The history of my case goes like this.

I requested for a balance transfer from HSBC towards my CITIBANK credit card in the month of November-2008.

The request was raised on Nov-04-2008 (as per the statement) for an amount of 22, 000.00 INR for six months plan.

The same amount was debited (along with the processing fee and the eligible taxes) onto my card.

The check for the mentioned amount was issued in the name of my CITI card as per HSBC updates, but the amount never got credited to my CITI account.

Still, as a faithful customer, I made 2 consecutive payments of 2K each, hoping that amount would be credited to CITI account.

As a result of my sincerity, I was being charged by both, HSBC and CITI, so I made the payment of total outstanding on CITI and I stopped making further payments on HSBC, as the amount in question was never used by me. I made several calls to HSBC reporting the situation, but all in vain. Pissed off with the situation, I stopped ma, king calls, hoping that after some 3 or 6 months, the check would automatically get cancelled, and HSBC will have their money with them. Meanwhile, I kept getting calls from their collections department who kept asking for payment towards the outstanding, on which even a fat interest had accrued. I again took time and pain in explaining the situation to them to which they assured me of appropriate response and resolution.

Now, after almost 9 months of this torture, I'm being tortured even worse by HSBC's recovery department, who (some guy named Tarun) are threatening me of legal actions, in case I fail to pay the sum.
So, in summary, I'm being traumatized to pay a hefty sum of around 17K as the settlement amount, post which, I'll be issued a settlement letter, and will be barred from any further relationship with the bank ever in future.

For me, the total comes almost close to 22K (as I've already paid 4K), which I've never used, and, I'm deemed guilty and punished 'no future relationship' (though it should be reverse instead) without even utilizing a single penny.

I would like to mention that I’m sick of the pathetic and ridiculous services of HSBC's multiple departments (customer care, collections, recovery), and I'm strongly going to publicize the bad treatment that I've been subjected to by HSBC.

I'd request all the people to think atleast a 100 times before getting lured into any of the HSBC's credit card services and products as I myself have had enough tortures and harrassments for all my life times.