The way HSBC conducts its business is an absolute joke. On 7th July I applied online to open an HSBC Advance Bank Account. The application went smoothly but in the end a message appeared that it needed to be reviewed first by agent. No confirmation e-mail or letters received so on 11th I had a chat session inquiring about the status of my application. They told me that they were unable to provide any information by chat. So I phoned them, waited more than 35 minutes before I had anyone to talk to. I was told on the phone that I was going to receive a letter. The letter finally arrived on 13th, requesting showing my payslips for the last 4 months OR the most recent P60 at a branch. I took both payslips and P60 to the local branch (Allerton, Liverpool). Just as well as the girl said she needed both (the letter clearly stated either - or). She copied them and promised to take care of the rest. I also mentioned that I would be on holidays so all additional correspondence should be by e-mail. She said she was going to make a note of it. I did not hear anything from them by e-mail, and when I came home to my great surprise there was no letter at all. So on 2 August I phoned them again. After 40 minutes on the phone I got an agent on the phone who told me that they had not received my payslips or P60. Apparently it was lost somewhere between the local branch and them. So he asked me to call the local branch, for which he gave the number 08455 835 046, to see where the document was lost. Just after hanging up I realized that this was an expensive number and was stricken by the fact that I was asked as a potential client to investigate a break down in internal communication. So I rang them back once again asking for a land line number for the branch. After another 40 minutes waiting I finally got someone on the line who told me it is impossible to call local branches but I needed to provide the information they are asking to the local branch. She simply could not get it that I already had done it a fortnight earlier and was not willing to listen what I had to say. All of a sudden I was cut off. Then I had enough. If this is the way they treat potential new clients, what is the lot of those who are already with them? No thanks, no matter how attractive some of their products can be, I will never again think of becoming the client of this completely incompetent business. I am now only worried how they treat my personal information if important documents can be lost so easily in their systems.