HSBC Bank

If I can give them no stars I would. Their business practices, if not illegal is definitely unethical. Due to my balance, HSBC upgraded my account to some sort of premium status account without notifying me. This account requires a higher minimum balance and once I fall under this amount I would unknowingly be charged ridiculous fees. Keep in mind I barely met the minimum balance requirement. No one can tell me why this account was upgraded without my authorization and no one can find papers or recordings of me authorization this change. I’m chalking this up to one of those bad bank practices of «hoping he won’t notice until it is too late» schemes. Well I noticed and I’m taking any/​all actions available to me to enlighten others not to bank with HSBC. After calling customer service to have all my accounts closed, I was informed that the changes were made by one of 2 people who entered my account recently. Raj Chauhan and Gloria K Wong in the Forest Hills branch of HSBC.

I really wanted to review the bank as a whole and not an individual branch. I have been a customer for a number of years. I visited mostly the branch at the corner of Queens Blvd and Yellowstone, now closed. I agreed with the other reviewers about how slow the tellers are. Overall, the staff at this branch and the one closed were not always very knowledgeable about their job. They can’t explain things clearly. They don’t care and they have no integrity in their work.
The main reason for my review is the customer service at their call center. I have called them on a number of occasions (too many in my book). Once they actually changed my checking account type without my permission. The banks are huge empires now, totally impersonal. I can’t even find local branch number online anymore. Everything is the toll-​free number.
Call center is not even in the states. I have tried on many occasions to have them remove my name from the branch and corporate office mailing list. They can’t do it! All they want to do is transfer my call. Why? You are the customer service center. Get on the computer and do so! I was so upset I ended up cursing out the representative which is so unlike me. I am pulling my money out of this bank as soon as possible. I was so upset I immediately found another bank when I got off the phone.
I advise everyone to look for a local community bank if possible. Support your local banks. They may not be fancy, but they have all the basic services you need. You see a real person who can help you. My very first bank was a local bank. Huge difference in service. Nothing like this HSBC nightmare. Every time I had to call them my blood pressure goes up. They train their staff so poorly. Many of them don’t know what they’re doing. If I could give a zero star I would. Good riddance!

What was suppose to be a simple financial task became one nightmare disaster. The financial adviser adamantly demanded to see proper photo identification and then blurted an assortment of disarray thoughts not concrete statements that are beneficial to my situation. After sitting down with this financial adviser for mere moments, I was appalled to be slapped with this woman (Angela C.) who bluntly blurted out «for someone like you born in 19XX» has discouraged me from furthering my financial options available at HSBC.
Can I See Some ID?
Urban decay does not produce the best lighting
All the while doubting the authenticity of my DOB to match my face
Oh come hither stare, baffled to glare at my facial composition that I am of my age
How my luck reeks to be carded
Here, there wherever I go (even at a bank)
Stop glaring at me
Yes, we Asians hide our age gracefully
As the disrespectful woman continue to ramble on and on in her failing attempt to salvage the confrontation when I probe further with «what is available that you do offer? Can you describe that to me rather than focus on my age? Can you tell me what you have?» Suddenly she realized how annoyed and offended I was when I reached over her desk to grab my photo identification card retrieving it safely into my wallet. «I need to make a photocopy of it!!» Why should you make a photo copy of it when I am an existing clientele at your bank? If she only knew how disgusted I was with her excessive rude attitude by an annoyance amplifier to be magnified ten times in the mirror of this so-​called customer service. Ergo, this vile woman rambled on and on as I grew disgusted for my heart instructed my body to get up and literally walk out without further-​ado and not looking back.
Never cry for the person who hurts you… just smile and say: «Thanks for giving me a chance to find someone BETTER than you.»

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. I WAS THERE with my brother and we were closing out my mom’s accounts as she passed. Talk about rude. They were so incompetent and just b/​c I was anxious about the whole thing and acted nervous (didn’t do anything rude) the woman told me I had to «calm down» knowing I am there to close out my dead mother’s accounts. And they had no clue what they were doing and I had do go to another woman named Angela re: my mom’s HSBC IRA account; I couldn’t get a check for that b/​c she said she couldn’t find the folder. A week later I have not heard from them re; the IRA account. I just called and left a message. Ridiculous.

This is the slowest bank I have EVER been to!!! They only have two tellers, one in commercial, and a regular teller. They also have two people at the information desk. I NEVER see anyone approach the information desk so they are better off being tellers! I once waited 45 minutes in a line with 6 people in front of me because there was only one teller, the other one went to lunch. Man, everyone was complaining! Farrah, one of the tellers who has been there for years says the branch always asks for more employees but HSBC prefers to short staff them to save money. Apparently YOUR time is worth nothing to them! I’m thinking about switching banks, one that starts with T and ends in D!

I forgot to mention one more thing, they finally got pens for the deposit/​withdrawal slips! That desk was empty for months! But this still doesn’t make up for their lousy customer service.