Household Bank and HSBC frustrate Arizona customer
RC in Arizona says:
“About three months ago I asked that a friend of mine’s bankcard be removed from my online account (he had asked me to pay for something for him on my card and had paid for it on the computer so he had to add his card to my account). As far as I knew that was done as I do not see it when I go to pay my bill. This month I paid my bill online and that should have been all as far as I knew. Sadly, Household Bank took the money out of my friend’s account rather than my own account, re-deposited it into his account and then took it out of his account a week later. I did not notice this until later when my friend informed me that these transactions occurred and caused him to have overdraft charges.
I talked to two customer service agents, Ian and a man whose name I do not recall. Ian looked at the situation, removed the $35 reprocessing fee on my account and informed me that he had made certain my friends account was no longer linked to my online account, and that I should have my friend talk to his bank as they would take care of the overdraft fees.
My friend did talk to his bank on the same day and they said they would remove his overdraft fees if there were an email he could bring into them from household bank saying that there was an error. My we need an email that says there was an error and that the money should not have been taken. My friend and I are fine with the $50 being out of his account and decided it would be easier to just not have to ask Household Bank to reimburse him. It was just easier for me to give him the money.
I called back to customer service and the man I talked to did not understand me. He first told me he was making “the changes to my account” and put me on hold several times. Eventually he told me he could not help me and that I would have to send a letter to Household Bank as the company did not have e-mail. I asked for his supervisor and waited over twenty minutes to talk to one. This woman was very aggressive and informed me that the entire problem was my fault and that Household Bank, “could not have made such a mistake.”
I informed this woman that I did not want to argue about who was at fault and all I wanted was an email or fax informing my friend’s bank that there was an error so he was not put out. She informed me that she could not send me an email but that the department that could send out correspondence would fax me something in 3-5 business days. I gave the supervisor my fax number and assumed the issue resolved.
Today I received a call from HSBC’s in-house collections department. They informed me that I had not paid Household Bank for the month of December. After reviewing the notes on my account they ascertained that the money had been put in my friend’s account again, even though I have now had multiple representatives tell me they had completely removed that account from the system. The collections representative and I decided that the best thing I could do was contact customer service to find out what was going on.
I have contacted customer service (a gentleman whose name I believe was Vishnu) and this gentleman informed me that my friend’s payment information is still on the account (he promised me he took it off) and that a letter was mailed out to me (rather than the fax that I was told I would receive). Obviously I am not happy about this either of these things or the fact that Christmas is only a couple days away and that my friend still has an overdraft fee on his account.”
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