So much for customer care

On Friday, June 30, I went to the HSBC Bugibba branch at 9.15 a.m. to cash a cheque. There was a long queue of customers waiting, and just two cashier booths open. I thought that the third cashier might be out on coffee break and would return soon, so I decided to join the queue thinking that once the third cashier opened, the queue would ease up quickly. But the third cashier booth remained closed for the whole 55 minutes that it took me to get served.

At one point, I complained with one of the HSBC female staff regarding the long wait. I pointed out that it was ridiculous to have just two cashier booths open on a day which coincides with the end-of-the month pay cheques, pensions and children's allowance, and more so when the bank was closed the day before due to a public holiday. She politely informed me that unfortunately they were working on skeleton staff, and that the ATM outside was out of order too, which, as I pointed out, was one more reason to have all the booths open!

Is this the kind of service we are to expect from HSBC? The end-of-month rush and public holidays do not come unannounced, and therefore the bank has all the time in the world to plan its staff roster and ensure that on such busy days they have all their cashier booths operating efficiently.

So much for the nice words in the HSBC adverts regarding their customer care... all I could think of during that 55 minutes wait was that, at best, it was a gross misinterpretation of the word, and at worst a tasteless joke!