Well I am both happy and shocked to learn of so many people who have complained against HSBC. I banked with HSBC in the UK for more than 10 years and never had a problem.In Dubai its been 5 years of hell with HSBC.The most recent events and staff attitudes shocking me to no end.

Both me and my husband have accounts, credit cards, a personal loan and overdraft facility with HSBC in Dubai and are status members. A couple of months ago he issued 2 cheques to a third party from his account.We had been told by our status advisor that when we issue chqs and it is deposited in a different back you have until 8.30am the next morning to make sure there are funds as the chq clears after this.My husband was travelling on the date the chq was due and the following 3 days were public holidays.He called HSBC from overseas at around 5pm after the bank had closed asking them if the chq had been presented as it would be in their system by then. He was told nothing had been deposited. He asked them was there any chance of it being deposited and ceared before the bank reopened and was told no because the bank is closed, it is after office hours and the next 3 days are public holidays by the central bank so the earliest would be when the bank reopens.

So we deposited enough funds for both chqs first thing in the morning on the day the bank reopened only to find out that by the end of the same day both cheques had bounced and we had been charged a service fee of 250dirhams for each returned chq.We went to see the status advisor the next morning only to find out he has been shifted to premier, is in the same building but cant meet with us. We meet with an indian lady who was perfectly polite to begin with but refused t admit that the bank was at fault. She told us that for the first chq we should have made sure funds were there before the holidays which we accepted however we also explained that he was travelling and called especially to check the status and also because the status advisor previously had told us the chqs are not cleared on the same day unless it is the same bank. She refused to accept this. Got extremely sarcastic and wewent round and round in circles for an hour with her refusing to take down our complaint and give us a complaint number! I told her that if we want to complain about anything it is our right to have an investigation and I also toldher I want them to listen to the call we had with the gentleman. She said for that we have to call the call centre as only they can listen to calls and she knows this because she used to work in the call centre (well bearing in mind we had already called the call centre the previous night and they said there had been a technical problem with their systems and had written a complaint thankfully and told me to vist the branch directly it was surprising she was telling us to go back to them! I thought they had all the facilities at the branch as the call centre always refer us to the branch. Also the call centres are based in India).

She did however eventually admit that she doesnt understand why the second chq bounced as funds were available and gave us a complaint no for that and told us she will be in touch. It is now 2 months since then and noone has even bothered to give us a single call regarding this matter. We also told her that we usually receive sms for all transactions which have gone on in the account which we have not been receiving for the last week. She said sms is a service from them which we should not rely on! Why offer a service that we cannot rely on?? We also told her that usually an incoming or returned chq reflects on our statement online. Now it is only showing the charges for returned chq not the incoming or returned chq details. She said that was before they have changed the format to make it more convenient for their customers!! Whats convenient about an inward clearing chq not showing on your bank statement??

Then the final straw came when I told her that 6 months ago we had signed a form with our previous status advisor to cancel our credit card payments being automatically taken from our account We wanted to pay them manually. The previous guy had cancelled the standing order and we had been paying manually for months until suddenly they started taking it from the account again without permission. This lady now told us you cannot pay manually if you have an account and REFUSED to believe that we had been paying it manually for over 6 months now (although its not difficult to check that from their systems right?? or so one would think). When I asked how is it possible we signed something to cancel the standing order how can they start it again without our permission or signature she shrugged her shoulders and said "THE BANK CAN DO ANYTHING"! I said are you serious??? She said yes the bank can do anything they want. I said can I record that on my phone and she was like sure go ahead. I said that if the bank can do anything should they not at least have the courtesy to write or email or phone us to tell us that these changes have been made to your account to which she replied no they dont have to! SImilar to the way they increase the status service charge from 75 dirhams to 200 dirhams without any notification!

So everyone please please beware of HSBC in DUBAI, or any branch in the UAE or in fact anywhere in the world. They are complete con artists. And dont forget "THE BANK CAN DO ANYTHING" and "THEY CAN MAKE ANY CHANGES WITHOUT HAVING TO INFORM THE CUSTOMER" and they can take any money from your account without your permission. And never expect your complaints to be taken seriously let alone solved. Telephone banking is a joke. Anything out of the ordinary and they cant help you. The branch is a joke. If you complain about anything their attitude changes. Teh kiosks are a useless "customer service" facility with 2 Filipina ladies sitting there looking pretty but unable to help with anythn outsde giving telephone numbers, filling in application forms and being extremely rude and rolling their eyes when a customer asks for info they cant give!