Equiniti - unreasonable charges

Nebo247

I am trying to get share certificates for my Talk Talk and Carphone warehouse shares which were issued on March 24th 2010 to all old Carphone Warehouse shareholders. Equiniti sent the certificates to the wrong address (an old address - despite me having notified Equiniti's predecessor Lloyds TSB registrars of my new address in 2007). As the shares are now "lost", Equiniti are insisting I pay a fee of £57.68 "administration fee" in order to get hold of my new share certificates. This seems like sharp practice to me and I have written to them 3 times for the certificates, each time advising them that I will not be paying any fees.
I am prepared to keep writing to them for as long as it takes.
Anyone know who to complain to?

dzug1

I wouldn't hold out much hope. Most of that sum is not an admin fee, but an insurance payment against the original certificates being misappropriated and sold. Or are they asking you to pay that as well?

Best hope is that if talk talk get taken over you will - eventually - get their value anyway. Or if they have a reorganisation and reissue all their certificares.

noh

dzug1 wrote: »

I wouldn't hold out much hope. Most of that sum is not an admin fee, but an insurance payment against the original certificates being misappropriated and sold. Or are they asking you to pay that as well?

Best hope is that if talk talk get taken over you will - eventually - get their value anyway. Or if they have a reorganisation and reissue all their certificares.

http://www.shareview.co.uk/helpcentre/Pages/faq9.aspx

Looks like £35.25 admin fee plus £22.43 indeminty fee.

Nebo247

I understand the breakdown of charges but I cannot understand why I am liable - the way I see it is that they lost the certificates not me. The fee is crazy when compared with the value of the shares.
I will wait as you say for a re-issue or takeover. Until then I will write to them over and over again, it might not achieve anything but it might irritate someone in this arrogant organisation!

Nebo247

They have written to me this time with a fee of £22.43 per certificate (ie just the countersignature fee). Its a lot less than the original £57.68 but if I pay then I am accepting some liability for losing the share certificates. I have no choice but to contest the fees again.
Great business Equiniti have - they lose the goods and the customer has to pay a fee to get them back. If it happened in any other business they would be prosecuted by Trading Standards.

captain_slow_3

As a Lloyds TSB shareholder and former employee of Equiniti, I sympathise completely. I used to work for their customer services department in Birmingham several years ago and it was one of the many areas of the job that annoyed me. For the shareholder, it's a catch 22 situation: Equiniti never sent share certificates by recorded delivery and, due to the sheer volume of post they send out, never obtain proof-of-posting either. Therefore you can’t prove it’s not been received and they can’t prove they’ve sent it so, if it has been lost en route, there's no way for either party to seek compensation from Royal Mail. I always had to follow company procedure but still felt bad asking shareholders to pay an indemnity fee for a certificate they never received.

When Lloyds TSB sold off their Registrars to a private equity company, everything went downhill quickly: their staff were promised pay rises that never materialised, they saw many jobs outsourced to India and there was no management stability. With all the cost-cutting, it wouldn’t surprise me if some share certificates never made it out of their post room in Worthing.

If you want something done at Equniti, I wouldn’t advise calling their customer services as the staff are completely apathetic due to the lack of respect and incentive given to them by the management (plus you have to wade through the upfront messaging and then wait ages for an agent - all at your expense). I wouldn’t even recommend going straight to Equiniti’s CEO as your query will only end up filtered down through the company and back to Customer Services. However, the company will bend over backwards and jump through hoops for their clients so it’s best to complain to a senior member of staff at Carphone Warehouse themselves, or any other company you own shares in, and ask them to be persistent when chasing Equiniti for a response. They pay Equiniti a small fortune to manage their share registers, so any complaints received from shareholders can prove very costly for Equiniti – far more costly than a waived LI fee.

DavetheRave_2

Unlike the highly fortunate captain_slow, I still work for the endearing corporation that is Equiniti. That's some very sound advice he's given you there. They understandably bend over backward for their clients and less understandably make their customers jump through expensive hoops. One thing that underlines the absurdity of their policy with regards to outgoing mail is that I know of invoices being sent by recorded delivery, whilst shareholders certificates are sent out with no cover and fingers barely crossed.

I'd like to offer you my help, as I waive/reduce any fees where I can as a personal (if insignificant) f**k you to the company, but unfortunately I don't work in that paticular department.

captain_slow_3

I'm assuming they're still the top share registrar in terms of client base - if they want to stay there and have a healthy reputation with both shareholders and clients, they have to stop cracking the whip and start listening to the frontline that can make or break the business. The last people to employ that style of management on their workforce ended up ravaged by plagues of locusts!

Nebo247

Appreciate your comments - I will write to the CEO of each of the companies to complain. The shareholdings are not very big and I can afford to take my time - getting some sort of satisfaction out of annoying them and knowing that each time they write to me has a cost to them. I feel sorry though for people who really need to sell their shares and have no choice but to pay the fee. Thanks again!