Cardholders beware!

I'M posting this story by Johnson Tan, a De La Salle alumnus and business owner, and friend of media colleague, Mia Gonzalez of the BusinessMirror.

Mia posted this last night on her Facebook page, and I was so appalled how this couple lost their entire savings because someone had apparently been able to get hold of their debit card's PIN. I hope it serves as a warning to us all cardholders that danger lurks wherever and whenever we use our credit cards or debit cards.

What I find most disgusting, is that the bank in question, already has a photo of the thief, and yet it seemingly doesn't want to help the couple catch him or prevent other depositors from being robbed. All it has to do is turn over the thief's photo to the NBI. Tsk, tsk.

Anyway, here's Johnson's story:

How we lost our savings at HSBC via debit card fraud:



Hi all, this is to relate what happened to our HSBC Canada account.
... 


Our purpose is to inform people that your money may not be safe from thieves and to take security of your bank accounts very seriously.
...


We are based in the Philippines but had opened an account with HSBC Canada thru the help of HSBC Philippines specifically HSBC Greenhills.



The account should have been used for my daughter's education and cost of living in Canada.



When my wife went to Vancouver with our daughter for her studies, she had her debit card activated and placed in her own PIN.



When she arrived in the Philippines, we did not check our account balance for 15 days.



When we checked our account, we were horrified to find that our account had zero balance; Thanks to someone withdrawing our funds everyday at HSBC Philippines atm machines and emptying our funds with HSBC Canada.



It is really painful to see years and years of savings disappear: all the times my wife and i saved to ensure a good education for our children.



Be careful with funds that can be withdrawn using atm or debit cards,

check your bank balance everyday:



limit to emergency funds only what can be withdrawn using atm or debit cards,



slash your credit card limits if you don't need it



cancel the cash advance feature if you do not need it.



Cancel your global transfer facility if you do not require it: as this may be hacked and all your funds may just disappear.



We have shots of the thief who stole our funds by using HSBC Philippines atm machine but it is bank policy not to provide me with a copy.... and the NBI must secure some court order before the photos are released. Sometimes I feel that the bank is protecting the thief rather than the depositor who was ripped off.



My family hopes to get the funds back and I have reported the incident to NBI and Banco Sentral. I have also sent many letters to HSBC Philippines and HSBC Canada.



We never lost the debit card and the PIN number was never divulged to anyone.

There is a proliferation of this sort of theft. At the NBI, i was informed that before me, a balikbayan couple (aged) was also complaining and crying that their account had been emptied.



When i went back to the NBI days later to get my case number file to be sent to HSBC Philippines and HSBC Canada, I was informed that after me, another balikbayan couple had also reported that their accounts had also disappeared.



Is it possible that the theft occurred in plane flights from North America to the Philippines? wife rode PAL 107 from Vancouver to Manila by herself and we half suspect that someone in the flight had some electronic gadget and somehow got her card details.



Is it possible that some dishonest merchant had their data compromised when wife used the POS? or maybe there was a skimmer and camera at an ATM in Canada and was compromised? So many possibilities that make our family now so scared to use bank cards for withdrawing funds or even using credit cards.



if you have been victims of the atm/ debit/ credit card scam, please message me so we can also learn from your experience.



Lets work together to help others (and yourself) not get ripped off as well.



Thank you for reading and feel free to message me for more details.

Here are additional details from Nancy, the wife of Johnson, as I and other people commented on Johnson's story:

-In Canada they are obliged to reimburse funds if there is fraud. In the Philippines, we are on our own if robbed so prevention is really required. Please read the fine print in atm and credit conditions... any loss on atm is depositor's loss

-banks are quiet about these incidents but do note that they are now giving more warnings to atm users BUT not telling them that the thieves are getting hi-tech now.

-withdrawals were made using hsbc philippines atm machines in ortigas and valle verde... but we were refused copies of the thief who withdrew the funds because of bank privacy policy...

-actually the debit cards should have a maximum allowable daily limit of 400ca$ and 500ca$ if pos. however, in the Philippines, thieves withdrew 1000 ca$ per day.

-as a depositor who was robbed, how can we prosecute the criminals? bank wants NBI to file a case first... NBI can't file case as suspect is not identified. In the end, the depositor is left with nothing. the bank and thieves have not lost anything. My HSBC greenhills officer actually told us that HSBC Greenhills will not get involved in police matters as the loss is ours... not theirs. Please consider that we are depositors with HSBC Greenhills before this incident even if the account was HSBC Canada. The account was opened with the assistance of HSBC Greenhills, HSBC Philippines. When trouble comes, HSBC Philippines will deny all responsibility even if their machine was used in the withdrawals.

What I find so sickening in this whole affair is the inability of HSBC Philippines to help their customer get through this problem. According to Johnson and his wife Nancy, HSBC Greenhills are claiming "bank privacy". I understand that; but I'd assume this only applies to the protection of bank deposits, not thieves!

Why doesn't HSBC want to cooperate with the NBI in turning over the photo of the alleged thief, since apparently, the bank officers already have it in their possession? So while HSBC executives are sitting on their asses, said thief just goes on and on, victimizing other people of their savings?! Hello!

I've always held HSBC in high regard. (For the sake of disclosure, I am an HSBC cardholder myself.) Johnson says that he chose HSBC in fact because of its excellent reputation worldwide, and he thought his funds would be safe there. But this isn't the first time I've heard of HSBC's deteriorating service. Even some of my own friends and relatives have told me a few horror stories involving this bank. This deterioration has been happening in the last two years, and I'm not sure if it's because there's a change in management or a change in bank policies.

And yet, HSBC isn't the only one. A number of Philippine banks unfortunately, put their needs ahead of their customers, conveniently forgetting that without our hard-earned monies, they won't even be able to generate their profits and pay the handsome incomes of their executives.

It sucks, I know. But there is no way except to be more discerning in choosing our banks. As this case w/ HSBC has proven, even an international bank w/ a wide network all over the world and seemingly superior bank products, can have third-rate customer service. (The tag "world's local bank" I suppose just means, they apply local quality standards to local situations; their depositors don't deserve the world-class standards the bank is known for in other parts of the world.)

I hope the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas can help intervene in this matter, or at least direct banks to immediately cooperate with local authorities when investigating cases of fraud. Kawawa ang mga depositors/cardholders!

(*Photos from HSBC and other web sites.)

The Globe iPhone saga continues...

iPhone users complain of skyrocketing roaming charges

MANILA, Philippines - Mounting complaints on hefty roaming charges slapped on traveling wireless phone subscribers have triggered the National Telecommunication Commission to call the attention of local mobile phone companies.

NTC chief Gamaliel Cordoba said the complaints were directed mostly to Globe Telecom, which has inked a deal with Apple to carry iPhone among its list of handsets offered to subscribers.

Cordoba said he will ask the mobile phone companies to address this issue during a meeting on Thursday.

"There will be a meeting tomorrow (Thursday) with them. This needs to be addressed immediately because there were so many complaints from subscribers who brought their iPhones and iPad tablets with them abroad during the holiday season," said Cordoba. (Click ABS-CBN News for the rest.)

If you remember, this space broke the story of the complaining Globe subscribers as early as March 5, 2009. It's a little bit disconcerting that two years after, the issue has remained unresolved, and the NTC is only now tackling the problem. Check out more comments/complaints from subscribers in this March 10, 2009 update.

The customer is no longer right

Apparently, here in the Philippines, that is the norm. I mean how many times have you felt frustrated by how stores, restaurants or companies ride roughshod over customer complaints these days? (Maybe it's partly our fault. Many Filipinos know very little about their rights as consumers and think it is just a waste of time, and a nuisance to file complaints and follow them up.)

(Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala is now Globe's chief complaint dispatcher. Tsk, tsk.)

We're happy for Gerry Kaimo that he got his iPhone/Globe billing problem solved (see previous blog post). But he had to email Globe chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (Jaza) just to get a satisfactory response because none of the telco's customer service people nor their bosses were willing to make the right decision about his problem! Doesn't Jaza have better things to do than attend to customer complaints? Why can't Globe just revamp its customer relations department to make the staff more people-oriented?

This inability to empathize with clients and customers' woes appears to be a growing trend among companies here. In a bid to make humongous profits, companies will sacrifice customer service. Many of them have grown insensitive to their customers' needs and issues. Most of the time, we are directed to a call center where agents will give you robotic answers as per the script given to them by the company they answer to.

If you remember, last month, my friend, businesswoman Ruby Gan, complained of the lousy treatment she received from Sony Ericsson after she bought a used/second-hand Xperia from one of its major dealers, Memo Xpress. By the time SE officials realized they could probably explain their case better to Ruby by just meeting w/ her personally, it took three weeks of back and forth unproductive emails, and my shoutout to another SE publicist. (Apparently SE's main PR gal Jingjing Romero couldn't even be bothered to use her free SE phone to call Ruby and get to the bottom of the issue. Last I heard, Ruby ditched the Xperia and is tossing it back to the company as soon as she gets her money back.)

(Beware of roaches!)
Another case of poor customer relations is Zest Airways. Remember Marge Polintan and her roach problem in Zest Air? She wrote emails to the airline customer service dept., its management, resort owners in Boracay who have tieups w/ the airline, and heads of government agencies. When a top dog in the airline finally decided to meet her and her group of disgruntled customers, three months had already passed! (This is funny considering I forwarded Marge's emailed complaint to one of the airline's VPs as soon as I read it. Tsk, tsk.)

According to Marge in her email to me last Feb. 28, the issue has been settled to her satisfaction. I'm glad. Her email below:

Dear Ms. Arnaldo:

If you recall, our experience with Zest Air was posted in your blog sometime ago. There was a relentless barrage of emails and letters I sent to them, the Boracay Chamber of Commerce and other agencies concerned.

Finally after three months, Ms. Jo Trinidad Customer Care of Zest Air finally contacted me and had lunch together with some of my co-passengers. She could not believe the stories we told her. Apparently, they have only one person handling all these complaints and the poor girl is simply overwhelmed.

I also had the chance to meet their CEO, Mr Salvador Ramirez. Zest Air is inviting the 15 passengers concerned to fly Zest Air again to any of their local destination and promised first class service. (Me: The airline CEO is actually Amb. Fred Yao of Zest-O. Ramirez is SVP for Commercial Affairs, and former president/CEO of TAIR Airways w/c was supposed to start flying from Clark to the Middle East in 2007. I don't think TAIR every lifted off.)

Thank you for all your help.

MARGE S. POLINTAN

One girl just handling customer complaints? That's what I call efficient!

I wish companies invest more in their customer service departments. These departments are the front-liners of their business and are also responsible for maintaining the company's image in public. No matter how much money a company pours into PR and advertising, its image will still suffer when clients are dissatisfied with how they are treated. Lousy customer service=lousy company.

Look, all that customers really need is an understanding person in the company, who can give us simple, direct, and reasonable answers to our plaints, as soon as possible. We just need a helping hand, that's all.

Update on iPhone/Globe billing issues

FOR those wondering what happened to Net activist Gerry Kaimo's complaint to Globe's Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (Jaza) regarding his phone charges, I'm posting Gerry's email to our yahoogroup re: the resolution to the problem:

Hi Gang,

I brought my problem to the top, and got my problems solved the next day.

Also, I was given a tutorial for the blackberry i replaced the iPhone with. (Actually my GF won the BB in a raffle so I just sold the iPhone. She gave me a BlackBerry that cost nothing. It's a Curve model at that). What a relief.

Globe and I also agreed on an amount, not the P27,000 on my bill, far from it.

All's well that end well. But John (Silva) was right. Unless you bring it to the top, it is very difficult to get things moving.

In my case I felt that things could have been handled at a manager's level, but apparently a lot of phone calls around their network by their head honcho got my problem resolved. My faith in Globe restored, am enjoying the BB. It's easy to operate and can handle up to ten emails, though a caveat- remember that you will be paying for airtime for ten email accounts. I set mine to my *****@mac.com and will probably use that and that alone for my BB. I wonder when the time will come when things get settled at that level as it should but I think many people, even at a VP level, are afraid to "overplease" the customer (as if there was suck a thing) and opt to let clients hang out to dry rather than make a decision like giving the customer a rebate. Hopefully one day we shall get somewhere better in terms of customer service. Also, Globe has lost a few really good people like Gracie Khoe and Lance Agudo (head of customer service). And those were real customer oriented people.

As for those who still have the iPhone, congrats for being able to keep your bills down.

Gerry

Pinay accused of stealing from Saks

OUR 15 minutes of fame are up. Goodbye No Reservations, hello New York Times.

Saks Fifth Avenue’s jewelry department is lined with items like $3,000 David Yurman bracelets and $1,600 Anthony Nak earrings, and Cecille Villacorta was good at getting customers to buy them.

From 2000 to 2006, she brought in more than $27 million in sales, more than any of the other sales associates at the luxury department chain’s flagship store in Manhattan. In fact, she was the highest-grossing saleswoman in the store’s history, according to her lawyer, and was paid nearly $400,000 in her last year there.

But exactly how Ms. Villacorta, 52, of Manhattan, managed to rack up such sales figures is up for debate — and at the heart of her trial on charges of grand larceny and falsifying business records, which began Thursday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. (Click here for the rest.)

McDo says: Don't be a hero

(Nigel Haskett photo from the Arkansas Times.)

THIS is really disturbing.

McDonald's employee Nigel Haskett saved a woman from getting beaten up in his restaurant. In the process, the assailant shot Haskett, who had to undergo several surgeries, thus pushing his medical bills to reach $300,000.

Instead of saying thank you to Haskett for protecting its customer, and helping him defray his medical expenses, McDonald's insurer junked the young man's claim for worker's compensation. According to them, his injuries "did not arise out of or within the course and scope of his employment.”

McDonald's message is: Don't be a hero. If a crime is being committed in the restaurant, just call 911. This is what McDonald's calls good corporate governance. Its executives are truly touched in the head. And you wonder why its mascot is a scary orange-haired clown. Read it here.