HSBC

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Subject: Formal Complaint Regarding Unprofessional and Inappropriate Conduct by Supervisor Eric Li at HSBC Branch (1107 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA)

Dear HSBC Customer Relations,

I am writing to formally file a complaint regarding the unprofessional, inappropriate, and discriminatory conduct of Eric Li, a supervisor at your Arcadia, CA branch, located at 1107 S Baldwin Ave, Unit C, Arcadia, CA 91007, on December 24 and December 26, 2024.

Background

I have been a customer of HSBC for several months, using the account primarily for access to my funds when traveling abroad. On December 23, 2024, I received the disbursement of my personal loan into my HSBC account to avoid mixing these funds with my existing balance and other banks. I intended to withdraw $25,000 from my HSBC account.

On December 24, I visited the branch accompanied by a friend for safety reasons, as the amount I intended to withdraw was significant. However, I was immediately told by Eric Li that I was not permitted to withdraw that amount. I requested to wire the funds to another bank, but this request was met with unprofessional behavior and refusal.

Supervisor's Unprofessional Conduct

Initial Refusal and Rudeness: When I requested to wire the funds to a different bank, Eric Li became extremely rude. He began questioning why I had a friend with me, implying that it was suspicious for me to bring someone along. He also informed me that he would need to conduct an identity verification, which would take hours. I found this unreasonable, but I complied with his request.

Inordinate Delay and Refusal to Help: After 45 minutes, Eric returned with the completed verification but still refused to wire my funds or provide me with a cashier's check. His attitude remained dismissive, and he gave me the impression that he felt he could act with impunity. When I requested information for his supervisor, he refused to provide it, claiming he was the highest authority at HSBC, which I found to be both inaccurate and inappropriate.

Unwarranted and Invasive Questions: Throughout the interaction, Eric continued to pry into my personal life in a highly invasive manner. He interrogated me in front of others about my loan—an entirely private matter—and made me feel uncomfortable and embarrassed.

Accusations and Racial Remarks: Later, when I explained that the loan deposit was slightly less than the amount stated on my documentation (due to a loan origination fee), Eric accused me of fraud, publicly labeling me a money launderer. He continued to make inappropriate remarks, suggesting that I was involved in illegal activities. His questioning became increasingly discriminatory, making racist remarks indirectly targeted at my ethnicity. He even questioned why I was banking with HSBC, implying that customers like me were not typically "high net worth."

Threats and Stress: This treatment caused me significant distress, particularly given that I had just undergone open-heart surgery and was experiencing chest pain as a result of the stress. To make matters worse, when my son attempted to intervene and ask to speak to Eric, he hung up the phone. After my son threatened to file a complaint, Eric finally agreed to provide me with a cashier's check for half of the funds in my account. However, when I requested the remainder of the money or assistance with the wire transfer, Eric refused and offered no meaningful resolution.

Additional Concerns

Account Restriction: After this interaction, I attempted to complete the wire transfer at home, but my account was restricted. When I called customer service, I was informed that Eric Li had placed the restriction on my account without my knowledge or consent.

Inconsistent Communication: I was told that if I brought in documents, Eric would help me with the wire transfer. However, when I did so, he refused to call the lender to verify the funds and continued to delay and obstruct the process.

Violation of Privacy: Eric copied my personal loan documents without my consent, violating my privacy and possibly HSBC's own internal procedures.

Conclusion and Request for Action

I strongly believe that Eric Li's actions were not only unprofessional but potentially fraudulent and discriminatory. I have never been treated so disrespectfully in a banking environment, especially considering the significant health and emotional stress I was under during this process.

I am requesting:

A full investigation into Eric Li's behavior and actions during this incident.
Disciplinary action against Eric Li, including possible termination, for his unprofessional conduct, false accusations, and failure to assist me as a customer.
A review of internal policies to ensure that no other customer experiences similar treatment in the future.
Steps Taken

I attempted to resolve the matter directly with Eric Li and the local branch.
I was denied access to escalate the issue and was repeatedly met with hostility and refusal.
I contacted HSBC customer service, but the issue remains unresolved.
I request that HSBC take immediate action to investigate and rectify this situation. I would appreciate an acknowledgment of this complaint and an update on any actions being taken.

My business account was frozen five months ago without prior notice or any logical explanation. After numerous telephone calls and emails, an individual at their complaint department sent me an email today which they call a 'resolution,' indicating that they have decided to retain the funds and close the account.

I am really lost for words by their action. They claim to be the largest bank in the UK and one of the best in the world.

HSBC allegedly takes people's money from their accounts by freezing them and then asks them to make a complaint. This is the most ridiculous law I have ever heard of. The treatment of customers is terrible.

I have already instructed my solicitor to make an official complaint in court to teach these wrongdoers a good lesson. I recommend all of you to be very careful with HSBC and if possible, switch your bank immediately. You will lose big time if you trust and stay with HSBC.

They have no loyalty to long term customers. No algorithms to acknowledge financial responsibility of clients. Disrespectful and impossible to do business with.

They will not count home equity, rental income, credit score or history of paying previous loans ahead of time.

It is a bank for ultra rich, not regular citizens.

HSBC is horrible. You cannot get service from their offshore agents in the PI. Most have poor English skills, often put you on hold to "check your account" and never get back on the line. You stay on hold so long the call disconnects. Mostly likely due to not knowing what to do. Sucks. Wish there were stars with negative value like -*

Travelling overseas in America. Advised HSBC prior to travelling the dates I would be overseas. Received an acknowledgment of my travel plans. First day I arrived, my credit card didn’t work, I was unable to pay for the car hire and hotel. Had to get credit on my phone to deal Australia (HsBC UsA wouldn’t assist), finally sorted the issue out,…. Then a week later the card was blocked again due to a suspicious transaction,…. The transaction in question was at WALMART!,… id been to Walmart many times before the card was BLOCKED. Had to get more credit for my phone to call HsBC in Australia,…called HSBC and finally got the card unblocked and was told there is no setting to say I am travelling overseas on my account! ,…… a week later and my card is BLOCKED again. Had to get more phone credit,.. but this time the call centre is busy and I’ve been on hold for 15 minutes. Every time you purchase something in America you (as a foreigner) have to input your card pin! DO NOT TRAVEL OVERSEAS WITH A HSBC CREDIT CARD

I have dozens of credit cards, I keep a document to be sure I use them all at least twice monthly, to keep them active. I autopay so my payments are never late, and I usually pay the balances in full. I have an excellent credit score and no complaints about any of my cards except HSBC. With HSBC I have nothing but complaints. Just like others have written here and on other review sites, HSBC is awful. Every other time I made a purchase with my HSBC card, they flagged it as suspicious and asked me to call their customer service, literally even over a toothpaste purchase at a store I shopped at weekly. When I called, I always held for half an hour+, and then when I spoke to someone in their "fraud department" he’d ask me to prove my identity. With most cards, they can do this simply by asking you your PIN, or the answer to a secret question, etc. Not HSBC, they need you to answer a dozen questions, then they need you to fax them a copy of your drivers license, then a copy of your electric bill, then they'll insist that you go to their branch office to show these documents in person (and this is after having the account for a full year). It is insane. Their nearest branch is over an hour away, and they'll insist you drive there again, to show them documents, again. In the meantime they freeze your card, and won't even let you pay it off so you can close the godawful account. With me, I finally had to do a balance transfer to my Amex card just so I could be done with HSBC. Please, believe the negative reviews and never use HSBC. There are too many good creditors out there, you don't need the hassle.

I have credit cards with Citi, Chase, American Express, HSBC, U.S. Bank, and a credit union, and HSBC is hands down the worst one in all respects. It's not even close. I opened this card with a low credit limit to help a family member, who I added as authorized user. Every aspect of the experience has been horrible:

1) Opening the card was such a bad experience that I drafted a formal complaint letter about HSBC's approval review process, which required me to contact them by phone during very limited hours, all of which coincided with my work schedule. I finally spent part of my work day to resolve the issue.

2) HSBC bungled the process of issuing a card to the authorized user so badly that I had to spend hours on the phone across several days while on vacation to resolve. Multiple representatives gave me wrong information and/or made promises that were not fulfilled, resulting in the authorized party receiving their card late and having to cancel a planned move because they did not have the credit card with which to reserve the rental truck.

3) This is by far the least consequential example, but it just happened today and so happens to be the final straw that pushed me to write this review. HSBC leaves me a voicemail about possible fraud on my account. The voicemail includes detailed instructions on where to call, what prompts to select, and a reference code to provide. I follow the instructions exactly and am told I reached the customer service department, not the fraud department. The representative cold transfers me to someone else. After another 5 minutes, that representative says I am yet again in the wrong department and must transfer me. The third representative tells me the call was about a $3 charge that occurred 5 months ago. Huh? I am all for proactive fraud prevention, but they leave me 3 voicemails at 3 different phone numbers because of a $3 charge from 5 months ago? Unreal.

I will never open another account of any kind with this joke of a bank and will strongly urge anyone I know or who asks not to do business with this bank.

I have an HSBC card that sits in a drawer. It's not linked to any accounts, and only gets used for emergencies. It got compromised and used in two separate purchase on Amazon for a total of 200 dollars.

First, they never sent a statement. Not in email or paper. I didn't learn about it until I received a Late Payment email after it was 30 days past due. I logged into the account, saw the charges, and started one of the most irritating and unhelpful experiences I've had dealing with a bank.

The first agent couldn't help me, so they punted me to their fraud team. The agent there was aggressively unhelpful. Incapable of understanding what I was saying, not following the chain of events, and constantly wanting me to contact Amazon instead of them. Which is ridiculous, what with these purchases not existing in my Amazon account. I finally got irritated enough to get a manager. They weren't much better, but they at least accepted that they were on the hook to act on it and stopped trying to foist me off on Amazon. They said they would cancel the card, issue a new card, and start a 45 day fraud investigation. Which is just insane. Anytime this has happened the bank just took care of it right then and there. They didn't waste everyone's time over 200 lousy dollars.

I got the new card in the mail a few days later. Along with a letter from the fraud department. It included a form where they wanted me, in handwriting, to lay out all the information that I had already given them over the phone. And they not only wanted me to mail it back, they didn't even include a paid envelope. Which, again, ridiculous. This is over 200 bucks, not 20,000. AND they didn't even get it right. The manager only flagged one of the two purchases, not both. They rolled the other fraudulent charge onto my new card.

I called the number on the form, and got to listen to over a minute of "Special Offers" that I could accept before I got to a machine that literally told me to go away. Literally, it just gave me another number to call. At this point I called Customer Service again, which was probably a bad idea seeing as how bad they are at customer service. Once again I got an agent that had no clue what I was saying, what I was trying to do, or how to do anything remotely helpful. At this point I was done. I told them I would happily pay the 200 dollars just so I could cancel the account and never have to deal with them ever again. The only thing I wanted at this point was a guarantee that they would not report the 30 days late to the credit agencies, since they never sent me a notice or a statement until after it was late. This was like pulling teeth. They couldn't even grasp there was two charges and kept repeating back only the one. Once again I demanded a manager, and was told that they don't exist until 8:00AM EST...and it was 7:50 at the time. I was assured I would receive a call back immediately, right at 8:00.

At 8:45, having received no such call, I called back again. The agent told me that all the managers were busy...which not surprising, since they are all terrible at their jobs. But at least they understood what I was trying to say. I reiterated that all I wanted to do at this point was pay the money, close the account, and never do business with them again. They were able to accommodate the payment, and they SAID they canceled the account even though I'm expecting it to remain open because they're incompetent. I mean, no attempt to repair the situation or retain me as a customer. So no bonus points, just an annoying end to an annoying situation.

Literally any other bank in the world would have just waved off the 200 dollars to keep the customer happy. But not HSBC. I have no idea how they're still in business. I'd do zero stars if I could. I'm expecting that this will in fact hit my credit, making me have to jump through even more hoops. In that case I look forward to copy/pasting this review into a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Worst customer service. Placed multiple disputes on my credit report without notice or reason. No assistance or explanation provided when asked about. However, more disputes were placed with every call, again without reason. Glad I transferred all my funds out of this bank. Worth the minor credit ding to cancel all HSBC associated account. Use at your own risk.

The worst service ever. I have fraud on my account and no one is getting back to me or giving me a straight answer all they do is forward to different departments. I will be leaving HSBC as soon as possible

Easily the worst business banking experience we’ve ever had, because it’s not just poor service for small business - it’s consistently poor service. The app doesn’t provide access to basics (like statements), requesting help from representatives often takes days, and the password system doesn’t even allow special symbols which leads one to question the overall safety of the account. If you care about your business, you’ll take your business elsewhere.

HSBC Premier credit card is the worst credit card ever.
First it requires HSBC Premier account for the credit card to waive the yearly fee. Once the Premier account unqualified, you will need to close the credit card. The closing process is a nightmare for me as the agent can not close it anytime you want.
Second, the balance transfer offers are terrible catches which has monthly APR as high as 3%, though it would advertise as zero finance charge.
Third, the latency is way too high for transaction to be posted. I suspect the inefficiency is deliberate so that they can charge more interest.