Listening bank? Now HSBC is ‘stone deaf’ to customers
HSBC’S planned branch closures have gone down like a lead balloon in the Buckinghamshire towns of Amersham-on-the-Hill and Beaconsfield.
Six miles apart, both towns will lose their HSBC branches in August.
Company director and HSBC customer Patricia Keane does not mince her words about the Beaconsfield closure. The 65-year-old says: ‘It is disgusting behaviour. I understand why branches are shut to make the banks
more money. But when customers are then forced to hang on the end of a phone for 45 minutes listening to messages about how much they value our custom, the banks lose all credibility. This one-time listening bank appears to be stone deaf and could lose loyal customers like me.’
Colin Muttitt, assistant at the nearby Rug Gallery, offers a practical solution – a banking hub that all the banks can operate from.
He says: ‘There is lots of spare space in the NatWest branch. Why not allow HSBC to share it – and for that matter Barclays and Lloyds when they inevitably close their branches.’
Simon Prior, who owns fish and chip shop Smiles opposite the HSBC branch, says banks seem oblivious to the damage they inflict on businesses when they shut up shop. He says: ‘Banks hold all the cards so they can do as they wish. They are oblivious to our needs.’
HSBC’s branch in Amersham-onthe-Hill is at the far end of a vibrant shopping street, occupying a rundown building that looks more like part of a 1970s council development ready for demolition. In the window a poster has been stuck up explaining to customers that the branch will be closed for two days over the Easter holiday period. It fails to mention the branch is shutting for good on August 23.
Mechanic Gareth Hallam, 44, is apoplectic about the closure. He uses it regularly to deposit money into his account.
He says: ‘I am so unhappy with HSBC quitting this high street. All the banks tell us that we want to bank online, but I don’t want to.’ David Eaglestone-Bowmaker, a 59year old chef, says: ‘What about the elderly relying on cash for day-today needs? This closure is a selfish act of greed.’
His own bank Santander shut down its Amersham branch in June 2019 and TSB followed in June 2020. Once HSBC vanishes only Barclays and NatWest will be left.