complaint- info given by Equiniti advisor

MichalK86

:mad:Hi,

I need a bit of advice please!

I recently contacted Equiniti (15th April)to ask basic question about my shareplan. I asked them if I sold the shares that day would I get procedings with my next monthly wage (20th).

I received totally wrong answer, I was told that procedings from the sale of shares would be transfered to my designated bank account and matching shares awarded by my employer will remain in my shareview account and wont be sold.

Because advisor was not sure about the answer she gave to me, she spoke with her manager, after consulting the case with manager she told me that my shares will be sold but money will be transfer to my next wage for tax and NIC purposes.

That was fine for me. I sold my shares online. when I received my payslip I realised that that the money was not added to my wage. I contacted call centre once again and was informed that previous information was a mistake and money will be added to my wage but in the next wage.

I waited for my next wage to check how much tax and NIN was deducted from my wage.
Because I received my quarterly bonus and was doing some overtime plus proceedings from shares sale appeared on my statement I have been charged huge amount of tax and NIC.

I quickly wrote a letter to complaint about the whole situation.
The letter I have received in response was not great, avoiding everything i asked for but admiting advisors mistake!

quickly responded to them and asked for compensation. They replied to me that I shouldve seeked Financial advise before selling shares.
I knew what I was doing, but I sold my shares based on the wrong information given by the contact centre advisor!
If I was given different answer I would have wait another two months or so and then sold the shares to avoid paying such a huge amount of tax and NIC.

I contacted Financial Service Ombundsman today and have been told that I can take the case to small claim court and there is nothing that they can do ! Shocking!

Is this right ? I am going to write to FSO once again , I am not going to leave it just like that and losse so much money just because somebody gave me the wrong answer to my simple question. I think that the answers I received from Equiniti and FSO were absolutelly shocking!

Can anyone help with this case please ?
:mad::mad::mad:

dunstonh

It is possible that your use of the word "adviser" has complicated this. They havent give you advice. You did not speak to an adviser.

I contacted Financial Service Ombundsman today and have been told that I can take the case to small claim court and there is nothing that they can do ! Shocking!

It would suggest that the firm is not covered by the FOS.

Is this right ? I am going to write to FSO once again

The FOS only covers firms which are FSA regulated. If they are not FSA regulated or more importantly, the area of business you are using them for is not regulated, then you dont get access to the FOS.

I think that the answers I received from Equiniti and FSO were absolutelly shocking!

It appears you have made the mistake in believing you have spoken to an adviser. If you had then you would get consumer protection. However you have only spoken to a clerk or clerical worker and it's probable that the questions you asked were not within their remit to answer and they asked around and gave what they thought. It may have ended up right or wrong but if you ask the wrong people then you are always at risk of that.

MichalK86

Thanks very much for your quick reply.
I spoke with customer service adviser at their call centre ... yes I presume it was an adviser. anyway it was person who answer the call after calling their number I have chosen few different options, clicked few numbers on my tekefon keypaid to be transfered to THE RIGHT PERSON who will be able to answer my query ...
I didnt ask for financial advice I didnt ask if I should sell or not and whats the best for me ... I knew I wanted to sell the shares, the only problem I have is that the answer to my question was not answered correctly, my question was about services that they provide... and complaint handler admited that AGENT provided me with "INCORECT" answer.
based on this answer I sold my shares... I didnt think to double check what she said ... why would I?? ...

Also Equiniti is regulated by FSA so I suppose I have rights to take the case to FOS. Am I right ?

Do you think I should rewrite my complain and not use words like advisor and advise? if so I see your point now

JuicyJesus

MichalK86 wrote: »

Thanks very much for your quick reply.
I spoke with customer service adviser at their call centre ... yes I presume it was an adviser. anyway it was person who answer the call after calling their number I have chosen few different options, clicked few numbers on my tekefon keypaid to be transfered to THE RIGHT PERSON who will be able to answer my query ...
I didnt ask for financial advice I didnt ask if I should sell or not and whats the best for me ... I knew I wanted to sell the shares, the only problem I have is that the answer to my question was not answered correctly, my question was about services that they provide... and complaint handler admited that AGENT provided me with "INCORECT" answer.
based on this answer I sold my shares... I didnt think to double check what she said ... why would I?? ...

Also Equiniti is regulated by FSA so I suppose I have rights to take the case to FOS. Am I right ?

Do you think I should rewrite my complain and not use words like advisor and advise? if so I see your point now

Explain what happened in simple language.

You called the company to find out X. The company told you Y. Because of this you did Z. Y was wrong so you have lost 123. You would therefore like 123.

I could barely understand your post though, so I have no idea what actually happened. Make your complaint coherent and send it off to FOS.

EDIT: Actually, just read your first post. What you say is that you have been charged large amounts of tax because both the share sale and the bonus/overtime went through on the same payslip. Actually, you would/should have paid the same amount of tax and NI in either case, it's just if they came through on separate payslips then it would have shown as separate amounts, but they would have added up to the same total. If the amount of tax/NI deducted was wrong then that is up to the tax office and/or your employer to correct, not the firm.

You might get a few quid goodwill as compensation for the delay, but I don't think you have a complaint about the tax.

bigadaj

You also need to be careful in terms of the way that payroll works. If you get paid a large amount in one month, particularly at the star of the tax year, this can be extrapolated as if you then get paid the same every month. The system normally works back when your subsequent months pay is credited, and the overpaid tax tends to come back into line, you do need to keep an eye on it though.

Perelandra

no compensation

bigadaj wrote: »

You also need to be careful in terms of the way that payroll works. If you get paid a large amount in one month, particularly at the star of the tax year, this can be extrapolated as if you then get paid the same every month. The system normally works back when your subsequent months pay is credited, and the overpaid tax tends to come back into line, you do need to keep an eye on it though.

As bigadaj says. On the income tax front, it should come back into line.

As far as NI is concerned, I think that the only way you could have paid more NI in total than you are obliged to pay is if your earning are below the primary threshhold- and this is quite low. You may, indeed, be better off having been paid in this way.

MichalK86

Thanks for all of your advice. Probably you are right about tax. Usually I'm paying about 300 and now I paid 680 so its a massive difference. So do you think if I would sold my shares in month without my bonus would I pay less tax ? My wage after adding proceeds from sale of shares looks like instead of selling all of shares I have sold half of my holding ... ;-) its painfull to watch ...
What would your advice on that be ?

Xbigman

You haven't paid too much tax. Why do you think you had?

You've been taxed in this wage packet but the proceeds will be in your next wage packet, which will be a larger than normal amount but only normal tax.

They already told you that the matched shares wouldn't be sold so yes, you have only sold half (I assume 1 to 1 matching).

I don't see you have a complaint other than being told you'd get the money this wage packet when in fact its the next.


X

MichalK86

Thanks, in fact they cant leave matching shares while I'm selling contribution shares. So this part was wrong as well.
So to sum up, they told me wrong info about when the money will be transfered to my wage based on that info I sold shares. I lost all of matching shares where if I waited another month I would get some of the matching shares as well. Secondly they also didn't cancel my shares contribution so monthly contribution continued for another 2 months.
Even if I didn't lost on tax I lost on matching shares, price plus they didn't carried my instructions to cancel contribution.

bigadaj

MichalK86 wrote: »

Thanks, in fact they cant leave matching shares while I'm selling contribution shares. So this part was wrong as well.
So to sum up, they told me wrong info about when the money will be transfered to my wage based on that info I sold shares. I lost all of matching shares where if I waited another month I would get some of the matching shares as well. Secondly they also didn't cancel my shares contribution so monthly contribution continued for another 2 months.
Even if I didn't lost on tax I lost on matching shares, price plus they didn't carried my instructions to cancel contribution.

You've got a victim complex rather than objectively determining whether there is actually an issue, if your posts were more coherent then others may be able to better advise.

MichalK86

Good to have psychologist here. But I just don't like to be screewed Anyway I have my answer already thanks to all who helped.