A Call from East West Bank Call Center

While registering a new credit card on-line to view statements on line,
The phone beside me rang at around 8:15pm.
Hmm...must be my mother-in-law as our home phone hardly rings.
I picked it up as my husband was watching on-line videos with my daughter.

There was a lull moment then...

The person on the other end of the line introduced himself as "someone from East West Bank Call Center".

He verified if I was Christina Lao and he said that because of my good credit standing, they will be giving me a new GOLD MASTERCARD.

My first instinct was, "WHERE IN THE WORLD DID YOU GET MY HOME NUMBER AND THE INFORMATION ON MY FINANCIAL STANDING". Too personal.

His reply to me was: "FROM HSBC".

I asked him back, "Is HSBC affiliated with EAST WEST BANK"? Was there a recent merger or acquisition? So recent that it was not published on paper which is quite odd given the "hugeness" of HSBC.

He said that they are not affiliated.
They got my information and financial details through the "BANK TO BANK REFERRAL PROGRAM".

Whoa! This is really weird now!

Since when did industry competitors share the same market?
Is the market so small now that industry players need to "merge" their database?
It doesn't sound right.

Then he went on, "I would like to get more information about you."

My reply was "If you got my information from HSBC, you should have gotten the entire information sheet. I am not interested to get a new card at this point." (Taray!)

So after hanging up, I called the HSBC Call Center at 85-800.
I was just put on hold for a few minutes. Not bad for a busy credit card call center.

A certain Cassandra picked up the phone.
She listened to my concern and took note of it.
She mentioned that she will raise the concern tomorrow as they have not been advised of any "bank to bank referral program".
She even verified if I obtained my credit card through an agent.
Nope, I got it through on-line application-I am sure of this because I did that application to get the watch that they were giving away (Cheap! hehehe).

So after informing her about my concern, I felt that she was already ending the call without giving me concrete next steps. So I just have to know what will happen and how I'll get my answer.

You know what she said?

That I call back the call center by Thursday or Friday and they'll give me feedback.

Wow! That really world-class service!!!!
Why should I call them?
They are responsible to give me a feedback!

Well, I am aware that majority of the call centers are not capable of doing outbound calls. But still...FLEXIBILITY is now a corporate buzzword (next to "RECESSION").

Anyway, I just had to email my complaint (which now includes the call center's way of handling my call) to hsbc@hsbc.com.ph which according to Cassandra "goes directly to the bank".

In their website, it says there that they will reply in 2 days.

We'll see about that.

But I would still want to find out if competitors now share database!