Washington Mutual stole my money.. what to do about it?

Factual Questions
1

Washington Mutual mistakenly took money from me. In short, they stole it and have been dragging their feet returning it. What can I do about this? Who are the appropriate agencies to file a complaint with? Can I make additional claims against them, such as interest and late fee assessments?

Here is the full story:

I had a mortgage loan with Washington Mutual Bank (WaMu) that was paid off on 5/25.

6/1 - WaMu debited my account in the amount of my previous monthly mortgage payment. Obviously, there was some delay between paying off my mortgage and the bank canceling the automatic debit of my mortgage payment.

6/2 - I discovered the debit and called WaMu and asked that they refund my money. They agreed.

6/3 - A representative from WaMu called and left me a message saying they needed proof the money had cleared my account. I called this individual back but they were unavailable. I left a message but they never returned my call. I tried several more times that day to reach them but couldn’t.

6/4 - I called the individual back again in the morning but by the afternoon I never received a call back. I called another rep at WaMu to find out what was going on. This time I was told the money would be overnighted to me.

6/5 - By mid-afternoon the money hadn’t shown up. I called WaMu again, and this time spoke with a supervisor. The supervisor said the computer system was in “update” mode, and he couldn’t access my records. He promised to call me back in 1/2 hour. 2 hours later, I called him back as he hadn’t called me. He said the reason he didn’t call was that his phone wasn’t working. I asked to speak to his supervisor. The next supervisor told me the check will be overnighted on Monday. I have the names of both of these supervisors. I have a direct number for supervisor #2 as well as a promise I will be called on Monday letting me know the money has been sent.

At this point, I feel I’m entitled to compensation in the form of at least interest. Fortunately, I won’t be bouncing any checks as a result of this, so I can’t make any claims along those lines.

I have very little faith the money will be sent on Monday. Given that, how do I file a claim against them? Small claims court? Hire a lawyer? It seems if I hire a lawyer I’ll pay more in legal fees than I’ll recover.

Any advice/hints would be greatly appreciated.

2

Sounds like you’re getting the runaround. Keep full details. Try writing / emailing a letter of complaint to the complaints dept, give that 2 weeks, then write direct to the CEO. Screwups happen - we’re human - and it’s often how a company deals with them that tells you how good they are.

3

Put it all in writing.

Phone calls get blown off.

And use Registed Mail. With a return slip. So they can’t deny that it was recieved.

Also, consider buying THIS .
I bought a copy, & it has saved me hundreds of dollars and endless grief. I can recommend it fully to all Dopers.

4

It’s only been a week. I know, that’s easy to say when it’s YOUR money. I would give them another week to get things settled. Also, it’s always nice to have a lawyer friend for cases like this, letters on lawyer’s stationary do wonders.

5

Granted, it has been only a week. However, if someone walked into my house and took my money I would not be sitting around thinking, “Gee, it was only a week ago they took my money, perhaps I should give them more time to pay it back.”

As I said, they stole my money. Worse, twice promises to return the money were not kept.

So now I want to know my legal recourse. What is my best option? If I hire a lawyer, can I recover legal fees? If I attempt small claims court, do I have to file the claim in the city where WaMu is headquartered? Can I assess a “late charge” against them as they didn’t meet their promise to pay?

6

Write a good letter before you get a good lawyer. Seriously.

Business people don’t regard anything as important until you write it down.

7

I fully intend to send off a certified letter on Wednesday depending on the results of Tuesday. However, I think I can get a better response if I have something to back it up. Knowing my rights is key to knowing what is reasonable and unreasonable to demand.

8

Just out of curiosity, how much interest do you think you’re entitled to? I don’t know what your mortgage payment was or if it was pulled from an interest-bearing account, but how much interest realistically could accumulate in six days? If it would make you feel better, email me your address and I’ll mail you a penny to make up for it.

In the alternative, you could look upon this as a lesson to contact your financial institutions to cancel automatic payments once the debt to which the payment is applied is down to one payment, then cut the last check yourself.

9

IMO you have no cause for complaint until “a reasonable time” has passsed and they haven’t corrected the error. 30 days is reasonable, 6 is not.

10

WaMu has a legitimate right to wait and make sure that they actually have your money before returning it. This involves checking to see that the automatic deduction was actually processed, and that it actually resulted in a transfer of money from your acount to their bank (not necessarily a given). Since this was an aotomatic deduction, this will probably be harder than for a one-time manual transaction. However, anything over 2 weeks is, in my opinion, probably due to incompetance, lack of priority given to error correction over “real” work (i.e. corporate failure to see customer service as a real priority), or a deliberate reluctance to admit to an error in case it results in a lawsuit.

11

** Boyo Jim** & I are in agreement! :eek:

Wow!

We must be right… :wink: :smiley:

12

Otto -
Excellent suggestion on turning off automatic deductions. It is because of this and other stories that I don’t have any other automatic deductions.

Boyo Jim -
While I agree “reasonable” can be measured in time, I also think it can be measured in transactions. Look at the history I’ve had in 6 days. I’ve been in contact with them no less than 5 times already. Twice in those six times my calls were ignored. If the power company tried to collect a late payment from me on 5 different occasions without success, I would think they would have legitimate grounds for sending me to collections.

Bookkeeper -
In my very first conversation with WaMu they told me they could see the money had been transferred. The second contact was looking for confirmation, but never returned my calls. The third contact never asked for confirmation, simply agreeing the money would be refunded. The fourth never returned my call, and the fifth wanted confirmation but they don’t have e-mail and I don’t have a fax machine. I agreed to snail mail it, but only if they agreed to send the check immediately.

13

I would keep on it, but I would bet that no one is really trying to screw you over.

Washing Mutual is a big company, it’s not like the employees get bonuses for ripping people off. It’s not in their interest to screw you over.

14

If you let the local major affiliate’s local news in on it, it might get public attention. Wa Mu wouldn’t like that. They’d likely hand carry the money to you.

15

IANA lawyer, but I don’t think any court in America would agree with you. If you went to a lawyer and tried to sue, they would most likely chuckle.

Also they would likely warn you that maintaining your money is “stolen” under these circumstances, when you’ve admitted that it was a mistaken automatic payment, might be cause for them to sue YOU , though I doubt it would happen. I strongly suggest you use milder language in whatever you communicate to them in writing.

16

One other thing – utilities (and virtually all medium to large businesses) have written policies on how long billls can go unpaid before they either sue or cut off service. It doesn’t matter if they contact you once or a hundred times in the interim, provided they have given you proper notice of their delinquency policy.

In fact you would have a better case suing them for harassment if they called you every single day than they would have collecting their 6-day delinquent bill in court.

17

The power company analogy was meant to further a point, not be a complete parallel. As I’m not in the habit of being a creditor, I don’t have a late payment policy and therefore the analogy breaks down pretty quickly in that regard.

I don’t think anyone is trying to screw me out of my money and certainly not a bank the size of WaMu. My mortgage payment is so far down on their radar screen it would be laughable to think they really are trying to screw me out of my money, but that doesn’t excuse incompetence.

Mistaken or not, they did take what does not belong to them and that is stealing.

At this rate, I feel like I could be arguing this for weeks without resolution. They are clearly incompetent, for a lot more reasons than just what I’ve written here.

I want something tangible to accelerate the return of my money. That is why I put this question in GQ rather than IMHO; I want to know what I can and cannot make stick in the way of damages. The $75 or $100 I might obtain for damages is relatively meaningless to me. However, I don’t want to be fighting this for the next 6 months, either. I want to give them incentive to return my money quickly and without any more hassles to me.

18

First, sigaas, “stealing” requires criminal intent. What the bank did was accidentally continue to do what you had authorized them to do, but beyond the point at which they were still entitled to do so. That’s not “stealing,” under any legal system I know of.

Now, why did they do that? Were they trying to steal your money? No. It’s just that they have to prepare their electronic drafts a few days before they’re actually carried out. Paying off the mortgage on the 25th gave them too little time to back out the next automatic draft.

You’ve given them fewer than 4 business days to fix the problem, and already you’re trying to figure out how to pressure them. Chill. Calling them 20 times a day won’t make any difference. You are way overreacting.

19

Thank you, Early Out. You’ve expressed my thoughts exactly as well as your own, and more clearly than I am able to.

20

IANAL, but you have no basis by which you may claim to charge them a late fee. A bank’s late fees on customers are based upon a contract agreed to by both parties when the account was opened. You can’t go around charging banks or other people late fees, because they never agreed to any contract that had their customers charging late fees.

I think you’re barking up the wrong tree to seek to try to seek some lever to force the bank into a corner, whether by threatening legal action or by threatening to go to the press. Rather than trying to put the bank on the defensive, try to be doing things “correctly.”

By correctly, I mean taking the advice that others have offered: write a calm, businesslike letter, send it by registered mail. Continue your phone calls, which should be professional, calm, and solution-oriented, rather than irate and threatening. Keep notes and copies of correspondence. Get things in writing. This also helps build a record of what you’ve tried to do to fix the problem if it has to be duked out in court.

Also, telling the manager that you understand that the whole thing is just a big mistake, but you need the money to buy a new bike for your kid’s birthday will make a more compelling case to get the problem fixed rapidly, as compared to accusing him of commiting a felony.

Or, you can be as confrontational as you like and try to fight a faceless corporation.

Go have a free consultation with a lawyer. Then he’ll tell you he’ll charge you $250 bucks an hour to write a letter to the bank manager, which, within a few days to a few weeks, will result in your money being returned, and you’re out $250 to $500.

Or, file a claim in small claims court. Wait a few weeks for a court date. Have your phone calls referred to the bank’s counsels. Take a day off work, go to court, win your case, and wait around a week or two while the bank writes the check and mails – not overnights, but snail mails – it to you.

It’s your choice. Now, if things do start to stretch out for weeks, then your calucations may be altered. I know you’re frustrated, but right now, you’d be wasting time and effort to seek legal options, and you’d be unnecessarily confrontational and counter-productive, to boot.

Best of luck to you. I’m sure it will be worked out soon.