I have banked with HSBC for 20 years or so and have had a few a few problems with the telephone banking, I couldn't understand what they were saying and eventually gave up after being put on hold for ages. I tried to pay a bill on another call and they HSBC rep had a couple of tries at repeating the account number but kept getting it wrong. Tried the branch and they said i'd have to phone up.

I wrote and complained and got a brush-off reply.

I've now moved to Nationwide who have UK call centres only, better overdraft facilities, free overseas banking and good interest on the current account balance.

Customer service in this country is almost extinct, I love this country yet we don't know how to offer good service, too many big UK companies have poorly trained, unproffessional staff who are basically a waste of whatever money they are paid and that is before we even mentioned the companies who have moved there call centres abroad, I've found that putting you on hold if you dare to question there poor responses and then not picking up for about 10 minutes is a favourite of many companies...

Anyway I'll get off my soapbox now, I have recently set up a secured loan brokerage and I am confident my company will be successful just on the fact we DO treat our customers professionally and treat people like human beings, surely its basic but it seems to be a forgotten art with UK companies...

In answer to your question I think they are all pretty poor I have been with Abbey for years and until recently they have always been tip top but since their call centre has moved abroad the service has gone down rapidly, happy hunting anyway

Matt

I have just encountered the worst ever customer service of any financial institution anywhere with my recent experience at HSBC. I have been a loyal customer with HSBC for 8 years and have a loan and savings with them. However no longer as it seems that £7.7billion is not enough for them and they are prepared to cut customer service to achieve greater profits. I ordered a new card from them and it took longer than expected and I spoke to the card department who cancelled the card and issued a new one to a branch. I had to take time out of my rather busy day to go to the branch and was left standing in the branch for 30 minutes before anyone spoke to me! I spoke to their Service Quality department and was met by a very disinterested customer service agent who logged my complaint (or so I thought) and infomed me that I would receive a response in 5 working days. A week passed and still no response so I spoke to them again and was informed that there was no record of the complaint. So the disinterest I had met was not even fake it was genuine disinterest!! So I logged the complaint again and within 24hrs had repeated calls from the manager of a branch I have never had any dealings of! Turns out the complaint had been sent to the wrong branch so eventually I spoke to the manager of the correct branch. I explained that I was just unhappy about the way things had been handled by Service Quality and she assurred me that someone from that dept would call me the following Monday. Well surprise surprise no call and as I was in LA I could not call them so I waited a week and reraised the complaint. Well 3 weeks later and no reponse not even an acknowledgment of my complaint. I have called them and they say it is being dealt with. I just don't think its good enough and I think it just shows how little HSBC really cares about customer service. I have no decided to act with my feet and take my accounts elsewhere as if they cannot be bothered with me I am not sure I can be bothered with them