Customer Service Fail

So I get my tax return back the other day; NYS says "nope; you only get this much $XXX, you only paid us two quarterly estimates". I said #wtf, #quicken says I paid you 3x. Having gone through a legal separation (and giving my ex the refund), i'm wondering to myself "self, why would you make a big deal out of this; you don't get the refund".. Then I realized how much I detest the NYS tax-code right now. So I mail HSBC "hey; can you give me access to the september-10 and october-10 statements for my closed account plzkthx?!" figuring; this was a no brainer...

here was their response:

Please be informed that, an option to view a close account and the

statements associated with it online is unavailable. However, we may order statements to be mailed to the address listed on your accounts at fee of $5.00 per statement. If you wish to receive the statements, please reply to this BankMail with your approval for the fees and months for which you need the statements.

....

$5 per statement for closed accounts. Heh. I should have just said "hookay; that's $10... whatever...". Having gone through said-separation; loosing more time and money than it took to get married in the first place, and also having a friend go through something stupid with another bank last month; where the answer (and customer service) was brain-dead. I decided to go on a well-deserved rant.

This was my response:

So let me get this straight; HSBC pushes for "greener" eStatements; then charges $5 per statement for something that arguably should be part of my native online experience? I've been doing business here for nearly 10 years. It's just good customer service to have these sorts of historical tools available on demand as they are for open accounts. I have ready access to them in my Quicken Register, but I am in need of secondary proof for new york state to see if they actually took my money or not when they were supposed to.

I've had to deal with another bank this month not freezing an account until the 5th or 6th call after a blatant identity theft in another country. Even then they wouldn't re-generate a new account until any and all recurring charges were removed from the account. Which didn't make much sense because the account number had been STOLEN. I had actually made the joke that "HSBC just takes care of it when that sorta thing happens; I usually get 'new cards' before I know what happened". Then I run into a brain-dead user experience issue like this... I'm mildly irritated with customer service issues where the simple answer of "what would make your life easier" is just plain over-looked.

How my historical records are not part of my online experience is beyond me. It's like my doctor saying "if you want access to your old medical bills, records, etc, it'll cost you $5 a piece"... and yes, I know there's a cost to having someone go dig them up and send them to me; but they should be just as already available as my current online records (eg: print to pdf).

I realize you're not the person that has much control over this; so the rant is not targeted towards you specifically. But please feel free to forward this on to someone who can make a difference in my online experience.

HSBC; if you're reading this (I really really doubt you are... or ever will.). I don't hate you; I just hate the process in general. I hope we can still be friends.

Love,

tehWes.