Complain about a product or service

HSBC

Shannon of Ashburn, VA August 28, 2009

On or about July 1, I requested a credit report from "mycreditreport.com". I noticed that my Bestbuy credit card was showing past due. I had not received a statement from them, nor did I expect one as I had paid my account in full in February 2009 and had not used my card. Upon calling the phone number above I was told that there were two transactions made in March from Bestbuy Online. I advised that I had not made any purchases. I was told it was for magazines. I am 100% certain that I did not order nor receive any magazines from Bestbuy online. I filed a dispute and was told that my account would be investigated. So, there are 2 transactions in dispute, both transactions were for 20.33. They have been charging finance charges and late fees on this amount and the balance on my card is now 233.02. I have tried calliing this bank on many occasions only to be on hold for 45 minutes or greater. When I have been able to reach someone I ask for a manager but I am never connected with one. I was told that late fees would not continue to be added to my account but every month they add a late fee. What can I do to expedite this investigation and get this credit card balance removed. I am so fustrated with this situation. I closed the account when I reported the fraudulent activity.

Thomas of Rosemount, MN August 27, 2009

Begining in January 2009 we began the process for Loan Modification. We have been working through a company called Save My Home USA located in Micigan. We paid this company 300 up front for assistance. To date the loan mod still is not done. I have called HSBC and of course they wil not talk with me but they do say the notes in our file does say it is at the attorneys office.

We are in a chapter 13 bankruptcy having not missed or been late on mortgage payment or bankruptcy payment. We have about 16 months left in our chapter 13. We are told that the loan mod is only for the remainder of our bankruptcy, we were gol it would be for the remaindre of ghe loan. Who do we believe?

Dana of Willowbrook, IL August 27, 2009

I have two bulging disks in my lower back and neck and pain in my mid back. I have worked, suffering in pain for some years now. I began getting epidural injections and RF therapies to treat they pain with no success. I finally finished my round of injections with no relief. My Dr and I decided I couldn't work anymore and may have to get surgery to correct the problem so I filed for disability through my jobs Liberty Mutual Plan. I completed a Funtional Capacity Test which showed I can not sit or stand for more than 25 mins at a time without suffering pain in my mid back and right side of my lower back down thruough my buttocks to my leg and down to under my foot. I submitted all my paperwork that stated I had occasional capacity (no more than 2 1/2 hrs in a workday) to sit and stand. 3 seperate forms stated this. Then there was one question that did not list my capabilty there. They used that to stop my disability payments and only paid me for the time I was off due to my last injections recovery time.

They also told me that because my Dr hadn't listed any other plan for recovery other than pain management they felt that was a reason for denial as well. I told them if that were true(even though I saw the report and it listed physical therapy, pain management and surgery as options for me) I am still not able to work. I have been in physical therapy since July which I told him. I am the only bread winner for my family and have not gotten paid since July 14th 2009. My rent and tuition for my daughter is coming due and I am in the process of filing for an appeal. I wanted to bring this to a lawyers attention because I belive they are doing many people like this, not approving claims although the DR approved the disability. How can a DR say your disabled but an insurance company (without evaluating you) say you're not. All my medical documentation says I am disabled. I am trying physical therapy before I opt for surgery.

Peter of South San Francisco, CA August 25, 2009

Motorcycle repossessed. Faxed proof payment was made. They said they didn't receive my fax. Went on to say that even if they received my proof it dosn't matter as I have a history of late payments. I will have to pay balance of 7,750 PLUS towing & storage fee's. If I cannot pay this, my bike will be sold and I will still be responsible to pay any short fall plus towing & storage fee's.

Camie of Dayton, OH August 21, 2009

So I opened a credit card with Best Buy which runs through HSBC Bank. They have the worst customer service I have ever dealt with! My situations are very similar to the others posted on this website and it should be looked into! First off one day when I got online to check my statement, I had a late fee of 39 dollars, but I have never received my statement in the mail.

I called them and they claimed that I had signed up for paperless statements when I know that I would NEVER do that because it would make me forget. After arguing for awhile they would not take off the fee. I then decided that I was going to close my card soon so I called the customer service to cancel the insurance on the TV, to save myself some money. She refused at least 15+ times and we had to argue on the phone for about 20 minutes or so before she would cancel my protection.

So then the next month I decide to make a payment of 600.00 to pay off my credit card. So after I paid it a few days later I checked and everything had went through okay. A couple days later I got on again, and I had a fee for insufficient funds in my account and a return check fee of 25.00! I knew the money was in my account so I immediately called my bank and they said that HSBC did not try to get a payment at all from my account and that I needed to contact them again. So I did and HSBC was not cooperative and would not take the ISF charge off of my account.

My next payment was due the next day and they said that I had to pay an extra 15 to get the payment posted in time to avoid another 39 dollar fee! So I tried to do that, and then they would not take my payment because I had a returned check on it, when I had plenty of money in there to begin with!! This is a HORRIBLE company and will never give them my business again, and I was inform my friends and family to do the same!

Prashant of Mumbai, India August 21, 2009

I have an account with HSBC bank, Powai branch. I have been repeatedly let down by the service from both the call centre, bank representatives and the bank branch itself right since the time I have taken a loan against property last year. Just to keep matters to the point, I shall share with you the latest goof up made by the branch staff. I wanted to prepay the loan amount that was permitted without any additional charges, for which I spoke to the representative Ms Sagarika at Powai Branch around the 10th of June 2009. I was told that I would be able to prepay 25% of the sanctioned amount. To this I informed Ms Sagarika that I had also pre-paid in the month of December 2008 through the call centre and at that time, though I was initially informed that I could prepay 25% of the sanctioned amount, I was later informed that I could only prepay 25% of the outstanding amount. I agreed to this at that time and the pre-payment was made accordingly. To this she said that she would confirm with her senior and after doing so, confirmed that it is 25% of the sanctioned amount. So I agreed to pay Rs 250000, which was debited from my account.

On the same day I had also made a request for my monthly EMI's to remain the same as before (i.e Rs 47425). The amount had reduced due to reduction in interest rate. On 18th June 2009, I received a statement on prepayment where a prepayment charge of Rs 6599/- was applied. To this I immediately contacted the bank call centre and bank representative. My story of repeated bank visits and reminders has started since then.

Since the 18th of June 2009, Ms Sagarika has been giving me a time frame of 2 days and continuously extending. From 2 days she took the timeframe 5 days by saying that the matter would be sorted out by the weekend. When I saw things were not moving forward, I gave a call to the call centre giving details of whatever happened and also giving the name of the bank representative. I was told then that the bank representative would give me a call back, but that never happened when it was supposed to.

When I received my monthly deduction statement in the month of July2009, I was surprised to see that there was an EMI deduction of only Rs 31935, though I had made a request for keeping the EMI's same as when the loan account was started, more than a month before(ie when I had done the prepayment). I contacted the bank once again and at that time, M/s Sagarika asked me whether I had given the application for keeping the EMI's unchanged. This question was raised despite the fact that M/s Sagarika had herself written the application for me, mentioning the amount of Rs 47,425.

On 23rd July 2009, I received an SMS from the bank representative Ms Sagarika, stating that the penalty waiver would be effective by 25th of July 2009 for sure, the proof of which I have till date. Even after this I made many visits to the bank, and spoke to the representative, getting promises that the matter would be sorted out by the end of the week. Sometimes I would return back because the waiting period would be so long that my other more important work would get affected.

On the 12th of August 2009, I spoke to Mr. N. Ravalallu, associate Vice President- Customer service (Personal Financial Services) in the presence of Ms Sagarika about the situation. I was promised by him that he would chase it up and get back to me in the evening. The call, I never received

When I received the EMI deduction statement in the month of August. I found that the deduction was still not what it was supposed to be. There was a deduction of Rs 44,237, whereas it was supposed to be Rs 47425. On one hand I am trying to close the loan account as soon as possible, but the bank is just delaying it.

On 17th August 2009, I gave a call to Mr. Nitin in the morning, to which he said he would give a call back in 5 minutes and I ultimately received a call from him in the evening. He politely said that due to rush in the bank, he was unable to call back in the timeframe.He however said that he has taken the matter up forward and get back to me the next day(i.e the 18th). Today is the 21st of August, surprisingly for Mr.Nitin 18th August 2009 has still not arrived

I just wonder on what basis do the bank representatives give a timeframe. From whatever experience I have had, it just seems that they give a timeframe to make the customer feel happy at that time and shoo away the customer from the branch so that the grievance posed by the customer is not heard by other customers.

This above experience is just one of the bitter experiences I have had with the bank and I am in no way going to accept the penalty for no fault of mine. In fact I am even considering suing the bank for the torture I have had to go through and the amount of valuable time , and efforts I have had to spend on this simple matter, which has all occurred due to misinformation given by the bank representative.

michelle of modesto, CA August 19, 2009

last summer we opened a best buy hsbc zero interest credit card. after the second statement arrived i noticed a small misc. charge. i looked back the statement from the month before and there was one there too. i called the 800 number and spoke to some one with very limited english. this was an insurance charge incase we had a hard ship. i never signed up for this was made aware of it at the time of purchase. after arguing they agreed to remove the charges.

i made my payments the next few months then noticed a late charge of 39. i called the company. the payment was mailed 7 days before it was due. they did not recv it on time. all my other bills were mailed on the same day and cleared w/in 5 days. some a few states away. hsbc is in the state i live. i was told i should pay it at least 10 days before the due date. i explained that i hadn't even recvd my bill 10 days before it was due. the said they could not help the mail service.

after arguing they removed the charge. i decided to pay on line to avoid any future issues. i paid three months in a row on line and revcd statements in the mail. every month the statements were on revcd a few days before the advised mailing date. in the beginiing of july i thought i hadn't seen a statement yet for june. i got on line and it said i had a late fee of 39

i never recvd a june statement. i was told that when i started paying on line i gave up paper statements and agreed to revc the electronically. they were never revcd in my e mail. once again a phone call they refused to remove the 39 charge because they had already done it four months earlier. i told them i wanted a statement mailed to me every month because i did not trust them. they agreed to start mailing them again. i marked my calendar to pay on line every month on the 15th to make sure this doesn't happen again.

this month i didn't even recv the statement in the mail until the 18th. the recommened mailing date is the 20th. lucky for me i had already paid on line or i would have had another late charge.

this company hold[s] payments and apply them after the due date. i have never had an issue with any other credit card company like this i will never use this compnay again. what they are doing as got to be illegal.

Bob of Vancovuer, BC August 16, 2009

What do you expect from a foreign bank, wow these guys are unbelievable. I am a high net worth individual and I was repeatedly treated like one of the many cheap suits you can see walking around their head office in Vancouver.

Their securities department (stock brokerage) had no clue what they were doing. Their fees are astronomically high and their advisors are less knowledgable than your local mom and pop financial planner. They underperformed the market every single year I was with them and tried to lie about the performance to trick me. They pretend to have a global advantage but really they have absolutely nothing. Its the only thing they can say about themselves because they are inferior to the other big 5 banks in every aspect. Their track record globally is atrocious, look at their mutual funds performance. Yikes!

Come to think of it, HSBC Securities canada is just a slapped together motley crew formed by prior failed independant dinky brokerages. They have no proper trade desk or analyst department! Just a couple of washed up advisors praying for the cheesy bankers to send them clients in return for the hockey games and lunches they send them to with your commissions.

I was told rudely that I was flat out wrong about their credit card policies when they charged me an annual fee on a "no annual fee" card. I was left completely unsatisfied and rudely delt with by someone that sounded like they were speaking jibberish with their mouth full of food. The manager talked to me like I was a child and talked down on me in that dreaded fashion that we have all come to recognize as typical old fashioned stuck up banker behavior. I swear they have the worst case of small paycheck syndrome out of all the banks in this country, and that is saying alot since their peer group doesnt have a great reputaion to begin with. The list of complaints goes on and on...

They will never do well in this country because of their stuck up attitude and complete inability to understand north american customer service. They boast about their "global reach" and "international expertise" but really that is absolutely worthless I have an easier time travelling with my TD account than I do with crappy HSBC, the only thing they are doing on a global scale is dissapointing customers and ripping people off. I hope their financial results dont have a global reach because they are completely floundering in Canada and the US and losing themselves a ton of money annually in the process. Keep it up guys, Moores would not be in business without you.

Arjun of Fresh Meadows, NY August 15, 2009

I am writing to express my immense disappointment with HSBC at Kissena Blvd, NY in Flushing and bank in general. [They] have just lost a customer for unethical practices of doing business and have robbed me of 72.00 with unclear maintenance fees, which we were never told about.

A little more than a year ago we opened this bank account for the sole purpose of transferring money from my HSBC bank account to this account to buy a home. We were successful in buying a home but unsuccessful in establishing a banking relationship with bank. When we went in person to the bank asst manager F. Burns and Parveen were unable to refund the money to our account and the only option they could give us was a one month refund, and said you will be charged another fee this month as you do not meet our balance of 5000.00.

Now we could have put in 5000.00 but we chose to close our account because they did not show any empathy or compassion. Obviously, they do not care for their customers. We never received any staements.

Pamela of The Dalles, OR July 17, 2009

I have been a HSBC customer for many, many years. I've had problems with them, mostly over the last couple of years, but have maneuvered my way through them. But the latest problem is insurmountable, and doesn't only affect me. HSBC gives an 800 customer service number, the same one that I have always used. However, in the last month or so, there is NO OPTION (it's unfathomable to even say it!) to speak to a human beingj. I have bank issues to deal with them about, but have no way of doing this! This has got to be criminal, or at the least a cause for deep concern for all of us, and something that needs to be fixed, immediately!

My bank account is now inaccessible to me, if there's anything I need to speak to my bank about. I don't live near a branch, and so using the phone to contact HSBC is my only way of communicating. Any issue or service that is not automated is completely out of the question for me. I'm horrified. What are my options? Were they an individual, I'd call the Attorney General. What in the world do I do? I am certain I'm not the only one who's dealing with this.

I'm going to do some more research to see what else I can do, any recourse that I might have. I would greatly appreciate any feedback or help with this. I feel utterly helpless and seriously violated. When I did try to talk to someone, by attempting to access their "security department" I spoke to someone who (and this was predictable) said they weren't the right department, and that she'd "write up" the "complaint."

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Share		Follow us on Twitter.

Back to the top |