Wamu Cares – Apparently Not Anymore
Who is answering the Wamu Cares number at 3 in the afternoon? Nobody.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the Wamu Cares program launched by Washington Mutual to engage with their borrowers who are either in trouble or facing trouble. I was impressed by their new website at www.wamucares.com that spoke in simple language about their commitment to working with their borrowers who are in trouble.
Well, that didn’t last very long. www.wamucares.com is gone and now forwards to minor page off of their contact us page. This page has dropped all of the sincere language about wanting to help and now lists different options for the various levels of pain that their borrowers are in. OK, so less fluff and more substance? Unfortunately not.
Remember the client that I mentioned several weeks ago that submitted their Wamu Cares application? Well the 10 day turn around has come and gone times 2 with no response. When the customer tried to contact “Wamu Cares” at the phone number listed at the top of their new webpage, they were given two choices:
- “To get a new loan or refinance your current loan, select 1″
- “For servicing questions on an existing loan, select 2″
… and into automated phone system hell you go.
So what’s the deal? Now when you search “Wamu Cares” on Google, all you find are cynical and disappointed blog posts like this one. Has WAMU stopped caring? Would they rather wait for the government to bail them out? Was the response to their programming overwhelming and unmanageable? Was their a management decision after the Chase acquisition? Unfortunately, I cannot speculate an answer that has any type of positive reason.
This real estate agent thinks it is borderline criminal how the big banks are handling this foreclosure crisis. Do I think banks owe it to their borrowers to release them from their obligations or save them from them? No, I don’t. However, these are public companies with shareholders who expect their corporate officers to handle these problems intelligently. It doesn’t make any sense that a national lender would not dedicate comprehensive resources and manpower to respond to their borrowers who are having problems and are asking for help. This would save their company money. This protects their shareholders. I cannot imagine that mortgage lender shareholders really understand how their companies are handling this crisis and allowing this management negligence. It just defies reason.
Brian Wilson
Kathi Frank
jonkristy
kevin Cornwell
Elizabeth Chappell
mlbroadcast
Teresa Kennedy
sueizard2
drclouthier
scottjones2
I had this same struggle with WaMu Cares and was so frustrated that I wrote the following letter to my Senators, and a similar one to my congressman.
“Dear Senators Cantwell and Murray,
In light of the recent financial industry bailout and sense of congressional urgency to help the American homeowner, I thought you’d find it interesting that we’ve had a terrible experience working with WaMu’s Loss Mitigation Department. There have been many frustrating incidences, but in respect for your busy schedule, I will keep this short and to the basic point.
My husband has found a new job which requires him to attend training in another state for months at a dramatically decreased pay rate ($8.90 hourly). I am a former educator, but now a stay-at-home mom with no income of my own. My two small children and I will stay at our home in Washington while my husband goes to Academy, which means we have to find a way to pay our bills and our mortgage on a single tiny salary, while my husband also financially supports himself in another state. That means more expenses for our family on a drastically reduced income.
In an attempt to avoid missing payments and ruining our credit during that period of hardship, we applied for a short deferrment or forebearance of our mortgage payments with Washington Mutual. After many exasperating phone calls, an email and a fax, we still had not gotten a response from WaMu, so today, nearly two months after our original application, I called WaMu and was told that our request had been rejected. WaMu’s phone representative could not offer a reason for our rejection, other than we are not currently in default. She said that the decision was not WaMu’s but Freddie Mac’s as they are the investor behind our WaMu loan. She outright refused to explain the relationship between Freddie Mac and WaMu in regards to my home loan, and when I asked, she would not offer me alternatives or other contacts to further our request for deferrment.
I am upset by the unprofessional and unhelpful treatment we’ve received from WaMu, and appalled by Freddie Mac’s unwillingness to work with us after our tax dollars bailed them out of their own financial crisis. I hope that you as my representative in the House can help right these wrongs. I am asking you to bring our concerns about Freddie Mac and WaMu to light since they are so relevant to the current focus of our federal legislature.
If you need further evidence that the policies of these lending giants are broken, simply google Wamu Cares (the dept WaMu supposedly set up to help struggling home owners) and you will find countless articles, stories and complaints like mine (check consumeraffairs.com for starters). Please be a voice for my family, and the many other families in our situation, trying to hold onto our home and our credit in hard times.
Thank you for your efforts on behalf of Washingtonians.
Cari
December 2, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Cari, thank you for sharing this with us and more importantly, thanks for writing the letter. I agree with your sentiments that no one is entitled to a loan modification but everyone is entitled to at least a response.
I cannot imagine why these national banks do not have hyperactive, over-staffed work out departments. They should be paying their people bonuses for every loan saved and every foreclosure averted. It is beyond reason why it is still business as usual.
Brian Wilson
December 8, 2008 at 1:56 pm
HA…I STARTED WITH HOPE NOW AND WAMU CARES OVER TWO YEARS AGO.
ALL I HAVE TO SHOW FOR IT IS 119 E-MAILS AND YESTERDAY THE E-MAIL SENT BOUNCED BACK “UNDELIVERABLE”.
THE ONLY “CARE” WAMU HAS IS THEMSELVES.
TC
March 15, 2009 at 10:45 am
DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ANYONE… I’VE BEEN TRYING TO ALMOST A YEAR…
Aileen
May 6, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I am getting ready to file for bankruptcy today thanks to WAMU and all the lies they have told me. DO NOT TRUST ANYTHING THEY SAY. I did find it interesting when I asked if I could record our conversation for future reference and accuracy the customer service rep told me “I refuse to be recorded and am exercising my personal rights under federal law….they can hide behind the law but can’t abide by it…ironic isn’t it?
Edward
May 27, 2009 at 9:24 am
Our problems started when my husbands hours were cut and we are several months behind in mortgage pmts. Wamu did help us up to a point in getting a modification for a 3 month trial period we were able to make the first pmt but not the second due to the fact a garnishment started so that is 400 less a month i have tried to call and explain and would they let us slide a couple more weeks but they are telling us that it is strict as to the modification. I also asked if there are any other programs like extending the loan to 40 yrs but they are just telling us that there is nothing else they can do. Where is all the money that the banks got to help homeowners? Our loan is with Fannie Mae I even called them and they suggested the hope hotline and they do not work directly with homeowners. According to the website with the gov they will only help homeowners that are current so what do we do? We are going to end up like Edward and hope that they will reconfirm our loan. we want to keep our home and with so many foreclosures do they really want our home? If anyone reading this can offer any solutions let us know. thanks for reading this
darla
June 18, 2009 at 5:47 pm