Two-year mystery of sealed envelope kept ‘safe’ by HSBC

A.B. writes: In August 2017, I received a letter from HSBC, saying it was withdrawing its Safe Keeping service and that I should collect items the bank was holding for a deceased family member for whom I was a personal representative. I rang HSBC as soon as I received the letter, and was told to go to my local branch, where staff copied the letter and said they would pass it on to the right people. Since then I have called on numerous occasions to be told this would be sorted out, but so far with no result. I hope you can help. HSBC’s letter was clear. It told you it was closing down its Safe Keeping service that stored such things as deed boxes, sealed envelopes and parcels. The bank was holding items for your late mother, and you should collect them within the next 30 days.

I suspect that since August 2017, staff have been going round in circles, trying to find any stored items belonging to your mother – or any reason why the letter was sent in the first place – with nobody willing to take responsibility for unravelling this mess. Because there never was anything held for your mother, so there never was anything for you to collect.

HSBC told me: ‘We have reviewed Mr B’s case and found that an administrative error meant correspondence was incorrectly sent informing him he had Safe Keeping items to collect.’

I was told the bank would compensate you for the inconvenience.

That was not quite the end of the story though. What HSBC did not tell me was that you had finally been called and told the Safe Keeping item was a sealed envelope, which you could come and pick up. But when you collected it, you found it belonged to someone who simply shared your mother’s surname and initial, so you gave the envelope back.

HSBC has now put £200 into your account and sent you a gift hamper by way of apology.