I need to vent against HSBC – 4

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This story is on since the 24th of February 2011. And today we are on the 13th of February 2011. Looks like I will be celebrating Valentine’s Day with HSBC.

The Story so far: I request HSBC for their doorstep cheque pickup facility towards my credit card. This is at a premium cost, to be noted. After followup for a couple of days, the cheque is collected and  a receipt is given to me. After a few days I get to know that they have lost/misplaced the cheque. In the meanwhile the due date comes and goes. After eternity, they finally find the cheque and commit that they will take care of the charges accrued in the interim. Since I had issued the cheque more than a week before the payment due date. And it was obviously their fault that they misplaced the cheque.

And here is Part 4

I check my latest statement to find finance/interest charges! 1200 rupees!!!

So I am back to doing followup again. I am fed up. Period.

Hopefully there shouldn’t be a Part 5! I seriously hope so!!!

 

 

I need to vent against HSBC – 3

The Story so far:

Part 1

Part 2

Finally HSBC found the missing cheque way after my credit card’s payment due date. In the interim they maintained a non-committal stand about accrued late payment charges and the finance charges that would be levied in due course.

A jubilant officer from there end called me to convey the good news. The excitement was akin to a new planet being discovered on the horizon.

They agreed to reverse the late payment charges, they said, as a ‘service gesture’. And any interest charges that would get levied in due course because of the missing cheque would also be taken care of, they said.

Of course, when a bank goofs up big time. They need to cover it up.

But one very important question still remained unanswered – The Case of the Missing Cheque.

Where did my cheque vanish in the interim? A bank official picks up the cheque from my place – I paid a premium charge for the cheque pickup facility – and then the cheque vanishes. And it takes HSBC ages to trace it!

Can I know where did my cheque go, I asked eagerly.

That’s confidential information, Ma’am. We cannot share it with you.

!!!

Yeah, that’s what they said.

I am quite amused by know. It’s my cheque. Towards my credit card. And I don’t have the right to know where it vanished.

Great, I said.

Anyways the matter has finally been sorted out, by the look of it.There’s a possibility that some more followup may be required if any interest charges are levied on account of the missing cheque, when the coming bill gets generated.

A Bank. HSBC. World’s Local Bank. Two weeks. Daily Followup by A Harrowed Customer.

 

I need to vent against HSBC – Part 2

More on the world’s local bank – The Disaster called ‘HSBC’

I had earlier written about the SHUTUP episode – I need to vent against HSBC – Part 1

The saga continues…

On Thursday 27 January 2011 evening, the cheque collection boy comes and picks up the cheque. Gives receipt. Says that cheque will go for clearing the following day.

On the 3^rd working day post that, i.e. today – 31 January 2011, I check my bank account and find that the amount has still not been debited.

I email HSBC and get a revert that they haven’t yet received the cheque!!!

Looks like they have misplaced it.

They then ask for a copy of the receipt. Without apologies.

I email them a copy of the cheque pickup receipt.

And now I wait for them to find my cheque. The Due Date is tomorrow – 1 February 2011 – I had requested for the cheque pickup facility on 24 January 2011 at a premium charge – I am now super worried about charges – finance charges, interest charges, late payment charges, ad hoc charges… in case they don’t credit the cheque in my card by tomorrow.

Looks like I will soon be shifting to the ‘I hate HSBC’ bandwagon.

~A-Once-Upon-A-Time-Satisfied-Customer

Note: Till date no one has apologised – Neither for the delay in cheque pickup, nor for the SHUTUP episode and not even for misplacing my cheque.

 

I need to vent against HSBC

This episode can be titled in several ways.

#The Story of how HSBC India Customers are treated like shit.

#Deteriorating Customer Service Standards of HSBC – A Review

#Story of how a proud customer lost his/her pride.

#Learn how to chase away loyal customers – by the World’s Local Bank

24 January 2011

I call up HSBC for their Cheque Pickup Facility for Credit Card payments. I call up the number available on their website for this particular service.

Note: The Due Date happens to be 1 February 2011. Ample advance time for them to collect the cheque, deposit it, and send it for clearing.

After getting through their super busy lines, I finally manage to speak to their executive. He asks for my name, last four digits of the credit card, address, landmark, telephone number. And confirms that someone will come the following day i.e. on 25 January 2011 and collect the cheque. I reconfirm if someone will definitely come on the said day. The executive answers in the positive. Absolutely. Hundred per cent, he says.

~

25 January 2011

I wait for the executive. No one turns up till late noon. I call them up again. After managing to get through their lines, the executive who answers the phone says there might be some technical issue and hence the cheque collection person wouldn’t have been able to come as yet.

Technical! I wonder.

He says that they send the request to the Bank and if the Bank hasn’t sent someone as yet to collect the cheque, there’s little he can do about it.

Send request to the Bank! Little he can do about it! Service Standards! I wonder.

He further takes down all the details ‘yet again’. And says that he is marking my request as ‘urgent’.

By when will your cheque collection person come, I ask.

Definitely tomorrow, he says.

But tomorrow is 26 January – Republic Day… are you guys working tomorrow, I ask.

Hmmm then he will come on 27 January. Definitely. Even, I guess on 26 January he can come. So says the executive.

~

26 January 2011

Frankly speaking, I didn’t expect the cheque collection executive to turn up. He didn’t turn up, but of course.

~

27 January 2011

10 a.m. – I try calling them. The automated voice says, ‘The next available executive will attend to you shortly’. I patiently listen to hold music. The music goes on for 18 minutes. Then the line goes blank.

And all I wanted to do was check if the cheque collection officer was turning up or not.

I call again at 11.10 a.m., 11.50 a.m., 12.45 p.m., 1.35 p.m. Each time I am enticed by the hold music for 17 minutes to 20 minutes and then the line gets disconnected.

I am still patient.

I finally manage to get an executive online at around 3 p.m.

This time he only asks for my name. No other details.

I tell him that I have been trying to get through their numbers since morning.

Technical problems, he says.

I ask him as to why the cheque collection executive hasn’t turned up as yet.

Technical problems, he says.

We have forwarded your request to the Bank and if the Bank hasn’t sent anyone as yet we can’t do anything about it.

Am I not talking to the Bank now? Hasn’t my call come to the Bank now?

You are talking to the Bank. Your call has come to the Bank. If he hasn’t come as yet, visit the Branch.

How long do I be patient, I wonder. Now it’s my turn to ask.

If you are unable to provide this service, one, you should have told me about this on 24 January instead of telling me on 27 January. Why commit something you can’t deliver! Why waste the customer’s time. Two, your Bank just has a handful of branches, which in turn causes serious inconvenience. You cannot perennially keep migrating customers from one service window to the other. Three, this is a paid service wherein the customer pays additional costs to avail of this service; it’s not as if the bank is offering this service for free. Can I have some constructive resolution please?

Shut-up, he retorts and disconnects the phone.

~

SHUT UP

S-H-U-T-U-P

Is this what a service-centric organization tells its customers. A loyal customer for the past seven years. A customer who has never defaulted on payments. A customer who has been loyal even when the bank repeatedly, time and again messed up with the bonus points redemption.

S-H-U-T-U-P. Have you ever heard any service-oriented organization telling its customer like this. Have you ever heard any service-oriented organization hanging up on a customer.

There was a time when I could sing paens in praise of this bank. But now…

Appalled. Shocked. Horrified. Aghast. Disgusted. Dismayed.

~

I called again to complain. The next officer on the phone merely asked my name. No other details. He asked me the name of the person I had spoken to.

Now let me tell you that every time I call, either the executive refuses to part with his name. Or if he does utter his name, it is either Rahul, Amit, Raj or some utterly common name. Even if you insist, they n-e-v-e-r disclose their surname.

I, then ask the executive to check their call records and lodge a complaint against him. Two, status of the cheque collection executive.

We don’t have a mechanism for call records, he says. Let me check. Will let you know in half an hour.

Huh… Okay. But how will you let me know in half an hour. You haven’t yet taken down my phone number at least on this call.

Well… hmmm… hmmm… you give us a call in half an hour and check the status. We’ll try to check who spoke to you.

~

Note: All the while no apologies were offered.

Customer Services. S-E-R-V-I-C-E. A Word. A mere word lost in translation.

~A-Once-Upon-A-Time-Satisfied-Customer.