HSBC, are you serious?!

I  previously posted my problems with receiving a barrage of telemarketing calls during my work day, only to call back the number and discover that the caller was HSBC. Color me naive but I would not have thought that a major corporation like HSBC would support harassing people into buying their services. Almost all of the people calling me didn't speak English and hung up on me, or behaved rudely as I mentioned in a previous post. After complaining to HSBC's customer service, filling out a non-contact form, and being assured that this would end the constant calling, I felt that this was indeed the end of it.

Well, not even two weeks went by before the calls began again in earnest. This time I applied the HSBC number to a call blocker and sent a harshly worded follow up to HSBC. I received a phone call apologizing for the phone calls and promising that this time, the customer representative (let's call her CR) was going to closely follow up that my number disappeared from any call center rosters.

Five days ago I began receiving daily calls and hang ups when I answered. The HSBC number was already blocked but I was suspicious so yesterday after my fourth hang up call I redialed the number...and listened to an HSBC message. I could feel my blood pressure rising as I tersely typed a very angry email to CR and copied it to another email that I was given to use if I chose to escalate the matter. I bullet-pointed my complaint of constant hang up calls during office hours on my work phone, promises from HSBC to cease and desist, the use of yet another number to call me, and my feelings of being hounded and harassed. While I never mentioned litigation, my email was deliberately written so that it provided an easy outline for what my case would be. CR called me at lunch, which was fortunate for her because I was in a lunch queue and mindful of not raising my voice about the telemarketing call that I had received an hour ago.

She reported back all of the steps that she had taken for my number to be removed from call lists and begged for my patience as she followed up with where the no-call orders were being ignored. I told her that I was on the last vestiges of good will but she had two weeks. In the meantime, since our call was being recorded and forwarded to whoever it is that follows up on escalated issues, I also asked HSBC to consider the logic of subjecting customers to daily telemarketing calls. I can't imagine that anyone receiving these calls would feel good about them. The idea that if a customer doesn't buy your product, you should hound him/her every day for months is ludicrous. If that idea was successful, there would be a lot more children in the world with ponies.

I feel an opportunity to go on a tangent about wishes and horses so I will end my post now before I take us all for a ride.

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