HSBC’s Systematic Suck
Looks better than it is.
MAYU has a blog post detailing the exact same problem I’m having with HSBC. His card stopped working and they simply haven’t issued a new one in the quoted seven working days. I lost mine and they haven’t sent a new card to me either. Worst of all, to monolithic HSBC, this doesn’t even register as much of a problem.
Here was my process to just report the problem, not even resolve it.
16:37 – Call, go through menus, give ID info to guy. He says I’ve reached the credit department, which I didn’t select. Exact same problem MAYU had
16:42 – HSBC system hangs up on me
16:43 – I call back. I’m getting gooder at this, the menu presses are 11#0. They said they gave the courier the card but they haven’t delivered it yet. They can’t reach the courier but they’ll send them a note to… do what they’re supposed to do. Whatevs. OK
16:54 – I have some hazier idea of what’s going on. Still no card nor real assurance of one.
So, that took about 20 minutes of my time, and it wasn’t pleasant. Here’s MAYU’s experience:
Later I placed a request for a new card as I won’t’ be able to survive without an ATM/Debit card. Again the smart (most of them are self-declared) call center agent told me that it’d take 7 working days.
You might imagine my hard time during end of the month without debit card and during weekend banks also closed. Last week I called them and the lady on the other side said they’ve given the card to courier service.
I decided to take up all pain and hold up for 7 working days. In the other hand I was happy as I received my ATM pin number last week.
After all the hard time, today I called the smart customer care call center and it took about 15 minutes for them to answer the call. Then the lady on the other side said, sir you have called Credit card center. I’ll transfer the call sir! (Though the menu says its personal banking). After waiting another 5 minutes someone else answer the call. After verifying my details she told me the funniest thing I ever heard very recently.
“Sir! You have not placed a request for a replacement ATM card. You have placed a request for an ATM pin reset” duh!!! Seriously!!!!! (Unprofessionalism of HSBC in Sri Lanka)
Not having a bank card really sucks, I have to keep going to HSBC branches when they’re open, which is rarely, they close at 3PM and only a few branches are open on weekends, none on poyas. I’ve had a card stop working in China and the main irritating thing about HSBC is that they are so far removed from the average customer that they do not care. In that case they told me to wait till a replacement PIN was sent via mail. But I was in China, with no access to cash. Regardless of what they can do, there’s no empathy with the customer, you’re just part of some big machine.
That said, I tried another bank (Nations Trust) and they’re just as bad with horrible Internet Banking (not transfers or anything useful). Are there any actually good banks in SL?
Posted on Monday, October 1st, 2012 in Business.
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
The chutzpah of this government knows no bounds. Every government since Independence has had to balance placating Sinhala nationalists (AKA racists) while at the same time actually running a sensible, inclusive nation that doesn’t send minority citizens, capital and foreign investment fleeing. Basically, they’ve had to pay lip service to nationalists while at the same time trying to run an actual nation. Every government has also generally failed, SWRD being killed by a nationalist monk and everyone after almost losing the country to various rebellions. In that context Mahinda is actually doing a better job by virtue of not being dead and not losing control of the country. But he’s still not doing a good job.
You need to go premier. Service is seriously good then.
Such – that’s absurd. Service should be good regardless of which customer tier you belong to.
Agree. Just saying is all.
Go for Sampath Bank.I’ve been using them for a year now.Good Service.
I agree. Sampath Bank gives very good service. I have been with them for 15 years!
Machan, ‘systematic suck’ is spot on – I know of at least 3 incidents where HSBC’s awfulness is way, way, way beyond what you’ve mentioned in the blog post. But then the question is – who else should we bank with?
Commercial Bank is what I use but that’s purely because of their coverage – they’ve got ATMs pretty much everywhere. My biggest gripe with them is their card center is unavailable for calls after 8 pm, weekends or public holidays. Because we all know people don’t lose ATM cards after 8 pm, on weekends and public holidays, no?
http://emailkavikaari.blogspot.com/2012/mail.com08/blog-post_21.html I have shared my experience here.
I reccommend Sampath Bank, I have been with them for over 15 years they have been very good. I was with HNB before they were horrible, and I hear it is still the same! HSBC is a global bank with no face to it, might as well talk to a wall.
HSBC recently made an erroneous double wire transfer from a friend’s account and when discovered, asked my friend to try and get it back from the recipient!!! It’s THAT careless now.
Also, to be a premier, you have to have an insane amount of cash in the bank. That’s absurd. It is true. They do not care about the average customer.
Sampath bank has above average customer service . I made a few trips there on behalf of my husband and the service was amazing.
This. I have a friend who’s had a HSBC account from way back in the day. They’re constantly harassing him (more or less) to cancel his account unless he can become a premier customer. I’ve never seen such elitist attitudes from any other bank – with nothing to back it up either.
Unfortunately they have the best online banking system from the local banks available – I still prefer NTB and Commercial, though they aren’t anything to write home about either.
I can vouch for the fact that (after several personal experiences), HSBC is probably the bank with the worst customer service in Sri Lanka. The sooner you leave them the better. They are a disaster.
I have the same issue with my card application. 2 weeks since I submitted the application in person to the bank. No card yet. Worst thing is when I call they cannot even trace my application. Promised to call me back by tomorrow – let’s just wait and see.
Sampath recently upgraded their online banking thing, and it’s pretty decent as long as you don’t forget your password or something. Then it’s just paperwork hell.
Service is alright, they don’t bug me about anything and ATM’s are all over the place.
I’ve used commercial bank previously. They too gave me a hard time once with my ATM card. They have a funny policy in place.
Eg.
You open a bank account in Trincomalee and Request an ATM card from Trincomalee
After few years you moved to Colombo due to studies or work.
You changed the address which associated with your account as well as the branch to Colombo.
Now you get a new ATM card as the previous one expired.
You what combank’s policy says. “We’ll send the card to the branch in which you opened the account”.
Now, I had to travel Trinco to get my card or I should give a letter to another branch to get the card. Then why on earth did I change my brach and address???
Funny service sector we have in our country. phew!!!
Indi,
Sorry to hear about your experience. As much as you try, there are always bad apples that spoil it for everyone else.
However, stop throwing tantrums and talking rot about what HSBC does in Sri Lanka just because you didn’t get a card on time. I understand this is your blog and that you can say what you want but I equally have the right to tell you to grow up because you’re acting like a child..a very petulant one.
My comments above are purely on your ability to use one bad experience to paint a negative picture of the entire company, including on things you couldn’t possibly know about. If ever I had a bad experience with a company here (and you’re right on this…there are plenty of examples of bad customer service here!), I always try to make a complaint, either formally or through someone I know. This is the only way that customer service can be improved at that place. But then again, that would depend on how much you cared so thats upto you I guess.
However, this doesn’t take away the fact that you had a needlessly bad experience, which I am really sorry about. If you give me the details, I will look into it and find out why and see if it can be rectified (I think you have my number).
I’m an ex-employee of HSBC and I can say without a doubt that complaints to that bank never go anywhere unless of course you complain directly to the CEO, in which case everyone gets activated.
HSBC is understaffed, over worked and the employees are under appreciated and no, just because you throw a goddamned dinner dance doesn’t mean people are going to be happy/content.
But that’s beside the point. The point is when I joined the bank I (and my batch) were taught the importance of customer service. Within a year the focus shifted to SALES, SALES, SALES!
One of my officers resorted to shitty tactics to inflate the branch sales and he kept getting promoted to a branch manger until a few years ago when he couldn’t hide his bullshit any longer and was asked to leave.
But that’s HSBC for you, shit service, no transparency, favoritism and an elitist attitude.
FUCK YOU HSBC…I will give the bank this though their Premier service is amazing, pity you need, what is it now? 7 or 7.5 million as a credit deposit. The price you need to pay for customer service at HSBC, for everyone else there’s shitty machines….
Here’s another one, finally got the card after another week, but the number they print for activation (114 4722 77) simply doesn’t work. I tried it every which way on both land and cell phones and it just doesn’t seem to exist.
Finally called the regular line and activated it that way, but extremely unprofessional and odd.
And I do report my issues to HSBC, through the call center. It’s a monolith and the complaints seem to disappear.
If you’ve been a little cog in a much bigger wheel, don’t let your bitterness get you down…I am sure the bank is not responsible for your inability to progress and post-departure bitterness. As a customer for the past 20 years I haven’t had a single problem. If you don’t want to deposit 7.5 million (not really big money in this day and age) then you’re welcome to go to a bank where you don’t need so much…and leave it for those who are actually capable of earning something with their abilities.
bravo Frederic. You’re certainly giving your bank a lot of positive PR in this thread. Keep up the good work.
HSBC may be a global bank but this is still Sri Lanka. If you want something done – pick up a phone and call someone you know at the bank. That’s the only way anything happens there. If you don’t know anyone – get an introduction, take the person out to lunch. Trust me, for anything unusual it’s worth it. Certainly cheaper than 7.5 million that you may not have or may not want to keep on deposit at HSBC.
That approach has Frederic’s endorsement – indi apparently already has his number. Customer service if you don’t know anyone at the bank? Not so great.
HSBC does not want to be in the retail banking business in this country. Freddy boy sums up the attitude perfectly well. It would be amazing if an employee of the bank has problems with the service offered – as he probably doesn’t want to tell you, he doesn’t need to queue up like the rest of us
I have been a HSBC customer for more than 10 yrs, and the service has its ups and downs. i wouldnt call it the bank with the worst customer service having dealt with many other banks.
however the truth is that HSBC is not for everyone. its current corporate strategy in SL is to attract the high income groups and large companies, it is no longer the “world’s local bank”. HSBC is now promoting its services , as one with reach anywhere you go in the world. they have re-aligned a lot of their products with this strategy.
for e:g for a corporate account, there was a minimum balance required of 35,000. however this has now been increased to 1 million. that means you need a 1 milion rupees ,lying around i the bank at any given time, which is really not going to be feasible for any SME. if you are a startup , HSBC is not for you. these issues were pointed out to me, by bank representatives themselves.
i didnt know abt all these when i applied for a corporate account 2 yrs ago, and was prompty kept waiting for approval for 3 weeks, which eventually blew my fuse , and ended up me walking into the branch and wanting all my accounts closed. that seemed to wrk, as the branch mgrs prompty called the higher ups and the lower level sales guy got a dressing down for not keeping me informed. anyway the request was denied 1 day later.
i really didnt want to waste my time going to a bank to do transactions, so what i was looking was a bank with good online systems even for corporate banking. having been denied an account at HSBC, i turned to NDB. i hear complaints on service about NDB as well, but so far so good.
Poor customer service does seem to be part of the HSBC DNA though they are particularly rubbish in SL. They have been rated ‘terrible’ for customer service among several leading companies. Check out http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/HSBC
I have numerous horror stories from their internal communication not working and making the customer run from pillar to post, bank taking money out of the accounts without owners authorization, to illegal procedures that would require someone like an ombudsman to tell HSBC they are wrong to do such things. They are just terrible indeed.
It happens in every single bank in this country, just seems to be a big deal when they do it.
For bussiness related stuff NDB & DFCC has always served me well.
Indi, this is the second or third blog post you’ve made on this subject over the last 5 years. Clearly, the posts serve no purpose. Why don’t you just pull all your money and put it in another bank instead? I’m sure they won’t miss it.
Do you work at HSBC and feel a raging anger swell up inside of you when you read this blog entry?
In response to both questions: No, not really.
Im really unaware of HSBC but I can say about the Ntaions Trust. Though they say its Nations Trust it should have been something else like Should Not Trust is most appropriate. Dont do banking with this always they care you untill you become a coustomer thts all there after you will be reduced to rubish. No customer care at all. Commercial and sampath are better banks as per my understanding
Pickup the phone and call? Well, I tried that. But did you know that HSBC doesn’t give out telephone numbers of their branches but insist that you call on their hotline. The ‘hotline’ of course is answered by a call-centre operator. And you know how that goes don’t you. After 2 years of constant difficulties (sometimes just trying to get basic information like interest rates), I finally decided to switch banks. Since then I have moved all my banking (Credit cards, debit accounts and FDs) to Commercial bank and I am pretty satisfied with their service. Their systems are good, staff is very helpful (over the phone as well as at the branch) and more than anything they make me feel that they actually want to assist me. While I was with HSBC, I was forced to follow their “process” regardless of whether it actually solved my problem of not.
A bunch of good looking youngsters in nice suites and slick looking branches don’t mean a thing if you cannot get your banking done efficiently.
Also, as for HSBC trying to attract high-end customers and corporates, all the more reason to be efficient. Those sorts of customers will demand specialized service and efficiency. They wont have time to visit the branch or call hotlines multiple times to get something done.
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I agree with citizen, HSBC service is about the worst around.
They have a good internet banking service and with the added security of the token system I feel comfortable using it, so I stick with them.
For personal banking, in terms service, I have found NDB and NTB to be both very good.