Sharecentre Incorrect LISA Bonus - Blaming HMRC

Hi all,

Me and my partner both opened a LISA in April 2017 with £1 whilst continuing to contribute to a H2B ISA. We both had H2B ISAs open with contributions before the 17-18 tax year (a few thousand from previous tax years). In March 2018 we both transferred our H2B into LISA and topped up with any remaining £4000 17-18 LISA allowance. As we'd continued to contribute to H2B, we could top up about £1600.

Come the end of April 2018, we were expecting to receive a bonus of 25% on the whole amount. I received a bonus as expected. My partner received exactly £1000 (odd as we followed the exact same process - luckily we noticed the difference as Sharecentre didn't!). Clearly, the error is that H2B ISA contributions from tax years before 17-18 had no bonus received for my partner.

After noticing this a few weeks back, we contacted Sharecentre on the phone around 2 weeks ago who said they will investigate and get back in a couple of days. Around a week later, nothing. We then send a complaint email explaining everything again, around a week later, nothing. Phone again explaining everything and they say that this has been a problem for many people, and it is HMRCs fault. Apparently it is taking along time for Sharecentre to get around to sorting it as they only have 1 person sorting it (well make more people sort it then!). If we want it sorting quicker apparently we need to contact HMRC directly (but they couldn't provide details of who to contact).

Is this correct? Surely this isn't the correct process... Also, as we are currently in the middle of buying a house, Sharecentre told us that the correct bonus not being paid isn't their problem, the bonus will be paid in eventually but we would have to pay the 25% penalty to withdraw after the house purchase (unless we wait until we're retired!). I feel we could suffer a financial loss through no fault of our own and Sharecentres bad attitude and "not our fault" mentality is very poor customer service. I won't be using them for any of my other investments in the future for sure!

Sorry for the long post, my questions really are 1) Is it correct that I need to contact HMRC directly to get this sorted? 2) Is there any way of recovering any direct financial loss of due to this error if we buy a house before bonus is paid? (will the financial ombudsmen help?) 3) Has anyone else had the same problem with incorrect bonus being paid?

Thanks,