12Likes
Agree with pin here. The moment you get your merchant account to its new home launch a formal complaint, explaining why you delayed it (the complaint) as well.
You now have something writing which is dodgy, which should support earlier verbal allegations. Based on your side of the story there is a banking weasel there who should get both barrels, albeit delayed.
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08-07-2010, 12:18 PM #51
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08-07-2010, 12:35 PM #52
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08-07-2010, 12:46 PM #53
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08-07-2010, 01:15 PM #54
>> Yes, I fully intend to complain once we have no more risk with them.
Be prepared for a VERY tedious process. You have to understand that the regulatory bodies are government run departments who at the end of the day want to do very little work. Most of the complaints are swept under the carpet by a very simple tactic... create so much paper work and requirements from the complaining party that you abandon the complaint.
I've complained to various regulatory bodies and the first thing they do is bounce you to another one .. and the other one bounces you back. Next once you've put both on the line, they'll ask you for so much paper work, where you just give up hope and move on.
If you don't move on, then comes the issue of anonymity. Do you want your affairs becoming public knowledge (one of the conditions you have to agree to if you want the investigation to continue). Many people do not want to risk their names and details of the complaint becoming public knowledge due to various reasons - privacy, repercussions (do you want your current bank to know you're a trouble maker?) etc.
After you complain AND agree to the conditions of disclosing your name etc, then be prepared for long periods of silence "we cannot comment on an ongoing investigation".
All a spectacular waste of time.
When it comes to SMEs, do you want yourself and partners spending hours a week on dealing with them govt bureaucrats or moving on with your business??
Complaining and following up on the complaint can be a very slippery slope.
Take your money and your business where someone cares to work with you and move on.Last edited by shri; 08-07-2010 at 01:47 PM.
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10-07-2010, 12:32 PM #55
shri, you are probably right. Not much to gain from complaining.
Hopefully this is the last update. The loan has been fully repaid, but not before they tried another trick to get an extra 3 day's worth of interest, which we resisted, and they relented. I'll spare the details of that.
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10-07-2010, 03:05 PM #56
Whilst I agree that putting a general complaint will not work, a well aimed one often does. A short email claiming deception, copied in to the authorities can often be spectacular. Especially if you cc in a member of senior management.
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10-07-2010, 06:09 PM #57
I've just been reading through the information on the situation and feel that it's a common trait in HK. Though I have had situations with very big companies where they literally lie and cheat. Most of these business with employees whom have no idea of what they do and even care about businesses in work together for a common goal.
Just goes to show some of the standover tactics that happen and we all shouldn't lie down and give in to requests because a bigger party says so.
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11-07-2010, 11:33 AM #58
I very strongly disagree with you and Shri. No offence, but I think Shri comes from a culture (India) where the big guys do what they want, and the small guys say "what is there to be done?" and don't do anything. The result: a third world country, where nothing works, people die of illnesses that have disappeared in the rest of the world for decades (because nobody could care less, since nobody in the government is going to be sued for not doing his/her job), companies routinely break the law (the larger the company, the more laws they break), etc.
I come from a culture (Western European) where the police investigates complaints against large companies, and people can sue companies and the state (a personal example: the government once sued me, and lost the case. On another occasion the government threatened to sue me and I told them which law supported my claim and they backed down. On a third occasion a multinational corporation (DHL) threatened to sue me, and I stood firm and told them the law that they were breaking, the law that supported my claim, and told them if they want to sue me go ahead, no judge in the entire world would support their claim. They backed down). The result: in Europe corporations respect the law (from the small shop which is forced to take back a broken product, to the larger corporation which would not dare doing what Wing Hang is doing to you), and the state respects the laws (unlike in India and Singapore for example).
Conclusion: if you always let the bad guys get away with breaking the law, they will take it for granted and will become always bolder, breaking more laws, cheating more customers, etc.
Please do the world a favour, and sue Wing Hang. I know it's going to take a bit of energy and money, but consider it your legacy to the world.
And then if you have the funds, please take up a one-page ad in South China Morning Post, describing your ordeal with Wing Hang, and giving advise to others who are faced with similar problems. Let this be an example to Wing Hang, and a note of caution to all the other corporations who think they can cheat anybody they want, and people won't sue them anyway.
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11-07-2010, 11:55 AM #59
But having lived in the US and HK for the last 25 years, all I can say is HK's has a corrupted system. Very little works when it comes to regulatory bodies.I very strongly disagree with you and Shri. No offence, but I think Shri comes from a culture (India) where the big guys do what they want, and the small guys say "what is there to be done?" and don't do anything.
Take an example of a simple complaint made by someone I know to customs. They spotted a dodgy bottle of cod liver oil which was marked as "Made in USA", in a store run by a public listed company.
First response was "send us the receipts" that you've actually purchased this product. SO they went out and purchased it. The date was not all that visible ... so one more delaying tactic.
The ensuing conversations were comedic.
Bottom line .. 12 months later.. the fake cod liver oil is still on the shelves and nothing has been done.
A couple of years ago, I wanted to complain about an IFA who was giving out investment advice, although they were just licensed to sell insurance. CIB says... "this is an SFC matter", SFC says, this is a "CIB matter". Six months of banging on doors just resulted in stupid emails from both these bodies. Waste of time...
Cc's were sent to the financial secretaries office and related deputy secretaries.
Yes, sometimes complaints work... but at the end of the day, as a business person you do not fight battles that are not winnable and you do not fight battles where even after winning, there is no benefit to you. Have learnt this after many a quixotic battle on my end.
>> please take up a one-page ad in South China Morning Post, describing your ordeal with Wing Hang, and giving advise to others who are faced with similar problems.
And bring on a whole number of legal problems?
Nice.
Where is your ad about your favorite little company that manipulates it stock?Last edited by shri; 11-07-2010 at 11:56 AM.
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11-07-2010, 12:09 PM #60
He was not complaining the company manipulates it's own stock Shri, just that someone might be fiddling the close.
I agree with John in this instance, if you do not fight then you have no right to complain when you get trampled all over.
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