Not Being Given Free Shares For Referrals (Complaint)

I signed up to T212 after the crash using a friend’s referral link based on the promotion of us both receiving a free £100 share, which neither of us received. I contacted customer service and received a promo code over one month later which turned out to be a free share of National Grid worth £9 which was very disappointing - and my friend received nothing at all. I eventually sold this share to use towards something better.

Then I referred a friend who set up an account using my referral link and neither of us received a free share either, and T212’s customer service simply didn’t respond to this despite me providing them with her details and also her own unique link to try and prove my claim.

I then referred my brother and we did both receive notification of a free share instantly. He received National Grid and I received Royal Dutch Shell B, another disappointing result based on the advertisement. Therefore I also sold this share and put it towards something better.

Then this week I referred my Mom who set up an account with my link and neither of us have received a free share, and T212’s customer service team simply told me that my link wasn’t used which is categorically untrue as I sat with her to set up the account and contacted them instantly after doing so due to my previous issues with this.

I am extremely disappointed with Trading212 overall, as while I enjoy the app and have a fair amount of money invested (for the average person) the customer support is so poor that to be honest I’m considering leaving - especially when Robinhood makes its way over to the UK. The customer support team have consistently refuted my customer support cases by telling me the reason I haven’t been receiving shares is because I use ad blockers, they give me responses that are nothing to do with my inquiries, or just simply do not respond at all. To be clear, I would send my referral link directly from the app to an email or phone number and my referees signed up either using an iPhone or MacBook with no ad blocking software and default Apple privacy settings. The only exception to this was my brother who used a Windows laptop - and I have even informed customer service of this to try and help. On every occasion I have contacted T212 from the iPhone app instantly with the details of the account that used my link, and my enquiries are simply ignored or denied. I can’t seem to be taken seriously or put through to anyone more senior who could help, and so posting this feels like the only way to finally get someones attention. There is a clear difference between the advertisement implying I should have received near £400 in free shares rather than £15 and nothing for two more referrals.

This is just an incredibly frustrating situation as I feel the advertisements are misleading and the customer service inadequate - particularly as the amount implied in free shares from referrals would have made a significant percentage of my current portfolio as a new, young retail investor. I hope this doesn’t come across as excessively confrontational, but I really would like T212 to appreciate and help fix this for me as I doubt I’ll continue to refer people or perhaps even question holding an account if it isn’t addressed. Could somebody from @Team212 please help me out with this? I doubt I’m the only one!

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Nowhere does it say you will receive a share worth exactly ÂŁ100.

"What share will I receive?

The free share is randomly selected, and its value will be up to 100 USD/ 100 GBP/ 100 EUR."

There is also other criteria such as minimum deposits not just that they sign up.

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With respect, that’s not a reasonable enough argument. The idea is the sentiment towards this claim. By rights they could say up to $1400 like WeBull, but by receiving something that isn’t anywhere near that is essentially misrepresentation to potential customers. Plus that doesn’t change the fact that I was due 4 and only received 1, and another 1 after waiting over a month for customer service to intervene with a promo code while the people I referred to the service based on this advertisement received nothing :woman_shrugging: Also, deposits were placed into every account instantly after creation.

You don’t have a claim if the free shares you got wasn’t at the upper end of the valuation, its just how it goes I’m afraid.

But I’m sure the @team212 will look into any missing free shares if all the criteria has been met.

The no fee trading, no fee foreign exchange and innovative features (such as autoinvest and pies) are worth far more than the odd free share. I have also received free shares with values around $10. I had read up to ÂŁ100, so was not at all disappointed.

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This is what the free stocks looks like on WeBull: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEAPkdaypdA

Yep I’ve had a few around the £10 mark which I’ve sold and bought something else with. Free money and free share dealing.

Yeah I get that man! Although I know people that say they had Astrazeneca and stuff which made me wonder :thinking:

It must just be the luck of the draw. Mine have been fairly low value

It seems you’ve clearly misread the advertising. You can receive a free share which may be up to £100. They’ve never said you would receive a £100 share every time, or at all.

The terms are also fairly clear that you must use the referral link, you need to open an account, and you must fund that account with at least the minimum deposit. There are a few other conditions, I feel it’s worth you read over the terms and conditions of the referral program closely.

I’ve referred two people and got me National grid at ~£9 and Shell at ~£12.50.

I’m happy with this as I had read it was up to £100 so could be anything from 0.x pence to £100.

I would be annoyed if the system didn’t give me the referral if I knew it sure have worked. Its like if you use QuidCo or something and know it’s tracked and valid, and they don’t pay.

As I’m being given a platform of free and not paying almost £10 every time I’m buying and selling with AJ Bell I’m very grateful for them giving me free money.

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I hope so! I have to say the app is wonderful, and the service here in the community has been incredibly helpful with things like IPOs, Betas etc - I’m just frustrated with the generic contact through the app. Seems wrong for there to clearly be a bug relating to their system and Apple products and being told it’s your fault despite trying to be as helpful as possible in providing details and meeting all the criteria - particularly when it also concerns people close to you :woman_shrugging: I’m sure it could have all been sorted out over the phone, but I haven’t been able to find a number. A live chat function would also be a great addition. Once the kinks have been ironed out this service is likely the best in the game!

I have used the referral once so far and received Under armour at around $9.

even the person who got astrazeneca got just the 1 after using all 20 referrals. its weighted to be less likely but its luck of the draw, the only suggestion of what might affect it is the deposit size but I haven’t seen any proof to that theory.

through a promo code I got a 2nd share of under armour and a share of continental, so the shares are there. it’s just a bit of chance for what makes a nice free gift.

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This post has got me wondering though: how is the free share selection actually implemented?

Everybody who has posted specific examples on this topic seems to have received a relatively low value share.

Do Trading 212 randomly select a share from the full pool of sub-£100 shares with equal probability of any of them being selected? Or do they have a restricted list or a higher weighting for low value shares? It’s possible that there are simply more lower value shares than higher value shares in the sub-£100 range.

I stupidly set up my account without a referral link. However, when my wife used my referral link we were both given a share in Tilray, worth about ÂŁ6.54. Do both parties always receive the same share?

I wasn’t expecting a £100 share, but I was slightly disappointed that the random selection had been on the more unlucky side for me. Although I am very grateful for the “free money”, I am interested in a bit more transparency on the share selection process.

What did everybody else get?

In my experience both parties receive the same share. I have had shares in GE and National Grid, worth $9.99 and ÂŁ9.35. In this topic people write about the shares they have received:

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I have also experienced this. I asked a question about the message “The entered price value is too far from the current market price” and received a detailed reply about how to create a Take Profit/Stop Loss Order. It was bizarre. I think I’ve read on this forum about other people experiencing the same thing.

I am amazed at amount of energy/text used to express unhappiness with “free share” on “free platform” where ohh everything is FREE… sigh I need a :beer:

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I don’t agree with his point about the value of the free shares.

However, to be fair, I think he is absolutely right to complain about the fact that he hasn’t received the free shares that he’s entitled to. And I also think he is right to draw attention to the customer service issues that he’s experienced.

It seems obvious to me that he is generally supportive of the Trading 212 platform, and that this topic is borne out of his frustration at his repeated attempts to get proper customer service privately.

I’m actually surprised at the level of negativity this topic has generated towards the OP. This forum is usually very supportive.

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Hi,
I’ve been given quite a few shares, most of them around £8, but one was Uber which was nice.
Yeah the free shares are up to £100, usually they’re given out on batches it seems, if if get two at the same time they’re usually the same, but that’s not a great sample size to make that assumption.
To see the issue with free shares, go to 6:55 in this video :slight_smile:
https://youtu.be/OHu4W07Stuo

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Where did you get your promo codes?