Unable to sell US shares online with Bestinvest (Tilney)

fire_in_progress

Hello!

Over a month ago, I transferred my investment account to Bestinvest – and shortly thereafter I submitted my W8-BEN form, since my portfolio includes some US shares.

Now, I want to sell those US shares, but I cannot manage to do it, due to a technical glitch on the platform (the “buy” and “sell” buttons on the webpage are shaded and inactive). The problem does not exist for my UK shares – I can trade those normally.

I have called Bestinvest’s customer service a few times already, but they are unhelpful and unable to find/solve the problem.

Has anyone experienced the same problem with Bestinvest? Is there anything I can do – apart from requesting a transfer out to my previous broker?

Thanks for your help!

[Deleted User]

Hi,

have you tried the app?

fire_in_progress

Yes, forgot to mention - app + different browsers.

Their website also appears to be down right now.

wmb194

fire_in_progress said:

Hello!

Over a month ago, I transferred my investment account to Bestinvest – and shortly thereafter I submitted my W8-BEN form, since my portfolio includes some US shares.

Now, I want to sell those US shares, but I cannot manage to do it, due to a technical glitch on the platform (the “buy” and “sell” buttons on the webpage are shaded and inactive). The problem does not exist for my UK shares – I can trade those normally.

I have called Bestinvest’s customer service a few times already, but they are unhelpful and unable to find/solve the problem.

Has anyone experienced the same problem with Bestinvest? Is there anything I can do – apart from requesting a transfer out to my previous broker?

Thanks for your help!

Assuming it isn't just a technical problem, is something happening with these shares e.g., they've been suspended? Obviously you might not be able to place orders when the US market is closed.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

fire_in_progress said:

Yes, forgot to mention - app + different browsers.

Their website also appears to be down right now.

seems to be live now, I tried a bit of the open an account process.

fire_in_progress

Thanks, everyone!

Yes, unable to trade even when the stock market is open. And the shares are tradable and quite liquid.

Just a technical glitch that Bestinvest is unable to solve...

Beddie

I also had a recent problem with Bestinvest. It was a simple fund switch within my ISA. It just would not work online, kept getting error messages.

They could not fix the problem and said they would do it manually, so I wasted time on the phone telling them what switch I wanted. No idea if it's fixed yet, as they never got back to me. Not a good start, as I only opened it this year, so will be transferring to a better provider I think.

fire_in_progress

Quick update: Bestinvest is saying the problem was that I was using their old version of the website - which I have often done, because it looks better than the newest one.

What they did not say is that I also tried the newest version and their app on my mobile - and was still unable to sell my US shares.

So, the cause of the technical glitch is still a mystery.

Today, I went on and sold my shares on the phone - each trade should cost me 30 quid, according to their charges (compared to nil for online trade). I am planning to ask to be compensated for those. And I just hope the trades were carried out OK - won't know until next week. It was full 15 minutes on the line before I could speak to anyone...

I kind of feel sorry for the people there... every time, it feels you're talking to a different bit of the organisation which doesn't know what another bit is saying... while the big guys at Evelyn Partners profit from the acquisition...

wmb194

fire_in_progress said:

Quick update: Bestinvest is saying the problem was that I was using their old version of the website - which I have often done, because it looks better than the newest one.

What they did not say is that I also tried the newest version and their app on my mobile - and was still unable to sell my US shares.

So, the cause of the technical glitch is still a mystery.

Today, I went on and sold my shares on the phone - each trade should cost me 30 quid, according to their charges (compared to nil for online trade). I am planning to ask to be compensated for those. And I just hope the trades were carried out OK - won't know until next week. It was full 15 minutes on the line before I could speak to anyone...

I kind of feel sorry for the people there... every time, it feels you're talking to a different bit of the organisation which doesn't know what another bit is saying... while the big guys at Evelyn Partners profit from the acquisition...

Interesting. Yes, you should definitely ask to be refunded the telephone costs. It's weird that they weren't able to give you immediate confirmation of the sale price - why weren't the trades placed immediately?

fire_in_progress

The only way I could find to carry out a trade on the phone was to call the customer service, wait 15 minutes in line and then tell the customer service person what I wanted to sell - I was told they would pass my instructions on to their dealing desk straightaway.

Will have to wait a couple more days, I guess, to receive the contract notes - hope everything went through OK.

As I said, everything feels quite shambolic... like being asked "Would you not want to carry out this trade online yourself?", to which I replied "I certainly would - except I can't. Because there is a technical glitch on your systems and you're unable to fix it."

wmb194

fire_in_progress said:

The only way I could find to carry out a trade on the phone was to call the customer service, wait 15 minutes in line and then tell the customer service person what I wanted to sell - I was told they would pass my instructions on to their dealing desk straightaway.

Will have to wait a couple more days, I guess, to receive the contract notes - hope everything went through OK.

As I said, everything feels quite shambolic... like being asked "Would you not want to carry out this trade online yourself?", to which I replied "I certainly would - except I can't. Because there is a technical glitch on your systems and you're unable to fix it."

Ah, I see. Other brokers would have put you through to the dealing desk...

I recently opened an account with Bestinvest for one of its cashback incentives but so far I've only bought a single OEIC and that went smoothly.