turboman786

......and the ONLY reason they had put me through to someone who spoke good english and could converse proprly was because they were trying to sell me a personal loan!

HSBC take their customers for fools, you get crappy Indian call centres, have to speak to someone called Simon who speaks worse english than apu from the simpsons...but when it comes to selling you something, they put you through to someone in the UK who speaks top notch english....

I for one will soon be closing my HSBC account as I am fed up with their crap service.

RB170

So you won't be joining Lloyds or Barclays then

David Lock

good to hear you were "conversing proprly"

Iwan

Nationwide could be worth a look, a while back they said they wouldn't send their call centres overseas.

Though I guess there's never a cast iron guarantee, but at least they said it.

Jaybird-UK

First Direct are fantastic - may be part of HSBC but run things their way, UK only call centres.

Thankyou, come again.

CooperS

My gf works for the HSBC call centre in Leeds, they sometimes get the Indian's phoning through to them, and unless they're working off their scripts, they're bloody useless.

paul-s

natwest. no overseas call centres. simple. end of

someone will have something to moan about tho

03-CTR

hsbc are a bage of s#ite. i paid a cheque into an hsbc machine, for my first direct account, and they bloody lost it. it didn't show up on my account so i went back into the branch and spoke to an advisor.

"sorry sir but it's not actually possible for us to trace it so you can either wait and see if it pops up or you'll have to get another one issued"

wtf good job the missus worked for shat west for 10 years so we rang the call centre to file a complaint. they were as good as useless too so i rang first direct and as usual they were excellent. they apologised profusely for hsbc, kicked some butt and what do you know, the cheque suddenly appeared.

so in short hsbc are s#ite but first direct have been nothing but fantastic for the last 7 years. definitely recommend first direct over barclays, halifax, hsbc, shat west.

scoobyboy7

ABBEY are best bank ive ever been with and ive tried most

Petem95

The Indians you speak to do come up with some random stuff I find, they obviously learn English phrases, but use them in totally the wrong place!

Cant remember exactly what one said to me when I rang up, but it was very odd!

what would scooby do

Last time I called my bank I got through to a Geordie feller, I asked if I could be put through to India as I couldn't understand a word he said

ForesterBoy

" SHOCK NEWS!! Rang HSBC and spoke to a UK based person!! "

You sure this thread is not a wind up ?

GCollier

Barclays are no better. I bank with Smile now, but am using my old Barclays account to move money through for a house purchase...the customer services number is now straight through to some foreign call centre. After two calls last week speaking to separate people I just gave up. I'm just amazed that a major bank tolerates such a **** poor customer interface that just drives their customers away.

Gary.

Billgtt

They're feckin terrible. When I moved house 5 years ago I went in to change my address. They asked for 3 forms of id, eg a gas bill, phone bill, driving license etc. I explained that I had a driving license but no phone bill or gas bill as it isn't my house, how about a passport? I was told they weren't accepted

Anyway they told me that they couldn't change my address so I decided to walk out and return when the manager was there. When I spoke to the manager he told me to take my passport and driving license in which I did, but then I was refused!!

This happened about 5 times and in the end I left it. Then one day my card expired so I went in there armed upto my eyeballs with ID. Anything I could lay my hands on with my name and address on it, inc the junk mail i'd got piled up on the dining room table . The bird behind the counter took one look at my passport and updated my details, as simple as that!!!

ben44

Never, I don't believe you lol.

I left them a while back because of this. Give RBS a go. The local branch takes the call. Even if you have to speak to their internet people in Scotland, you can understand them. (Well, kind of!)

Hanley

Joing the Co-op Bank / Smile (the internet arm)

All call centre staff are UK based - mostly in Skelmersdale, Stockport and Manchester.

I do work for them but that has nothing to do with it, generally I think they're a good bank

lucylastic

Yep - totally agree, got a very nice man called Nick who looks after all my (banking) needs

rik1471

I'm with SMILE. Best bank i've been with - by far.