“We have been happy with FD for a few years, but yesterday and today has changed my opinion. My husband is profoundly deaf and when I tried to call on his behalf, with him sitting next to me and happy to answer questions if I repeated them (lip reading), they refused to help. We didn’t want info, or any transactions, just to warn them that his computer may have been hacked, so could they keep an eye on his account. I asked if they could send a 3rd party mandate, (as other banks do), so that he could authorise me to speak on his behalf, but they told me he needed to give me Power of Attorney!! Not only did they not help, they told me they were blocking his account as my call and his inability to get through security had compromised it. We were told to go into the City today with ID, phone, cards etc to an HSBC branch to validate his identity, then call again. We did that today and after validating his ID I called from the branch phone line. They kept me on the phone for over 50 minutes and still refused to discuss anything unless he could talk on the phone. They suggested a 3rd party text relay service and offered to send a form to us, but said they were leaving his account blocked until they could talk to him on the phone!! We came home and switched both of our accounts to another bank! I am disgusted at the lack of support, understanding and accessibility. We are both so upset. We wasted hours, paid for parking and fuel and all for nothing. We will never use First Direct again.”
“HSBC closed their branch in my town and then the branch I used to pay in to on my way to work also closed. I haven't had a satisfactory call with FD customer service the last three times. Staff appear willing and helpful but can't seem to resolve an issue. Spent several hours trying to transfer funds to another financial entity yesterday and FD kept blocking it for no reason. The fraud department seems to be overseas now and when transferred to them I was just told 'tomorrow, tomorrow', meaning that they couldn't resolve it and just wanted me to go away. I still can't resolve it and nobody will investigate and call you back. I accept that sometimes things don't go according to plan but it's how an issue is resolved that really matters with online banking. Oh, and I didn't like the hard sell for banking by App either. I'll be switching, as soon as I can find a suitable alternative.”
“I have been a long-standing customer of FD. It used to have great customer service. I should have seen the warning signs when the staff started ‘instructing’ me how to use online banking when I did not want to do this. Their attempts to get me to use the app instead got more insistent with them ignoring me saying I didn’t want to use it and offering to guide me through it in a patronising way. I guess they had been told to get customers to use the app at all costs and before the big change.
The big change appears to be much longer waiting times when calling them (they are always receiving more calls than usual) and now I have found that payments I set up with my FD debit card are not renewing automatically because the card has been switched from Visa to MasterCard. When I was sent the odd-looking new card, I did not realise that my payments for car insurance and the AA were going to be declined because of this change. The car insurance firm has charged me £20 for the ‘unsuccessful payment’. I doubt FD are going to refund this.
All in all, everything has gone downhill and it is worrying. I never wanted to change banks but it looks like I need to find one that is more customer friendly and isn’t going to spring nasty surprises on me like this. There is nothing that makes FD stand out as ‘better’ now and it’s such a shame because they were brilliant.”
“After 3 previous attempts of ~15 mins each and not getting through, this morning got through after 10min...phew!
I was told more people being trained and should start to get back to normal in a months time. I have my fingers x'd as I've been a customer for >20 years. The online model only works if you can quickly speak to a person when needed whether in the UK or overseas.”
“I had to call First Direct Customer Service on Thursday evening and I was shocked at their poor customer service, as I rarely call them due to their app. The customer service has gone downhill, what a shame. I waited ages for someone to answer and when she answered she couldn’t help me with a simple request to pay someone I have paid previously. What’s’ happens or changed at 1st Direct? I always said you had the best customer service, but not anymore?”
“After many years with them and having had an excellent customer 5 star experience for most of these as it was efficient, easy 365, 24/7 banking ....but being non branch based and with limited local HSBC branches open I now think they are failing badly. Their on line processes continue to be complicated and the limits for paying in cheques and moving larger amounts of money mean the only way to do this is on the phone. FIne, BUT the wait times have got worse over the last year or so and lately have been poor both in connection times to an agent and quality of the line connection, possibly though some home working? Need to improve or loyal customers like me will be moving elsewhere I suspect.”
