HSBC RETAIL SERVICES RIP-OFFS EVERYONE! ITS SICKENING PROSPECT HEIGHTS Illinois

My name is Sheryl and I am very disgusted by a company called HSBC retail services. My husband and I purchased a motorcycle about a year and a half ago from Yamaha. Come to find out; Yamaha lied to us about the interest rate. Our interest rate was at 6% and it was suppose to stay that way. We recently found out that they had given us a promotional and we would have an interest rate of 18% after two years. We tried to dispute this and they said oh well basically. The same thing happened to my brother with his motorcycle he purchased from Hager. But this time, Hager forged his signature to the paperwork and he ended up having to refinance his bike completely. Here I am a year and a half later with a new problem. My husband and I have been in a financial crunch for about six months. We have a financial advisor working with us to help us get out of this hole. We have been running a month behind on my husband's motorcycle payments for the last two months. At the end of this month, we would have been able to bring our account to current. My husband and I received a phone call on Thursday night from a bill collector at HSBC Retail Services.

The lady informed us that we owed $645.00 to them and we need to pay it as soon as possible or they would take possession of the bike. We argued with her for about thirty minutes that we should only owe $107.00 because we had just made a payment of $150.00.

She said well you need to pay the $645.00. We told her we needed to contact our financial advisor. She became very rude with us with comments such as, this is your bill not your financial advisors'. My husband ended up hanging up on her. We called HSBC to see what in the world had happened to our account. Come to find out, they changed our interest rate to 24% because we had been late. My husband and our financial advisor were on three way with HSBC and they were trying to explain that there is no way we could make a $450.00 month payment on the motorcycle. No one would help them nor give out any corporate numbers. One lady told them, Oh well, I am the only person you can speak with and you need to pay your debt. My financial advisor explained to her that we want to keep the bike but someone would need to work with us on the interest rate. In total, we spent two hours on the phone dealing with these rude people and we were hung up on 3 different occasions. We also had one lady put us on hold for thirty minutes and she never returned to the phone. I am very frustrated with this entire situation.... I finally called information and got a number to a corporate office. We got on the phone with a lady named Kathy, who showed very little concern on how we were treated and could not help. HSBC is not willing to help anyone; they are just interested in ripping people off like Hager and Yamaha. I have been doing some research on HSBC and they have lost close too five million dollars in charge-offs. You would think that they would like to help their customers to save on money. It is amazing to me that they just do not care. You can look at these figures at this website: http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:ST7zF82TxxAJ:a248.e.akamai.net/7/248/3622/afaa1ceafe58f4/www.img.ghq.hsbc.com/public/groupsite/assets/investor/hfc_3q_2006_form_10q.pdf+HSBC+RETAIL+SERVICES+10K+FILING&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6

I have also contacted the better business bureau in regards to this problem. I was even more disturbed when I went to google.com to find HSBC contact information and what popped up was very shocking to me. I am not the only person with these types of problems. Since we have had the bike I have made numerous payments over $150.00 to bring down our outstanding balance. My balance has never decreased really since day one. When I have called in the past to speak with a customer representative, they always tell me about additional fees that they have tacked on which makes it impossible to pay off your debt. I am not the only one with this problem and this company should be stopped. They are ripping people off left and right and no one has put them out of business. I would appreciate to investigate this matter and help keep people from making the same mistake so many of us have made with HSBC. Below, I have given you websites to show you that I am not the only one who has had problem. I also think we should investigate the Yamaha dealer and Hager dealer. A couple months ago my husband went in to have his bike serviced. It cost us close to $200.00 to have everything done. When we picked his bike up from Yamaha it was smoking very badly. Then my husband checked his oil in his bike and it had not been changed. Once we got home, his bike would not start. When we called Yamaha, the owner of the company was very rude with us and told us that it was our fault the bike did not run. Needless to say, after a week of aggravation Yamaha picked the bike up and fixed it. But the owner of the company cussed my husband out and told him point blank it was not his problem. When we reported it, he agreed to fix the bike. But the owner made very nasty remarks to my husband when he brought it up there the second time to get it fixed. All three of these companies need to be investigated.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:ST7zF82TxxAJ:a248.e.akamai.net/7/248/3622/afaa1ceafe58f4/www.img.ghq.hsbc.com/public/groupsite/assets/investor/hfc_3q_2006_form_10q.pdf+HSBC+RETAIL+SERVICES+10K+FILING&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6

http://www.ripoffreport.com/results.asp?q1=ALL&q5=Retail+Services&submit2=Search!&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff181770.htm

These are a few websites, there are so much more. I am contacting everyone that I can. I have sent an email to Channel 9 Eye Witness News and my local newspaper. I am willing to tell anyone about these events to whoever is willing to listen. This company HAS TO BE STOPPED. It is ridiculous how many people have been ripped off. What can we do to solve this problem? GET THE MEDIA INVOLVED! If anyone has any more idea on what I can do, please let me know. If you have been screwed by these people.... take a stand. Dont let up on the issue until the problem is solved.

Sheryl
Rock Hill, South Carolina
U.S.A.