On Sunday 31 May 2009, Dinesh Joshi wrote:
On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 3:30 AM, jtd jtd@mtnl.net.in wrote:
I had a spat with HSBC (one of the worst disorganisations i have ever come across in my entire life anywhere in the world - and i have been to some real hell holes), on precisely this issue, where they tried to charge me late payment charges inspite of payment being made on time, then reversing the charge, but not the tax because they had paid the tax. Told them that they have to claim a refund, cause they cannot charge me tax on an amount that i have never paid. It is ILLEGAL.
What does HSBC have that SBI or any other nationalized bank doesn't? These private banks are a bunch of ********* and are out to rip you off :)
One of the HSBC cards was fraudulently transacted with. The fraud happened because attempts to block via their call center were futile as the call center was non functionaI during that period. I duly registered a police plaint and informed HSBC, and asked HSBC by fax to chennai backend (the local Mumbai zombie alongwith the rest of their Mumbai office promptly forgot about the fax ) to provide the receipts of the transactions and the addresses of the establishments where the transactions took place. Chennai backend verbally informs that it will take 40 days. No written reply till date (10 months later).
As the amounts were substantial, I begin investigating my self, with substantial support from our very hard pressed police. The transactions were traced to Madan Jewellers and Subhiksha, both in zaveri bazar area. You can imagine my shock when the jeweller produced a letter from AXIS Bank (owner of the POS) stating that the transactions were reversed as it was a fraud. So HSBC had reversed the transactions about two months after the fraud. Subhkisha had wound up in the meantime. However the winding up was two months AFTER the jeweller transaction reversal. I am more than sure that the same reversal would have been done with Subhiksha. The POS receipt I obtained from the jeweller has a signature which is utterly different from the sig on the card.
AND HSBC continues to bill me for the entire amount + interest + late payment and threaten me. Ofcourse I have bluntly refused to pay anything and might take them to court. They havent provided the signed counter slip till date.
If any one of you have had to pay on a fraud make sure you obtain the original receipt from the bank and visit the concerned establishment. The bank is worse than the badabhais they hire, illegally collecting money from both ends.
To me it looks like the bank and the recovery dept employees are on the take and recieve bribes on recovery leads they provide to the recovery agents. I cant believe that their call centers are so disconnected from their backends and recovery processes.