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Anthony in New York said: “I too ran into problems with with HSBC’s Debt Cancellation fees associated with my Best Buy credit card. I purchased a SONY PS3 in June 2009 and have been paying it off since. I knew how much my total purchase was and each month sent my money to HSBC. It wasn’t until last month when I received my last statment, that I looked at it and noticed “Debt Cancellation-800-365-6256″ under my transactions.
The total while only $1.15 made me look at all my past BEST buy bills from previous months. They all had same transaction on it, but for varying amounts of money, never the same.
I first called Best Buy and was quickly told by a Best Buy rep that this was not a problem they could help me with and I had to call HSBC. So I called the number next to this Debt Cancellation charge.
I finally got through to someone who barely spoke English who was asking for my “ID #”. I had to ask what he was referring to, even though I had assumed it was my Account #, which it ended up being.
I asked the HSBC rep what this Debt Cancellation fee was and he told me it was a fee I signed up for when I signed up for the card. I told him I did not check any boxes indicating I wanted to have any type of insurance.
The HSBC customer service rep told me it was my signature I made to agree to this. I explained when I spoke to the Best Buy sales person at Best Buy I specifically asked if any additional fees would be charged and she assured me no.
HSBC rep still insisted I signed up for this. I told him I would never knowingly sign up for something to charge me more money. He blamed me and told me “since I didn’t look at my bills and notice it earlier I had to pay it.” This frustrated me immensely.
When I purchased my PS3 I knew exactly how much I owned Best Buy, so each month I would electronically send my payments never needing to dissect my bill for additional fees. It was not till I was making my last payment did I look at the bill just to be sure I was done with payments and this is when I saw this Debt Cancellation.
I told the HSBC rep that I wanted these fees removed and he again said nothing he could do. After I was on the phone with him for about 10 min he agreed to refund me 2 months of the fees.
I didn’t like this answer and asked to speak to a supervisor, he told me his supervisor would say the same to me. I insisted on a supervisor and he finally after about another 10 minutes stated he would now refund me for 4 months but that was best he could do.
So I went from being refunded nothing at first to 2 months to eventually 4 months. Keep in mind the total amount of months I was being billed for Debt Cancellation was 5 months. So the HSBC rep wouldn’t refund me for one more month, a mere .51 cents.
At this point it was not about the money but principal of this shady scheme. I asked again for a supervisor which he never transferred me to. I kept asking to refund it fully and he eventually threatened me stating I could take the 4 month refund or he could have the contract that I supposedly agreed on reviewed, but if the review showed that I indeed signed up for it then I would get no refund at all.
I called the rep out on the threat he had made and he stated it was not a threat. Basically saying take the 4 months refund or he would put the request in for the review then I would get no refund. Knowing that HSBC would probably come up with some false outcome of a review of my contract and I would have to end up paying for all 5 months I begrudgingly agreed and received my refund confirmation number.
I then researched online and found this website with other complaints about the same problem I was dealing with. I read a few of them and saw people with EXACTLY same problem some of which got full refunds, so I decided to call back.
I called HSBC and got someone named “Bernard” who again spoke bad English. I had a 25 min conversation with him which also included me asking for a supervisor and never getting one on the line. He gave me the same canned responses the last rep gave me verbatim which was very annoying.
I was even more insistent now on a full refund so he finally placed me on hold. He came back to the phone said he spoke to a supervisor and said since the remaining 5th month balance was only .51 cents he would also refund that as well. FINALLY!
I called Best Buy and canceled my card with them. This in my eyes is a scam between HSBC and Best Buy that needs to be looked into further. Never signing up for any more cards associated with HSBC they are shady scam artists.”
This article, Will 51 cent dispute cause HSBC Best Buy investigation?, is just one of our articles from Bank Horror Stories, HSBC Secrets
Bank Horror Stories monitors banking problems and customer complaints and has done so since 1999. Writers hold no stock positions. Some material is used under the fair use copyright act.
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