Is it just me or is anyone else getting more and more frustrated with the level of service from certain high street banks and their call centres especially "The Worlds local bank" or perhaps "The Worlds most frustrating bank that makes me want to stick pins in my eyes"
Not only do I have to deal with someone inept, from another country, who despite any amount of training will only offer advice or information straight from the book as opposed to using some lateral thinking and understanding, but my main branch doesn't even open on Saturdays, any other branch nearby doesn't offer a counter service and to top it all off I can't even speak to someone in my branch over the telephone because we have to speak to the inept idiot in another country

If it wasn't such a pain in the ass I would seriously consider closing my accounts and changing banks...:loopy:
Not impressed and very angry.

oh yes I also hate HSBC- there's a whole thread about them here (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?postid=479913#post479913)

I've used First Direct (which granted is an off-shoot of HSBC) for 10 years and really like their service. You can call 24/7 and so far they have resisted any move to using call centres abroad.

Given they were set up to be a telephone banking service, I guess they have to make sure they look after their customers. AFAIR it was pretty simple to switch to them - they handled most of it.

The service of HSBC is really bad, when I wanted to open an account I had to go there at least 3 times because they allways told me I had to bring additional documents.

But the good thing about this is, that if you complain and write a letter, they pay you 10 £ 'compensation'.

I have banked with HSBC since 1988 and i have NEVER had a problem with them,infact only six months ago i moved my mortgage over to them with not one problem.

don't worry Unners, they've passed your share of cock-ups onto me!!! :hihi:

Originally posted by KookyKoo
don't worry Unners, they've passed your share of cock-ups onto me!!! :hihi:

Give them back i want to moan!

Originally posted by wibbles
........... we have to speak to the inept idiot in another country ....



Well, if you will bank with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation ???????

Originally posted by wibbles
If it wasn't such a pain in the ass I would seriously consider closing my accounts and changing banks...:loopy:
Not impressed and very angry.

It's easy to move accounts these days - the banks will automatically transfer your regular payments for you.

To all those who don't like the service you get from the overseas call centres:
COMPLAIN, and request as strongly (but politely) as possible that you wish for your account to be flagged so it is dealt with by UK call centres only.

THIS CAN BE DONE, and, if you threaten to move your account elsewhere, most likely will be done.
It might mean you have to wait a little longer to be served on the phone (until a UK operator becomes available), but the end result will likely be a quicker, less frustrating call.


To all those that think HSBC is crap: ever heard of the 13:3 ratio in business?
For customers that have been treated badly, 13 out of 20 will tell someone else about the bad service. For those that have been treated well 3 out of 20 will tell someone else about the good service.

HSBC ain't no worse than any other bank. Probably much better at many things than most of them. Sorry you've had some bad experiences, but if you're that p***** off with them then move your account. It ain't that hard these days.... and banks know this.... so play on it....

In Britain. a telephone call centre operative is paid an average of £ 7.23 per hour.

In India, a person doing exactly the same job gets £ 9 per month.

That's why are call centres are in Mumbai and Calcutta.

At HSBC, we never underestimate the importance of local knowledge!

:hihi:

HSBC once sent me out a new cheque book, imagine how surpirised I was to find out that not only had they changed my account number but they had also changed my name aswell !!

I rang up to ask for the matching card so i could use said cheques only to find that "their computer" had made the mistake and they requested I return the cheque book immeadiatley in person to the bank. I was also informed that it I would be "in serious trouble" should I use the cheques... no s**t sherlock"

We are now with Lloyds TSB, they seem OK, albeit from trying to sell you every insurance under the sun every time your in the branch.

I used to find HSBC quite helpful until they started closing all their branches, phasing out anything to do with outmoded concepts such as 'cash' or 'human beings', and re-routing all enquiries via a Calcuttan sweat-shop call centre operative with only a rudimentary grasp of English.

All of the above clearly sucks balls.

I totally agreem HSBC are useless. I called their Telephone banking hotline to completely pay off a loan i had and it took me 15 minutes to finally get the transaction completed. Kept getting the same old crap.."I'll pass you onto a colleague who can help"..4 time this was done before someone confirmed the transaction had been completed.

Originally posted by Roberto10

In India, a person doing exactly the same job gets £ 9 per month.


Rp13,000 = £165/month (approximately)

Typical salaries cited for Indian call centre workers are between Rs 9,000 and Rs 16,500 per month. (http://www.rediff.com/money/2004/jan/12bpo1.htm)

I DO plan to leave HSBC, as soon as I can afford to (pesky student overdraft, tsk tsk!) :P

I feel kind of bad getting irate with the call centre peeps, having worked in call centres myself, they're just trying to earn a living- but it is soooo frustrating when you know they don't 100% understand what you're saying and you just keep being fed scripted answers. I find they are notoriously bad with call backs... I've waited about 28 hours for one before, having been promised it in the next 3 hours initially, then I called them and vented my total unhappiness with banking there (after being passed around various operatives in Mumbai before I finally got customer [dis-] services) :rant:

To be fair to them tho, it can get very stressful in a banking call centre environment. You get the really nasty angry people on top of your flashing lights saying there's people in a queue. I've been sent some nice emails from nasty callers saying sorry as they realised I wasn't the person to take stuff out on. Half the time their anger wasn't even anything to do with the bank!

The person you talk to isn't always to blame for delays,etc.
I used to have to put people through to tech support and sometimes they took ages getting the details from you. I always aimed to keep the customer informed but if you did that with some of the tech people, they cut you off!!! Gah!

Another time I took someones details to call them back but their phone didn't accept withheld number calls!

Can't believe I lasted 2 years working there! My colleagues were nice tho. We had a laugh. :thumbsup:

It would gut-warming to imagine that HSBC's strategy of transferring call centres to India might backfire. Sadly, it will not. No matter how many letters of complaint the bank receives from disgruntled customers [and friends of mine who are bank staff feel the same], they will maintain the geographical location of these operations. International banks, like The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation are not particularly worried about losing a few thousand high street customers in Britain.

Why not move your money to a bank where there is easy access to staff at your local branch? They may not really value or care about your custom either, but at least you will be speaking to local people. Having said that, some of the Indian clerks I have spoken to [with false names like 'Rupert'], speak better English than many of our own, native bank clerks. At least the Indians do not adopt an irritating rising inflection at the end of a sentence, making everything they say sound like a question, or impertinently use the customer's first name as if they have known them for years. Just off to phone 'Lionel' in Hyderabad.

Humph. Don't even get me started on HSBC... :rant:

Since moving to Scotland banking with them has become a major mission. It seems that the 'World's Local Bank' only have one branch in Edinburgh city centre, and it's totally out of my reach so I can't get to in on my lunch break.

This means that I have spent many a frustrating hour battling with foreign call centre workers, who hardly speak a word of English and are unable to perform even the simplest task.

They also shift money between my different accounts without even telling me, despite me having explicitly asked them not to.

Who in 1945 would have suspected that Telephone Banking would come to act as the last towering outpost of the Raj?

Use Natwest, they only have english call centres, open 24 hours and in my experience have always gone out of their way to be helpful.

My pet hate at the moment is the national railway enq line which is based in india - its just wrong. That said also not a fan of the silly voice activated call centres or ticket lines.. just a bit too futuristic!

Originally posted by cgksheff
Well, if you will bank with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation ???????

Wrong, HSBC no longer stands for anything (except the poor service mentioned above) and has its world HQ in London. The word is that they are to start pulling back their Indian call centres in any case...

As for NatWest, their advert may sound pretty good but their customer service is consistently rated the worst of the UK's 'Big Four' high street banks.

Originally posted by RazorSHarp
HSBC once sent me out a new cheque book, imagine how surpirised I was to find out that not only had they changed my account number but they had also changed my name aswell !!

I rang up to ask for the matching card so i could use said cheques only to find that "their computer" had made the mistake and they requested I return the cheque book immeadiatley in person to the bank. I was also informed that it I would be "in serious trouble" should I use the cheques... no s**t sherlock"

We are now with Lloyds TSB, they seem OK, albeit from trying to sell you every insurance under the sun every time your in the branch.

Yes, and at least you got Scots and Welsh folk that are with it.

I have it on good authority that HSBC's will writing service that was transferred out to India only 12 months ago is now in the process of being repatriated to Britain because it has been plagued by endless problems.

What baffles (and rather bemuses) me is that one of the world's largest financial corporations didn't engage the services of a Business Consultant to conduct a feasibility study of relocating the service prior to packaging it up and shipping it off to India.

The mind boggles. :loopy:

I hate call centres. After our arm of the business split wth NTL I have had some phone monkey in one of NTL's UK offices giving out my phone number as a POC for phone/TV/internet. I don't deal with anything other than radio comms gear and all my customers are government clients.

Yesterday I phoned to complain about this and was told by the telephonic equivilant of a Mcdonalds burger flipper that "Yes Mr ****, I'll ensure this is is passed to my line manager" I asked what they actually proposed to do about it and was told "I don't know, I'll have to speak to my line manager" I asked for her name and was told "Maureen" Yes, I said, and your surname? "We can't give out our surnames". At this point I was getting a bit pi**ed off - Ok then give me your managers name "I can't do that either". I bit back the urge to comment that I have no way to ensure my call is actioned as I could feel the red mist descend.

What a bunch of damned jokers - I had to call again today after I got another call of some end loser - Somewhere there's a phone monkey with it's ass torn off!

Originally posted by Swan_Vesta
I hate call centres...I asked for her name and was told "Maureen" Yes, I said, and your surname? "We can't give out our surnames". At this point I was getting a bit pi**ed off - Ok then give me your managers name "I can't do that either". I bit back the urge to comment that I have no way to ensure my call is actioned as I could feel the red mist descend.

What a bunch of damned jokers - I had to call again today after I got another call of some end loser - Somewhere there's a phone monkey with it's ass torn off!

I had the same thing a few months ago with some smart-arsed cow at British Gas, she was really cocky until I asked to speak to her manager, she asked why, I said I had some concerns pertaining to customer service received during our conversation... suddenly she can't give out her name, her manager doesn't have a name, and isn't in for 2 days... I DID get her extension number, but whether it was the right one who knows!?! :rant:

It just gets right on my wick ....... As if I have 10 mins to spend on hold and actually having to wait to speak to some johnny no stars with less intelligence than a weevil. When you're through the amount of things that they can't do vastly outnumbers the things that they can do. There appears to be very little chain of escalation you can follow in event of problems - Damnable rank amateurs every man jack of them!

Originally posted by sirtommo
Wrong, HSBC no longer stands for anything ..........

err .... it might not stand for anything to you sirra, but the largest single subsidiary of the HSBC Group (a holding company of which HSBC plc is also a subsidiary) still is The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (which founded the HSBC Group).
You will find that the main beneficiaries of a large share of the profits made from the UK high street banking company are also directors of that same corporation.

Err the discussion here is not concerning the HSBC Group but rather HSBC Bank Plc (and more specifically their call centres based in India). The World's Local Bank Bank eh... :thumbsup: clevercloggs

Originally posted by Bully_Beef
a Calcuttan sweat-shop call centre operative with only a rudimentary grasp of English.


Hyderabad, I believe.

There's only one thing in this world worse than telephoning a callcentre, and that's working in one.

Jumped up little fascists in charge, put up your hand to go for a wee...holidays refused on a whim...b*stards.

:mad: :rant: :mad: