HSBC - Awesome start to the New Year (not)

[Dibs-h]

Happy New Year to folks here.

On with the tale:

Having my usual coffee this morning before setting off for work. A small pop up in the bottom right corner from facebook says "A new friend suggestion", so out of curiosity I click it. Nothing of interest but I notice a have a ton of notifications, so I click on them. Most are the usual but the most recent one catches my eye - from someone who's shares absolutely nothing in common, no friends or groups.

Him - "I'm sorry for bothering you but I've been receiving bank letters for a company in West Yorkshire listing you as director at Companies House. This isn't a phishing or other scam I promise."

This got me interested so,

me - "Apologies for the delay. The first name of the company is XXXXX. What bank are the letters from?"

him - "HSBC"

Now he'd got the bank correct - lucky maybe. 1 in about 5 chance.

me - "What address are these letters coming to?"

him - gives me a full address in Northampton.

me - "What kind of bank letters?"

him - "Bank Statements."

He's got my attention fully at this point.

me - "Does this account have any money in it?"

him - he quotes me a figure which is very plausible.

Then he sends me a picture of a bank statement with my sort code and account nbr. Spot on.

I'm still dubious but thank him and say I'll be in touch. He says he's a Ltd Director and wouldn't want this to happen to him. So leave it there.

I ring the bank, get through security and ask them to confirm my address. It's a bloomin Northampton address!! Got that changed. They couldn't tell me when it was changed, by whom or how, but May 2017 seems likely for when it was changed. Did go thru all the transactions - nothing amiss yet.

Asked for no address\signatory changes to be allowed over the phone, etc., must visit the branch in person. Got a - "Sorry sir we can't do that. if you pass security, we will follow your instructions."

Apparently it's now with their Complaints Team and will take at least 5 working days before I hear anything back.

They offered to disable telephone banking, but then the Complaints Team wouldn't be able to call me, only write. Or completely disable the account. Chocolate teapot springs to mind.

Then I rang the Personal Banking line to make sure nothing suspicious was going on there - the address was correct. Somehow the person transferred me to a Business Banking chap who appeared to take things more seriously and said he would look into making sure address and other changes couldn't take place without a branch visit and ring me back today and let me know what they could do. I did mention that should this not be possible, I would be looking to close all my accounts and move to a bank that could do that - given if someone was able to get in touch with them , change the address - how long before we were having conversations about accounts with £0 in them.

I did login elsewhere in "officialdom" where I could and check that my "details" were correct.

The Facebook guy at the end did say, he had tried to drop them off at the local HSBC branch and tell them that the details were but there weren't interested. That's worrying. He also offered to shred them or post them on and for me to let him know.

Got to applaud the guy - doing the right thing. Kinda helps keep (what little exists) faith in humanity.

Yes - were I a "check every little bit of post every day" kind of person (not that there's anything wrong with thos folk), I would have spottted it sooner.

Dibs

 

[Droogs]

A disturbing tale indeed, especially their in-branch staff's indifference. Well done to the other chap and thanks for sharing this, shall keep an eye on the frequency of my bank mail now

 

[Rorschach]

All very strange indeed. Luckily it went to an honest fellow though I am not sure he could have done much damage just by receiving the statements, otherwise there would be people nicking your post all the time. The fact he went into a branch though and they didn't care doesn't fill me with confidence, were I a bank clerk and someone came in and told me this I would at the very least report it to the branch manager.

 

[Dibs-h]

I was wondering what could they do with them. Blagg their way thru telephone banking security springs to mind as you could rattle off all the transactions for the last 6 months. Plus have the public information from Companies house.

Then something else came to mind - if you have regular clients\work, the BACS payment reference would most likely give away who the payee was. I have heard\read of instances where scammers have got in touch with them asking them to pay into a different\temporary account nbr. Effectively "hijacked" company, albeit in the financial sense.

Yes - very fortunate it went to a honest fellow. Although I am treating it as if it didn't, i.e. checking nothing is amiss and no clients\customers have been asked to pay elsewhere.

Dibs

 

[--Tom--]

If you wanted to get to the bottom of it, a subject access request under data protection act specifically requesting for copies of all call transcripts and communications relating to all of the accounts you hold may shed some light. You'd have to pay an admin fee of about £10-15 (negligible compared with their cost of getting you that information). Citing principle 4 of the DPA may make them look a bit harder.

 

[Dibs-h]

If you wanted to get to the bottom of it, a subject access request under data protection act specifically requesting for copies of all call transcripts and communications relating to all of the accounts you hold may shed some light. You'd have to pay an admin fee of about £10-15 (negligible compared with their cost of getting you that information). Citing principle 4 of the DPA may make them look a bit harder.

Cheers for that Tom, I'll bear that in mind.

I'm hoping given that currently there has been "unauthorised" activity on the account, i.e. change of address and diversion of statements they'll be co-operating and not providing a BS explanation like "well, you must have asked for it to be changed.

If it comes down to BS - there's always your suggestion and the ombudsman.

Just a waiting game at the moment.

Dibs

 

[Flynnwood]

What Tom said:

I wish to make a Subject Access Request as per relevant sections of the Data Protection Act for copies held by you in relation to my account, including but not limited to, all data, statements and any correspondence (electronic or otherwise) received or issued regarding the account.

In addition, I wish to;

• be told whether any personal data is being processed;
• be given a description of the personal data, the reasons it is being processed, and whether it will be given to any other organisations or people;
• be given a copy of the information comprising the data; and
• be given details of the source of the data

I also request information about the reasoning behind any automated decisions that are / have been taken, such as a computer-generated decisions, in accordance with the above Act.

Please advise if you wish to charge the fee for supplying this information.

 

[Limey Lurker]

A somewhat similar thing happened to me a number of years ago. One month, my statement arrived OK, but I noticed that the address was wrong; it was addressed to a Northern town, but had my correct Postcode. Apparently, the Postcode system DOES work as it was supposed to! I went to the bank that day, and got it sorted.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Around May 25th this year it will get far harder for them to play slopey shoulders, when the General Data Protection Regulation comes into force in English law. Think Data Protection Act on steroids.

Dibs, I'm amazed you're taking it so calmly. I'd be incandescently angry. On the face of it, it seems like some internal error rather than something criminal, but it should be impossible.

 

[Dibs-h]

Around May 25th this year it will get far harder for them to play slopey shoulders, when the General Data Protection Regulation comes into force in English law. Think Data Protection Act on steroids.

Dibs, I'm amazed you're taking it so calmly. I'd be incandescently angry. On the face of it, it seems like some internal error rather than something criminal, but it should be impossible.

Eric

GDPR - don't get me started on that. LOL

On the current work gig - GDPR is being touted as x, y & z by folk who can barely spell GDPR. LOL

Getting too old for getting incandescent to be honest. I am erring towards it being a mistake as there are no "funny" transactions and the chap got in touch finally, so I can't see him being a scammer.

Waiting till Friday or early next week for when HSBC get in touch and explain themselves and then the **** in me will surface, all polite, professional but with a very sharp edge. LOL

You never know - might get a smallish amount of dosh for the inconvenience (tool spend LOL) out of it. Had money gone missing and I'd have had to deal with that, then no amount of "bribe" would have made me OK about it.

Dibs

 

[dickm]

Slightly lighter note - there was only one HSBC branch up here in Aberdeen. Then one day, got a letter from them saying that for my convenience, they were opening a new branch in High Street.....................
INVERNESS.
I guess geography isn't their subject. Still, makes a change from blasted RBS who just keep closing branches.

 

[Dibs-h]

Heard nothing all week and come downstairs today and there's some post (on a Sunday).

50 Quids worth of Love2Shop vouchers in a HSBC card with "Please accept this as an apology from HSBC".

Other than that - I'm none the wiser. No idea, how, why, when (other than approximately). Their 5 working days are up tomorrow - so we shall see.

Dibs

 

[Dibs-h]

Update: Rang them this morning on the way to the office. Apparently the £50 vouchers is an apology, for what I don't know yet but another letter should be waiting at home for me when I get home explaining something and the "complaint" is now marked as resolved.

What I did glean from the lady on the telephone, is 2 calls where made in May 2017. The 1st didn't involve any change to the address but the 2nd transferred to an internal team and the recording stops at that point, so it must have happened at that point. Nothing more is known.

How they've marked it as resolved I truly don't know.

As usefull as a chocolate teapot I reckon. Couldn't speak to the person who actually did "case" as she isn't in and no one seemed to know when she would be in.

Just doesn't get any better. :roll:

 

[Jonzjob]

HSBC = Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation.

A good while back I was talking to a bloke at a friend's party. I didn't know him and asked what he did for a living. He said that he was a manager for the HSBC. When I repplied "oh the Hongkong etc he was quite surprised that I knew what it stood for. I had banked with them when I was stationed in Singapore in the late 60s and they weren't frightened for people to know their proper name. It turned out that the staff were told not to tell any of the customers what HSBC stood for! A nice trust worthy way to conduct a business?

 

[Dibs-h]

Just got home and read the letter.

"I understand you called Business Telephone banking on 2 January 2018 to query why all your mail from us is being sent to an address in Liverpool."

The last word says it all - incompetent idiots. It was being sent to an address in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. Hardly next door to Liverpool you'd think.

They say there were 2 phone calls on 23 May 2017. My mobile records only show one, for almost 9 mins. They have that recorded and it was in relations to their safeguard crap - wanting extra info from customers.

Funnily enough "I can not locate the second call due to a system issue". Bit bloody convenient.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

I think I will be submitting a Subject Access Request as suggested by a few folk here in the next few days.

Dibs

 

[RogerS]

Dibs...your tale is all too resonant. I really have no idea why there are so many instances of this across the board. Not only with finance but utility companies such as EON. Are they understaffed? Are the staff so poorly chosen ? Or lack the intelligence to actually understand/follow-through/comprehend what they are doing Or is it that the staff simply couldn't care less ? Or too busy worrying about being snowflakes? Or desperate to check their Faecebook/Tweeter/InstantBanalGram/Grindr/Tinder/social-effing-waste-of-oxygen-media site ?

 

[lurker]

Although I have not had bank trouble, this is where a local branch occupied by folks that at least resemble humans can be challenged.
You cant blame the lower orders, but at least you can (with some dramatics) get to see a "manager".

Anyone who has worked for a large company knows the score: if you try to help, somewhere along the line you get your fingers burnt and sooner or later you stop caring and just tick the boxes. Or leave.

No customer services boss will say to the front line folks; "well done for using some common sense and sorting that"
It will be: " why did you spend 2.25 minutes more than allotted on that call" and "why did you veer away from your crib sheet".

 

[Phil Pascoe]

HSBC = Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation.
... It turned out that the staff were told not to tell any of the customers what HSBC stood for! A nice trust worthy way to conduct a business?

My wife worked for Midland/HSBC or thirty years and was not told that.

 

[Eric The Viking]

HSBC = Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation.
... It turned out that the staff were told not to tell any of the customers what HSBC stood for! A nice trust worthy way to conduct a business?

My wife worked for Midland/HSBC or thirty years and was not told that.

It obviously wasn't consistent: I've a friend of some 40+ years who's entire career was with Midland/HSBC, and was told something similar - I remember our conversations at the time.

I gave up on them when they were still Midland. I turned up at the counter to pay in a cheque with my new trading name on it (having already corresponded with the branch manager on the matter), only to be refused, with a queue of people behind me who could all overhear the exchange. They refused to check the account records when asked to verify what I was saying was correct.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

She and many others haven't a good word to say for HSBC - she got ther thirty year award and her redundancy in the same week. She works for Handelsbanken now - a slightly different kettle of fish. It's different when the people you're dealing with are paying fifty times what you're earning in tax - the care level is a bit different. :lol: