Customer Service

I've never used the 'phone support but on occasions I have contacted them by email they have been pretty quick - I've never had reason to complain. I think they are quite a small company so perhaps they get stretched at times.

My one call to them to ask a question was never returned. That question was answered later that evening by a poster on here so I didn't follow up.

In contrast a call to another platform today about an interest question resulted in a call back from someone with all the details within 10 mins.

That said, the keep it simple approach of SS means that I don't have many questions for SS and the rest of their service has, to date, been great.

Please use email for comms. I am sure you prefer a 24/7 telephone service as you are used to at a bank, however, please remember that we are offering 1% per month return. We can do this as we keep the team and ops very lean. If you have a question, please send it via the contact form on the website. We have 5000+ investors and cannot operate a telephone support service whilst also providing you with 1% per month. 

I've only had occasion to email SS once, but I received a comprehensive, thoughtful and interesting reply that more than met my expectations.  It took them a couple of days but they were in the middle of an office move at the time, so I think that was a pretty fast response given the circumstances.

+1 for great email support from SS.  Telephones are so last decade...

 I've always found that SS respond quickly, especially by email. If you have an individual problem Tim has lots of patience and will ensure that the situation is resolved and that you understand how and why. SS was my first experience of P2P it has been a good place to start.

caveman38  most of the p2p platforms are very small businesses with just a handful of employees.  Expectations of response times to non trivial enquiries need to be set accordingly given that most staff with the "technical" knowledge as you put it will not be in the office waiting for your phone call but out drumming up new loans or working with the lawyers on drawdown and redemption of prospective and existing loans respectively.

RS is big enough to have a dedicated customer service team.  Based on my experience W&Co appear to have a very small customer service team which works well if one person is able to deal with your enquiry there and then, but falls flat on its face if more than one person becomes involved (their handling of an issue I had earlier this year was farcical).  FC has a dedicated customer service team but their responses may need taking with a pinch of salt.


In reply to a question from you on another thread yesterday, I cautioned that the high yield on p2p loans is compensation for future capital losses.  Whilst my intention yesterday was to imply capital losses as a result of the business you're lending to failing, you also need to factor in that p2p platforms are just micro or small businesses themselves and at just as much risk of failure.  Yes, the FCA has mandated that all platforms have procedures in place to ensure the orderly run off of loan books if platforms fail, but it is very unlikely that recovery levels would be as high in such circumstances compared to business as usual.



I don't mean to be disrepectful, and I certainly don't want to discourage you from asking further questions, but based on your questions thus far, you perhaps need to reconsider whether p2p is the right investment strategy for you.