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Unfortunately my shares are registered with Equiniti. So I wanted to sell them.
I found that after successful login, the abrdnshares website kept freezing on me. So, I called the help line.
Most of you reading this will probably know already where this is going......
So, first thing is a several minute ramble through information I didn't need with no option to take a short-cut.
Then a premature time wasting (my time, not theirs) demand for personal ID before they know what I'm calling about and whether they need it to answer my question.
Eventually got to the dealing centre, but because of COVID blah blah blah. This excuse is no longer valid.
But hey, its OK, I can send them an email, and they will deal with it within FIVE working days. Remeber, this is the share dealing centre !
In my opinion, ABREND management, or whatever they call themselves are totally incompetent at small shareholder management. First of all, can you take seriously a management that re-brands with such a stupid name. And secondly, can you take seriously a management that engages a shareholder relationship manager that is so unresponsive and otherwise unhelpful, but are very good at taking an unduly large percentage at every opportunity.
I know that neither DRABN management nor Equiniti are taking the slightest notice of this. But thanks to anyone else who has read this far.
Rolio - thanks for that response - I seem to be missing something ! I have logged in to the abrdn site using the old login details which were accepted until I input my new reference number. I get the abrdn website - not the Equiniti one, but there is no button to sell shares anywhere. There is a buy button - but no sell. I wonder if you can point me to it ?
I called the help-line which turned out to be Equiniti. What a disaster. An extremely long-winded and for the most part irrelevant blurb, at the end of which there was no answer. The promised feedback opportunity 'after the call has ended' never happened. Just as well, as I was in expletive mode by that time.
It seems clear to me that abrdn has no idea how to handle a public interface, and I have lost confidence in their management. If they run the company with the same level of incompetence, then it is not a good investment. So, for what it is worth, my little contribution to their corporate funding will be withdrawn as soon as I figure out how to do it at a reasonable price.
As a non-expert, so this is not authoritative, I believe that if you hold abrdn shares through their corporate sponsored nominee facility, now administered by Equiniti, then you are supposed to have received a letter from Equiniti setting up a new share account, and with that letter comes a form allowing you to buy, through Equinity, more shares at a flat fee of £50, or to sell shares at a fee of 25p per share with a cap of £50.
If your shares are not part of the abrdn sponsored corporate share scheme, then none of the above applies.
If your shareholding is with arndb or whatever directly as nominees, then you have to deal through rip-off Equiniti at 25p per share. If you bought and hold your shares shares through a reputable broker - LSE might be such a one, then you pay sensible broker fees, like about £10 a go.
As I mentioned before, the letter that came with the recent package - the letter headed 'Your new Share Account' states in the second sentence of paragraph two that "If you wish to transfer out of the abrdn Share Account you can do so free of charges if EFSL (that's Equinity) receives your request within 90 days of the shares being received by EFSL - by 5pm on Monday 24 October 2021." I believe that this applies to the nominee shareholdings administered by Equiniti only, not to those held directly through a broker. I called my broker today (HL as it happens) who answered the phone within 5 seconds, and said they would see what they could do to get the shares transferred to them as a regular shareholding. I'll report back when I get an answer. But technically, the reply will only apply to me, so you others who feel annoyed, as a matter of principle, get in touch with your brokers and see what their advice is. It may well require a direct approach from you in the first instance, but it cannot do any harm to let your broker know that you prefer to deal with them rather than Equinty.
After all that, Equinity, and adnmsxyz probably want you to dump your shares as little shareholders get in the way of the big money.
Re previous post, it occurs to me that simply registering on the new portal might be tacit acceptance of membership of their share account. But since they have failed to send me an activation code (its now 8th August), I could not complete the registration, so I have time to check this.
Equiniti is subject to a takeover bid from Siris Capital Group LLC Clearly, somebody else feels they could run the show better. Aberdeen Standard owns about 7% of Equiniti shares - is there a connection ?
It says in their letter 'If you wish to transfer out of the abrdn Share Accountyou can do so free of charge if EFSL receives your request within 90 days ......' Does anybody know how one might go about doing that.
I'm not impressed by the company in general, and their public face is now a joke. Silly name for a start. If you feel strongly about this, you can always vote against the reappointment of the Director in charge of marketing.