GM Card (HSBC?) has TERRIBLE customer service

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
:disgust: :|

We've had a GM Card for a while, and to a point it's been great, we saved a bit of money on a new car, etc.

But they have totally dropped the ball when it comes to anything above and beyond typical customer satisfaction.

At the beginning of last month, we got a phone call from their fraud department telling us that there were some suspicious charges on our account from Bergdorf's, and asking whether or not we had made them. My wife told them no, and they told us to cut up our credit cards, they were going to cancel the number and issue us a new one. "Don't worry about the charges", the lady in the fraud department tells my wife, "we'll take care of it."

So, we cut up our cards, wait for a few days, new cards arrive. All is well so far. We activate the cards, then setup the online account management for our new card. Wait a minute, what's this? There's $1,110 in charges from Bergdorf's on our card.

So we call GM. Sit on hold for what feels like forever, get thru to the fraud department. I rehash the situation, and she tells me, "Oh, you need to dispute the charges." Uh, what? You guys called ME, I told you the charges were indeed bogus, and you still let them go through? So I bite my tongue, get online, and dispute the charges. We decide in the meantime to discontinue use of our card, just to make it easier what needs to be paid. We go ahead and make a payment for the amount that we owe, minus the bogus charges.

Well, a couple of weeks go by, and sure enough, we see credits from Bergdorf's. Four of them, which is strange, because there were two fraudulent charges. Only problem is, the amount Bergdorf's refunds us is $1,035, $75 less than the amount that was charged to our account.

So my wife calls again, today, to ask what the deal is with the $75 that hasn't been refunded yet. The lady in the dispute department is not only rude to my wife, cutting her off when she's trying to explain the situation, but she then proceeds to tell her that my wife needs to call Bergdorf's and ask them why they haven't refunded the money yet. Oh, and by the way - that $75 is on our upcoming statement, so if we don't make a payment we'll be charged with interest, and a late fee, when we really should have a $0 balance.

Since when is contacting the merchant our responsibility? We didn't make the charges, as far as we know our credit card number wasn't stolen (we haven't used it at TJ Maxx or anything like that . . . it's basically used to order stuff from Newegg and buy groceries). So why should it fall onto me, still again, to do the card company's job in this case?

Now, in all fairness, I'm comparing this experience with GM to my experience with American Express. There were some incorrect charges on my AmEx, I called them up, said hey, I got charged for this and didn't order it. Guy looks at my account, says, "Taken care of sir," and bam, that's all I had to do. No sitting on hold for 45 minutes to an hour, no arguing with CSR's who can barely speak English . . . nothing. Perfectly smooth experience.

What am I looking for here? Well, hopefully the AT effect. ;) There's no direct E-mail address on their website, so I'm going to see if I can find one and let fly. Thanks for the soapbox, folks.
 
Feb 24, 2001
14,513
4
81
I quit using my card a while back when, over a months time, the CS line was busy, or when you did get through, there was just a message that said "Thanks for calling the GM Card, due to high call volume we cannot handle your call at this time, please call again later" and then it hung up. No option to wait on the line. So I just quit using it altogether.
 

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Originally posted by: BrunoPuntzJones
I quit using my card a while back when, over a months time, the CS line was busy, or when you did get through, there was just a message that said "Thanks for calling the GM Card, due to high call volume we cannot handle your call at this time, please call again later" and then it hung up. No option to wait on the line. So I just quit using it altogether.

Yeah, I hear you. We haven't had any problems getting through, but it takes forever to do so.

Honestly, they probably don't regard us as very good customers because we don't carry a balance. When we told them we were considering canceling our account if they couldn't resolve this, the CSR pretty much didn't care.
 

Squisher

Lifer
Aug 17, 2000
21,204
66
91
Thanks for the heads up. I don't use my GM card anymore, but I keep it active because there's a couple of hundred dollars towards a purchase of a car on it. In the past I scored a $3500 discount on a '02 Z28 (different rules back then).
 

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Heh. We were e-mailed an aplogy. My wife replied, "We don't want your apology, we want you to take care our problem."

They are amazingly clueless . . .
 

dabuddha

Lifer
Apr 10, 2000
19,579
17
81
Cancel your card. That's what I did with my crap ass capital one cards after experiencing their crappy service. It was funny hearing the same moron who wasn't being helpful beg me to keep my account open.
 

SoulAssassin

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2001
6,135
2
0
If you have disputed the full amount including the $75 it should go into a "limbo" type state and you are not required to make payments on it.

Funny thing, my girl just applied for a GM card for the 0% offer, they only gave her $700 and when she called (just an hour or so ago) to move her credit line from her regular HSBC card they told her she had to fill out this form and it would go to the credit dept for review, etc etc. HSBC themselves will allow you to move credit lines around no problem but apparently GM has a problem w it.