When I was at USC I used Bank of America for checking, and they were ok but not great but convenient at the time. When I moved back here the second time I used Washington Mutual and they were fabulous.

Fortunately for WaMu their fabulousness built up a lot of political capital with me, because they are current driving me fucking insane.

I opened a new checking account with them on my first full day in town, May 24. They told me I would receive my checks and card within 7 days, and from experience with them I figured that meant 3-4. When I didn't have them by yesterday, I called to see what was up, and the person on the phone somehow convinced me to wait another day and then call again if necessary. Tonight it became necessary.

So it turns out that they sent those things to the address they had when they closed out my last account as opposed to, you know, the address I now have, put down on the form, and told them to send it to. This is upsetting to me, but it's just the start. The person on the line finally sorted this part out, and then told me it would be 5-7 days to get my new card.

I said at this point that I guess that's ok, but if they wanted to make me happy, the only way to do it would be to overnight my new card. He got a supervisory person on the line and actually got me close to satisfaction. She said they could Fedex it to me, that it would probably arrive Thursday but maybe Friday, and she even agreed to send it to me at work given that no one would be home to sign for it during the day. I'm flying high at this point.

Then the kicker: "So, it'll take us about 7-10 days to send you your new PIN number, there's no way to recover the one you requested, and no way to speed up that process."

Oh WaMu, we are not amused at your taunting...