AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

[JJ]

BANKS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE: FOCKING REMEDIAL.

[JJ]

YES, YES, nothing new I know. Just had to cyber scream (really loudly) so I didnt fire it off at the sad excuse for a "helpful" person on the end of the phone right now.

[Beesknees]

I can't bring myself to phone banks or other services here: it doesn't do my blood pressure any good. We're being charged (slightly) too much for our Singtel package but really can't face putting myself through the agony. My sanity is worth more than a little overcharging.

[JJ]

i hear ya... I am still speechless from today... It must take a HUGE effort to be as utterly stupid and clueless as the three people i spoke to at HSBC.... I am afraid my bp wont be back to normal for a few days now. To compound the stupidity, they are now phoning me every hour to keep me up to speed with their ongoing ineptitude.

[Satellite]

Mr Sate thinks HSBC is stupid with stupid policies. We have problems settign up a joint account in Abu Dhabi as I need to be verified in the UK. Before we left the UK, the bank there said it should be no problem verifying me here...

Edit: And we wasted one hour at teh office filling int eh forms etc with crying toddler in tow.

[BoD]

Oddly, though I've had frankly bizarre service from a number of organisations here, HSBC have always been pretty good. Especially since I started pretending to be a Premier customer

[Fat Bob]

HSBC are being slightly snobby about the whole Premier thing in both UK and Singapore. Currently only issue with me is them not giving me the tax exempt forms in UK because I'm not Premier service customer, but we'll see where it goes.

[Beesknees]

Well I don't think the Premier stuff is anything worse inspiring to. Mr BKs contact here included him being "allowed" access to the Premier thingymibober. He took it as a trial (partly to access the "free" international currency exchange thing & I suppose it sounded like it might be a good service). He doesn't think the service is any better and has just signed up to Forex re transferring funds back home as it's a better rate even although HSBC say they do free transfers.

I tried to use the Premier Service (on the back of being Mr BK's wifie) simply to send a fax to my Oz bank to close my account there, and I nearly thumped the numpty I was dealing with (opposite Tanglin Mall). Unbef.ckinglievable...all I wanted to do was send a fax. (And yes I have just been watching The Wire)

Note to self: need to improve tolerance levels.

[JJ]

Yes, well they keep phoning me up to ask me to join Premier. Based on yesterday I am considering it now as a last resort,... and if that doesn't work then perhaps I need to look at Stan chart or something else although I know from working with banks that basically they are all the same (ie. shite) ... however, i just cannot deal with a bank that doesn't understand basic English and that after an hour on the phone with them they STILL do not understand my issue (which was a fairly minor one but still...) - that worries me alot. Maybe I should just transfer everything back to Australia - NAB has been the best bank I have dealt with ever - not great but much better than the others: Lloyds - shite. Lloyds offshore - even "shite-er". RBS - well, 'nuff said. BS - acronym says it all really. UBS - hmmmm.

[baloo]

I've dealt with HSBC, Citi and and StanChartered Premier.

All have their issues and I've requested new account managers at all three.

At the end of the day I chose the bank that gives me the best flexibility to manage my accounts which is Citi.

[BoD]

Well I don't think the Premier stuff is anything worse inspiring to. Mr BKs contact here included him being "allowed" access to the Premier thingymibober. He took it as a trial (partly to access the "free" international currency exchange thing & I suppose it sounded like it might be a good service). He doesn't think the service is any better and has just signed up to Forex re transferring funds back home as it's a better rate even although HSBC say they do free transfers.

I tried to use the Premier Service (on the back of being Mr BK's wifie) simply to send a fax to my Oz bank to close my account there, and I nearly thumped the numpty I was dealing with (opposite Tanglin Mall). Unbef.ckinglievable...all I wanted to do was send a fax. (And yes I have just been watching The Wire)

Note to self: need to improve tolerance levels.

Well they have a phone number that is actually answered sometimes.

[JJ]

well that makes a difference... one of the irritations yesterday was that they never give you a phone number but you have to go through the stupid central number which is there SUPPOSEDLY to direct you to the right dept/person but actually whatever numbers you press you get through to someone who then has to transfer you to the right department... blah blah blah muzak muzak muzak.. press 2 for credit cards.... muzak muzak muzak (for 10mins) then some one answers - oh yes, right, I will transfer you to credit cards... erm, sorry didnt i just follow your instructions (TEN MINUTES AGO) in order to get transferred to credit cards??? WTF. Then muzak for another 10 minutes while some idiot in credit cards decides whether to answer the phone or not.
And that was just the start of the fiasco... Lets not get into Diana the "assistant-manager-for-the-day"