Bank Service

Guildford

Marketing material says "we care, service is everything to us". Staff say "it is against the rules to help you".

I asked my Haslemere based "personal HSBC Premier account manager" this afternoon if he would copy my passport and certify it and he asked if it was it to purchase an HSBC product. "No" I said. "No" he said. I explained it would only take him one minute to photocopy the passport and sign the copy as true. Yes he knew, but he was refusing because it is HSBC policy only to certify documents directly connected with the sale of HSBC products.

I crossed the road to Barclays, where I don't bank, and they agreed immediately (took them a minute).

I will be closing my account, but I somehow I feel HSBC don't care.

System

You want a bank that cares?!
Good luck finding one.

Guildford wrote: »

Marketing material says "we care, service is everything to us". Staff say "it is against the rules to help you".

I asked my Haslemere based "personal HSBC Premier account manager" this afternoon if he would copy my passport and certify it and he asked if it was it to purchase an HSBC product. "No" I said. "No" he said. I explained it would only take him one minute to photocopy the passport and sign the copy as true. Yes he knew, but he was refusing because it is HSBC policy only to certify documents directly connected with the sale of HSBC products.

I crossed the road to Barclays, where I don't bank, and they agreed immediately (took them a minute).

I will be closing my account, but I somehow I feel HSBC don't care.

[Deleted User]

My bet is that it was probably his personal policy, and that if it WAS connected to purchasing an HSBC product for you, he'd happily put the application through for you to earn the commission on it himself.

javidotpro

Exactly, I want a company who cares if the capital is not much.
Sorry i dont like HSBC
How about Building Society whats is the different?

jonesMUFCforever

If and its a big IF the signed passport had been used in any kind of fraudelent application guess who would be in trouble - yes the HSBC employee.
I can't believe that Barclays signed your document if you were not an account holder. If so I would be worried about banking with them!

Goldiegirl

It seems a lot of people's definition of good service is

'The bank does exactly what I want, when I want it, and bends the rules every time I demand it'

If a request has to be declined as it is against policy or simply not do-able, it becomes 'bad service'

pinkdalek

Guildford wrote: »

Marketing material says "we care, service is everything to us". Staff say "it is against the rules to help you".

I asked my Haslemere based "personal HSBC Premier account manager" this afternoon if he would copy my passport and certify it and he asked if it was it to purchase an HSBC product. "No" I said. "No" he said. I explained it would only take him one minute to photocopy the passport and sign the copy as true. Yes he knew, but he was refusing because it is HSBC policy only to certify documents directly connected with the sale of HSBC products.

I crossed the road to Barclays, where I don't bank, and they agreed immediately (took them a minute).

I will be closing my account, but I somehow I feel HSBC don't care.

Perhaps they should have done it and charged you for the privilege.
Hardly bad service if a company won't do something just because it doesn't suit you. Did you pick your dummy up on the way out after you'd spat it out?

nidO

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

If and its a big IF the signed passport had been used in any kind of fraudelent application guess who would be in trouble - yes the HSBC employee.
I can't believe that Barclays signed your document if you were not an account holder. If so I would be worried about banking with them!

Why exactly? A certified copy is exactly that, its a professional person copying a document and certifying that the resulting copy is a true copy of the original.
There's no certification that the document is owned by the person getting it certified, is a real document, is being used for legitimate purposes, or any other "liability", it's purely a certification that the copy is the same as the original, which the person certifying knows, because they're the one who copied it.

This is something commonly done on request by banks and solicitors to be helpful, and there's no fallout back to HSBC regardless of what the copy is then used for.

JuicyJesus

nidO wrote: »

There's no certification that the document is owned by the person getting it certified, is a real document, is being used for legitimate purposes, or any other "liability"

Actually that's exactly what they're certifying. Why else would you want a copy verified if you don't want it confirmed that it's a genuine copy of a real document owned by the holder?

Mr_K

My HSBC Premier Manager never contacted me when they offered this pointless snob gimmick free for a while. Presumably because I'd opted out of marketing, which shows what they are really about.

Never mind though, as a Premier customer you can benefit from 0.08% on the Flexible Saver account instead of the 0.04% the plebs get . Party on !

nidO

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Actually that's exactly what they're certifying. Why else would you want a copy verified if you don't want it confirmed that it's a genuine copy of a real document owned by the holder?

To confirm it's a certified copy. Not a certified copy owned by the holder, or a certified copy of a legitimate document, or anything else other than a certified copy.
Anyone that thinks that a certified copy of a document is a certified legitimate document is deluding themselves, when you need a certified copy it's simply so that you can send the copy of the document to whoever asked for it instead of the original, with certification that the copy is THE SAME as the original.
The onus is still wholly and entirely down to the person receiving the copy (or original) that the document is legitimate and owned by the person who sent it.