Banking question...

[driver8]

About a month ago, my wife goes to our bank (Washington Mutual) with a $1,000 bond that she wants to deposit into our checking account. She gives it to the teller and he is having trouble processing it -- he calls the senior teller and explains the situation and supposedly cleared things up. He then tells my wife that the interest on this bond is $4,000 dollars so $5,000 will be the total deposit. My wife is confused and asks him, "Are you sure that's right? I don't think it is." The teller says, "I just spoke with the senior teller and that is correct."

My wife comes home and tell me what happened and we are both happy -- we used this found money to pay off our credit cards and a couple of bills.

A month later we get a call from the bank -- the teller fucked up. The teller processed the bond as an "E Bond" instead of an "H Bond" (I think) and the bank tells us we owe them $5,000 and that if we don't pay them right away that they will take the money out of our account and leave us with a negative balance. My wife is furious at the way they are treating us -- like we stole this fucking money. So we take some money out of another account and get a check for the bank and tell them we will bring the check in on Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, my wife is at the park with some parents from our kids' school and explains the situation. One of the woman has a husband who works in banking, and she calls and tells him the situation. He says, "I don't think they can do that, but let me transfer you to our expert on this matter." My wife then talks to this woman and she tells my wife, basically, that "the bank released this money to you...it is their mistake. Legally, you do not have to pay this money back."

My wife then called the bank and told them we would pay them back on a payment schedule but we aren't going to give you a lump sum. The guy at the bank that she spoke with had been really cool with us this whole time and he knew we were right and that the bank was wrong.

Anyone have any thoughts on this???

[GoddessOfGuinness]

1. Well I don't know, but I would get my money out of there

once this is settled.

If they've got tellers that fuck up in your favor, god only knows what else is going on there.

[justfred]

4. That is pretty much par for the course, though...

Look, tellers work for just over the minimum wage. It has always amazed me that banks pay so little to these people who handle so much money, and yet don't have a great deal missing.

I suppose that speaks well for human nature, doesn't it?

[Wcross]

5. Amsouth pays 15 dollars an hour.

At least that's the wage they quoted on a local radio ad. Around here, general labor positions such as warehouse and light industrial pay 8 to 9 dollars an hour. Hardly minimum wage for the bank tellers. (Nashville area)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. Sure, everyone makes mistakes; but they don't need to treat

their client like shit because of their error.

[aePrime]

2. I don't have any advice for this situation

But I've posted horror stories about Washington Mutual before. I left them years ago and would not ever condsider going back.

To paraphrase my friend, "They're great as long as you don't want them to do anything."

[wildhorses]

3. i would no longer do business with them--

sounds like they incompetent and RUDE.