The Worlds local and most greedy bank (HSBC)

Member Name: funzo

Product:	HSBC
Date:	28/07/08 (320 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Occasional market leading products

Disadvantages: No customer service whatsoever and staff are penalised for devoting time to help

It has been a very interesting last thirty minutes, reading the reviews of the self titled "worlds local bank" HSBC. It seems that there is a general lack of satisfaction with one the largest banks in the world and it inspired me to share with you my recent dealings with HSBC.

Now I can speak about HSBC as a customer of 5 years and as an ex-employee. I worked as an Financial Planning Manager for 2 years in the Hertfordshire area and left about 3 years ago. I and thousands of others left HSBC was for the very reasons that are being aired on this and other review sites. HSBC no longer cares about customer satisfaction. It might not a be a startling revelation to some or even most but having seen, witnessed and experienced it from both sides I can duly understand and empathise with the many frustrations people are having. During my time there. HSBC embarked upon a sales drive that basically pushed out all or most of the staff that were there for customer service...people whose name you knews, and they knew your name. People you could chat with behind the counter, branch manager's who you could telephone and actually speak too. All staff were given a choice, either you become sales staff and thus become performance based. what you earnt and what you achieved was based solely on sales and cross sales. Or you become a non-seller which meant that you were unable to earn any bonus at all, not even a christmas one and your pay rises were the barest minimum allowable. what this created was a sales drive never seen before in HSBC's history with many of the older staff who enjoyed their customer service jobs were effectively and ruthlessly pushed out. Staff were only in branches to sell and the counter staff are not encouraged to make conversation unless it is with intent to sell as it lengthens the queues. branch mangers became retail branch managers, call centres were axed and moved to Bangalore , and you were now unable to contact the bracnch directly..... this on top on many many closures of the smaller, less profibatle branches. A huge recruitment drive for younger hungrier people and intense sales training at the headquarters in Bricket Wood meant that the focus of just about ALL Hsbc staff is sales. The bottom line is if it is not going to earn the staff member points (they are all on a points system), and by that i mean customer service then the staff are effectively punished by not being able to meet ridiculously high points targets, because they have been helping you or sorting out an overdraft (theres no points given for helping people). I do understand that no bank is a charity and every sharholder pretty much expects profit, but when I last looked HSBC was making over £10 billion profit and the people at the very top, who benefitted most from the sales pyramid, earnt awarded themselves bonuses at least equivalent to or even surpassing, many African nations GDP's.
Recently, HSBC has contravened FSA rules on four occassions with me. I know because i am a financial advisor, and i have to know and adhere to FSA guidelines on a daily basis. So when i am being mis-sold a product - this happened twice by two seperate sales advisors desperate to make a sale and were brazenly lying about a mortgage (the biggest and most financial commitment in ones life) - i know. There has also been inaccurate record keeping and they have been proven to be not treating the customer fairly. Because i know the FSA rules and was prepared to approach the ombudsman, some headway was made and i hope to God that those reading this do complain if they have been wronged because otherwise HSBC will continue to not give a damn about how they are behaving. The few friends that stayed HSBC assure me that the sales obsession is getting worse and the pressure put upon staff is causing a turnover of staff never experienced before at HSBC with record amounts of people taking time off with stress.

Maybe this is all indicative of the times we live in, where £10 billion profit is just not enough. The callous action-planning of under performing staff (those that do not sell you enough products) has led to a complete change in the personel and the banks greatest asset, that of its friendly and helpful staff has been lost forever.

Now, i cannot refute or deny that HSBC does have some market leading products - every now and again they will be innovative and competetive enough that they are, in certain areas from time to time the cheapest and most profiatble products. Their homebuyer mortgage fixed rate of 5.49% for certain types of mortgage was market leading by a long way - but what good is that if the staff do not care enough or not competant enough to actually process the mortgage (it took 3 error ridden, law breaking months for them to process mine). ??

There are many stories I could tell you about my time there and what i witnessed but sadly as Jack Nicholson once said.... "the truth, you cant handle the truth" and anyone who has worked recently within the banking industry will confirm this

The long short of it is you really do feel wronged, then complain at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/ , do not be bullied and eventually vote with your feet!.

Happy banking :)

Summary: R.I.P customer satisfaction at HSBC