"Incompetent, misleading and untrustworthy"

EQI have moved their support desks to India and the staff are not well trained, I put a complaint in as they failed to move some money for me when I asked and they first attempted to ask me just to give them new instructions and had no interest in dealing with the issue. Eventually I got a call from their complaints department who offered me £ to withdraw the complaint

"Avoid this company like the plague"

Avoid this company like the plague, bloated fees, terrible website, terrible customer service.

They held up an isa transfer to a proper provider for so long that they said I owed a partial fee of £4.47 which had to be paid before they would approve the transfer. Several calls and several payment attempts later the fee was paid and they advised it will take time to process the fee and release the isa to the new provider.

Disgraceful company and my next call is to the ombudsmen.

"Absolute garbage!"

Absolute garbage!

"Utterly incompetent customer service"

I have been trying to move my account to another provider. EQI sent a form to fill out. They then kept finding faults each time a correct form was sent. No one on the phone (in India) had the knowledge or the authority to do anything except tell me to fill the form out again. I asked them to help me fill up the form so that it gets accepted. They made me fill up the form exactly as I had filled it up. Each agent gave me a different reason why my form was incorrect. Utterly hopeless.

"Pretty disappointed after finding my old ISA almost 90% taken in fees"

I have an old Lloyds Bank shares ISA from the demutualisation of Halifax, years ago. Halifax passed it over to SelfTrade (now EQi), but I lost track of the ISA through that process and moving house. On the morning of 22 October 2019 (yes, nearly 5 years ago), I spoke to a helpful chap called Amar about how to reclaim the account, and the same day, sent (by post) all of the information he required to prove my identity and allow me to access the account. I never heard back, and received no subsequent communications at all. The amount wasn't huge, at the time valued at about £300, but still worth having.
Yesterday, I decided to try again as I now need the money. The chap I spoke to on the phone was very helpful, and managed to get me access to my account online.
However, when I accessed the account, there were many fewer shares than there should have been. On reading the online secure messages over the last few years (that I never had access to), I realised that most of my holding had been sold to pay the platform fees which I didn't know about as nobody had communicated with me. My holding is now worth about £30, as about 90% of my holding had been sold.
I feel pretty let down by EQi as they never responded to my letter 5 years ago, but started to charge more and more fees, unknown to me. Yes, I should probably have chased the account sooner, but I didn't need the money until now, and just relied on it being there. If I'd known what was happening, I'd have sold or moved my shares. Don't make my mistake - there are way better and cheaper platforms out there if you have a modest amount of shares like me. Needless to say, I'm shutting my account and may console myself with a take away meal as that is all the remaining investment will buy.

"The site is average"

The site is average. It sort of does what I need it to do and whenever I call, I manage to resolve whatever I need - although the people in the call centre talk very fast in very strong accents and I often need to ask them to slow down and repeat.

There is regularly a message saying something on the site is not working properly and to call systems administrators if the problem persists - I never bother.

The Watchlist sometimes works and sometimes doesn't which is very annoying as it's something I'd like to use more.

Disappointing not to be able to see a summary of dividends paid and annoying that notices of dividends paid are deleted after 90 days unless you remember to tick a box saying do not delete.

Would also be good to have access to a breakdown of what cash held is as there seems to be no record of activity on the account.

"The webpage is not working...usally is…"

The webpage is not working...usally is really slow...impossible to trade with it today...no response in the email...I can't access my money...Will change for sure....useless

"Useless"

Useless when you complain about share isa scheme.
The customer service phone number is a Indian service center who is not helpful at all !
All i want to do is to transfer my isa to my lloyds bank account, have been trying for months to do this !

Don't waste your time and effort with EQI
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Update as of 3 Jan 2024
I phoned both parties again today.
They still blaming each other as to why this has not been completed ! (since i started this process in the start of Oct 2023)
I don't feel at all confident that this will be sorted anytime soon. nor do i feel that EQI are at all interested to sort this mess out.

"Useless"

Useless. They don’t reply to reviews which tells you everything you need to know about the corporate culture and service ethic you can expect. Am transferring to AJ Bell.

"Absolutely USELESS"

Absolutely USELESS! I actually cannot believe how crap these guys are. The ONLY reason I am dealing with them is because they are linked to my company share account. Otherwise I would not bother. Inconsistent information resulted in me missing out on the opporunity to directly transfer my shares into my ISA, and that now means I have to pay them fees to do so. Coincidence? I think not. Avoid at all costs