I bank with HSBC, have done for years (about 10). I have 1 Current Account, 1 Shared Current Account, 1 Savings Account & 2 Business Accounts & Up until recently, 1 Credit Card and a HSBC Loan. Sounds like i should be considered an important and faithful customer to my bank! Mostly it is fine... and they do help, but it's their inability to do anything outside of their disfunctional processes that really gets me.

I'm currently trying to move, have just had a mortgage approved (Halifax), the approval is subject to me clearing the balance of my CC card & my Loan - they were not a great deal. So i phoned the bank and told them that i wanted to pay them off, they took money from my savings a/c as instructed and they were cleared. As it was all within HSBC it was all immediate.

I then asked then to send me written acknowledgement that i have cleared these debts (so I could pass these on to Halifax). They said that they could not and that i'd need to wait for the end of the month and that it would show in my statement (4 weeks away)! I told them that my mortgage offer was at risk if this was not done and this could effect the whole chain.... instead of the guy on the phone saying "oh, ok, we'll sort this for you now chris" he says "have you thought about getting a mortgage with us" - I was so pissed-off!! talk about listening to your customer.

In the end (two weeks later and another 40mins on the phone), i eventually got the letter...

What's up with the banks?? What's happened to customer service??? It's all just bullshit and sales pitches.