed at me and implied that I was lying and said that was not policy. I told her I have phone records of calling Saturday and that I obviously called Saturday because that's when I canceled my debit card.

I was then put on hold for several minutes and then she came back with another excuse: "there have been no other reports of this type of fraud in your area, therefore we cannot refund your account." I then told her that I had used my debit card numerous places within the past 2 months besides my current area including Redding, CA; Portland, OR; Sacramento, CA and Seattle, WA and that there was no way that no fraud had been reported in any of these cities.

Again I was put on hold for several minutes. She said that there was nothing she could do as the decision was made by the investigators and that they had made their decision already. I asked for the investigators contact information and was turned down, I then asked to talk to a supervisor and was told that they were all busy but I could leave my contact information and they would call me back in 24-48 hours.

I never heard back from a supervisor. I called back to check on my claim and to see why no supervisor had called me back and was told that my claim was still denied and that they had no record of my contact information or that a supervisor should have called me back. I then informed them that after doing more research I had come across even more proof that I was not the one making transactions.

I told them that I was working at the time of the transactions, and I had people who could vouch for me that I was at work on the days of the transactions. They said that I needed written proof and that a written statement from a work supervisor didn't count as written proof (we don't clock in at my work).

I then told them that I had made a transaction in my area using my debit card, which was at the same time that the transactions in Vegas were taking place, therefore I could not be in the same place at the same time making transactions with my debit card. They said that because I was the only one who knew my pin number, that it must have been me using the card in Vegas and that they had record that when my pin was keyed in, it was done so in a accurate and timely manner,therefore it had to be me (as if someone with my pin number was incapable of inputting my pin number in quickly and accurately, absolutely ridiculous).

I also had another interesting bit of information. I asked the employee why a transaction on my second claim was honored when one of the transactions on my first claim that was the same exact location was denied? I was again asked to hold (for 10 minutes) and then was told that they would open up the claim for investigation again, but only for this particular transaction (which is conveinently for much less money than the rest).

Basically, every time I have proven to them that they are wrong, they have put me on hold for 10 minutes to think of the next awful excuse for why they shouldn't refund me.

I called today to check on my claim's status and they are now telling me that since my claim is under investigation I cannot provide any new evidence for my claim and that they can't discuss it until the investigation is over in up to 90 days!

Shane
Ventura, California
U.S.A.

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