HSBC Collection
Complaint
Jay
Country: India
I am a customer of HSBC. I recently started to get calls from the HSBC collection department. At first I thought it was some misunderstanding because my account with HSBC is in good standing. After several calls from them it was clear they are looking for a different person. I explained to them several times that I am not the person they are looking for, and that they need to remove my mobile phone number from the records of that customer.
However, the calls continue. I am disappointed in their level of attention and cooperation with the customer.
However, the calls continue. I am disappointed in their level of attention and cooperation with the customer.
Comments
I lost my job, and told best buy/HSBC that I will still make regular payments, just smaller ones, as my boyfriends paycheck comes in every week. I asked that they not put on any late charges for it, and they said that would be fine.
So that's what I did. And then I started receiving letters in the mail saying that my account had jumped from around $600 to $1283!!! It had been racked up from a combination of late fees and checks that they had kept returning for no apparent reason, then taking again.
And then I just stopped caring, while I still kept getting tons of letters and threatening phone calls.
Then I got a letter saying they'd settle for $700 instead of the $1083.25 that I had managed to keep it down at. They said as long as I made regular payments of about $120 every month, then I'd be fine. So I called them and said okay, I'll do it, I just need the date pushed back a couple days so it's in time with my meager paycheck. Once again, they said that would be fine, that they'd just do a post dated check, and it would go through on friday, and everything would be fine.
Well I called them two days ago, and today is Thursday, and I have an account balance of -$131.32.
They suck!
Nice.
Firstly and foremostly, you have to understand that HSBC is a WORLDWIDE banking corporation, hence their slogan, HSBC: The Worlds Local Bank. (FYI HSBC does stand for the Hong Kong and Shenghai Banking Corporation) so obviously in retrospect to that, of course they are going to have call centres worldwide. You have to respect the right to employ people from all backgrounds, so I find some of the remarks about not being able to understand operators diabolical.
HSBC are a very understanding company when it comes to repaying back any credit, if you are in difficulty - however a persons circumstance may be so extreme that HSBC are unable to help, and therefore have to take approiate action.
I dont understand why people are so negative about call centre workers, all we are doing is the job that we are told to do. We show you respect, its about time that you showed us some respect!
You want respect "Someone in the Know?" Try showing a little. You people are bottom feeders.
Fast forward to earlier this year. I attempted to buy a CD. I got an email from CS asking me how I earned my money--what was my source of income (I am a graduate student). I responded to the email, saying that I received a stipend for work I do on campus. I never heard back, and my request didn't get processed. After a week, I sent a BankMail and asked for my request to get processed. They sent me a response saying that they don't do such things over the internet, and I needed to call. Then I called, and they had no record of my request, and I should send a BankMail. Third time's a charm, and they cancelled my (non existant?) request. I bought a CD with a different bank, and decided that I was done with HSBC, so opened a savings account. After waiting for my direct deposit to change to new account, I transferred my money over. Unfortunately, now I have earned $1.92 in interest, which I cannot transfer to my new bank, because transfers must be at least $10.
I have straightened this out, but have been consistently disappointed with the customer service offered by HSBC. They were fine as long as I just wanted to leave my money in a savings account, but trying to do anything at all--from name change to moving money to a different kind of internal account--completely impossible.
Just Google Beneficial.
Enough said.
Here is the mess it got them into.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2009-03/02/content_7527612.htm
"HSBC retreats from US, regrets Household deal(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-02 20:14 Comments(1) PrintMailLONDON -- HSBC is closing most of its US consumer finance business as it seeks to put an end to its troubled purchase of Household of six years ago by writing off most of the value of the sub-prime business.
"With the benefit of hindsight, this is an acquisition we wish we had not undertaken," HSBC Chairman Stephen Green said in a statement on Monday.
Europe's biggest bank will take a $10.6 billion goodwill charge for its US business and run off most of its loans.
The move will leave HSBC's main focus in the world's biggest economy on corporate and commercial business, private and premier banking, and its credit card business.
HSBC's US bad debts jumped to $16.3 billion last year as the economy soured, adding to billions lost in recent years caused by Household, which was renamed HSBC Finance (HFC).
The latest problems prompted the bank to launch a 12.5 billion pound rights issue on Monday.
Household was bought for $14.8 billion in 2003, in HSBC's biggest ever acquisition, led by former chairman John Bond.
He was criticised at the time for exposing the traditionally conservative lender to US sub-prime borrowers.
As the US economy deteriorated from 2006, HSBC began to pull back from US sub-prime borrowers and stopped originating home loans and auto financing.
It is now going a step further, and will write no further US consumer finance business through HFC and Beneficial brands, and close most of its 800 branches. About 6,100 staff will lose their jobs.
"It is clear that the sub-prime mortgage refinance model no longer operates effectively," it said.
The bank will run off its outstanding $62 billion of real estate-secured and unsecured US loan portfolio.
"We expect the legacy of high-risk loans to take years to wind down," said Sandy Chen, analyst at Panmure.
Activist investor Knight Vinke Asset Management has urged HSBC to cut its losses on HFC throughout the last two years.
It said last year that if HSBC had accounted for HFC's assets as conservatively as other banks its losses would have been over $50 billion, and HFC was unable to support its debt without help from its parent.
It wanted HSBC to walk away from the business and bondholders, but HSBC rejected that suggestion as "unthinkable and irresponsible".
HSBC said on Monday US bad debts will "remain elevated" and operating losses in the business will continue this year and in 2010.
"We're recognising reality," HSBC Finance Director Douglas Flint told reporters on a conference call. "In 2003 when we acquired Household neither we nor anyone foresaw recession and depression in the United States six years forward."