- Report: #245232
Complaint Review: Washington Mutual Bank - Miami Beach Florida
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Washington Mutual Bank
1025 71st Street Miami Beach, 33141 Florida, U.S.A.
Phone:
305-868-3467
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Washington Mutual Bank ATM took money out of my account but dispensed NO CASH This happened TWICE at same Washington Mutual branch On 1/24/2007 debitted $400 but gave NO CASH And now, on April 18, 2007, took $600 but agin GAVE NO CASH Branch manager refuses to help because I am NOT a Washington Mutual customer My financial institution, Paychex, (payroll company) also will not help expedite the dispute. Miami Beach Florida
On January 24, 2007 I tried to withdraw $400 from an ATM machine located at this WAMU branch. Machine debitted my account with Paychex but GAVE NO CASH.
After reporting this to Paychex, I was told they could do nothing until the transaction posted; the transaction was pending. And the "pending" could be six days. After six days, if transaction posted, I could dispute it and it could take up to 45 days for a resolution. Or I could go to the bank and ask them to help by doing an ATM investigation.
I did. The branch manager, after finding out I was NOT a Washington Mutual customer, flippantly dismissed me by saying that the ATMs "self-audit" themselves every day and not to worry that the money would be in my account in six days.
I was too tired to argue and didn't need the cash then. So, I waited and, sure enough, the cash appeared in six days.
You would think this is a one in a million occurence so I blew it off. I usually go to Citibank to withdraw cash and NEVER had a problem.
Well,- now on April 18, 2007 I went to the same bank branch at 1025 71st Street in Miami Beach; I tried to withdraw $600.
I heard money being counted, then the screen went blank and the words to the effect of "we cannot dispense these funds at this time. Please contact your financial institution." I did that immediately. I called Paychex customer service and the transaction was already "pending" and $602 debitted. $600 plus the $2 charge. I was stunned. Could not believe it. The bank had just closed, it being 6:10pm or so. Employees were STILL in the bank. I banged on the door. No response. I banged again. No response. I could have been a bug smashing into the glass door. Finally, a somewhat sympathetic young woman came to the door and said sorry they were closed. I should "come back tomorrow" she said.
Of course, now I lost it and started yelling for the branch manager. Finally, a corpulent guy came to the glass door and started screaming at me that if I didn't go away he would CALL THE POLICE! No compassion, no asking what could be wrong. Nothing. Just again screamed I had five seconds to go away or he would call the police. Meanwhile, I was on a city owned sidewalk. This is 10-15 minutes after they had just closed!
And so again, as I did on january 24, I called Paychex and was told AGAIN the same story. Wait six days or go to bank etc. etc . blah, blah, blah. The transaction was "pending."
Does anyone not see the brilliance of this accounting method?
When an ATM, or any merchant, communicates with the Paychex computers and finds out that there is enough money in the account to cover the transaction, they give the OK to dispense the cash or the goods whatever...but Paychex will not give up the money until the transaction is posted i.e.until the bank, in this instance, actually asks for the cash. All this time, Paychex still "has" the money, to do with as they will. In this instance, if the bank had aleady given me the cash as it should have if the ATM machine worked correctly, the bank would be out the money until it posted the transaction. Only then would Paychex give it up. But they would have the cash "in their coffers" until then! Brilliant in a legal but ethically sleazy way. Multiply this by hundreds of thousands of transactions and no wonder Paychex is doing so well.
But the ATM machine DID NOT dispense cash and this time I was not willing to wait "six days." I called Washington Mutual; I e-mailed them; I faxed the branch manager. NO RESPONSE.
And, I did all this because this time Washington Mutual "asked" for their money in less than 24 hours! Transaction posted. Worst case scenario is here. And, I only found out the transaction had posted because I called Paychex on April 19, 2007 to make sure all my "complaints" had been logged on their system. Oh yes, the nice out-sourced customer service rep from somewhere in India assured me: every phone call, every complaint was logged and by the way, the $600 transaction had just posted that morning! I supposedly received the cash at 6:10PM est on April 18 and by 10:13am est on April 19, Washington Mutual had taken the money. Now, my "only" recourse was to dispute the transaction. Or, have Washington Mutual expedite their ATM investigation and fax Paychex the results and within a half-hour or so, the lovely Paychex rep told me, the money would be available to me! Fat, fat chance! The Paychex woman told me then that they would fax me a dispute form to start the investigation but, guess what, it will take 3 days or so to FAX me the form! To FAX it! (The department that faxes is separate from customer service!) It is mind-boggling the level of ingeniuos, diabolitical brain power it takes to come up with such a brilliant way to use other people's hard earned cash to make cash for themselves. $600 is HALF my paycheck.
The worst part of this is NO ONE is willing to take the time to help. No one,- neither at Washington Mutual nor Paychex.
THAT is the frustration:
multi billion dollar corporations who got that way because of cogs in the machine like us, but are unwilling, NOT UNABLE in this hi-tech world, to help anyone if it means whatever percentage of their profit margin is reduced.
Would it take that much time out of his busy schedule for the branch manager at WASHINGTON MUTUAL to listen and ask for an ATM report, even though I am not a customer?
And look, this guy is not the only one I tried to talk to about this--out of maybe the 5 or so employees at Washington Mutual I talked to, only one woman was genuinely sorry. She even gave me the name of the regional manager for WAMU. No response.
I e-mailed Paychex about my plight. NO response. None.
And so, I still wait for the fax from Paychex so they can START their investigation. Meanwhile, my money is out there floating somewhere, in this instance being used by Washington Mutual. Let them look at the video. Let them look at the self-audit report. I RECEIVED NO CASH. The ATM dispensed none.
And the corporations dispensed nothing either--mostly, any trace of humanity. "Ah, Bartleby..."
Felipe
Miami, Florida
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Washington Mutual
After reporting this to Paychex, I was told they could do nothing until the transaction posted; the transaction was pending. And the "pending" could be six days. After six days, if transaction posted, I could dispute it and it could take up to 45 days for a resolution. Or I could go to the bank and ask them to help by doing an ATM investigation.
I did. The branch manager, after finding out I was NOT a Washington Mutual customer, flippantly dismissed me by saying that the ATMs "self-audit" themselves every day and not to worry that the money would be in my account in six days.
I was too tired to argue and didn't need the cash then. So, I waited and, sure enough, the cash appeared in six days.
You would think this is a one in a million occurence so I blew it off. I usually go to Citibank to withdraw cash and NEVER had a problem.
Well,- now on April 18, 2007 I went to the same bank branch at 1025 71st Street in Miami Beach; I tried to withdraw $600.
I heard money being counted, then the screen went blank and the words to the effect of "we cannot dispense these funds at this time. Please contact your financial institution." I did that immediately. I called Paychex customer service and the transaction was already "pending" and $602 debitted. $600 plus the $2 charge. I was stunned. Could not believe it. The bank had just closed, it being 6:10pm or so. Employees were STILL in the bank. I banged on the door. No response. I banged again. No response. I could have been a bug smashing into the glass door. Finally, a somewhat sympathetic young woman came to the door and said sorry they were closed. I should "come back tomorrow" she said.
Of course, now I lost it and started yelling for the branch manager. Finally, a corpulent guy came to the glass door and started screaming at me that if I didn't go away he would CALL THE POLICE! No compassion, no asking what could be wrong. Nothing. Just again screamed I had five seconds to go away or he would call the police. Meanwhile, I was on a city owned sidewalk. This is 10-15 minutes after they had just closed!
And so again, as I did on january 24, I called Paychex and was told AGAIN the same story. Wait six days or go to bank etc. etc . blah, blah, blah. The transaction was "pending."
Does anyone not see the brilliance of this accounting method?
When an ATM, or any merchant, communicates with the Paychex computers and finds out that there is enough money in the account to cover the transaction, they give the OK to dispense the cash or the goods whatever...but Paychex will not give up the money until the transaction is posted i.e.until the bank, in this instance, actually asks for the cash. All this time, Paychex still "has" the money, to do with as they will. In this instance, if the bank had aleady given me the cash as it should have if the ATM machine worked correctly, the bank would be out the money until it posted the transaction. Only then would Paychex give it up. But they would have the cash "in their coffers" until then! Brilliant in a legal but ethically sleazy way. Multiply this by hundreds of thousands of transactions and no wonder Paychex is doing so well.
But the ATM machine DID NOT dispense cash and this time I was not willing to wait "six days." I called Washington Mutual; I e-mailed them; I faxed the branch manager. NO RESPONSE.
And, I did all this because this time Washington Mutual "asked" for their money in less than 24 hours! Transaction posted. Worst case scenario is here. And, I only found out the transaction had posted because I called Paychex on April 19, 2007 to make sure all my "complaints" had been logged on their system. Oh yes, the nice out-sourced customer service rep from somewhere in India assured me: every phone call, every complaint was logged and by the way, the $600 transaction had just posted that morning! I supposedly received the cash at 6:10PM est on April 18 and by 10:13am est on April 19, Washington Mutual had taken the money. Now, my "only" recourse was to dispute the transaction. Or, have Washington Mutual expedite their ATM investigation and fax Paychex the results and within a half-hour or so, the lovely Paychex rep told me, the money would be available to me! Fat, fat chance! The Paychex woman told me then that they would fax me a dispute form to start the investigation but, guess what, it will take 3 days or so to FAX me the form! To FAX it! (The department that faxes is separate from customer service!) It is mind-boggling the level of ingeniuos, diabolitical brain power it takes to come up with such a brilliant way to use other people's hard earned cash to make cash for themselves. $600 is HALF my paycheck.
The worst part of this is NO ONE is willing to take the time to help. No one,- neither at Washington Mutual nor Paychex.
THAT is the frustration:
multi billion dollar corporations who got that way because of cogs in the machine like us, but are unwilling, NOT UNABLE in this hi-tech world, to help anyone if it means whatever percentage of their profit margin is reduced.
Would it take that much time out of his busy schedule for the branch manager at WASHINGTON MUTUAL to listen and ask for an ATM report, even though I am not a customer?
And look, this guy is not the only one I tried to talk to about this--out of maybe the 5 or so employees at Washington Mutual I talked to, only one woman was genuinely sorry. She even gave me the name of the regional manager for WAMU. No response.
I e-mailed Paychex about my plight. NO response. None.
And so, I still wait for the fax from Paychex so they can START their investigation. Meanwhile, my money is out there floating somewhere, in this instance being used by Washington Mutual. Let them look at the video. Let them look at the self-audit report. I RECEIVED NO CASH. The ATM dispensed none.
And the corporations dispensed nothing either--mostly, any trace of humanity. "Ah, Bartleby..."
Felipe
Miami, Florida
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Washington Mutual
