Ok..First things 1st!! I started banking with HSBC in 1998 as I desperately felt the need for an ATM to avoid going to the Bank just to take out some money. Needless to say, the services of my Nationalised bank were far from satisfactory. I was in Visakhapatnam that time and the only decent one with an ATM seemed to be HSBC.
Well, to be frank, my banking days in Vizag with this bank were smooth. I found them really service oriented and it looked like they really cared.
There were small snags like never getting the Credit Card statements on time.(To date, if I remember correctly, I have got about 6 statments in about as many years!! :D)
I moved in to Bangalore in end 2000 and naturally opened a local account with HSBC. Well, I’m sorry to state that all they can boast about is a gr8 building on MG Road.My first cheque book was sent to my old address in Vizag!!(needless to say I paid the courier charges!!). The executives are definitely not customer freindly and it looks like are alwez on the look out for filling the coffers of the Bank. Twice I was billed twice for a DD. Someone else’s credit card payment got credited to my account. When I wanted to start a demat account with IL&FS, they refused to give a bankers’ statement and suggested that I start the demat account with them instead!(Hight Hopes indeed!!) And all the while their credit card executives keep calling U on the mobile to remind U of the payment due 5 days in advance!!(no prizes for gusssing what happened to the Statement in the first place which is supposed to come to me!!)
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All this was still bearable and I really didnt mind it(being the Lazy Libra that I am!!) What really made me blow my top is that for a final settlement of Rs. 12, 000/- from my provident fund, which I received from my ex-employer(the Indian Navy!), they had the gall to deduct a TDS of 10% and not only that, mailed me the copy of the TDS and charged me Rs.40/- for courier charges!!
Thats was it!! I decided that I had seen the last of this Bank which has no professionalism!!! As I write this article, I have cancelled my credit cards with HSBC and transfered all the remaining amount to my CitiBank card.
Now I know why an HSBC ATM in Bangalore is never crowded!!
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ps. I even tried their Net Banking!! Its too slow to speak anything about!! Being a software guy myself I do suspect the service is abosultely terribly designed!!