Complaint Review: Washington Mutual - Louisville Kentucky

In my 34 years of life I have only dealt with two companies that have operated with a complete disregard for their customer's pain in correcting the company's errors. Likewise my credit score is impeccable as I have always paid my bills on time, and addressed issues immediately as they occur.

FIRST EXPERIENCE

Eleven days following September 11, 2001 I was activated to military duty and in compliance with the law, all of my creditors except for Washington Mutual immediately lowered my interest rate to the 6% as required by law for military members that have been involuntarily activated to Active Duty. For all 6 of my respective creditors, I only had to mail or fax a copy of my orders once before they honored the law that was created in 1940 to protect the men and women that defend our country.

Unfortunately, I spent almost three months dealing with Washington Mutual's complete disregard for the law as they required me to fax multiple times not only my orders that legally required me to go to active duty, but also statements and budgets that they said were required to justify my request for the 6% interest rate that military personnel are afforded thanks to The Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act of 1940.

After months of dealing with unreasonable requests and several unreturned phone calls I finally received my interest rate reduction that only required one submission of my Official Military Orders from companies such as USAA, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Honda Finance Corporation, and a few other good companies.

SECOND EXPERIENCE

My mortgage had been automatically deducted from my checking account for about four years until January of 2002. By mid-March of 2002 I learned that my credit report had negative information on it from a company that I was doing business with. When I checked my credit I saw that Washington Mutual had me three months in delinquency for my mortgage payment. Although I was on active duty and all of my mail had been forwarded to my military address, I received not one notice, phone call, email or anything notifying me that I was "late".

When I called Washington Mutual to inquire how I could be late when they draft my payment from my checking account as had been done for several years, I learned that they did not know why the payments quit drafting but I "had to pay all late fees and they would not remove the negative credit information". This was obviously not a suitable answer and finally after numerous phone calls I was told that there had been a "glitch" in the system that had caused my previously scheduled payments to cease from being withdrawn from my checking account.

They were however kind enough to remove the late fees associated with the "glitch" if I wrote a letter explaining to them their "glitch" in the system. They also informed me that if I copy all of the credit bureaus with this letter that my negative credit information would be removed.

The last I checked the negative credit information from the "glitch" in the system still remains on my otherwise unblemished credit report.

FINAL EXPERIENCE

As you might imagine, by now my priority is to pay off all of my Washington Mutual home loan without regard for the fact that the rate is lower than other loans I have and my mortgage is a wonderful tax deduction. By now I am looking to get out of the clutches of the incompetence exhibited by Washington Mutual. In December I took advantage of a 3.9% credit card offer and gladly mailed a check for $20,000 to Washington Mutual along with a letter stating my desire for the loan to be monies to be applied toward future payments.

Only three months after mailing in the $20,000 against future $325 payment, I received a notice telling me that my payment is over thirty days late and that negative payment information has been sent to all three credit bureaus. I never received a phone call, letter, email, or anything asking why I was late, but rather Washington Mutual took it upon themselves to report negative information about my payments and then send me a letter. Again Washington Mutual has errored and not informed their customer until negative information has been forwarded to the credit bureaus. All though there were clear instructions on how to apply the $20,000 sent only three months earlier against future $325 payment, there was obviously another "glitch" in the system.

I am very thankful that my good credit has afforded me the opportunity to obtain a signature loan from a bank that will allow me to pay off the remaining $8,000 balance that Washington Mutual held against my mortgage. To make a long story short, DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS ABSURDLY INCOMPETANT COMPANY!

Jasen

Rockwall, Texas
U.S.A.

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