Financial firms are still charging customers to complain

Also I have just sold my Royal Mail shares through Equiniti and they charged me £45 for selling my 227 shares, absolutely outrageous and I seemed to have no other option.

Why doesn’t “Which” do some research as to the cheapest way to sell small holdings of shares such as those of the Post Office?

Yes, I would support the idea of Which? surveying the cost of selling small batches of shares. I have tried to GIVE my small quantity of Eurotunnel shares to a charity, but the cost of GIVING them to a charity is more than the shares are worth!

Equiniti’s listed number for those who want to “voice your concerns” is 0871…. which they helpfully show as costing 8p/min plus network extras! They do list their email address.
As I understand it a dealing form was issued with PO shares for those who wanted to sell immediately at 0.75% charge (+ stamp duty 0.5%). Alternatively keep and deal through their registrar Equiniti at 1% dealing charge. Was there a catch to this then? Since it is predicted the shares will pay a first year dividend of £45, a return of around 6%, I wonder why you would want to sell.
I would like to see an incentive for share buyers to hold longer term so they are investing in companies rather than gambling. It is reassuring that both the Financial Conduct Authority and the Gambling Commission have 0800 and 0121 numbers.
Sorry to digress.

Equiniti have charged me £80 in total for 3 cheques representing outstanding entitlements. They would not reply to any of my letters so the only way I have managed to get the money owed is by telephoning them which cost 8p per min plus network extras.

Equiniti usually publishes a parallel Birmingham (0121) number for callers from outside the UK, particularly as many shareholders are in practice based outside the UK. Therefore use this number instead; that’s what I do.

When implementing an EU Directive, nation states cannot add extra provisions over and above those contained within the Directive. Check the rules surrounding “gold plating”.

Financial institutions are covered by a separate stream of EU Directives to those covering businesses. However, if the UK is to cover financial services with provisions involving telephone numbers, it is the FCA that will have to do it, not BIS.

That’s not true. A member state can add additional provisions, but cannot remove provisions. For example, BIS proposes to extend the scope of Article 21 to cover social services, healthcare, package travel and timeshare (all of which are exempt from Article 21), but has chosen to preserve the exemption for the other industries such as financial services.

Given that no legislation covering financial services contains any provisions of Article 21, it made no sense to provide an exemption to this industry. There is no good reason why Article 21 couldn’t apply to all industries with no exemptions whatsoever.

Most UK banks don’t yet offer a secure messaging service, although some are planning to do so. I would never communicate with my bank openly in the public domain for all to see, even if just to request a call back. Twitter is not an appropriate communication channel for banking.

I don’t see whats wrong with tweeting “@Bank can someone call me please? will DM you my phone number”.

Very simple and saves a phone bill, saves waiting to speak to someone, saves on hold music and for me it makes me money too.

When someone calls you and says they’re from you bank, how are you going to verify that is actually the case? You can’t rely on what is shown as the Calling Line Identity.

I don’t have Calling Line Identity as I have a corded phone that use not use electricity.

Normally I tweet my bank, DM my phone number, they call and say “Hello I’m Jenny from the Nationwide, I am calling in reply to your tweet” and I tell them what I need from them. They then reply via the Nationwide online bank message system.

So really simple, very quick and it makes me about £0.85 – £1.70 per call.

I think we’re all forgetting the real reason that Lee prefers a callback – he has an 0871 number from which he earns revenue on incoming calls! 😉

Lol, I have to admit that is one of the main reasons. But it’s also nice to speak to someone right away. No need to listen to on hold music or waiting to even speak to someone in the first place 🙂

I’ve emailed indesit ( who use 0844 number) twice in the last month, and had nothing back. I’ve since sent them a message on facebook and again nothing.

I’d like to therefore ring them but won’y as 0844 numbers aren’t covered by my call package.

Some companies may seem to have an online presence but clearly they don’t take it seriously.

I have just searched for them on Twitter and they look like they talk to people (@IndesitUK) I would give that ago if i was you 🙂

You are lucky to find an email address, more and more companies are hiding their contact details forcing you to ring them

You can also add EE who have the nerve to require us to use premium rate numbers when it’s their system that’s faulty (which is very often, by the way) and keep us hanging on forever – or until we give up. Truly not my idea of customer ‘service’.

If a business sells goods or services via its web site, then Regulation 6(1)(c) of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 obliges it to publish its e-mail address. This is one of the most widely flouted pieces of legislation, yet enforcement authorities take no action against the errant businesses, mainly of whom are very large.

Lee

Have you tweeted Ryanair yet and managed to get them to phone you back?

Not yet, I forgot tbh lol. I have tweeted Indesit and going to see if they call me back. I will try Ryanair as a test too.

David, for EE, just dial 01707 315000 from a fixed line or 150 from any EE/Orange/T-Mobile SIM card. They will put you through to any department within the EE group.

Hi Lee, it is possible that you are missing the point entirely and your “i’m alright Jack” attitude doesn’t take into consideration the millions of people in this country that don’t have the ability (for what ever reason) to access and use the likes twitter, face ache and all the other forms of social networking.

Whilst I on the other hand do, in certain circumstances still I prefer to speak to a bone fide customer services clerk. As may already have been mentioned, certain gov’t agencies are still in the dark ages with customer contact technology and IT in general, so there is no choice but to call them.

I object to a) calling any company for customer service that charges for inbound calls to boost their bottom line profits (covering the costs of customer help – is only a smoke screen) & b) calling gov’t agencies when I have to, where they are charging me for the experience, when I have paid for this service already through my hard earned taxes.

If you get a call from indesit, and have nothing genuine to talk about yourself.

You can ask them if their online shopping cart accepts credit cards with a 2013 start date. It didn’t as of last week when I messaged them on facebook. And in a little over 7 weeks they’ll need to accept 2014.

Thank you 🙂

William, Ok, i will ask them if they call me 🙂

Peter. I am speaking for the 25 and under age group. I can no comment on what people older than my age group may feel about matters 🙂

What about those who do not have a computer? Many elderly people and those on very low incomes do not have access to computers, and many do not know how to use them.

Like a say Janet. I can not speak for the elderly as I am a young 25 year old and can only speak for my age group 🙂

Thanks for the tip you patronising person – I am 84 a bit before those 60’s lot

Peter, I am sorry if you feel like I am being patronizing. But I’m not sure how I am being. All I am saying if all I can speak for is my age group and that’s all?