Etoro customer service experience
I've been keen to try out a bit of trading, but the costs of doing so through normal bank or online trading platforms seemed pretty steep. Then I came across eToro.
I signed up and reasonably quickly I had invested in a few stocks.
The signup process came with a bit of indirection and the openbook platform feels pretty clunky. But all-in-all things were working.
Part of using eToro means you need to verify who you are. I didn't do this straight away as I realised it was probably only going to become a factor when trying to withdraw funds.
I put in $50, bought stocks in 4 items and for a few weeks watched as my portfolio value changed.
It became pretty clear that in order to make any money you either have to use the "copy trade" functionality or really follow the markets. I've decided that I'm not going to get into trading right now and that I don't need my eToro account and the reasonable amount of auto-generated email that makes its way to your inbox when you have an account.
So: time to withdraw my funds and close my account.
Withdrawing funds
This is pretty hidden away - see my earlier indirection comment. There is an FAQ that I found via Google. But it appears you have to open up their web trading platform and that you can't do this via openbook.
I tried to withdraw funds and was then prompted with the verification process. I tried:
to upload a PDF of a utility bill and was presented with an error
I exported the PDF to a JPG and tried uploading: error.
I repeated this a number of times and eventually decided to get in touch with customer support.
Hi, I've tried to upload documents to verify my account but I keep getting an error. This has resulted in me not being able to verify my account. This, along with a decision that I won't be using my etoro account, has resulted in the decision to close my account. Could I please get my $56.50 funds back and have my account closed please. Regards, Phil @leggetter
This morning I got a response:
We are very sorry to hear you have requested to close your account. eToro values all of its clients and takes every request of this nature seriously. If you have an unresolved service issue please contact our customer service department to discuss and escalate the matter if needed. We appreciate your feedback in order to improve our services, if you wouldn’t mind replying to this email and summarizing your reason for opting to close your account, we would be grateful to understand why and resolve your concerns, if any. Should you still wish to close your account please reply to this email from your registered email address with the following statement:
"My Username is XXXXX and I request eToro to close my account"
Additional important information:
You also have the option to unsubscribe from our mailing list by clicking the "click here" link located at the top of each promotional e-mail. Clicking on that link will remove you from any future mailings.
Please note, if you have remaining funds in your account it is recommended to withdraw them first. To learn more about the withdrawal process please use the link below: http://www.etoro.com/trade/withdrawing-funds.aspx
In case you wish to remove your eToro Openbook profile as well, you need to login to eToro Openbook and change your privacy settings to: “NO, I prefer to keep my trades private.”
Once you are done, please get back to us so that we can proceed with your request to close your account.
Should you require further assistance or information, please reply to this message or chat live with us during our business hours.
This response is polite. But suggests my request hasn't be read. I stated:
I've tried to upload documents to verify my account but I keep getting an error. This has resulted in me not being able to verify my account.
Yet, the response tells me how to state I want to close my account and that if I want to withdraw funds that I have to verify my account. I clearly stated that this functionality wasn't working.
I responded:
Please read my original support request.
And got a swift reply:
Kindly note you will have to provide the documents in order to withdraw your funds.
We would like to remind you that it is stipulated in our terms and conditions that we may ask for documents at any time. By registering and funding an account with eToro, you consent to these. To clarify, as per the regulations set out by our licensing authorities, we are required to verify each client’s identity, location and their means of payment. We ask for a passport, ID card or driving license as proof of identification; a recent utility bill/bank statement as proof of residence and both sides of any credit cards used on our system. There are also instances where we may require additional information including a credit card statement, official bank letter or e-Wallet screenshot. For more information regarding our regulators, please visit: http://www.etoro.com/trade/etoro-and-brokers.aspx Please note that you may provide ID card instead of the passport and also bank statement showing the last 4 digits of the card including your name instead of the credit card. Should you have any additional questions or require further assistance or information reply to this message or chat live with us during our business hours.
What's going wrong here?
Having worked in customer support for a number of years I have an idea of what is going on here:
The customer service agent is keen to get this resolved as quicky as possible. They skim the incoming emails and reply with as much FAQ or pre-defined response as possible. This results in the details of the request being missed. I tried to verify my account, but got an error.
There is an assumption of user error. The customer service agent knows the service and system. They assume it works and that any problem is caused by the user. There's also an assumption that Terms & Conditions haven't been read or understood. I understand I need to verify my account. But I couldn't.
What should have happened?
The customer support agent should have carefully read my initial request. It's clear that:
I have tried to verify my account: > I've tried to upload documents to verify my account but I keep getting an error. This has resulted in me not being able to verify my account.
I've not been 100% happy with the eToro platform and service whilst using it: > This, along with a decision that I won't be using my etoro account, has resulted in the decision to close my account.
Although the eToro platform isn't allowing me to verify my account I would like the money I'm entitled to: > Could I please get my $56.50 funds back and have my account closed
I've not spent about an hour trying to get the funds I'm entitled to from eToro and writing up these details.
The customer support agent should have:
Check the service status to see if anybody else had experienced problems with uploading verification documents. If so, flagged this to the team.
Apologise and find out more about the problem, and if I've had any other problems. This is partially done via the pre-defined response. But this could easily be improved.
Request for me to email them the documentation for verification or provide some other way of verifying my account.
Provide me with my funds.
Steps 1 to 3 should have occurred within one email. So far we're on email number 5.
Where next?
I'm just about to reply, provide a link to this blog post and include the following text:
As per my original correspondence, the process for uploading the required documentation was not working when I submitted my support request. How was I supposed to provide the required documentation if that functionality did not work?
Please re-read my first email. It's very clear that I could not upload the documentation. And that this influenced my decision to cancel my etoro account.
Let's see what they come back with.
Conclusion
EToro accepted verification via email and gave me back my funds without incurring the 5% payment fee.
