RANT: Is it me or are HSBC a mess?

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2 things that get me.

1) if I spend some silly amount (i.e. more than 5 quid) then they lock my account out without warning. This is not something I have agreed to, and to get it running again I have to spend at least 20 minutes on the phone agreeing to my last 20 transactions (£5.44 in ASDA sir?), which leads me to....

2) The Indian call centre :|.
 
Soldato
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HSBC have been awesome for me.
Internet Banking was setup by the time I got home from opening the account up, all my direct debits where transferred with no bother at all, my local branch are a friendly bunch too. No problems with the phone banking either. Had a problem with a standing order I setup incorrectly and it was sorted within a five minute phone call to the helpdesk. No issues with when we set up the daughters child trust fund either.
No issues whatsoever
You want problems, try Halifax. Now they do suck.
 
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HSBC are fine until you have to talk to somebody, you phone up, yet end up speaking to someone who's grasp of English is very poor and who's comprehension is even poorer. I recently checked my credit file online with Experian and it showed 2 payments for my loan being 2 months late, I've never been late with any payments so I phoned up and spoke to Abdul Ahmed whatever his name is who didn't have a clue as to who Experian were, I asked him to put me through to an English call centre "Sorry sir, you have to ring again and maybe you get call centre in England", after 3 attempts I never did get anyone who could help me and had to file a correction with Experian directly (which is apparently is not very healthy for your credit worthiness).
 
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boycee said:
is that because you're never had a problem? or because they've been really helpful at fixing one you had?

I think customer service is really important, and regardless of how many problems a company has, if they have great customer service and resolve things quickly I'm more than happy.

Admitadly i haven't ever had a problem with them but everything i've requested has been done promptly and without issue!

This includes direct debit setup's and cancellations, changing account types, online account setup. cheque books, credit cards, all that jazz!
 
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boycee said:
Two of the guys already had bank accounts with them, but apparently they couldn't find those on the system, so required more id with proof of address, bank statements, etc, even though they already had accounts?

That I find really strange. Did they bring their debit cards in with them with their account number and sort codes? I've never had a problem if you provide those two details...
 
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I have been with HSBC all my life, and they have always sorted out any problems that i've had with miscellaneous or unrecognised transactions and stolen cards etc., no I don't have any complaints...except the pathetic interest they pay!

Bobbler said:
You want problems, try Halifax. Now they do suck.

Agreed. They seem unable to even send me a new PIN for my card...been into the branch 3 times to ask and they still haven't done it.
 
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Samtheman1k said:
That I find really strange. Did they bring their debit cards in with them with their account number and sort codes? I've never had a problem if you provide those two details...

yeah they had their cards, but apparently half their account was missing, ie they had no adderss or dob for them. Although my mate argued, you've been sending statments to my address for 18yrs, how can you not have it on your system? Maybe it's just my local branch.
 
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Samtheman1k said:
Agreed. They seem unable to even send me a new PIN for my card...been into the branch 3 times to ask and they still haven't done it.

LOL, tell me about it mate, had no end of problems with them before I moved over to HSBC.
Wouldnt give me a proper debit card despite no credit problems (got mortgage, credit, credit cards, mobile phones, store cards with no issues) and nearly 3k a month going into my account at the time. Then they took away the Solo cards (which where bad enough) and replaced them with Electron which you couldn't use online or at any of our local petrol stations. They actually went on the Money Program on Radio 3 IIRC basically saying well its tough to their customers issued these cards :rolleyes:
Then we have the brother in laws mortgage which has been a nightmare to deal with. When their dad passed away they took over the mortgage and had to get his ex-wife removed from the deeds who never contributed to the payments for the house in the first place. They paid for it all to be done and up until last week the names had still not been removed from the mortgage deeds. That is despite visits to the branch on a monthly basis, as they used to pay over the counter, and asking them to get it done EVERY MONTH FOR NEARLY FIVE YEARS!!! At any time the ex could have claimed part ownership of the house possibly selling it from under them! Muppets of the highest order.
 
Soldato
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I moved over from Barclays two years ago and I've not had a problem with them. Very good service at my local branch. The only complaint I have is that they went from normal business hours to 9am-12pm Monday to Friday... It is a very small satellite branch though.

Panzer
 
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InsomniaCalls said:
^^
Never had any problems with Lloyds and Natwest
but HSBC and Barclays have both been useless.

Conversely, I have never had a problem with HSBC, but have with Lloyds! They messed up transferring my direct debits when I moved my account. I guess they all have problems and it is luck of the draw!
 
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I have terrible problems with Barclays, its luck of the draw really, sometimes they are great most of the time they wouldnt be able to find a cake in a bakery. We dont have your details on file indeed...
 
Soldato
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Never had a *problem* with HSBC, but nothing to keep me there either. After 15 years of custom, they couldn't match the interest rate of LLoyds (5% as opposed to 0.1%) so I walked and took all of my accounts.

Over 4K\month credit and they couldn't care less. Infact, the account manager asked for the datails of the LLoyds account I had seen as it was better than the special employee deal she gets!! DOH!!!

skidd.
 
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