HSBC gave new meaning to "Free for life" ...
Till one month back, whenever I used to hear "... for life", I used to make joke that who's life is it? Is it the life of the product or my life.
But to my surprise and frustration, HSBC Qatar gave a new meaning to "Free for life" i.e. life of the policy. :)
More than five years back when I joined an energy sector organization, here in Qatar, HSBC offered me Visa Platinum card with the statement that it is free for life.
Around one month back, they charged me 450 QAR membership fees without any prior notification. Tried calling couple of times their call center (that operates from UAE) but no results. Then, I visited the branch at airport road and ask the supervisor how come free for life can be changed into annual fees of 450 QAR and the answer was that we changed the rule/policy and now I have to pay or cancel my card.
Another question I asked that how come you change the rule and did not notify me? His answer was that we notified your company. I really doubt that they notified anyone.
Anyways, I cancelled my card and switched to QNB. Great service so far.
Just writing this for the awareness of general public. Besides, I think this is the attitude that has lead to the closure of a lot of their branches across Doha and now they have come down to 3 remaining branches only.
Yasir.
will the blame be on Qataris for this? :P
Another HSBC Story -
Woman from bank calls me to come and collect my new cheque book.
I drop in to the bank main branch within 20 mins of the call. Pick a number, and wait.
I can see that the previous token number displayed on the electronic board. I wait for my number for eternity (well about 40 mins)
I walk around the corner to the hidden counter "serving" the previous number. No customers there, and the woman behind the counter is sorting cheque books and calling people on her phone.
A seriously WTF!! moment.
Money exchange companies are better than HSBC bank
No brit, My problem is not the "customer service aspect" its the corporate level change in policy.
In layman's language, I would call it cheating when you offer me something free and then later on charge me for it.
What they did was wrong and really sums up the customer service aspect.
I never had any problems with them. It was easy to transfer money to a sister account in UK
just hearing the name HSBC makes me say eweweeeeeeeewww. then bad words..... my home loan in USA was sold to them. Banks trade notes all the time with other banks for their own reasons. I had nothing but problems regarding new "fees" as soon as they claim to have notified me my loan is now with them. Nothing but problems with them until i had to re-finance my loan just to get away from that company!!!
Stay away from HSBC offers!!!
50,000QR to open a account ?? lol
i really dont think that they have any account holders in their bank ...
I also have bad experience with HSBC her in Doha Alsadd branch.
I went to open an account there one morning. There were about 5 customers only waiting. I also took my token and waited. But no customer was are being called but all of us had to wait, 1 customer who had come prior to me had been waiting for more than 30 mins and after sometime he left. Only 1 counter was opened and that for other purpose.
After waiting more than 1 hour (although there was no que) my number was called and met a guy who was wearing an arbaic costume, then he carelessly said I can't open an account, and I should have a salary of QR 50,000 or more.
So, I had to come back empty hand after wasting my time.
I chose HSBC coz, previously I had an account in HSBC when I was in Dxb. They didn't have this kind of minimum salary rule and they the DXB HSBC treat people as respectably.
I bank with HSBC as a Premier customer in Qatar, Jersey, the UK and Australia. Sadly I have stopped using my (so called) Premier account in Qatar as the service is so bad. The telephone support is terrible, they cahrge for credit cards, and they are not competitive on personal loans. Also they do not return phone calls. Pity because I like the experience with them everywhere else.
jjj75 --Well said my friend. The guys sitting in their head office in Hong Kong have no clue about what their local partner is doing in Doha and for all we know HSBC in Doha maybe offering villas in Hong Kong and London for free without the knowledge of their bosses in Hong Kong
What you also have to consider is that HSBC is not really an international bank - in this region they are franchises that really only operate in their own local sphere and bear no relation to HSBC globally. That being said, I have never liked HSBC anyway.
So, probably the problems you have experienced are due to local conditions, not international policy.
absolutely true...
to share my own experience, i made an online purchase back in Aug 2011 and a month later cancelled my credit cards for exactly the same reason (the *free for life* joke). a couple of months after i cancelled the cards, i returned my purchase back to the vendor who refunded the full amount to HSBC in April.
it took HSBC more than FIVE months (and countless calls in between) to transfer the refunded amount back into my account. every time i called customer service, their response used to be 'we have raised a complaint with the concerned department who are checking'... idiotic statement! what were they checking for 5 months??? i asked for a contact number for the concerned dept and was told 'we cannot give that'. i work for an energy sector organization too & i believe it was only after i told one customer service representative recently that i will ask all of my friends to close their accounts with HSBC (to which he hurriedly responded *please don't do that*) that the money finally came through last week...
i believe i should've said this earlier :)
i will not advise anyone to bank with them.. terrible service..
Amer.
HSBC may be going down after a major financial scandal was revealed over a month ago... anything they had for free has changed to cover their legal costs. Most banks (mainly those out of the US or Europe) don't have anything for free anymore!
I'm already switching from my US bank to a Qatar bank here...