How to Speak to a Human Being at Washington Mutual
August 13, 2007
I called Washington Mutual’s 1-800 customer service number today to get the name of my branch so that I can get direct deposit set up. It took me a full 10 minutes to get through their menu to speak to a human. Pressing “0″ didn’t help.
Whenever you have a phone system that obfuscates how to speak to a human, your clients will lose patience with you. That means that when they do finally get to your customer service representatives, they’ll have less patience with them. That puts your customer service people in a bad mood and makes it more likely that they’ll provide shoddy service to the next customer. It’s a vicious cycle.
Putting up more walls in an era where all the good businesses are tearing them down is a terrible idea. I hope Wamu returns the old system.
In the meantime, the telephone banker I spoke to told me that customers can get to a human from the main menu by pressing 1 (pause) 1 (pause) 2.
I work for Group Health Credit Union and like most credit unions service is our number one priority, not just a slogan. You can reach a live person just by pressing 0 when you get our recording. We even state that in our phone greeting.
Big banks can’t provide the service that a credit union does. And, credit unions usually offer better rates and lower fees than banks. Most credit unions are open to anyone in a regional area. Group Health Credit Union is open to anyone in Washington state.
It used to be that when you called WaMu you could just press 0, it must have just changed. Ignore the blogspam from the Credit Union.
Arden: Thanks for leaving that message. I decided that it was a borderline value-add since it’s true that credit unions are generally better at customer service than big banks. Still, you’re being awfully commercial and some bloggers might not be as comfortable with that as I am.
Matt: They did indeed change the system recently. I think they’re using new software, but they need to make the human element more accessible. As for blogspam, I don’t think that Arden was spamming. Being commercial, definitely. But there’s a value-add in there…somewhere.
1, #, #, #
Mike: Welcome! And thanks
Log in to check your account with your account # and access code…
THEN, after it tells you the info and goes to another menu, press zero (not that the voice will offer this option).
I agree, it’s maddening that they make it so hard to reach a person.
I opened up a WAMU checking and credit card account recently, good rates, free checking but getting to a live customer service rep was crazy. I followed your post of 1, 1, 2 and you have to wait two or three times for them to tell you to put in account number but it will then transfer you to a live customer service rep. By the way they are very helpful when you get them live.
I had a similar experience. I was having trouble with my WaMu Debt card and It took me about three hours with various number punching and cursing to get to a human. Finally when I did they were very helpful but they told me that to get to a human from the main menu it was 1 (pause) 1 (pause) 0 (pause), so good luck and gods speed.
I scheduled a transfer last Thursday with a post date of today, June 11, 2008. Well, of course, nothing this morning. I do know, thanks to a WAMU manager, that an outside transfer could take a few days to be fully credited even though I have overdraft protection. No problem, but today, I told the WAMU representative that I needed to purchase gas, which costs a small fortune, and I did not want to get an overdraft charge since I was waiting on the credit to the account. She told me that I would get the charge, if it came in before the credit, but I should check after work. Well, I checked late afternoon, and there was no credit. I checked again tonight (after 11:00PM Central Time Zone) and there was no credit!
I called WAMU (after 11:00 PM), and after the run-around pressing buttons for almost an hour, I spoke with Carl by using the Jack Armstrong method of 1. . . 1 . . .0 . THANKS! He told me that I could still get the overdraft charge since the system was updating (this could continue until 6 AM Pacific Time!). After I spoke with him and shared the poor results of the other calls to the other reps, I said good by.
The credit to my account came just before midnight! I don’t need the added stress from the bank! After this horrible experience, I will use my credit union as my primary source!!!!!!!
What a horrible experience - out of the 3 banks we use, this is by far the worst. None of the 1-1-0 or 1-#-# or other combinations worked, and ends up by telling you to “call again”.
Well, I did call again and after trying no less than half a dozen combinations I gave up and now will have to go to a branch.
WAMU, for all of their “friendly” and “no-fuss” commercials, do a really horrible job here. They need to change their system as soon as possible.
Choose Open New Account and you will get someone ASAP. Just did it
Please try your call again, or visit us at wamu.com……………………………… Good Bye
I finally spoke to a “live” representative by press the option to open up a new CD. The woman I spoke to told me that the phone system is under construction right now and to bare with them. I told her about the Blog, and asked her to pass the info on to her manager. She said that they do not have a way to go straight to a representative.
I had the same problem with Washington Mutual. After spening about an hour on phone, I finally for through to a representative and they told me the quickest way is to press 1 on the first menu, 6 on the second, and 2 on the third. That should bring you to an actually HUMAN and from there you can be transferred to any department. I hope this helps!
Thank you Matt!! I nearly lost my sanity trying to reach a human being. Your combo worked on the first try.