A tale of two credit cards: 1 contact vs 23 contacts

Why is it always me that gets cloned? Well at least a useful comparison was possible this time....

My HSBC business credit card was cloned several weeks ago. By my reckoning the first call took place on the 2nd October. It's now the 17th November and the replacement is still not set up properly. There have been more than 20 contacts so far.

My first direct personal credit card was cloned last Saturday the 10th November and the replacement was with me and working by Wednesday 14th. It would have been Tuesday but I was away.

First the right way to do it. I'm shopping with my daughter in London and the first 2 transactions bounce so I call first direct. They transfer me to the fraud unit and a lady abroad ( sorry forgot to ask whether it was Malaysia or India - betya it's an HSBC centre though) asks me if I've tried downloading songs from iTunes that morning which I haven't. So bang goes the Xmas shopping on the credit card. I wasn't happy.

She tells me the card will be with me within 5 to 7 working days and I'm thinking "oh yeah?" given what I'm going through with the business account. Anyway I get home Wednesday to find it there and I've had no problem using it subsequently. Bingo - one very satisfied customer.

Could it have been better. Well yes. They could have called me before I had the embarassment of a snooty waitress at Harvey Nicks bouncing my card. They could have had the first person I called ask me about the iTunes transactions, rather than a rather lengthy transfer tying up me and the agent. The second agent could have spoken more clearly and been more understanding at my protests of being without a card for a week. They could have said that the card would go out same day and be there Tuesday and I'd have thought they were really trying to make it quick.

What about HSBC then? I'll try and remember as many of the contacts as I can.....

1) The first call came at about 9pm from an Indian sounding lady saying she was from HSBC and could she have my credit card number, date of birth etc. Strangely enough I said "no - she couldn't until she could prove she was HSBC and not some "phisher"". We got nowhere as the process says she can't talk to me til I've been through security and since security was evidently silly I wasn't willing to and they should get somebody sensible to ring me (lucky I had that glass of wine or I'd have been uptight by now !)

2) & 3) I then had a call from my colleague who'd had an earlier call from HSBC about the card. He'd told them they'd have to ring me. He explained they'd told him the card had been cloned.

4) Another Indian gentleman called me and attempts to take me through security again. I again refuse and ask him to go through my security checks. Tell me which company name is the card in? He can't tell me anaything until I've been through security. Tell me the HSBC phone numbers on my credit card - he gave me 2 and both failed my identity check. So we parted company there.

By complete coincidence I had a conference call the following day with the nice guy at HSBC who runs the offshore centres and gave him the feedback on the security process.

Then I did nothing for a couple of weeks. The bank did nothing. Exactly as a phisher would do. My card stopped working though so heh maybe they were real. I just starting using another card from another bank.

Two weeks later on the 17th October I was speaking at the Institute of Customer Services Conference. I use several real examples of "dumb things" and this was at once added to the repertoire.

5) At the end of my talk, no less than the Customer Service Director of first direct comes up and wants my details to sort it out. He may not be HSBC directly but he takes it on personally - that's fabulous. At the end of the conference I pick up my voice mails.

6) The first direct guy has called the right person in HSBC
7) He or she has obviously called Claire....
8) & 9) .....who has called me and left 2 voicemails whilst I have been in the conference
10) I return the call but she's not there so I leave a message and...
11) ....she returns the call and we speak. She's taken up the case and will sort it out. No security checks required, I notice.
12) & 13) When I get back to email, I find that Claire had emailed me to. I mail back and say thanks

I wait for the card over a week but nothing comes. In fairness there's a postal strike.

14) Eventually I call Claire again and she checks it has been sent and it must be in the post.

15) I wait some more and eventually it arrives. At my colleague's house. I get it next time we meet in a few days time. Then I wait some more for the pin number to arrive.

16) & 17) I email Claire again. She emails back. The card was preset up with the same pin so no need to have waited at all ! How dumb do I feel? But heh it didnt say that on the letter with the card....

I use the card and it works... YES ! But wait.... I try to use it on the web to pay for wireless access. This requires my address. The card bounces again. I try again. No. It bounces.

18) & 19) I ask my PA to call the number on the card and get the address corrected which she does. Of course they cant take her instruction as she cant pass security. So she passes the phone to me, but the computer says no. No I cant have my own address on my own card as I had before. Her insistence that it has never been possible drives me to distraction and I pass her back to my PA to escalate to the supervisor. After 20 minutes on hold she hangs up.

20) & 21) So she emails Claire at my request. Claire emails back to say she can't take my PA's instruction as she's not a named contact on the account.

22) I email her back and confirm the instruction to have me on my address. And not to swap my colleagues onto my address!!!! No security but it apparently happens.

23) Last week my existing pin number arrived in the post under one of those sticky flaps in the letter! Not something I was happy with from a security point of view, since as with many people I'm sure, its the same one I use on my other cards.

I haven't yet tried to use the card with my address details so I don't know whether it's really fixed. But I won't be surprised if it doesn't. And I wont be dsurprised if a colleagues card stops working.

Have I complained? No, I've done enough work. Will I move banks. No - its tons of work and wont be any better. I've used many banks and see no differences.

And do I feel like putting our insurance business thro HSBC? You guessed it - about 23 times less likely than going to first direct. Oh when will they start business banking !! Then it would be worth moving.

So an extreme story? - I dont think so judging by our personal experiences of dealing with banks. And we have further evidence from our work with the Amazon Skyline processes. One of our banking clients has reduced their contact rate by 81% in the past three years. Another US client has quadrupled the size of their business and decresed their contact support headcount by 20% at the same time.

If you work at HSBC and want to talk about how we can save you up to 80% of your operating budget then contact me on 07802 793515 or peter.massey@budd.uk.com

If you work at first direct and are reading this - fabulous, thank you and yes - when are you going to start business banking ! ??

If you are just a blog reader - Hi, thanks for reading and you can get more in our white paper "100 things you can learn from first direct"in our library