Changes to international money transfer USA - HK

[Dava04]

Hello all,

I hope you can help me or at least give me some advice.

I run a business in Honkong we export lighting and the sort.

One of my customers in the USA always pays his bills via a wire transfer direct to my HSBC business account in HK, the money always goes direct to my account, I lose a nominal service charge of $7 for receiving the money and always receive the money exactly as it was sent in USD currency, my bank account can accept holding USD for any length of time.

This time however, the money was transferred in the same way according to the customer. He told us that he went to his usual bank, and sent the funds from the usual account in the usual way, the bank told him that the charge had risen on his end but had lowered on our end, they also told him that some of the transfer rules had changed.
So this time the money went via an intermediary bank in Hongkong, namely Standard Charter HK, they automatically exchanged the money into HKD, the rate was horrible 7.4, much less than our HSBC would give us 7.7.

Two problems arise:
1. We have lost $400 dollars on one transfer, or you could say that the transfer cost us $400.
2. We never change the money we receive into HKD, the money is always left as USD as we pay the supplier in USD, therefore we have had to change the money back, incurring yet another loss.

Could you please tell me what I can do about this, how can I find out why this has happened in this way this time?

Could you advise me on how to prevent this from happening again?

Also could you tell me if this kind of thing can be fought against, as it really makes me very angry when this kind of corporate theft happens and there is nothing that I can do about it. The reason I use the word theft is because I will bet good money that the American bank my customer uses in Standard Charter USA, thus they are merely creaming for their partner banks!!

If I have not been clear or more information is needed then please message.

Looking forward to your help and wisdom.

Regards,

David.

You can tell him the amount that must arrive to your account and show him the charges you incur. It will be up to him to find solutions together with you.

[Dava04]

Thanks, will do.

Does any one have a legal perspective?