Victory is MINE!

Don't you love it how customer service reps who make $6 an hour (and, more often than not, can't speak fluent English) go on power trips, fight with you, and say repeatedly "there's nothing I can do?" when you've been wronged? I've learned very quickly to say "may I please speak to your manager?" Unfortunately, I think the big companies have caught on to my little game, and hired a whole army of individuals who make $6.25 an hour with the title "Manager."

Let me explain. I have a Washington Mutual savings account. I almost closed my account shortly after opening it (as Pattie did) when my initial deposit was held for longer than the federally-mandated maximum. However, due to their 5.00% APY interest at the time on their e-savings account, I convinced myself to be patient. On a different occasion, one of my coworkers complained to both WaMu and me about their holds on his deposits--apparently, when he went into a branch to deposit money into an account, the money was made immediately available. However, when his wife went into the same branch and deposited the same checks (signed by him) into the same account, the money was subject to a 2-3 day hold. After he talked to a number of different WaMu representatives and accused them of sexism, the money was magically unlocked.

Fast forward today: I recently got charged an "excess activity fee" of $10.00 by Washington Mutual. I called the customer service number and asked (nicely) what that was for--apparently, if I make more than 6 transfers out of my savings account, I get charged $10 for "excess activity". Having never been informed of this "$10 fee", I figured a quick conversation would remedy the problem as I'd be given a "one time courtesy credit for being a good customer." That always happens, right?

Unfortunately, the first level customer service rep was of no help, so I asked to speak to her "Manager". Manager Jason (who actually sounded like he wanted to die and hated his job the whole time while he was on the phone with me... shocking) told me that the fee was federally-mandated, and that the bank could not and would not credit my account back. After some worthless discussion with Jason, he suggested that he could have a "Senior Manager" call me back within 24 hours. He hung up on me just as I was asking him to tell me his last name.

Senior Manager Jaime called me back today, and I discussed with her my situation. Following the same script, Senior Manager Jamie also told me that while she appreciated my business, the fee was federally-mandated and could not be credited to my account. I expressed my shock and indicated that in working with many different banks in the past, I had never run into a situation where the bank refused to credit back a fee that was, for all material purposes, undisclosed. She once again faulted her inability to credit my account on the "federal mandate".

In response, I explained that I work in an industry that deals extensively with Federal Banking laws. I asked her to point me to the regulation the WaMu employees seem happy to reference and blame for their inability to give me my $10 back. As she was skimming the member agreement and trying to give me a page that the regulation/policy was on, I indicated that I was not asking for the page of the member agreement that referenced her fee, but the actual regulation upon which she was basing her communication with me (I was careful not to call it an "argument"). Additionally, I asked Senior Manager Jamie if the $10 fee that the federal agency was so intent on charging me was in fact returned to that federal agency. She said that a portion of it was. [So false.]

After a few minutes of searching, Senior Manager Jamie triumphantly said "it's based on Regulation D". I then pulled up Reg D and asked her to explain where the Federal Mandate was within that section. Senior Manager Jamie then asked if she could put me on hold to see if there was anything else they could do for me. A few minutes later after I had skimmed the regulation and someone else's angry blog in response to WaMu's $10 excess activity fee, I was informed that since I had no other charges on my account and since I was a good customer, Senior Manager Jamie's manager, (I assume that would be Senior Senior Manager, right? Or maybe this even rose to the DIRECTOR level!) allowed her to credit my fee back even though, as a policy and because of that federal regulation of course, WaMu never credits back that fee.

As a sidenote: Regulation §204.2(d)(2), which defines a savings account, indicates that "the depositor is permitted or authorized to make no more than six transfers and withdrawals, or a combination of such transfers and withdrawals, per calendar month or statement cycle (or similar period) of at least four weeks, to another account (including a transaction account) of the depositor at the same institution..." If the depositor (me in this case) violates that, the bank must either:

"(a) Prevent withdrawals or transfers of funds from this account that are in excess of the limits established by paragraph (d)(2) of this section, or

(b) Adopt procedures to monitor those transfers on an ex post basis and contact customers who exceed the established limits on more than an occasional basis."

Interesting. Ex post basis totally sounds like charging me $10 at the close of the cycle, right? And... I'm assuming that my one incident counts as a "more than occasional basis" which prompted WaMu to "contact me" by charging me, right? Excellent logic. I'm glad WaMu is so intent on following Reg D. It's a good thing that WaMu's Senior Senior Manager chose to credit the $10 back to me.

Also, for those of you that may not know me so well, you might be asking yourselves, "well, was the $10 really worth it?" For all those that know me well, let us all speak at once... "TOTALLY!"