Reviews Of Companies

Hi all,

This is my first post I guess, so I hope I’m doing this right

I’ve been having an ongoing battle with HSBC which I thought had stopped until tonight.

I must be the ONLY Canadian in all of Canada who has a US HSBC account (sarcasm here).

So far my problems have been the following:

1. not being able to log into my own online banking area because their webiste coders & programmers are terrible coders & haven’t validated their site properly because they almost told me I couldn’t use Fire Fox when accessing my account until I put my foot down that they can’t tell me which browser to use and which browser not to use.

   Can you imagine not having access to your own bank account?They have this screwed up keyboard thingy on their site & if you don’t hit the keys with the mouse exactly the right way, it declines your password.If you do this twice in a row, it locks you out.When I threatened to switch banks, while they didn’t want me to leave, they didn’t do one thing to stop me either saying this is for my own protection. I checked with Wells Fargo after that & they have no such animal that causes problems so that customers can’t log in easily.I have accounts with Bank of Nova Scotia & ING & both have easy ways to log in, all they’ve done to upgrade security is get you to log in using different fields, but none of this keyboard panel to use for logging in.

2. having customer service reps blaming the merchants I’m purchasing from online because my card is getting declined for no reason. First it was Google, then it was my marketing consultant. Both reoccurring billing. After trying to go up the ladder, I get a supervisor named Jules who was a real bitch. She ended up being sooo dysfunctional, she ended up putting a message on my account saying it was delinquent. When I asked to speak to her manager, she ends up telling me she is the highest in the company, as if I’m sooo stupid I believe that she’s the largest shareholder in HSBC. After calling several times, I got another CSR telling me that my address was all screwed up, that they 000000000 in the postal code field, Canada in the State field & god knows what else. I started getting very furious because this has wasted my precious time for about 2 weeks now every time there was a problem with a transaction. I finally got Jule’s manager – Donna. Donna was nice enough, but when I had to call her back a week or two later, I got no return phone call. She also explained that what I was seeing in one of the windows in online banking that said FC & 0000-0000 was only for their records & the CSR didn’t understand what she was reading.

   I was unable to get anyone else, so I ended up having to write to the Office of the President because a lot of these HUGE corporations want to make it hard for you to complain & they figure you won’t waste your time.I then got a very nice call from a woman named Gloria Amarol. She helped me & told me that if there were any problems, I should let her know.

   Well about 3-4 weeks later, I find out again that my marketing manager’s transaction wasn’t going through, so I call & leave a message for Gloria with all the information.

   She calls me back & leaves me a message.

   I leave her another message asking her not to keep calling me back, but to take the info I gave her & actually start doing something about it. This is how I do biz, I don’t play telephone tag for days on end.

   She doesn’t return my next two calls, so I have to track down her supervisor who turns out to be Norma Alvarado.

   I’m told Victor Hanson is supposed to call me back, but he never does.

   The next thing I know, I’m talking to Norma & I think she’s nice & we discuss that once I get the declined transaction dates I will give her a call.

   I give her a call within a few days (tonight) & she’s stone cold on the phone while I’m being nice & joking around.

   I ask her if she can just call the merchant because this is all pissing me off.

   She’s saying something about how if the merchant isn’t inputting the right information & I stopped her. I said the merchant doesn’t input the information, I do. She says that’s wrong, I tell her no it’s not, I run online businesses & the merchant never inputs anything, the customer always does.

   I guess she doesn’t like me telling her she’s wrong, but then I think maybe I’m misunderstanding her, so I start asking her if she means the merchant, or the merchant’s bank.

   I start trying to understand what she is saying & told her that I have just recently moved & the merchant doesn’t have my new address. She doesn’t get this, she thinks I said the bank doesn’t have my new address.

   I ask her to read me off the address & I realize how if I don’t type it in exactly, it won’t authorize, so I try to make it easier by doing what we do here, which is put the townhouse or apartment first, then a dash, then the street number.

   She sounds confused. I said don’t you guys (meaning the States) do that over there & she says “no”.

   Then instead of listening to me when I asked her to just deal with the merchant, she starts reading off to me what I have to tell the merchant & yes, this did start pissing me off.

   She wanted me to put FC in the State because that means “foreign country”. Yes, Canada is soooooo foreign to the US. We live in igloos & have no electricity etc.

   Then instead of the postal code she wants me to put in 0000-0000 or something like that.

   Clearly she has no clue how things work at HSBC either.

   I said I’m not going to put that in there every single time. I said I never had to do that before. I was getting pissed here & I do have a tendency to do that every time a US company doesn’t configure their site, database system, or shipping procedures to accommodate Canada.

   I’ve never been anti-American, but ever since I tried to get a USD merchant account & had to jump through hoops to get it & was made to feel like I was a terrorist, my feelings towards US business has become more & more tainted.

   Then I thought maybe she means only for this one merchant, so I ask her, do you mean just for this one merchant & she says “no”, in general. I said there is no way in hell that every Canadian knows they have to put “FC” & zeros to replace the postal code. That’s just nuts.

   She starts interrupting me telling me she doesn’t appreciate the vulgar language. I said I’m not swearing, “hell” is a place, not believing she’s getting all pissed off because I used the word “hell”. She probably would have gotten upset if I used the words “pissed off”.

   You know what she does people???? She fucking hangs up the phone on me LOL, & they have these types of people working in the President’s office? Maybe they work for Bush & are god fearing Christians who cringe at someone saying hell. Oh no, the world is going to come to an end, I used the word “hell” & her virgin ears couldn’t take it.

   I didn’t use any other questionable (I don’t consider that questionable) language other than the word “hell” & I wasn’t swearing at her, I was talking in generalities & yes I was getting upset, who wouldn’t be after how the conversation stated & now she’s making me jump through hoops & she’s telling me “I’m just trying to help you”. Help me my ass.

   This prude, who has MAJOR insecurity issues & was in some major mood when I first called her hangs up the phone on me.

   I call her back & like a little baby, she refuses to pick up the phone. I leave a message telling her to have her manager call me & we’ll see if that happens.

Well, end of rant & I would like to know if anyone else has had such terrible experiences with HSBC in the US, or is it just HSBC in general?

While I don’t think Scotia bank is all that great, they are like honey compared to HSBC & ING gives great customer service. I’ve only ever had one asshole CSR at ING Direct, but the rest of the time they are down to earth, friendly, etc.

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