Just get plus and you get a direct chat service. If you pay, you get help quick. If you freeride on the company (like me haha) you need to wait for an email reply. However, email replies thus far have been quite quick.
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Youāre not wrong, they struggled to scale up support with user numbers and now the chat function is a plus feature. They are normally quite quick on the email but its not the best. Tbh if you try to get help from some large companies now you get stuck in an endless FAQ maze on their website or in a 2 hour queue on the phone but it doesnāt mean its okay.
If you were temped with plus anyway Iād recommend it, the chat is great even if its not really fair.
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Iām sure the support will be good once I receive it - even if it is through a medium Iād rather not use
To get Plus in a cost effective manner (I wouldnāt pay Ā£10 for the other features), Iād have to entrust a three figure sum and at present Iām uneasy about a 2 figure oneā¦
Iām not a fan on all of this ādue to staffing levels at our bankā rationale either. I assume Freetrade are a profitable corporate banking client - 5 working days to return a payment āif we donāt manage to contact youā (somewhat ironic) and then up to a 10 working day wait thereafter just isnāt acceptable. Better should be expected for customers.
Itās cash, not an investment that needs to be sold down. If you use the wrong code or account it should just bounce back right away - there must be functionality for this out there.
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Youāre uneasy about Ā£10? Freetrade is not a joke company. Itās FDA regulated.
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Uneasy in principleā¦
It does not bode confidence for processing larger sums of money through the platform
Itās not about getting the money back in the end - itās about timely support being available when you want it
And also, Ā£10 can be another manās Ā£1000!
Iām aware this is my fault - but a year ago I had a similar issue resolved in a day via chatā¦
This is very very trueā¦ But if that is the case, an emergency fund should be built before putting money into stocks
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Indeed, Iām only dipping toes really
But the funds could have been put to some other useā¦
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I totally understand and I think FT would concede the customer service times could be sped up but ā¦
You donāt expect free next day delivery from Amazon without paying for prime.
Itās not uncommon for a company to operate a freemium model, paywalling certian features. Many of the proper legacy brokers would charge you Ā£10 per trade, in and out!
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Appreciate they offer a low cost trading service!
I got a response around 4pm. Replied within the hour with what Iād like to occur - no response at 11pm
Iād have thought once the conversation was initiated it would have been maintained!
I have contacted FT many times and they got back to me rapid and sorted it straight away, I donāt have plus yet.
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Shame this isnāt my experienceā¦
I replied within 30 minutes 20 hours ago and havenāt had a reply back. All Iām looking for is a simple confirmation of my selection (to have funds returned rather than reapplied).
Again, itās not a big sweat but it means Iāll probably only be using Freetrade to play about rather than making any significant investments in future.
They really need to just remove the chat option for regular users if itās just going to redirect them to email. I do agree and would much prefer that they just use the chat either way.
Having said that the timelines are clearly stated and if you feel itās taken longer for a response then you have a right to log an official complaint.
If you wanted the process sped up then you could have paid Ā£10 for Plus.
What have they specifically done or failed to do to make you lose faith in the company between opening your account and now?
Nothing - I pay for Plus, I have my ISA with them and transferred my SIPP over too.
Also am an investor of Freetrade so I have faith 
(sorry, I know your comment wasnāt aimed at me but I was just giving my two pennies!)
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I would be more likely to pay for a more premium service if I felt I was being serviced well currently - to pay to counter average service is a bit counter intuitive imo - should be an enhancement not a patch up.
Lack of managing expectations, fine with the original quoted timescale. The chat shouldnāt be there if itās not available. once you get a reply via email youād expect a conversation to commence - or if this wasnāt possible due to business hours - for this to be made clear. It feels like Iāve gone to the bottom of a pile again having respondedā¦this may not be the case but Iām not awareā¦
Think the plan is to have the in app chat available to all customers with some added benefits to Plus members. That is why the chat is still there.
This doesnāt help your case but as FT scales to a huge customer base (>1m registered users) things will eventually get back to providing a swift response for everyone.
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I appreciate that - but itās not clearly signposted enough in the app currently
Similar to how yesterday Iām asked āhow would you like to proceedā with no expectation setting as to whether my response would be replied to/shift finishing soon etc
No one is perfect, but when you put it through the medium of email and a non functioning chat itās just all the more frustrating
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Completely agree. The customer service journey is quite confusing for regular users
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Still no response from Saturday!
Iād rather have waited until when they can reply in conversation to have been contacted in the first place - a very poor free user experience!
Itās one thing to prioritise chats with Plus customers but removing the option for other customers is a terrible decision.
I agree, though I guess Freetrade wouldnāt then be able to āspamā customers with in-app messagesā¦
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I donāt think FT staff work all night. tbh, It sounds like you want immediate/24hr support for free.
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