More HSBC Drama

Let me just clarify a few things in regards to HSBC. I misread the FAQ's on the HSBC site in regards to the fees for bank transfers. This is what their site says:

*No transaction fees if you transfer money into your HSBC accounts from your non-HSBC accounts
*A $3.00 transaction fee will be charged for each outbound transfer from your HSBC accounts to your non-HSBC accounts

At that point I had stopped reading because I was ranting and raving about the $3 fee. If I had maintained my compusure and continued reading the line below, I would have seen this:

*No transaction fees will be charged for HSBC OnlineSavings, Domestic Private Banking or HSBC Premier customers .

Now, tell me, does it make sense to have this on a whole separate line. If I were writing these FAQs I would have written it like this:

A $3.00 transaction fee will be charged for each outbound transfer from your HSBC accounts to your non-HSBC accounts (No transaction fees will be charged for HSBC OnlineSavings, Domestic Private Banking or HSBC Premier customers ).

This would imply that the 2nd and 3rd bullet points are related. Or better yet:

A $3.00 transaction fee will be charged for each outbound transfer from your HSBC accounts to your non-HSBC accounts*

And then a little note at the bottom explaining the conditions of who pays and who does not. I mean, its really not that important but it would have saved me the heart attack.

In other HSBC news, I still have not received the PIN number they were supposed to send me a month ago. I called them again to see what the deal was and of course, it was more drama. After explaining to them that I had not received the PIN and that they had sent it to the wrong place before he said that he could not send me another PIN number because I recently had a change of address. "UMMM? No, I never changed my address. You merely sent it to the wrong address before." He said yes, he could see that in my file but that he couldn't send it to me because of the problem and I would have to fill out some form and fax it back to them to request a PIN change. At this point, I lost it. I normally try to be a courteous calm and collected person but if I have to call any customer service place 3 times to solve a problem, my nerves get worn a little bit thin.

So after explaining to him that I didn't have time for this nonsense I told him I would simply like to cancel my account. He then informed me that I could cancel my account if I would like, but since I had not had my account for more than 6 months I would be charged $25 to close the account. My pissed-o-meter was through the roof at that point and I told him that I wanted to talk to his boss. He insisted that his boss wasn't going to tell me anything different and that it would be a waste of my time to talk to him. Of course, I insisted on talking to him anyways and after waiting on hold for 5 more minutes his boss came on the line and told me he would overwrite the system so that a new PIN would be sent to me.

Now, let me ask you this. Why do I always have to be at my breaking point before they figure out how to solve a problem, i.e. the lady that told me there was no way I could fix my user name and password until I received my PIN until I insisted that she fix it and this turdball who insisted there was no way for me to get a new PIN without filling out some form and faxing it back to them. I don't like to be that crazy lunatic customer but by golly if they aren't going to get it done without me losing my cool, then thats not my problem.

We'll see if I stick with HSBC or not. At this point I have so much time and energy invested into this process that I might as well take advantage of the higher interest rates that they are offering. Both ING and HSBC raised their rates but HSBC's are still .5% higher than ING's but I have become quite attached to my drama-less banking at ING.