SVS Securities - shut down?

My2penneth

Jamesram said:

I think your comments are justifiable ("harsh but fair" as my old boss would have said). I just had the same thing when a promised phone call was not returned.    When someone says "I'll get back to you within x minutes" then one is left hanging round waiting for the call. It is, IMHO, very discourteous...almost like they have said "I'll phone you back" just to get you off the line. 

I feel that the average employee at ITI Capital (the brokers, customer accounts, receptionists, etc) have been let down by their senior management team in chasing the 20,000 accounts. They have failed to support their employees and left them to face a barrage of complaints.  Your email above sort of reflects the arrogance of their Head of Compliance making out that it is your fault. Yep, seen it all before!

shawdon

Jamesram said:

Just a bit of fun: Here is Mr Moss, "Compliance Officer", on "timely responses" to phone calls

On 06/08/2020 10:00, David Moss wrote:

Dear Mr Rampage,

Thank you for your communication.  I note there are sill some outstanding issues and I will revert back to you in this regard.  I note you have spoken with a colleague in Account Management this morning and you are due a response to your query. You have highlighted that you have not received a timely response to your call at 8am this morning:    Needless to say I have heard nothing from him two and a half hours later. With the greatest respect, I feel this comment is unjustified as on writing to you we are dealing with your complaint and the issues you have raised and whilst you are expecting a timely response, you should be mindful that we are engaging with other SVS clients in trying to resolve these issues in an orderly manner.

Thanking you in advance for your patience in this regard.

Here is my response

Dear Mr Moss

Thanks for your email. My surname is RamXXX, not Rampage- perhaps you are trying to be funny?

As regards your colleague- if he says "I will call you back in a few minutes" am I not entitled to complain that he did not?

This was compounded by the fact that when I tried to phone him back after two hours or so, your telephone system just cut me off twice without any opportunity to leave a message- ITI effectively just hung up on me, twice.

The suggestion that my complaint that he did not phone me is "unjustified" rather indicates the level of standards you are setting as Compliance Officer, does it not?

The last sentence of your email seems to suggest that  it is my fault for being generally  impatient, because other SVS clients are having a terrible time of things too, and I should wait my turn!

As I write, I am still unable to trade my stock or buy stock using my account cash balances, and your company has failed to do what it said it would do. Please do not tell me again what I should be mindful of - a bit of humility on your part might go down better!

Let me suggest that you should be mindful of the fact that your company ITI Capital bid for the ex-SVS accounts, and represented to the FCA and the Administrators that you would provide a better, enhanced experience for SVS clients. This is just not the case so far as I, my partner and my ex-wife, all SVS account holders, have experienced. ITI Capital has had since 11 June to prepare for transfer of SVS accounts.  It has failed with 3 out of the 3 accounts I personally know about, and from hearsay from the administrators many many more, as you yourself indirectly acknowledge by the last sentence of your email.

As each day passes I am more and more inclined to engage in the hassle of a complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman. Nothing in your last email dissuades me from doing so - rather the reverse. All these exchanges are  being logged for purposes of a reference to the Ombudsman.

Although the impression I get at present is that no-one at ITI Capital cares very much anyway.

Regards

James,
Spot on, excellent email and it may be worth reminding Mr Moss that the FCA are formally requesting all complaints to be sent to him for an appropriate response and this example of his reply to your complaint does not inspire any confidence in either him or his company and it is very unlikely that either will be in business in a few months time! I am formally awaiting reply to my FCA approved complaint with bated breath!

My2penneth

logged on - seeing Eight accounts now (balance still zero) .

The PX accounts have been duplicated - same numbers but different colour markers.

Looks like my VOD divi has been paid and a further dividend from Merchants IT (but at a rate of 6.7p rather than 6.8p per share for some reason)

sweetsand

Put in your complaints to FSO.  I hate it when brokers go under but then the new ones mess you around like this.

My2penneth

sweetsand said:

Put in your complaints to FSO.  I hate it when brokers go under but then the new ones mess you around like this.

The FSO has closed
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/financial-services-organisation

"The UKTI Financial Services Organisation (FSO) helps attract inward investment to the UK and facilitates overseas trade in the financial and related professional service sector"

I don't think they would have helped even if they still existed!  

sweetsand

My2penneth said:

sweetsand said:

Put in your complaints to FSO.  I hate it when brokers go under but then the new ones mess you around like this.

The FSO has closed
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/financial-services-organisation

"The UKTI Financial Services Organisation (FSO) helps attract inward investment to the UK and facilitates overseas trade in the financial and related professional service sector"

I don't think they would have helped even if they still existed!  

No they have not = Financial Services Ombudsman, lol,

shawdon

Just checked my 10 accounts and they are all now showing £0 cash and £0 shares on qort and phoenix, i.e. 20 accounts in total all empty! Is it now time to call the fraud squad police to get them to raid ITI offices? 

My2penneth

shawdon said:

Just checked my 10 accounts and they are all now showing £0 cash and £0 shares on qort and phoenix, i.e. 20 accounts in total all empty! Is it now time to call the fraud squad police to get them to raid ITI offices? 

They are working on our accounts. they should have notified us but - as usual - didn't.  My 2 accounts were marked as zero (*) earlier today. The amounts have come back and are no longer zero. the only updates seem to be the addition of a couple of dividends as the cash balance has changed.

The wife's accounts are still marked as zero.

(*) not zero but not necessarily correct values, neither !

Jools2001

johnburman said:

Within 48hrs

Had e mail returned today, seems its not com, but uk in the address,
sent that back, reply and case number back within 60 seconds!  thanks again, lets hope they sort it soon?

consumer.queries@fca.org.uk

snipkin

Some good news. I suddenly received my cash withdrawal from ITI in my bank account this afternoon after complaining on the phone and emailing the ITI dealing desk (the only ones who answer the phone) who chased up my withdrawal request. They asked me to forward to them a copy of my withdrawal request email from last week. I have already posted an apologetic email reply I received later this morning from the Head of Dealing at ITI.
And this afternoon the money suddenly appeared! It is a large sum - in excess of £100K - from share sales the week before. Well, what a relief after all the stress, plus reading the bad experiences of others on this forum and my paranoid wondering if the money had somehow 'disappeared' into Russia somewhere... I now wonder if my original withdrawal request was lost (having read this from others here) and therefore the need to forward another copy?

It seems that there are some ITI staff - the dealing desk in particular - who are very helpful and do their best to get things right  for those that contact them while one gets the feeling the other departments are snowed under and/or don't care.

And I see that the latest 'Progress Report' document posted on the LC website yesterday advises us not to use any other telephone number for ITI than the one on ITI's own website. Well, good luck with that...