A Warning about HSBC Qatar

I forgot to say that I agree with Alumnar who posts:

"SBC has recently made some of their best and eldest (as in workyears with HSBC) staff redundant. No warning - pack your coffee cup, leave your pen behind and GO - on the spot. They call getting rid of their best staff 'cost-cutting'!!!

HSBC "customer service" has deteriorated terribly, particularly the 2 or 3 years. There used to be effective staff, I guess they left Qatar or moved to other banks. Unless they deal with customers having millions QAR with them, they have no inkling what customer service is all about.

Even as a "status" customer, when following up on an issue in my statement I get answers from an officer saying on the phone to me: "I'm too busy.". Best an officer can do is to say something like, "I'm headed for a meeting. What time can I call you?". In the first place I followed-up many times personally with her an told me she will call me, but she didn't. She forgot. And when I follow-up by phone she tells me she's busy. "I'm busy." is a no-no word to say to a customer! Too busy to do business with a customer?!?!

Then there were strange deductions during summers, with incomprehensibly acronymned transation names. Bank officer later tells me that "somebody deducted twice the amount for a loan because expats take holidays during summer season. I never leave Qatar during summer and I never informed HSBC on any of my holidays! So after a week they revert the transaction.

Sometimes there are transactions that officers at the desk can't explain. Calls internally another department

- still no answer. How can the customer understand, when they themselves internally are lost? Says "will get back to you on this" - but they don't.

They charge QR70/mo for "status" customer, but let me wait in queue anyway.

They charge me for replacement of a worn out debit card that "I failed to collect". They said they sent SMS to my phone -- I was out of the country and it never reached me, so they destroyed the card and charged it to my account. The officer lectures me that their SMS system never fails even after telling him I have worked in the IT field for more then 25 years, including design and management of long haul data communication systems, connecting many countries, as well developing databases and configuring the nuts-and-bolts of integrated mission-critical applications. HSBC could have simply sent me an email to both my Yahoo and company email, to increase chances that communication with the customer is successful. Simply no electronic comms system is perfect or impervious to tech failure or human errors.

Not that I think Doha Bank is any better but I'm leaving HSBC and moving to Doha Bank, if only to forget my frustrations with them the last 2 or 3 years. I have been patient far too long.

Perhaps it's not only HSBC, but banks must continually invest in training their employees on how to communicate effectively with customers. Otherwise customers move away.

If others in this forum are happy with HSBC decide to stay with HSBC (perhaps any bank for that matter) I advise them to spend enough time and have diligence in double-checking their account statements. Sometimes SMS coming in the phone are not in-synch with ATM statments and internet banking.

I shall let you know my decision after a few meetings I have lined up with other banks this week. But I am also open to suggestions from my dear fellow QL'ers.

While most of us seems quite unhappy about HSBC (status, advance,premier account holders too); so whats the better possible alternate to bank with ?

QNB

IBQ

CBQ

>>

Any suggestions .. or we still would like to go on with our problems .. like someone's there to care ? 

Time for my 2 cents! If you actually think that calling HSBC a crap bank is being strong enough, my thoughts go far beyond that word. Ignorant, incompetent, money-making institution sounds far more suitable. HSBC has recently made some of their best and eldest (as in workyears with HSBC) staff redundant. No warning - pack your coffee cup, leave your pen behind and GO - on the spot. They call getting rid of their best staff 'cost-cutting'!!! Never mind that the only reason my husband and I banked with HSBC after many initial 'hiccups' was due to the fact that our Status Account 'Advisor' really cared about his job and customer satisfaction. Oh God! Somebody who cared? Yes - and he has been 'dumped' like many others after dedicating many years to doing their job in a caring, competent and professional manner. As for Premier Account Holder - do not make me laugh! They cannot even set their system so that I receive the text messages whenever I use the credit cards! Their system shows they are being sent to my number and voila! My husband gets the messages on his phone - 2 to 4 text messages per transaction. But 'ma'am, that can't be true, our computer says...' EXCUSE ME, BUT ARE YOU CALLING ME A LIAR? I am shopping around for a better bank with more sense of 'customer respect'. I am one of those 'customers' who had MORE THEN ENOUGH - got it, HSBC?

Horrible Stupid Blundering Crap

speedie you're unfamiliar with credit card laws in the US - they don't correspond to the GCC - if your credit card is issued in the USA it is like comparing apples to oranges to a credit card issued here.

I cant agree with u all...Im from USA and we r used to potential frauds on  cards (its a fact of life I am afraid) and by blocking- its protecting u. I have my own premier relationship manager here and she and her team are super. she comes to see me when needed..but i do most online as access to my act her and back home can do instant transfers- pretty amazinga actually..tried other banks here.. not even comparable.

HSBC is the worst bank in Qatar, the other banks may be just as bad, however at HSBC you pay them more to treat you bad, and they take pride in it. Their call center is just terrible , I agree with scampyfries that you get different answers for the same question, they are not trained or just dont care. There is no co-ordination between the call center and the bank. You call up, get a ref no. to your complaint, check with the bank - they dont know what your talking about.

Recently I had to open another account, they asked me for proof of address, which I duly submited, a few days later the account was blocked. I called the useless line, and they told me to call A, I called A and was directed to B, who directed me to C and then was going to direct me back to A , when I disconnected. I called the bank and they told me that i had not submiited my proof of address, I told them either you come and collect the proof of address from me, or go and look into the draw of the person that I submitted the proof. A few hours later, the account was back to normal !!

HSBC Qatar gives the brand a bad name, is anyone from the HQ listening ?

@ cabbage,right about the general LEVELS of mistrust & poor service when it comes to banks in general but (yet again!) key word here is LEVELS of it & HSBC is definitely head & shoulders above(or below) the other banks here in Qatar...

Cabbage what a load of rubbish...the banking services in the ME, and Qatar in particular boarder in the incompetant...Yes you might get some bad service back home, but over here it takes it to a whole new level

cabbage, You are right. This is why I keep all my money in my socks.

sandra, All pleasure is yours. Lucky you. I checked your profile.

First, I should cut my hair so that you would not 'leave the bank on the spot, if you saw me there? Doesn't sound like a good reason. If you leave the bank or you don't, doesn't bother me. I don't work for a bank. So why should I care about whether you stay or leave? In other words, I should cut my hair for you.. sounds bit romantic!

Second, No, I don't. Did you really mean this?

Banks are the same the world over - can't be trusted and most of the time the service is terrible.

Do what I do - stuff it under the bed lol :-)

Wish I could say the sudden appearance of HSBC managers was unique to this part of the world. It happens everywhere, if you stand in the middle of the banking floor asking reasonable questions (not shouting but an elevated volume) you will be attended to very quickly anywhere.

sandra212, You are here only for 35 minutes and 27 seconds.

Don't make a scene in the banks. It isn't a decent thing.

I am going to do couple of things in next few weeks.

1. I will study consumer behaviour to find out why consumers go for things they don't need. Is it just because they are made available.

2. I will ask each HSBC customer why they borrowed QAR.250,000. What for. Also, why did they borrow QAR.250,000? why not less or more.

3. How many decades it will take them to repay their loans.

4. I will also ask them to consult Gadarene Friedman before they think about borrowing money from banks.

@ baldrick,yeah you tell me what these people need a Qr. 250,000 riyal loan for??? to clarify,they were daft to take those loans just because it was available at the time but my point was that's how HSBC reeled them in & now they're stuck paying interest for the next decade or more,not a very smart move but hey,what do i know?...

Ratty, I was with them when I first arrived, and they were fine for a while, but had to ditch them after their gross incompetence. Been with CBQ for three years now and have no problems whatsoever.

Me & my husband had and r still having bad experience with HSBC. one of the things they did is that they were charging our account the annual credit card charges on a yearly basis when we had actually closed the credit cards accounts 2 years back!

I advice everyone, keep checking your bank transactions espically the system generated ones, cuz they deduct money without u knowing it. and if you don't check you wouldn't know where the money went.

I HATE HSBC

We've been with HSBC for many years,both here and in UK.... they are the best we have dealt with. Sorry,I speak as I find,and they have been excellent to us. And,before anyone gets the wrong idea...we are just normal folk with an average income.

when aproch for loan they gave one amount and when they start cutting from salary it was different.

I wentand met manager his respones also bad

be away from hsbc

They gave me all the money of his account but kept 10 lakhs in FDRs becoz no nomination is there.Atleast they could have given it in the name of my kids..I m strugling a lot to get that money still... :( Craps and thieves..

"ALL those thousands of expatriates who took those ridiculous loans(20 times your salary???) are now hooked & stuck paying back those loans"

Nobody forced them to take those loans!

scampyfries, Completely agree with you. I have had similar experience with them.

gadarene, You need to learn more about how corporate and financial institutions operate. It isn’t child’s play. Don't base serious stuff on your whims, please. By the way, how are you?

no better

more or less all r the same

Known fact my friend...you do know who HSBC's main customers in Qatar are?...big corporate accounts because they lend big money to those corporates when NO OTHER bank in town will,in return the corporates have their company account with them forcing all employees of that company to open accounts with them...second category,the THOUSANDS of expats who took loans until some years ago when HSBC was giving money away like free candy @ a children's fair,now ALL those thousands of expats who took those ridiculous loans(20 times your salary???) are now hooked & stuck paying back those loans @ a huge interest rate...

So really,nobody banks with HSBC Qatar out of choice,unless they're REALLY clueless about how they operate!