hsbc - why so shoddy ?

I've found Barclays great, and can recall only a single problem that wasn't solved quickly on the phone or by popping in a branch. E.g. I used my card in Prague after a 2 minute call to say I wasn't a dirty scammer.

Annoys me that my local doesn't open Saturday, so I have to travel further in to town if I need to visit on the weekend.

Considered HSBC as I'd heard great things but now... don't think I'll bother :p
 
^^ EVH def consider First Direct

PMKeates said:
I've been a HSBC customer for 10 years but have always thought about switching to FirstDirect. I've heard a lot of good things, and the little experience I do have of them is very positive.
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Do it. They're worlds apart, really they are. 2 rings and through to a person who never has to 'speak to their supervisor'. You want to do ANYTHING? just ring this one number, and I've never been in a queue.
 
LordSplodge said:
Been with HSBC for over 20 years and they have been flawless.

Why didn't you activate your card well in advance? Proper planning prevents **** poor performance.
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So your telling me its my fault because i correctly read their instructions yet it didnt work at their end ?
 
fez said:
To be honest mate I have had much worse from barclays. They have been plain incompetent every time I have actually tried to do anything with my account other than withdraw cash.

The call center staff have been trained by chimps and all give different answers to the same question. I think that banks are all like this to a certain extent.
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And thats what puts me off changing, Barclays are the best alternate for my needs and I dont here good things about them.

Better the devil you know?

Anyway I cant do anything till i get back to the UK maybe i'll have calmed down by then.
 
Was a Midland bank customer then HSBC after the takeover for over 15 years.

Never had any issue. I only had one complaint which was a delay in sending my credit card which I needed before I left for South Africa, the card came in time (just) and I got the PIN SMSed through to me a few days later when I was in the country.

Pre-warned them of my travel and cards worked perfectly everywhere.

For their delay they offered 6 bottles of wine, to which I told them no thanks and instead got a years HSBC Advance (I already was paying for it) for free.

Of all the banks friends and family use HSBC is the one which gets the least flak, Lloyds seems to always be the worst offender.


My cards activate online perfectly fine, you got unlucky with timing which required you to call a representative. Boo hoo.
 
HSBC are perfectly fine imo, what about all of the people who successfully managed to activate their cards (like me), you don't hear anything from them because they have no complaint.
 
Sp00n said:
HSBC are perfectly fine imo, what about all of the people who successfully managed to activate their cards (like me), you don't hear anything from them because they have no complaint.
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True - people usually only review / mention their banks when annoyed :p

Overall I've been quite happy with HSBC - can't complain. When I lost a debit card (from UK) over here they happily sent a replacement to a local branch here for me to collect (not that its actually arrived yet :p )
 
I've been using HSBC in one form or another for many years - I joined back when it was the midland, however about 4 years ago I moved everything to first direct (a sister company of HSBC, they were doing a £100 incentive). I now get all the benefits of HSBC, i.e. being able to use their branches, but on top of this I now get fantastic support on the phone - its like talking to a bank manager, just instead of waiting around for an hour, you dial a number and are talking to someone :D
 
Been with HSBC for about 12 years and never had a problem, at least not one worth remembering.

Activated both my Debit and Credit Cards via online banking without a problem. Seems you just got unlucky.
 
seek said:
Glad I ended up choosing Llyods TSB instead of HSBC. They sound almost as bad as Halifail.
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Except that I've found Lloyds to be the worlds worst bank, ever.

Truely appauling.

It doesn't matte which bank you are with, you find that if you have problems overseas the local branches will be of very little use. Banks are heavily regionalised in their approach and infrastructure; so if you are in Canada and bank in the UK, the Canadian offices will have absolutely no record of you as a customer and they will not have access to your records under any circumstances.

First Direct win.
 
Well hsbc only recently opened a branch in northern ireland which made me giggle at the worlds local bank statement (nationwide's had a few up here for a while apparently)/

Iv never dared open anything with hsbc as my little sister had all sorts of problems with using her old debit card they gave her when she was 16, and the place is always really big and empty with imposing staff (sort of like game) so i wasnt interested in investing my money with them....

Still love nationwide for me :)
 
Just phoned them to activate and it wont let me because "my security is locked". What the hell does that mean ? Then it tells me that i can activate any card at an atm.... well thanks for telling me that now :rolleyes:
 
HSBC are a terrible international bank. When we went to America they kept blocking the card after several times informing them and "notes on our account" We went to the HSBC branch in San Francisco who told us that we had to phone the UK to get it sorted. Finally got it working after a few expensive phonecalls, withdrew all the holiday money and closed the account.
 
worst bank either, dont give a **** about customers and most branches are now like casinos with loads of automated machines, and a phone if you need to speak to a human when in actual fact the branch has staff, just now you have to call up, its ridiculous, I jumped to natwest 2 years ago and never looked back **** em!
 
Im HSBC here and in any branch i've gone into they have been MORE than helpful.

Never had a problem with them and neither has my family who have been with them for god knows how many years!!!

YMMV of course...
 
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