HSBC credit card glitch

i almost had a heart attack yesterday when i got home, just finished eating dinner and saw that i have a letter from HSBC, my eyes dilated and i swear my eyes turned bigger than araneta coloseum reading that i have exceeded my credit limit by over 100,000 pesos and my outstanding balance is almost 150,000 pesos! OMG i was freakin worried and i immediately thought that someone got hold of my credit card, but no my card is still sitting pretty on my wallet, and i am sure that my account wasnt hacked from the internet or somebody used it because i've never used my HSBC red master card in any online payment.

i remember that the last time i used my HSBC card was on 18th of august at sm san lazaro, and i even asked my brother to pay some of my dues last 20th of august. the letter i received was dated 19 august 2008, so i was like WTF!!!! *#$%%&^ i am billed by over a hundred thousand pesos and i didnt receive any call about this and i receive the letter just yesterday (26 august). a week (talk about how fast our mailing services are!!!) so imagine the thoughts running through my head on how could i stop whatever transaction transpired and i was already thinking of calling a lawyer cause there is no effin way that i am going to pay them for something i didnt purchase and i was thinking at the same time that OMG i should just have bought a macbook for myself then!

i was really racking my brain thinking who could have used my card and how could they have allowed such a thing, because normally once you have used up your allotted credit limit you're automatically declined right? and also, whenever you purchase something that is a huge amount, they usually call the subscriber and the bank for verification! that didn't happened or i didn't get any call or whatsoever. i was itching to call the collections department but they were close and is only open between 8:30-5:30 (talk about great service eh?)

so early morning i called up HSBC collections hotline and as soon as i gave my number the collecting agent immediately apologized for the letter that i have received (note that i have not informed them yet about the letter), seems that they have been getting calls about the incident and is apologetic about the "technical problem" and that according to the agent whose name is spencer romano (do HSBC hire people with showbiz sounding names?) well anyways, the guy said that it is now a know issue and that they had a technical glitch during the holidays which is last aug. 18. apparently all those affected by the said glitch are those who made a purchase using their master card credit card and swiped by the BDO machine. and he said that they already received a notice from BDO about the said problem. he again apologized for the inconvenience and i really told him that i almost had a heart attack and wasn't able to sleep last night because of their error!!! i was like you could have at least called your customers to assure them that there was an error blah blah blah!!! you know what i mean. what if i really had a heart problem?

i even called their customer service just to make sure that my account is ok, and i was not overcharged or antyhing, the girl i spoke with (bhie) assured me that my account is not overcharged and that they have already amended the problem blah blah blah!!! apparently during the holidays the BDO machine swipe cards have erroneously charged you in US dollars instead of pesos, so like mine i purchase about 2500+ last aug 18 so they billed it as 2500USD! WOW

well whatevs, the fact is i had a sleepless night because of their error and they didnt even call their customers about this, instead they were waiting for their customers to call them!!! tsk tsk tsk what a bad service from HSBC (though the guys i spoked with this morning were ok) i'm talking about how HSBC's system fucked up!!!

i'm really annoyed at this and i hope that this wont happen again! or else i'll be the ninja in the photo and shove their cards up to their big fat asses!!!