338 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
338 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
finance
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newsbysector
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banksandfinance
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7832267
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-----
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# Shop! Mary Portas at HSBC
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## Shop! Mary Portas calls HSBC to account .
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![HSBC Finchley Road, St John?s Wood, London NW8 ][1]
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HSBC Finchley Road, St John?s Wood, London NW8 Photo: Philip Bannister
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[![Mary Portas][2]][3]
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By [Mary Portas][4] 7:00AM BST 17 Jun 2010
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[Comments][5]
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**Rating** 2/10
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**Good for** online services and sound banking.
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**Bad for** appalling and inexcusable customer service
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One of my most vivid teenage memories is of the day my dad took me down to
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NatWest on Watford High Street to open my very first bank account. I was in
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the sixth form and Dad, who had encouraged me to put aside a little of what
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I'd earnt from my first job (Saturday girl at Boots), came along to mark a day
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that he felt represented a significant rite of passage. The whole thing was
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daunting and exhilarating - I entered the bank manager's office a child and
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left it an adult. Mylo, my son, is 16 this year and the time felt right to
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continue the tradition. I've had an account with First Direct, the telephone
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bank, for some years, but I wanted Mylo's first experience of banking to be on
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the high street, so we went to First Direct's big brother, HSBC, in St John's
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Wood, a stone's throw from home. I'd called in advance to be sure we had the
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required paperwork and, to make the whole thing a bit more special, I'd booked
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a lunch first on Finchley Road. After that, we made our way over to the bank.
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**Shopability** The lunchtime queue hadn't dissipated so we made our way to
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the back of the branch to look for an available adviser. I found a solitary
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chap sitting in a cubicle, one eye on his computer, the other on a giant
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Chunky KitKat he'd probably failed to finish in his lunch break.
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## Related Articles
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* [Shop! Mary Portas at Dorothy Perkins][6]
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15 Jul 2010
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* [HSBC's Stuart Gulliver gets £9m bonus][7]
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01 Mar 2010
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* [Shop! Mary Portas at Homebase][8]
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03 Jun 2010
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* [Shop! Mary Portas at LK Bennett][9]
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10 Jun 2010
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**Were we being served? **Our conversation went something like this. Me: 'I'd
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like to open a bank account for my son, please.' Bank clerk (without looking
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up): 'OK, I'll need his details.' Me: 'Shall we sit down?' Bank clerk: 'If you
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want.' Me: 'I called in advance and have his passport and our utility bill
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ready.' Bank clerk: 'This utility bill is not in his name.' Me: 'That's
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because he's 16 and he lives with me.' Bank clerk: 'I need proof he lives with
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you.' Me: 'The address is on his passport.' Bank clerk: 'Yeah, but that's not
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enough.' The clerk then left us for a moment to 'check out the queue',
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returning a few moments later with his mouth so full of KitKat that he could
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barely shut it. At this point, still determined to salvage something positive
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from a hopeless situation, I asked Mylo to leave the cubicle and wait for me
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outside. 'Do you realise that you've single-handedly managed to bludgeon a
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very important day for me and my son?' I said. And that was that. As I left
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the bank, shouting at the top of my voice to the entire waiting line that I'd
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be 'taking my money elsewhere', I suddenly felt smaller and more disempowered
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than I can remember since I started this column. The message was clear and
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brutal - Europe's biggest bank, with more than 100 million customers and
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profits of £7.1 billion this year despite the financial slump - didn't give a
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toss about me, my silly family rituals or Mylo's paltry £100 deposit. Later in
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the week we made an appointment at our local NatWest, where Mylo was offered
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not only hot chocolate and biscuits but also a pep talk on sensible financial
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planning.
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**[Online][10]** Not for the first time, I was more impressed with HSBC's
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online offerings. Mylo in particular noticed HSBC's £2,000 interest-free
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overdraft for students and First Direct's £100 golden handshake for new
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customers.
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**Verdict** I know banks aren't 'shops' but they are an essential part of the
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retail landscape and the same rules apply: service is king. Don't get me
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wrong, HSBC is a well-run business, succeeding where many others have failed.
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Unlike Lloyds and RBS, it didn't need government handouts to survive the
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economic crash, and when profits did dip, the chief executive, Michael
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Geoghegan, elected to give his bonus to charity. But my experience seemed to
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tally with a recent report issued by the research company Forrester,
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suggesting that of the 50 leading financial service firms in the United
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States, HSBC was ranked bottom by respondents for putting its customers first.
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There are exceptions, of course - there's a delightful girl at a branch near
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my office who's always smiling and chipper. Yet, on the Monday of my visit to
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the NW8 branch with Mylo, the one day I really needed good service, by
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presenting me with a plonker more interested in the chocolate in his gob than
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the customers in his branch, HSBC let me down. Badly.
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**HSBC** Finchley Road, St John's Wood, London NW8
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**Visited** Monday, 3pm
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**Number of branches **About 1,800 in Britain
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**What they sell **Banking services
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**Website** [hsbc.co.uk][10]
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**Who's in charge? **Michael Geoghegan, chief executive
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[X][11] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][12]
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* Share: [Share][11] [ ][13] [ ][14]
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[Tweet][15]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/7832267/Shop-
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Mary-Portas-at-HSBC.html
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Telegraph
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## [Banks and Finance][16]
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* ### [Finance »][17]
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* ### [News by Sector »][18]
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* ### [Mary Portas »][3]
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External Links
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* ### [Mary Portas online][19]
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In finance
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[![Irish bank stress tests: the key points][20] ][21]
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### [Irish bank stress tests: key points][21]
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[![Q&A: What is the Independent Commission on Banking?][22] ][23]
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### [Q&A: What is the Independent Commission on Banking?][23]
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[![Lehman collapse: lives shattered, markets in turmoil.][24] ][25]
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### [The banking crisis in pictures][25]
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[![][26] ][27]
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### [Top 10 banking stories of 2010][27]
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[![Rothschild rebrand drops investment banking after 200 years][28]][29]
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### [Banking and Finance vacancies at Telegraph Jobs][29]
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[X][11] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][12]
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Share:
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* [ ][11]
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* [ ][13]
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* [ ][14]
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* [Tweet][15]
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* Advertisement
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![][30]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][31] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][32]
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Advertisement
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[Market Data »][33]
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risers and fallers
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3. [BMW blames speculators as aluminium costs rise][36]
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Advertisement
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Classified Advertising
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* [Finance Jobs][47]
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* [Travel][48]
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* [Fine Arts][49]
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Loading
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[Find your ideal job with Telegraph Jobs][50]
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