Oh heavens…. How did it get to be this time of night? I have been up since 5:30am and I still have a bucket load of work left on the ‘must-do’ list. Mind you, most of it is really fun work…. (I’ll leave the boring paperwork until tomorrow). And so I sit here, mug of coffee in hand, looking back on a day of challenges once again….
On Wonderful Wednesday, I commented on the financial establishments which I pray were not the choice of our deceased people. Yesterday, for some unaccountable reason, I chose to call Natwest, HSBC and NS&I all in one afternoon. What possessed me, I have no clue. However, two of the calls were extremely positive and resulted in the post I needed this morning. Having chased the Deputy Post Chief of FWL around the estate to claim our Special Delivery envelopes, I decided to brave the telephone for most of the day, one way or another and by far the most taxing was …. HSBC.
Ms HSBC Bereavement person answered the telephone and I immediately – having not received a call back as promised from a senior member of staff – ask to speak to a manager. “Can I help?” offers the lovely Ms HSBC. I reply, “Thank you but no”, though we go through security to verify my identity. “Let me just take a look at this case”, says Ms HSBC and without waiting for my reply, I am on hold for over 5 minutes.
By the time Ms HSBC has returned, I am somewhat infuriated having wasted over an hour yesterday. She gives me the same blather and false information as usual and so, I request – as I did initially – to be transferred to a manager. Not possible apparently and I am assured a call back before 5pm. Miraculously this does actually happen. However, it would be fair to say that an HSBC Bereavement Services Manager telling me about intestacy laws was somewhat laughable. Still failing to understand my position in the matter and giving me rather ludicrous responses to my questions, we finished the call with me being promised a call back from the Legal Team on Monday. We’ll see if that actually happens.
But seriously, why do I have to have the same problem every time with HSBC? It’s a waste of our time, energy, expertise and more. Train your staff properly and you might keep more of your customers. Mr E is long gone but I am sure he’ll be turning in his grave at how retentive you are being about releasing his funds to his children. Shame on you….
