Consumer complaint received 2022-03-07
Company: HSBC NORTH AMERICA HOLDINGS INC.
State: OR
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with customer service

Complaint:
I am a cardholder of a mastercard credit card issued by HSBC US. I issue this complaint about HSBC US 's eggregous handling of my request to initiate a payment dispute. 

On XX/XX/2022, I contact HSBC US customer service to request initiation of a dispute against merchant XXXX requesting refund of an airline ticket purchase, due to repeated failure of the merchant to rebook my flight following their cancellation of the flight. 

Two weeks later on XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX, I called HSBC US to inquire about status of the dispute. The customer service agent ( XXXX ) instructed me to send an email to XXXX with the case ID ( case ID XXXX ), the relevant details of the dispute and supporting documents. I sent such email in accordance with her instructions on XX/XX/XXXX. I have attached that email here. 

Approximately 1 week later, HSBC US customer service agent XXXX called me to ask if I had submitted the email as instructed. I expressed surprise that she did not know the answer to this question, but answered that indeed I had sent the email. I provided XXXX with the email details, and XXXX said that she would follow up with the billing department. I asked how long to get the refund processed- she said 45 days. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter in the mail from HSBC US billing department stating that " our earlier attempts to reach you have been unsuccessful '' and requesting me to submit the dispute form. I attached such letter here. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I again contact HSBC US customer service and inquired why I received the letter given that I already submitted the dispute form via email on XX/XX/XXXX. I said that I was sending a copy of the email and attachments to HSBC US via snail mail ( but mentioned that they should not require correspondence via snail mail in the year 2022, especially when their own customer service rep told me to send an email ). The rep said that he would check with the billing dispute department. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, a rep from HSBC US billing dispute department finally called me. She said that she didn't anything about the email that I had sent and that she would check with their " email department ''. She requested the dispute information and said she would now initiate the dispute with Mastercard, and processing of the refund request would take 45 days. I issue this complaint to CFPB because M
astercard should have initiated the dispute when I initially called them for this purpose on XX/XX/XXXX or at the latest when I sent them the requested information on XX/XX/XXXX. Over a month has elapsed since I initially requested to initiative a dispute on XX/XX/XXXX. When I complained about this to the HSBC US billing disputes rep, she put the blame on Mastercard and said there is " nothing I can do '' about the 45 day timing. I explained to her that as a cardholder I have no access to Mastercard and must rely on HSBC US as my issuer to help me to initiate the dispute in a timely manner. Due to the gross negligence of HSBC US, the dispute initiation was delayed for an extremely long time. The delay is having a terrible on my family which I will not get into here. HSBC US should take responsibility and improve their customer service capabilities.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation