Hargreaves Lansdown - Terrible service

Hermann

bugbyte wrote: »

To be fair to HL, yesterday would have been like a denial of service attack on their systems the amount of people trying to trade. To have the infrastructure and IT capacity to cope it would have cost HL substantially more than they would make, and they would not have needed that capacity again.

I lost out on about £30 which I can live with but I'm not going to over react and never use them again - its like saying you will never use tesco's because two years ago when everyone was panic buying petrol they ran out.

It's tempting to think that way. But if that was true then the every brokers system would have failed.

The fact is that the rest of the industry did cope Hargreaves Lansdown didn't. That tells you, with absolute certainty, that it was possible to have a functioning system on Friday.

It is frankly financial suicide to accept that share dealing works well on a quiet day but fails when things get a bit busy.

dealsearcher

Interesting thread. Personally I tried about twenty times to deal in RMG shares on Friday. Each time resulted in a timeout and a requote button. Very frustrating.

Calling them didn't help either. It wasn't that they weren't helpful on the phone I just couldn't get passed the engaged tone!

Doshwaster

It's also disappointing not to have received any apology or explanation from HL. Nothing on email and no mention of the disruption on their website.

I wasn't able to sell at all on Friday so I need to decide what to do next. Either see a limit order or see how trading goes on Monday and how the HL website copes with it.

atypical

Doshwaster wrote: »

I wasn't able to sell at all on Friday so I need to decide what to do next. Either see a limit order or see how trading goes on Monday and how the HL website copes with it.

I'm in the same position. Skeptical Monday will be any better.

Not sure why the sympathy for HL. None of this was out of their control. It wasn't a freak event. An IT solution exists. The costs/feasibility of it is only HL's concern after they've made service commitments.

Hermann

Doshwaster wrote: »

It's also disappointing not to have received any apology or explanation from HL. Nothing on email and no mention of the disruption on their website.

I wasn't able to sell at all on Friday so I need to decide what to do next. Either see a limit order or see how trading goes on Monday and how the HL website copes with it.

It wasn't just the website that failed, it was the whole trading platform.

As such many orders with set limits didn't get executed either. So having a set limit order might not be much good either. Probably worth a try though.

I agree about the lack of communication from them, the firm just seems to have disappeared into a black hole.

The media don't seem at all bothered by it either.

MobileSaver

Doshwaster wrote: »

It's also disappointing not to have received any apology or explanation from HL.

Statement from HL Chief Executive now on their web site.

Hargreaves Lansdown Royal Mail Shares Problems

dealsearcher

Some clients experienced delays ... :silenced:

And he's sorry. Well that's alright then.

The site was down all day and everyone on this forum had trouble dealing at all. 'Some clients' is a bit of an under statement.

JoeCrystal

dealsearcher wrote: »

Some clients experienced delays ... :silenced:

And he's sorry. Well that's alright then.

The site was down all day and everyone on this forum had trouble dealing at all. 'Some clients' is a bit of an under statement.

Technically true. Just how many of their clients are actually wanting to trade on that very day. No doubt the percentage is just "some".

Cheers,
Joe

innovate

The CEO statement is a very polished, typically british understated public statement. Reference to "a number of other brokers" who allegedly also experienced problems isn't helpful - either HL want to be ahead of the platform pack, or an also-run. Make up your mind, Ian Gorham! And please name those other brokers because no Internet forum seems to have heard of them yet.

But leaving the public statement aside....

Behind the scenes at HL, people will already be looking back at a promising career, and an IT supplier will by now have put up their defenses, even if they don't have any because their technology and the way they deploy it inherently can't hack gigantic volumes and peak demands.

Monday will show what the City thinks about HL and their ability to manage anything other than bog standard. The City are usually kind to their fellows, and HL will probably go unscathed amongst the still prevailing Royal Mail euphoria.

Investors will be left fuming, and their only option will be to vote with their feet. However, I fear it will be very much a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire for anyone who feels the need to rush to another platform/broker. Let things cool down and give yourself a chance to assess which is the least worst platform/broker for your needs.

Doshwaster

If the price does shoot up again on Monday I wonder how many people will be grateful that they couldn't sell on Friday? I could be one of them.