QUERY AND RANT.....NOT ABOUT BIKES THO

[birdinflight]

I had to phone the bank today, or rather the telephone banking system HSBC, now all I want to know is why, my debit card is being refused by the bank to pay for topping up my orange pay as you go.

After a multitude of security questions to be answered by pressing the appropriate buttons, I am put through to a 'live' person. Who, and I am sorry if this sounds racist, speaks less english than my cat.

She does not understand or know of what Orange is. She then asks if the Egg item on my statement is Orange

I say no, you will not find anything with Orange on my statement as I have not been able to use my card to pay, therfore it will not show. In the end I gave up, as I could not get her to understand that Orange are a phone company and I had a card lodged with them to top up my talk time but for some reason the bank were refusing to authorise payment. She said I should call Orange. c7u8 I SAID THE BANK WERE REFUSING PAYMENT


Does anyone know of a bank out there that does not use foreign call centres???? I am going to change as I am totally fed up.
:cry:

 

[Fat Bert]

BIF~~~~

Try Bank of India - they have a call centre in Catford!!

 

[nitehawk]

I've had similar experiences with HSBC and am also changing banks. The whole setup is unacceptable, they make hundreds of millions of pounds every year from UK customers then reduce the amount of UK staff through redunancy as if they are making a loss in this market.

I don't agree with all the anti-corporate crusties who run round European cities trashing them but surely there has to be another way to tell these ars**oles where to go ! :bang: :bang: :bang:

Anyone know of an ethical financial institution ?

 

[skippy]

Anyone know of an ethical financial institution ?

Sorry M8 that's a contradiction of terms

 

[turbine_2]

Nat West don't (at the moment) but these things are always under threat due to the 'cheep labour' market in other countries.

 

[reefer]

abbey national dont..mind you they are mincers on the line so maybe just as bad man8um
but ive never had a problem with either there internet banking or over the phone with them :beer:

 

[Wolfie]

Use the mattress/hole in the floor etc etc etc.

 

[tootyfluti]

I bank with with both Lloyds TSB and Barclays. I`ve never had a problem with call centres. Always get through to an Brit and they`ve always been efficient! Don`t know if anyone else has had similar experience?? :dunno:

 

[richard]

I use barclays and Yorkshire Bank with no probs..

R

:yo: :yo:

 

[Supabird1100]

Barclays.....call centre is in the UK, if I use my debit card for anything out of the usual spending pattern their security people phone ME to ask if it's my transaction !!!! :} :}

Oh...and personal bankers in all branches that deal with you face to face. :bow:

 

[Gizzit]

I'm pretty happy with Barclays too. As banks go, not too bad at all R#?

 

[tootyfluti]

Supabird, Lloyds do that for me. When I bought my bike they rang me to check cos it was a high amount miles away from where I live. Nice innit!!

 

[Supabird1100]

Supabird, Lloyds do that for me. When I bought my bike they rang me to check cos it was a high amount miles away from where I live. Nice innit!!

I tried to pay for some fuel in Belgium a month or two back.....the card was refused at the till. Paid with the Euro's I had left in my pocket (I was on my way back to the Eurotunnel) and phoned the bank as soon as I got home.
I started ripping into the bloke on the other end of the phone demanding to know why my card was refused......he explained that it's Barclays policy to monitor customers spending patterns and to refuse any transaction that seems unusual.

He gave me a number to call if I plan to use the card outside of the UK or to buy something that isn't in my normal spending pattern and they then give the card clearance for the purchase.

Reassuring, isn't it ??? :beer: :beer:

 

[cianocarroll125]

HSBC just rang me up, inviting me in for an "individual review" sounds more like withdrawal of my interest free overdraft to me. funny how they get someone who speaks very good English to talk to me when they want something, but the very opposite when i want somethings. Barclays here i come!!

 

[nigs]

Do those of us that work for HSBC a favour - make sure you register a formal complaint about the poor telephone service. We're just as pissed off as everyone else with services being moved out to India, China, Middle East, South America etc. etc. :bang: :bang: :bang:

If you do decide to move your account, then make sure you let them know exactly why. As a employee I have to bank with them - sometimes I wish I could move my account, but then I look around and see everyone else has the same 'service' standards (if not worse).

 

[Samster]

Oh dear. Sorry gang, you can blame me ...................I've sold outsourcing services for menial, support and development activities to banks and others for years now, I don't really see why a business shouldn't be able to utilise areas of the globe where labour costs are significantly cheaper..............Currently we use two 'nearshore' centres in the Czech Republic as well as purpose built centres in India and Israel.

I've just sold the concept of a 'Managed Lab' to a big UK Product company. The work involves co-product development and extensive test and product release validation, it will be conducted out of Mumbai, India and will reduce their annual R&D spend by 5million per annum, will allow their skilled staff in the UK to concentrate on more important tasks (which actually aids their staff retention) and they get the right to own the centre and all the Indians that work within it at the end of the project..............

It's a very competitive and very big world out there nowadays - this is the way it's going.

The only bank who have stipulated that they will never be interested in any kind of proposition along these lines is the Co-Operative bank. So there's your answer, move to them as they are soon to be the only 'ethical' bank left. Bear in mind that they've only got about 20 branches nationally though!

My calls to the bank are routed offshore and I don't have a problem with the communication skills of the operators, just takes a short while for your ear to 'tune in' to them...........

Petitions outside banks by workers and letters and threats to move bank won't do a lot - if they are shown a way of improving their bottom line significantly they'll go for it.

 

[Moggy]

I've been with Lloyds for years. Never had a problem, even have a contact in the local branch who I can speak to when I want.

They also called me when I bought my BB to confirm that it was my transaction.

 

[birdinflight]

Interesting replies here............

Nigs...........Yes I went into a branch today and complained, they gave me a leaflet to show how to go about it.

Samster..........sorry but I spent nearly 10 mins on the phone trying to make her understand. I am paying for that call, not much I know, but that is not the point.

A bank should offer a service to their customers that is reliable, effective, helpful, and above all sorts out the problem.

She could not grasp anything of my problem, could not understand that Orange was a mobile phone operator, could not understand why it wasn't on my statement. The problem was not that I did not understand her, quite the opposite. If they have no knowledge of Uk life, like other bank names, telephone operators, utilities etc then how are they supposed to help the average person on the street??

I speak perfectly good english, I am clear and concise, but I was not going to waste another 10 mins having to explain the english phone system.

If the cooperative bank offer an english telephone banking system and everything else that I expect from my bank then I shall move to them.

Yes, it might be cost effective etc etc to utilize labour from another country but not at the expense of customers.

I seem to remember an enourmous amount of staff being laid off due to foreign call centres. And if its so good, then why do Nigs and the rest of the HSBC staff and the ones I spoke to today in my local branch seem so pissed off with the whole thing???

 

[nigs]

It's not the whole out-sorcing thing that winds us up, it's the reduction in quality where it matters.

I personally am not against removing low value / high cost basic processing into centres where it can be done more effectively. In fact I was involved in a project that migrated basic data input out to the Far East. The stats actually prove that this increased quality substantially.

The problem comes when you try to fit this model to everything. When people in the UK have worked bloody hard on improving customer service the last thing we want to see is this being eroded by poor communication skills, because the front line support services are being shipped out to countries where English is a second language. I could go into facts and figures here, but not the right forum to do so. Don't know who is out there reading this!!!

Some of the 'problems' have been very amusing though. As you know, just about all call centres record calls. One of these has been used in training. It went something along the lines of:
Rep "Can you give me the account number please"
Customer - "Can you bare with me"
Rep "You have a bear with you in England" (this was followed by a whisper to a colleague - "they have bears")

The rep thought that caller had a real live bear in the room with her. You can just imagine that the whole call centre thinks that the UK's favourite pet isn't the modest cat or dag, but a bear!! :}

That's the rant of the day over with $%3un

 

[cianocarroll125]

I think they (the big banks) should take a look at how jaws treats his customers!! (commission now mate!)

seriously tho, have you ever heard that fella on radio two in the afternoon going on about how much they screw you over, and what you can do to get your own back, its not hard now to change banks anymore, some even give you 50 quid to do it, think thats natwest. also goes on about "rate whores" those people who get a 0% credit card transfer a balance and then cancel it when its paid off, like me!! you gotta get your own back, they make millions of pounds out of us every day, so why not play them at their own game?