Complaint Review: HSBC Retail Services - Carol Stream Illinois

In November of 2004, my wife received a statement dated November 3rd, 2004, for her Best Buy account, financed through HSBC Retail Services. The statement had a "Promotional Expiration Alert!" stating, if the amount of $951.14 was paid by the 18th of November, 2004 it would defer finance charges of $408.65. The statement was received just a couple days before this date.

My wife called the phone number on the statement November 17th, 2004 to inquire if this was the actual payoff amount to bring the account balance to $0. She was informed this would be the account payoff amount and she could pay this amount over the phone that day if she wished to clear her account. She hung up with them, called her bank, and had funds transferred from her savings to checking.

She then called the payment number, listed on the statement. This was all within a 15 or so minute period, all well before the 2 or 3 pm cutoff time. The automated service then gave her a confirmation number. This was done some time in the morning, and we have no record of the actual call times. We have asked for this data from the company multiple times and not received it.

Next month, she received another statement, listing the 408.65, plus interest incurred. She called the number listed again, and was informed the total amount wasn't paid, and she owed all finance charges. They would not give a reason as to why the payoff payment was late, after repeatedly asking. We could not understand or get an answer why the $408 was not deferred. We have just come to find, in which we were never informed, they counted the payment as late.

I am fast forwarding to what we have just found. We have looked at the date on the check, as dated by Retail Services, which is November 17th, 2004. When checking the bank statement, we realized the check was not processed by her bank until November 19th, 2004. They took two full business days to process a check we paid $15 to have processed since time was short, and we wanted to pay off the account. We spoke with her bank today, and are having them send us a copy of the check. We asked for the date of the first bank stamp (Household's)on the rear, and they say the date is smeared, and they can't read it. I am hoping we will be able to.

My wife made repeated attempts to dispute the account and ask for documentation. She was met with rudeness and no answers every time she called. At one point, she had spoken with a supervisor, and was treated the worst by him.

After talking to the supervisor, she drafted and sent a letter on May 11th, 2005 to HSBC Retail Services, informing them she was disputing the account, and wanted the account closed. She also stated she wanted it reported to the credit agencies, with good standing. She demanded they do not call her any more, but rather have all correspondence from them in the form of writing.

On May 20th, 2005 she received the following:

"Thank you for your inquiry regarding your BEST BUY CO., INC. account.

This letter is confirmation that the above mentioned account is closed, and being reported as such to all (3) major credit bureaus.

If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Department at xxx-xxx-xxxx"

We thought that was the end of it but wasn't quite sure why no mention was made of the dispute.

On September 2nd, 2005, we received a collection letter from a company called Pentagroup Financial, LLC, listing Arrow Financial as the client they were collecting for. We realized at this time, the account had been sold to Arrow, and no idea why, because we thought the account had been closed, and they dropped their claim against us.

She sent them a letter, saying we were disputing this amount, along with the original letter she had sent to HSBC. We never heard anything back, until Arrow Financial sent a letter saying we could clear the balance we owed, which is now almost $700 for 75 cents on the dollar.

We are now waiting to talk to HSBC again this next Monday, after the one somewhat human sounding person there, listened to our story, said she would pull the files and research it. We also found today after getting her credit records, the account was not closed until August of 2005, and not in May as their correspondence stated.

I will keep this thread updated, but I have done much research in the last couple days, and found HSBC takes two days to clear a check they are charging so much to take. We put our card in the gas pump, and it clears that day. We write a check to SafeWay in the morning, and it too has cleared the bank that day. It appears HSBC purposely holds checks in hopes of imposing late fees and other fines.

In hind sight, we should have realized a lot of things with this account and handled it differently. However, we asked for documentation and proof from them of everything from the first statement after the payoff, and have gotten NO cooperation or hint of them telling us the truth. My wife had an almost perfect credit rating before this ordeal. They have made some very bad reports to the credit agencies, and her credit is now suffering terribly because of this one company who refuses to cooperate with their customers.

James

Alexandria, Virginia
U.S.A.