HSBC reluctant to pay me money they owe me

EdwardAlexander

Hopefully this won't take too long, I've had to repeat this story countless times now!

A week ago (16/11) I was trying to buy a flight ticket from Hong Kong to Australia through a travel agent I found on the Internet, after an hour of searching for a good flight, I eventually found one and got through to the payment page, put in the details of my credit card and pressed pay. I was a little worried as the website didn't give me a summary of what I was buying before I pressed pay and I was doing this on my iPad on a very iPad unfriendly website. Straight after pressing pay it told be I'd booked a flight for the wrong days. The flight was around £800, so I was swearing quite a bit, but I didn't receive an email from the travel agency straight away, which I've found you usually do, so I called HSBC about 5 minutes later and spoke to a customer service agent who told me the payment had not gone through because "I hadn't set up Verified By Visa." I asked him at least 4 times to make sure that the payment hadn't gone through, wouldn't go through later, tomorrow or ever and he assured me it wouldn't. Relieved, I bought the correct ticket, this time with a different travel agent and thought nothing of it.

Over 24 hours later (17/11) I received an email from the first travel agency telling me that the flight had been confirmed and the payment had gone through. I called HSBC to ask what had happened and they told me that the payment had gone through and there was nothing they could do about it now. I checked the travel agency's website as their customer service phone line was closed, and it told me on the FAQs that if I had cancelled the flight before receiving the flight conformation email I wouldn't face a cancellation charge. Obviously if I had been given the correct information by HSBC I would have cancelled the flight and wouldn't have to pay any money. I managed to speak to the travel agent's customer service the next day and they told I'd have to pay around £400 cancellation fee. I did cancel the flight and actually had to pay an extra £400 and was told I'd receive the original payment in a months time. I was really angry that I had been given completely the wrong information by the HSBC customer service.

I spent the next 4 days making 8 different phone calls to HSBC explaining the situation. They were very unhelpful, kept referring me to the wrong departments and twice told me that a manager would call me at a specified time, I took time out of my busy schedule to take the calls, but both times he did not.

I called again and made it clear I was making a complaint against the man who gave me completely incorrect information which resulting in me losing £400 and demanded to speak to a manager on that call. I was able to speak to the customer service manager who told me he would investigate, listen to the phone call and call me back the next day with news.

He called me the next day and told me I was correct, and that it was the customer service's mistake, but that it was the first time this had ever happened and he wasn't sure what to do. He asked me what I wanted to happen, and I told him that obviously I wanted the money back. He told me that he would call me the next day to tell me what could happen.

He called me and told me that there was no way he could give me the money and could only offer me credit card points which I could use for supermarket vouchers or some other stuff I'd have no use for. He suggested that the points were equivalent to money, I argued that they were not at all equivalent and they certainly couldn't pay my rent. I told him that it wasn't acceptable and that I wanted my money back, he then told me that he could perhaps do something - changing his story that it was impossible. He told me to check the HSBC website to see if there was anything I'd want to buy with the credit card points. He also told me that he needed to see the email the travel agent had sent me, but that he couldn't receive emails from outside his office and that I'd have to send it by post. We decided he would call me in about a week after he received my email by post.

Today, I sent the email to him by post and then got another call from him asking me if I had time to look at their website to see if I had seen anything I wanted to buy with the credit card points, I hadn't had time, but he did suggest I might want to buy an induction cooker with the points :eek:. I told him I doubted there was anything I wanted and that I just wanted the money back. I also said that he didn't need to call me again until he received my email in the post.

I have since checked their website, and there really is nothing I would want at all.

Basically I want to know if I have any rights as far as demanding I get my money back. I feel as if he is going to call me everyday asking if I want to buy any of the rubbish with the credit card points. He told me it would be very difficult for him to get the money back and would take a very long time. Should I demand to speak to someone higher?

Hopefully you understand what everything, sorry it's so long.

[Deleted User]

I can't see HSBC giving you your money back.

You should have taken it up directly with the supplier at the time to confirm if payment had beeen taken and to cancel, particularly as you had confirmation on screen that it had been booked.

Marcio45

Hi edward. That is a big mess from hsbc.
What probably happened is that you booked your flight through an agent that doesnt actually book it in real time.
They take your details and payment info and them book it manually for you and then send you confirmation. I had booking like that before. And sometimes they come back to you saying there has been an increase in price and if you want to proceed.
If that was the case maybee the payment wasnt processed straight away but done later manually by your travel agent. In this case it wouldnt really be hsbc's fault. But as you say they did give you wrong info.
Good luck