HSBC and Me

This is not the sort of thing I normally post about but I feel ever so smug about it I can’t help myself.  Having banked with HSBC for years I have the same complaints I often read about in the press other costumers have with their banks, terrible branch service, the lack of personal contact when you need it but the intrusive marketing department phone calls when they want to sell you something.

What do I feel so smug about?  Well I happen to be at my branch taking out some cash from a cashpoint machine and as I was putting the notes into my purse I noticed that a £10 note had one big tear half way down the note and another smaller tear on the other end of it.  I did not want to be left with this note trying to pass it on and it just seemed the most natural thing in the world to walk into a bank to change a genuine damaged note for a good one.  When I got to the cashier the conversation went something like this:

Me, “Hi, I’ve just received this damage note from the machine and want to change it for a good one, please”
Cashier, “Sorry, madam but we can’t change it”
Me, “..but it’s a genuine note it’s just damaged?”
Cashier, “Sorry, madam but we can’t change it, it’s bank policy”
Me, “..sorry…what do you mean bank policy? So no one can change damaged notes?”
Cashier, ” It’s HSBC policy not to change notes”
Me, “what?  Not even when they have come out of your machine?”
Cashier, “No”
Me, “..what am I suppose to do with this note? No one will want to accept it!”
Cashier, ” ….well, if you cellotape you’ll have no problem with it being accepted”

At this point my mouth was still half open at the astonishment that a high street bank had the right to reject changing a genuine note, and I started to turn around, away from the cashier, as I took my first two steps towards the entrance my brain was running through her last comment, “…you’ll have no problem with it being accepted”.  This meant if a shop would accept my damaged note, then it would follow that shop would then pay it into their bank along with the day’s takings.  And as my brain was following this thought thread I spotted the paying slips at a desk, took one, wrote in my bank account details and the amount I was paying in….just so happen to be £10 cash.

I queued, I handed in my paying slip with my damaged £10 note and paid it in.  Unfortunately the cashier I had the exchange with had shut her window by then…so I missed the opportunity of smiling at her like a Cheshire cat.  I came out of the bank and took another £10 note.