Howden Omdömen 

I wanted to retrieve my log in details for a pension and would like to praise Lewis of the Glasgow office for his patience while I followed his instructions.

National Grid Pension Scheme
We are trying to transfer our pension from National Grid to a SSAS
We were advised this process would take 3 months.
We are currently at month 20.
We have rung BW every week for the last 4 months and getting no where
In this time our pension has dropped from £410k to £350k
It is frozen for 5 more months, if it isn’t completed in this time, with the current market it will drop to £220k.
This is a loss of £190k due to BW incompetence, passing us pilar to post with a severe lack of attention to detail (requesting documents numerous times we have already sent in.), lack of customer service (taking out details to call us back and not getting back to us)
We thought we were at the final hurdle number 30, when they request evidence that I am employed and paying into a pension through the Ltd company we have set up for the SSAS… but the company hasn’t even traded yet as we haven’t had the funds into the SSAS, we have explained this 4 times within the last 5 months, they understand, then weeks later send another request.
We have multiple stories like this from the last two years.
Avoid (if you can) at all costs.
Meanwhile we will be back in the phone daily now to try save our £140k drop before it’s too late.

Can anyone advise how you raise a complaint with Barnett Waddingham. My contact regarding my pension has been less than satisfactory but I’m unable to find a complaints process on the website.
They advise action has been taken then nearly 3 weeks later advice no action was taken, no good to me when I’m in need of my pension.

I have had nothing but a fantastic experience with Barnett Waddingham in my several years of being with them. Top notch service and people who really do care about their clients! Smashing.

Have been with BW for more than 15yrs and all was good until about two years ago. Because they have grown so much they have centralised activities which mean you no longer seem to be able to contact your client manager----after more than 18months with no contact from new client manager. My wife transferred her funds to BW and the whole process was messed up and although granted compensation by Fin Ombudsman never received an apology from BW. Now we are trying to move our funds elsewhere and they are proving awkward and difficult with no replies to emails. Even their cental office could not get anyone at Cheltenham office to answer this morning--hence my posting this review. They seem no longer interested in individuals but just keen on getting large group funds transferred. Sad demise of a once excellent provider!!

I have had superb support in managing a complex SSAS, from a very knowledgeable team at Barnett Waddingham. Not only are they technically skilled but the whole team is friendly and a pleasure to deal with.

SHOCKING AVOID AT ALL COSTS, DREADFUL SERVICE, FEES ARE A RIP OFF.
BW have to be the worse company I have ever dealt with, do nit trust this people with your investments or your pension. BE WARNED - READ THE REVIEWS

I am a member of the National Grid Pension Scheme and am really concerned that no historical data for previous tax years has been updated on the website. I have phoned twice and written 2 emails. The last person I spoke to said that he didn't think they were going to transfer previous tax year data. This was not mentioned in any of the information releases in May. Surely it is a legal requirement that you have the ability to access 6 years and current years taxation information.
I am pleased to say this issue has now been successfully resolved. Thank you.

I am a member of the National grid pension scheme which has recently been transferred to Barnett Waddingham. I have tried multiple times to access my pension information without success. After contacting them on numerous occasions I have been given log in instructions which do not work. As a result after hours of trying I have now given up. I just hope my pension is safe with this seemingly incompetent company. Bad decision by NG to transfer to this company.

Problem resolved with the help of David Spence. My thanks to him for his help and patience.

National Grid have outsourced their pension scheme to Barnett Waddingham. The service from National Grid Pensions has diminished over the last few years and got extremely bad over the last 6 months, most likely as the staff all knew they were being outsourced and TUPE transferred. My expectation was that things would now get worse still with Barnett Waddingham and guess what..... They sent me a log in that doesn't work. If the log in has expired, their website says that it will tell you and they "may be able to send another". There is no such notification. So, I called the "web help line" number and the main number provided in BWs glossy brochure that explains how great they are. Guess what - No answer as they can't take my call at the moment and I can leave a message. Basically, absolutely useless service that precisely meets ones expectations.

Below is my initial review dated 3 March 2022 and your reply.

How wrong you are saying that 'you understand that the situation has already been appropriately addressed'. In my mind it has not been appropriately addressed by you, a minimal compensation has been offered by the pension trustees for distress and inconvenience but not for the financial impact it has had.

I've had no direct communications or offer of compensation from yourselves for the mistake you have made as the administrators of my pension fund and providers of the modeller. Very very poor customer service and pension management I believe especially in these very challenging economic and financial times for me as one of your customers. Maybe I will hear directly from you sometime.

Review 3 March 2022
From my recent experience customers need to be very careful trusting your online Barnett Waddingham pension modeller numbers. I trusted them but they were over 20% higher than the written numbers I later received, thats over £10,000 in the max lump sum and over £1,600 per hear in annual pension. This has cost me dearly both financially, mentally and health wise.

Reply from Barnett Waddingham 4 Mar 2022

Mr Storey, thank you for taking the time to post a review. We value all customer feedback as it helps us to improve our service.

We’re sorry to hear your experience did not meet your expectations. We understand your situation has already been appropriately addressed through the correct process but if you wish to further the conversation, please contact the BW administration team or use our enquiries form at BW

Have today written for the 3rd time asking for a transfer value from my ex employer Bristol Uni pension. Not happy after reading the many negative reviews on here, wished I'd transferred out years ago!

Unfortunately a company i previously worked for trusted Barnett Waddingham with my pension. OMG had i read the experience many people have had already, then i would have contacted them sooner and transferred my pension. They don't get back to you, all I've received is an automated message.
has anyone considered going to the Ombudsman??

This company are the Administrators for the Interactive Investor (ii) SIPP.
Any SIPP enquiry of a medium or complex nature raised by an ii customer, is referred to Barnett-Waddingham (BW), which includes SIPP Transfers.
Recent enquiries and escalations by ii to BW have gone unanswered following a request to expedite a long outstanding SIPP transfer, clearly demonstrating that Barnett-Waddingham have no concept of customer service or efficient working. Attempts to contact them directly are blocked and deflected back to ii (who themselves are as effective as a chocolate tea-pot)!
My SIPP Transfer which was supposed to take 3 weeks (15 days) is currently on working day 42, despite apparent escalations by ii. PATHETIC!

I used Barnett Waddingham for the past ten years to manage a SIPP that held a commercial property.
In that time almost every interaction I had with them was terrible. They made many mistakes with billing and communication. There were tasks that should have taken days that took weeks and even months. Despite constantly contacting them for updates. They are the most frustrating company I ever had to deal with and I'm very glad I have now managed to move away from them. Think carefully before using this company, look at all the other providers. If you do decide to use them pay careful attention to your statements to check they are deducting money correctly.

My company has enjoyed 30 years of pension guidance from BW, and I know of no other acquaintance who has the same confidence in their pension advisors as we have in BW.

I wouldnt rate any stars if I could. This company makes me laugh saying they are professional. They are far from it, my fathers pension got stopped 2 months ago on the basis that there was a "possibility" that he had passed away. So instead of phoning us and finding out and surely needing an actual death Certificate to stop the pension they stopped it anyway based on this loose piece of hearsay. My Father is very much alive and kicking and we now have to resend all the necessary paperwork back to you to prove this which is a massive inconvenience considering its actually your companies fault. This has been very distressing to my mother and I will be emailing you in regards to a written apology.

Appalling service. Aloof, arrogant, disinterested and unprofessional. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone.

I have previously wrote a poor review. Now having eventually spoke to a representative to try and obtain information. I received a letter saying I there would be a charge for the information I requested. I signed up to a Co-op pension many years ago, not some two bit company looking to make a profit out of my retirement. Foolishly I thought retiring with a pension with a respected company (co-op) would be simple and safe how wrong I was. Now getting ready to receive many platitudes via Barnett Waddingham via email. Totally discusted.