The MOST VILE MORTGAGE (dis)SERVICE COMPANY IN THE COUNTRY
Written: Mar 17 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: NOTHING
Cons: Rude customer service & limited communication options, chronic payment posting errors
The Bottom Line: RUN AWAY! Rude customer service, chronic errors and lag with payment processing, inconvenient communication options, poorly integrated company & "family" of companies
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| paixjustice's Full Review: HSBC Bank USA |
If you'd like a company that has convenient customer service interfaces, professional and courteous customer service agents, a well managed financial database, and a history of accurately and quickly updating accounts, then DON'T GO TO HSBC.
I knew something was up when the month after they bought my mortgage, they began calling me TEN DAYS BEFORE the payment was due. I'd never made a late payment with my previous mortgage holders, and as I was a new HSBC acquisition, I certainly hadn't been late with them. Nevertheless, they hounded me, every month each of the ten days prior to when the payment was due. I'm a teacher who gets paid very little twice a month, and I make my payments WHEN they are due because that is when I get paid. That's a simple concept, which HSBC seems not to get.
They also seem to have difficulties with recording payments. After their monthly harassment got on my nerves, I decided to try a little experiment. I wanted to see how long it took them to process payments. So, in December I sent my payment via USPS with delivery confirmation. My payment was received on the 9th (my payments must be received by the 11th). Yet, HSBC charged me a late fee (and the check didn't post to my account until the 13th).
In January, I decided to hand-deliver my payment to the HSBC branch in Seattle, because - silly me - I thought that an HSBC banking branch could accept HSBC mortgage payments. Apparently not.
First, the "branch" was little more than a corporate office tucked into a corner of some downtown skyscraper. Second, in spite of the posters in the office advertising HSBC mortgage products and inviting the reader to talk to the office personnel about said products, the office was not set up to accept and process mortgage payments. After making me wait almost FIFTEEN minutes for this information (there were NO other customers in the office at the time), they sent me to another office across town.
When I arrived at the other office, I discovered that it wasn't even an HSBC office. It was an HFC office - a subsidiary of HSBC - which, shocker, could not process my payment either. At this point, I was beyond livid. But the branch manager, August, was very kind and said that he would overnight my payment for me, call HSBC and make a note in my account so that I would not be charged a late fee. I later spoke to a "Customer Care" rep at HSBC, told her all of this, and she also assured me that she was notating my account so that no late fee would be charged. But guess what? Yep, I was charged a late fee.
Skipping ahead to this month, I reverted to mailing a check (HSBC has an online payment option, but charge $10 for the privilege, which IMHO is ridiculous since it's cheaper for a company to accept electronic payments than it is to process checks, but I digress). I sent it on the fifth, and they must have received it on the 8th, because it posted to my checking account on the 9th. And that's when I discovered that, for the first time in my check writing history (seriously), I wrote the correct amount in the dollar box, but didn't transcribe the full amount in the handwritten portion. Completely and totally MY BAD. My bank only paid the amount that was handwritten, which was less than the amount in the dollar box.
So I logged into my account to make a payment to correct my mistake, only to discover that HSBC Mortgage (dis)Service had not posted the payment to my account AT ALL. At about this time, my phone died and work reached a fever pitch (keeping me away from my desk and work phone), so the only way I could communicate with HSBC was by email. Unfortunately, unlike every other mortgage company or banking institution I have EVER worked with, HSBC Mortgage (dis)Service does not offer an email option - only phone and snail mail. So, I drafted a letter and kept logging into my account to see if anything had been updated. When I realized it wasn't being updated, I decided to arrange a payment via my bank's bill pay feature, because they have NEVER lost any of my payments (the remainder payment posted to my account on the 14th).
When I finally got my phone working again, I called the Customer "Care" line. But since one has to sit through five minutes of menu options before actually getting to speak to a human being, I had to cut the call short (the work fever pitch was intense all last week, as it was the end of the term). I sent the letter by fax to HSBC instead.
This morning, I got a call from HSBC, which I had hoped would have addressed my concerns in my fax. But no, it was Mary Beth Pua from Customer "Care" calling to ask me where my payments were. I was annoyed, but civil, at least the first two times I explained all of this to her. But Methusalah, I am not, so when she tried a THIRD TIME to tell me that I needed to make a payment today, I got cranky.
She then took another (deeper?) look at her computer and discovered that I had "floating money" in the amount of my erroneous check assigned to my account. What the heck is "floating money?" Sounds a lot like an HSBC Morgage (dis)Service fiction to me, and I told her as much. A bank worthy of the name posts any monies received as a PAYMENT and at least updates its records so that if the payment is short, the customer (you know, that hapless pawn the bank allegedly cares so much about) can make corrections. Not only is that good business, it's commonsense. But not to HSBC.
So, Ms. Pua said that she was "making a notation" on my account and would now transfer me over to Customer Care. What?! Who the heck was she, if not Customer "Care?" She didn't answer that. Instead, she asked me to hold while she transferred me. But she didn't put me on hold, and she didn't transfer me. SHE HUNG UP ON ME!
I'm at my wit's end. In addition to writing this review, I plan to write letters to the House Committee on Financial Services, my state and federal representatives and yet another letter to HSBC (though the latter, I doubt will do anything if their previous performance is any indication).
Basically, if you'd like a conscientious, convenient & courteous experience with a mortgage company, DON'T CHOOSE HSBC. If, like me, you had no choice because they bought your mortgage from another company, do whatever you can to refinance with a different company. That's certainly what I plan to do.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
paixjustice
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 1 member
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