Complaint Review: Washington Mutual/Chase - Miami Florida

My complaint about WAMU/Chase is also similar. My wallet was stolen last year in Nov.08. I called WAMU along with my other credit card companies. Within 5 days I received "ALL" of my new credit cards and atm's. Well, it turned out that the thieves had charged over $500 on my WAMU atm and my other cards at cretain gas stations. I followed WAMU's instructions to file a police report, did the affidavit and have it notarized and so on. After two weeks WAMU did credit my account to say the least. Now, being October '09, my wife and I noticed on our September '09 statement (keep in mind my wallet was stolen in November '08) ridiculous charges being made along with overdraft fees. We immediately called now "Chase" to get information about those charges and filed a fraudulent charges report. About a week later we received a letter from Chase's claims department stating that "our story was inconsistent" and that our claim ha been denied. Being confused I than called them to explain their decision. Well I don't have to tell you guys about their great customer service (sarcasm). The First person my wife spoke with at the claims department was Angela (thank god this wasn't an overseas cust. serv. as far as i know anyway). She was so impolite and very rude. All she kept repeating was that our claimed was denied because our story was inconsistent and that their system does not make mistakes and issue new cards with the same last numbers. When I asked for a supervisor or some one in charged she said that there was no supervisor there. Wow, imagine that, a shift of unsupervised employees who show up to work to perform Superior Customer Service, go figure. Anyhow, she said that I would have to leave my information and that someone would call me back within 24 hours. Well it was 3 days later and no phone call from them. My wife then called and spoke to Scott. He was very polite and sounded like he wanted to resolve our problem. He explained the reason for the denial in detail stating that there was no record in their system of issuing me a new card or even reporting it stolen. My wife then told him that we have evidence (the letter that comes with the new cards) that they had issued me a new card back in November '08. He said to fax it over to their claims department so that they can review it. So we did. After not hearing from them for 4 days, we called again. It was Angela again, she claimed that the fax copy was not readable and that the our claim was still denied! Frustrated with this incompetent employee, we hung up and my wife called back the next day. She spoke with Christian, he said that our fax was very clear and easy to read (go figure). He then said that I had to call in and have a new claim opened since we had evidence to prove that they had issued me a new card (proving that their system does make errors and issues new cards with the same numbers). So I did call from work to authorize a new claim to be opened since proof was being provided. Well after all that we called 2 days later to get the same story that what we faxed over was not sufficient for their Escalations department to accept it.
Let me pi point a few things:
1. They claimed that their computer system does not issue new cards to customers with the same numbers. ( False: I sent them their OWN letter proving that the new card sent to me to replace my stolen card had the same credit cards numbers.)
2. They claimed that they never sent me a new card. (Yet I have that same letter from them.)
3. They claim that I never reported my card stolen. (Again, then why would I have a letter replacing my stolen card)
This is mind boggling. I have never dealt with such INCOMPETENCY.
NEVER WILL I EVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY, AND I URGE YOU TO DO THE SAME.

Tried to get a few charges off my account due to fraudulent activity.... every single time they transferred me to their 'fraud' department, the call gets dropped. Now I'm looking at $300 unauthorized charges plus overdraft fees. I don't have time to call them up and play this game, as right now I'm in the middle of a switch of my parent's health care providers and one of the busiest times where I work. So I have to pick and choose what battles I have to fight, and as much as this is important, the well being of my parents that I take care of is always my primary focus.

Now there are other charges that has surfaced and I'm really ticked, as the amount is high again and this time, it affects my rent payment. My only option is just to close the account and open up another account with another bank.

I have also been victimized by Chase. Unlike the rest of you it was not for that much but I am young and it was all the money I had. The actual amount was $163 plus the $68 of overdraft that I was issued. I call Chase within hours of finding out that my account was wiped out, and the representative explained to me how this could have been done for someone to take my money out of an ATM while my card has been with me the whole time. He said someone must have copied my debit card and checked the balance before actually making the withdrawal. The actual withdrawal happened across town and at 7h41 PM which I was still in school at the time. He informed me that all my money will be credited to my account and transferred me to claims. I filed a report and they told me to call back in 24 hours which I did only to find out that my claim was denied. I asked why and their reasoning was that since they were able to get my PIN right the first time, than they have no way to prove that this was a fraudulent charge.

They said that they can no longer do anything for me and the only thing I can do is file a police report. I filed it 2 days ago and found that that it takes about 30 days for cases to be assigned detectives. When I called back chase to inform them that I filed a police report, they said that they will not be able to reconsider the claim until they get a call from the police department stating that after investigating, they found out that it was not me that made the withdrawal. From all of your stories I can already imagine that I will never get that money back, but I would love to be part of the class-action lawsuit to be able to make chase pay back for the food less days and asking other people money to put gas in my car to go to school.

My story is similar to these. Only worse because I'm out over $9,000. While I was on vacation (after notifying WaMu of my travel dates), my WaMu ATM card was used repeatedly and in various cities to tap my checking account dry. Each time my retirement checks were automatically deposited, the money was withdrawn again. I only discovered this when I returned home and discovered mail from WaMu advising me of bouncing checks and insufficient funds notices.  I quickly deposited funds from my savings in an attempt to cover the overdrafts, but they kept coming! Then after examining my bank statements, I could see ATM withdrawals made in places I had never been, or even heard of. 

I went into my bank to report this and showed the teller the statements and my ATM card. This was in early May.  However I continued to received these notices of debits from WaMu, even though I thought I had handled the matter.  I next contacted WaMu's fraud department, and after their "investigation" they denied the claim because money had in fact been withdrawn, and I must have forgotten.  I appealed and then was subjected to the same round of denial letters from the ubiquitous Alex Wilson, stating that I had given my permission for it to be used!  Even though the debits continued while I had the card in my possession at all times. I faxed in everything I had, my vacation itinerary, plane boarding passes, a local police report I'd made, all to no avail.  Another denial letter, 3 in total.  Each time I requested to see the evidence that led to the claim denial. My last conversation with WaMu was in mid-July, at which time, I was told by a "manager" that he believed me, and I would see this resolved in 10 days. It is now the beginning of September; I have never received the documentation I requested three times or another decision.

Class action lawsuit?  Count me in!

ChristineM

Please add me to the list! I had a very similar incident occur with Chase. Please keep us updated on the status of any class action. I was only out $200+, but I see people losing thousands of dollars to this same type of scheme WaMu is pulling. Sadly, a lawsuit is probably what it will take for them to stop. My story:

I was actually looking for what to provide WaMu/Chase so they would consider reopening my fraud claim when I came upon multiple online reports of what seems to be their standard operating procedure of just denying claims outright.

I noticed a $200 withdrawl from my banking account at a Citibank atm all the way across town on a day that I was in non stop meetings at work. I contacted WaMu/Chase's fraud claim number right away. I was told that based upon this being an atm withdrawl, my card was most likely skimmed. I later came to find out that I have a neightbor who's card was also skimmed, so this most likely took place at a nearby atm we both use.

The representative from WaMu/Chase told me that the funds would be recredited to my account (this would take 7 - 10 business days), an investigation would be opened, and that an affidavit would be mailed to my home for me to fill out. They counseled me not to close my account, but merely to get a new card since they felt only the card had been compromised. They would issue me a new card. In the mean time I filed a police report with my local Sheriff.

Of course the amount was never credited and the affidavit never came. On the 7th business day I receive a letter from Wamu/Chase stating that my claim had been denied because I gave permission to the person who used my debit card. This is highly unlikely since I live alone, and my closest relatives are out of state.

I called the number right away to find out if they could tell me who they determined that I gave permission to use my card. No they could not tell me that. They did say that since the PIN had been entered correctly that that was an *obvious* indication that I had given permission to use my card. That and the fact that only $200 had been stolen. So apparently I wasn't robbed *enough*. I wanted to speak with Alex Wilson (probably a pseudonym), the investigator on my claim, to know how he had decided to deny the claim. I was told that there was no way to do that, he only worked in writing; or for that matter there was no way for me to speak to a supervisor.  I was told there was nothing I can do, unless I could come up with further evidence that the withdrawal was fraudulent. I asked what further evidence WaMu/Chase would accept, and they refused to tell me.

Just on a hunch, I called Citibank to see if anyone had requested to see the atm videotapes from that day. The woman I spoke to at Citibank was slightly more helpful, saying that, yes, those infamous Wamu/Chase "backroom" investigators would have most likely contacted Citibank to view the tape if they were trying to prove I was lying (which is basically what Chase is accusing me of at this point). Except no one had contacted the branch to see their tapes. I don't know if she was supposed to tell me that, or the next thing she said which was "you would think that if they were going to deny your claim, they would want to have proof to show you why they were denying it."

You would think, but so far Chase can't explain to me how they "know" I gave a complete stranger permission to steal $200 from me. I'm lucky it's only $200 and the  overdraft fees that Chase stole from me as a result, and not the thousands I have heard others have lost at the hands of this bank.

And really, why should they explain? As the system is set up now, we have no protection for our money as it sits in Chase's system, and no recourse against Chase's draconian self protections if our identity and funds are stolen. Tomorrow I go to open a different checking account at another bank. I guess that's all I can do.

I have also been a victim of WaMu/Chase's shady claims processing department. In late May someone skimmed my ATM card and withdrew almost $2,000. I called on My 28th to make a report and on May 29th claims processing had already mailed a letter saying that they denied my claim becuase I "gave permission to the person who made the transactions". My jaw just dropped. How did they come to that conclusion?! My card was in my possession the entire time and the transactions were made four hours from where I live. By doing a little research I found 6 other people who live near me and who used the same ATM machines I did (where I think the skimming took place) and they also had money withdrawn on the same dates and in the same city as in my case. I filed a police report. I sent a detailed letter and a signed affidavit. I did everything I was asked to do and provided more information than is necessary. I spoke with at leat 5 supervisors and over 10 customer service reps. A month and a half later, my claim has been denied 3 more times and Chase has closed my case for good. I also asked to speak to an investigator and the supervisors told me that THEY can't even talk to them! What kind of system is that?? I told a couple of the suervisors that I was going to take legal action and they said that if they were me, they would do the same. It's crazy that there is such a disconect in that company. I am very interested in being part of a clas action law suit. Please contact me at (((ROR redacted))) CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.