I got out of my T-mobile contract almost a year ago, so I was browsing Sprint SERO plans on Friday night. I finally decided on a plan that offered the same minutes but unlimited data and texting for even cheaper than I'm paying now. The only thing left to do was pick out a phone, which was harder than it sounds. I ended up picking the Sprint Mogul and with the phone in my cart for an hour or two as I talked myself into the purchase, I finally hit the submit button. The progress bar raced along until it hit a snag at Step 4. My card was declined.
Sprint had gone down for maintenance an hour before so I patiently waited, rechecked my credit card information and tried again. Declined. There was no reason for my card to get declined. I've had a balance in the account for over four years straight now and a $300 charge wasn't even that much. A little let down after getting past all the anxiety of hitting submit, I tried another card and it also got declined, so now I'm thinking this is Sprint's fault. On Saturday after sleeping on it, I try again. My bank card gets declined, but now the other card works. Great, I have a Mogul on the way. 
arty:
But wait. 
It didn't dawn on me that Wamu had disabled my card until I was at Albertson's self-checkout staring at the "Bankcard denied" text as the check-out machine. Reasoning for what happened quickly raced through my mind. Had Sprint charged my account multiple times even though their online system said it didn't? What had gone wrong here?
So when I got home I logged onto wamu.com only to find their system was down. It's always down when I check. The last 10 times I've logged onto wamu.com, they've been down at least 6. Great start here. I decide to call their 24-hr number hoping to get a resolution to this problem. Also down. So I go to wamu.com again and look for another number to call, nothing. I wanted to rule out Sprint as the culprit, so I tried to logon to chase to check my other card and oddly enough, they were also down, BUT at least they notified me when their system would be back up.
Wamu on the other hand gave
no information other than the fact that their systems were down
So I waited it out.
Then at 4AM I can finally login to wamu.com. I check my balances and everything looks right, so I attempt to make a purchase online. Declined. At this point, I'm not sure what's going on. Before my attempt at Sprint, I had made several purchases in the days before; one of those purchases had been for a little over $200, so $300 wasn't a big deal. I decided to try calling again and after working my way through their automated messages (there is no way to directly get to an operator from the phone number they list on their webpage
), I finally get to an Indian customer service representative who informs me their machines are down and they can't help me. She hangs up before even asking me a question.
So I wait a little and call back. I work my way through the automated messages again and finally get to another Indian customer service representative who finally tries to help me. Four minutes later she tells me she has to transfer me to fraud prevention (note: this number is not listed on the wamu contact page
) After waiting some more, I finally get a fraud prevention CSR. He informs me that my account has been locked (no shit) and that he has to verify some transctions before he can activate it. He reads of my Sprint order and a couple batterybob orders that all got declined. At this point the conversation goes something like this (paraphrased)
me: Why was my Sprint order declined?
It wasn't even a large purchase and it's not even out of the ordinary if you look at my history of debits.
him: It doesn't matter how big the purchase is. It could be large or small.
me: So I could make any purchase and you'd lock my account for fraudulent activity?
him: This is a new system we've implemented that does random checks to protect our customers. Our customers have been very happy with..
me: They're happy that you randomly lock their accounts? 
What's the point of using my debit card if it could get locked any time? Why should I use it if it's not even reliable?
him: Yes, people call me and thank me all the time.
me: I hard time believing that...
Keep in mind he works at unlocking people's accounts after they've been locked. I have a hard time believing people call him with praise.
After activating my card, he has the audacity to tell me that I'm now "free to use my card".
Free my ass.
Wamu blows, time to switch to a bank that doesn't randomly "check" (read: lock your account for NO reason) your account for fraudulent activity.
Don't get me wrong, I'm down with stopping fraudulent activity and wouldn't have minded them calling me if I was making a huge purchase, but a $300 phone that falls well within my normal spending activity on my account and for him to "inform" me that there was
NO
basis for the locking other than a random check that could have happened with
any amount
.
Washington Mutual Fraud Prevention - You can't even use your own card, how will a thief?
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