Lending

Our original mortage was with First Union. They were great. From month

one that Homeside Lending (later Washington Mutual) purchased our loan,

they were HORRIBLE. They lost our first payment. They tried to charge us

late fees. They would hold our checks for three weeks or more, THEN try

to say we paid late and charged us late fees. We paid $1,500 one time to

get out of foreclosure. The next month, they turned around and did the

SAME THING to us. You could NEVER get a real person on the phone or get

them to send you paperwork when promised.

Called the Florida Attorney General's office and they said they'd been

looking into other complaints, gave me a direct number to call a vp at

WaMU. Called, got a woman who said she'd help. The next week we called

back --

THE NUMBER WAS DISCONNECTED!!!

I finally said fine, do it, I'll file chapter 13. And I did, the day

before the sherrif's sale. And we could NEVER get anyone on the phone!

Even our lawyer had trouble getting info from them.

At our first hearing with the bankruptcy trustee, he said, "Trying to

save a house?" We said yes. He looked and I saw his eyebrows go up. "Ah,

Washington Mutual," he said. I asked, "Are you familiar with them?" He

looked at us and said, "As a trustee, I'm not allowed to really comment

on things like that, but their name is not unfamiliar to me."

At our hearing before the judge to confirm the bankruptcy, there were

about 12 pages on the docket and I looked through it -- OVER FIFTY

PERCENT OF THE PRIMARY CREDITORS LISTED ON THE DOCKET WERE WASHINGTON

MUTUAL!!!!

Fortunately after being in bankruptcy for over two years we were able to

refinance with another mortgage company who's been TOTALLY great.

(Countrywide Full Spectrum Lending) It took us FOREVER to get all the

escrowed money back from WaMU that they owed us, and I'm still not sure

that we got all of it. They use convoluted reports that don't make it

easy to figure out what you've paid/what they have.

My insurance agent said that before Charley hit our county, WaMU failed

to pay insurance that was escrowed and quite a few people lapsed. BUT

they didn't do their favorite trick of force-placing insurance, so there

were families who THOUGHT they had insurance, but didn't. My next door

neighbor had the same problem with them. We bought a car from a local

dealer, the finance agent there had the same problem with them.

When Charley hit we were lucky enough to have insurance. BUT, when we

got the check (we had to replace our outside A/C unit because of storm

damage) THEY TRIED TO KEEP IT!! I have a disabled son and HAVE to have

air conditioning for him. I went to their Sarasota office and stormed in

and told the manager in a LOUD voice in their lobby that they would

either sign over that check to me as they were supposed to do, or I

would come back in fifteen minutes with a tv crew and they could explain

to THEM why they were denying a disabled child air conditioning.

They FINALLY (after several phone calls and a LOT of grumbling) signed

the check over to me so I could get the a/c work done.

BEWARE OF WASHINGTON MUTUAL! They are predatory and have horrible

customer service! I found out during this process that several states

had filed lawsuits against Homeside Lending/WaMU for these same problems

-- not paying and then force-placing insurance, not paying escrowed

property taxes, and holding/losing payments and then charging obscene

late charges.

That's why they changed their name from Homeside Lending to the parent

company, WaMU, because they had such a bad rep.