Jarden Direct

[blackcap]

Direct Broking Customer here, sold at some stage to ANZ Securities and just recently to Jarden Direct.

Holding our joint account with them for two decades or so and need another account to invest some money out of an inheritance.

Thought this is going to be easy with my broker for the last 20 years ... until I asked them.

No problem, they said - we send you a link.

They did.

Link asks for access to my cellphone to load some funny security software in order to identify me.

I did.

Received confirmation:



but then comes another email:



Trust me - they lie. What started was neither easy, it took hours (counting several repetitions) and it is still not completed.

Do I want to continue doing business with people who lie? Anyway, this is how the story evolved:

I click the link and software wants to take my mugshots (face frontal, 45 degrees left turn, 45 degrees right turn).

I complied, though software makes life really difficult. How do you react if your software asks you for a lighter background if you stand in front of a white wall? No, I didn't threw the cell phone against the wall (its not its fault), but I started swearing.

Another handful of attempts and software is happy with the mugshots.

Ah, yes - and then software wants to take a photo of my drivers licence. I complied ... and got as response - DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR FACE (I didn't, but obviously there is a foto on my drivers licence).

Several attempts later - and no idea why they need the rear of the drivers licence as well I was done. Software said "Thank you". Sigh.

Waiting for my new account details, but a couple of days later comes an email from Jarden:



... and this is when it all started again. When I was still in work, we called software like that "banana software" (product is ripening at the customers site).

Another 30 minutes in my life nobody will give me back ... and I was done a second time.

Sigh - surely, now I will get the account details, won't I?

A day later:



Remember - I am customer with them for the last two decades ....

I called their so called customer experience team, but they are not able (or willing) to discuss process (hey, we know you, but you need to jump through all the hoops a new customer needs to jump through as well, and it is a much more stringent process than with any other company, and no, we don't have a branch near you), though it sort of sounded they are aware that their onboarding process sucks.

I recon I will drive tomorrow into town and open a new broking account with ASB - or are their other suggestions around?

What I do know is that I will avoid Jarden from now on like the plague ...

Hope somebody finds this post inspirational

Wow, that is some story, I think AML has gotten totally out of hand. I would have been throwing a bit of abuse at the client onboarding team if that was me. Many eons ago I used to work for Direct Broking and this saddens me.

Hey BP, why not use sharesies? Only takes 2 mins to sign up, no mug shots required, no photos to take and no software to download. Once you are set up you can always transfer shares out to CSN.

[justakiwi]

Which worked really well at $5 a transfer, but this increases to $15 on the 31st January. Possibly still viable for those who wish to accumulate then transfer out a large parcel of shares, but far from ideal.

Once you are set up you can always transfer shares out to CSN.

[BlackPeter]

Wow, that is some story, I think AML has gotten totally out of hand. I would have been throwing a bit of abuse at the client onboarding team if that was me. Many eons ago I used to work for Direct Broking and this saddens me.

Hey BP, why not use sharesies? Only takes 2 mins to sign up, no mug shots required, no photos to take and no software to download. Once you are set up you can always transfer shares out to CSN.

Cheers.

And yes, I gave the Customer Experience team at Jarden a piece of my mind ;

To be fair - while I had contact over these two weeks with at least three of their staff who behaved like badly programmed robots ... in the meantime I have as well some exchange with a staff member (might be a manager, not sure) who apologized, thanked for my feedback (s. above) and promised to bring this all to the attention to the responsible departments to help them to learn from this debacle.

Maybe the whole thing will at least help future customers with Jarden Direct.

I have to admit as well, that Direct Broking always treated me well over the last 20 years or so - I assume this whole thing is a Jarden issue (new process / new software / untrained - or really badly trained - Jarden staff). Not sure what happend with the great team from Direct Broking?

Anyway - currently waiting for ASB to complete the setting up of my trading account ... but to be fair - they said it might take up to 5 working days (i.e. they still have three days left).

Not sure about sharesies - but I admit, this is at least partially due to not knowing enough about their processes. It sounds like a lot of additional paperwork per transaction if you want to keep the shares in your name (which I do).

Anyway - lets call them plan C in case this ASB thing works not out as I hope and expect (but at this stage I am optimistic).

[ithaka]

I have trading accounts with both Jarden & ASB. Although the Jarden signup process was a bit of a pain, I much prefer the Jarden trading platform.

[BlackPeter]

I have trading accounts with both Jarden & ASB. Although the Jarden signup process was a bit of a pain, I much prefer the Jarden trading platform.

Interesting ... and given that I so far didn't use the ASB trading platform, i.e. can't yet compare - where do you see the strengths and weaknesses of Jarden platform vs ASB platform?

[ithaka]

Interesting ... and given that I so far didn't use the ASB trading platform, i.e. can't yet compare - where do you see the strengths and weaknesses of Jarden platform vs ASB platform?

One of the most important difference is that ASB pays no interest on cash balances up to $50k and only 1% for balance over $50k. Jarden currently pays 3.3% on cash balances.
Fundamentally they both do the job but the Jarden platform is modern. The ASB platform feels as if it was built at least 10 years ago.
I also quite like the Shareclarity info supplied with the Jarden account. The (very limited) Morningstar info supplied with ASB is of no use to me as I am already a Morningstar subscriber.

[peat]

I've finally been forced to Jarden Direct website cf Direct Broking.
Cant say I'm pleased about it. It seems I've lost my watchlists, and while the layout might be prettier less information is visible on each page. Direct broking website was fully functional and I could see all my portfolio on only two pages split between NZ and Aussie. Now it seems I have them all bunched together in no particular order :+(

[stoploss]

I've finally been forced to Jarden Direct website cf Direct Broking.
Cant say I'm pleased about it. It seems I've lost my watchlists, and while the layout might be prettier less information is visible on each page. Direct broking website was fully functional and I could see all my portfolio on only two pages split between NZ and Aussie. Now it seems I have them all bunched together in no particular order :+(

Pete you can edit the watchlists etc to move them around .

[justakiwi]

You're not wrong! I haven't used my ASB account for probably six years. I just logged in and the platform is exactly as it was back then. Mind-numbingly blah, no customisation options, intrusive, annoying yellow "click here" banners, and ugly as sin.

Poles apart from any other platform I have used or looked at. I think they need a new IT department.

I have trading accounts with both Jarden & ASB. Although the Jarden signup process was a bit of a pain, I much prefer the Jarden trading platform.

[BlackPeter]

...
Anyway - currently waiting for ASB to complete the setting up of my trading account ... but to be fair - they said it might take up to 5 working days (i.e. they still have three days left).
...

Just to close the loop - just got an email that trading account is set up. So it took ASB a bit more than one working day to set up the trading account (where they said 3 to 5 days).

That's pretty good ... under-promising and over-performing. I like it.

Will in due course report on my impressions with their trading platform, but for that I really will need some time to play the system. Noticed that they give me access to Morningstar. Not sure yet, whether I see this as a benefit, but I assume it won't be worse than Direct Broking's connection to ShareClarity (i.e. providing info which is sometimes interesting, often entertaining, but rarely adding value).