The new TSP website is an unmitigated disaster!

[TSATSO]

I went to the website today to see if any problems had been fixed since the end of last month. For over a decade I have been keeping a spreadsheet that records each change in my account, including changes in share price (G fund) and payouts. The ONLY information available for my TSP account is the balance in dollars on June 1st. That's it. It doesn't tell me how many shares I have, or when the share price changed during the past months, or when monthly payouts were made... NOTHING! How any person with even a single brain cell could consider this new website to be anything but a total failure is beyond me. I believe this "upgrade to the system" must set a new record (low) standard for total bureaucratic incompetence. Our tax dollars at work!

 

[Valkyrie]

[h=3]

All about funds[/h]
why does it look like blackrock controlled TSP.gov is giving us the finger?

 

[rostin]

After almost 3 hours of total hold time I got through to “withdraws”. The representative was actually a very helpful lady who unlike the other two representatives I have spoken to actually had a clue. She advised that the previous representative I had spoken to was incorrect. It is in fact withdrawals and not operations that handles changes in installment payments. Apparently, the request is processed telephonically through withdrawals and they submit it to operations for action. The withdraws representative also commented that my inability to enter my wife’s information through my personal page on the website seems to be another glitch in the system which she was going to report.

Although I was told that every day new features come online for the new website, there is no timetable for when the installments features (start, stop, change, adjust federal withholding) will be available. For now all that must be done telephonically. Dial the TSP line and select 1, select 1 again, enter your personal information, then wait for the prompt for withdrawal. At present the hold time for withdrawals is over an hour.

I just logged in and noticed that they added the withdrawal section for monthly payments.


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[ramen]

OMG Y'all, the TSP gave me back my interfund transfer capability (I think this weekend). I'm so happy!

If you are in a real dire need to talk to an agent, but don't want to hold for hours, try my 'strategy'.
I called FRTIB 202-942-1600 out of desperation and left a voicemail message briefly explaining my issues and my phone number. I believe they forwarded my voicemail directly to a TSP agent. Then I received a call from a very knowledgeable agent who told me he was responding to a voicemail I had left. (The only voice message I ever left was with FRTIB and I didn't think somebody would actually call me back.)


Anyway, to make a long story short, I told him about the official TSP booklet, he issued a ticket for the fix and here I am celebrating.

 

[Mitchhyman]

That’s odd. I just logged in and although there is a section for partial withdrawals, there is still nothing for installment payments.

 

[Mitchhyman]

I checked again this morning on the availability of partial withdrawals. I could not get into the partial withdrawal link. When I try I get an “ information not available” notice. So as if this morning participants have no access at all to their money. After one month, the website continues to be a disaster. And of course no notice or announcements from the TSP.

 

[Cobra]

I just logged in and noticed that they added the withdrawal section for monthly payments.


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Did you have to call TSP First and discuss the ability to take monthly installments or did it just show up?

 

[rostin]

Did you have to call TSP First and discuss the ability to take monthly installments or did it just show up?

I called on July 1 to stop the installments that I already had set up a few years ago. The wait was 1 hour 28 minutes before we got a live person. He said it would be a few days before it was taken off the website.
We never asked about when the installment feature would show up. Then when I logged in again, there it was.
So I set up another installment payment just to see if it worked and it did, but I canceled at the last page.


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[Mitchhyman]

I just checked again at 4 pm and not only is there no installment payment window, none of the existing payment options on the site work.

 

[Tsunami]

I just checked again at 4 pm and not only is there no installment payment window, none of the existing payment options on the site work.

I just turned 62 last month and was planning to change my installment payments soon after 7/15, but before 8/15 (to cover for the loss of my FERS Supplement, since that ended with the 7/1 payment from OPM).
I was assuming that you do that by clicking "Withdrawals", then choosing the "Partial Distribution" option.
But when I click on it then verify my wife's name/email, the next page makes it clear that this isn't what I need. And for me there is no link for installment payments.
So all of the posts over the last couple of weeks (I just caught up) that discuss this are correct, but it's confusing that some people are seeing a link for starting/stopping/changing installment payments.
I'm not seeing that as of now.

Many thanks to Rcf3's post on June 30th that explains how to get through directly to the Withdrawals section to hopefully get this done.

So frustrating.

 

[Mitchhyman]

I just turned 62 last month and was planning to change my installment payments soon after 7/15, but before 8/15 (to cover for the loss of my FERS Supplement, since that ended with the 7/1 payment from OPM).
I was assuming that you do that by clicking "Withdrawals", then choosing the "Partial Distribution" option.
But when I click on it then verify my wife's name/email, the next page makes it clear that this isn't what I need. And for me there is no link for installment payments.
So all of the posts over the last couple of weeks (I just caught up) that discuss this are correct, but it's confusing that some people are seeing a link for starting/stopping/changing installment payments.
I'm not seeing that as of now.

Many thanks to Rcf3's post on June 30th that explains how to get through directly to the Withdrawals section to hopefully get this done.

So frustrating.

The only possible explanation for some people seeing installment payments and others not is that they may have temporarily put installments on the website and then taken it off. Right now apparently no withdrawals are possible on the website, nothing happens when I try to click the partial withdrawals button.

I called to find out the status of my installment payment cancellation from one week ago. Someone answered after 1.5 hours. The representative said the only way for me to find out if the cancellation went through is to wait until the 15th. I will not receive any notice before then. She said there is no known timetable for when or if installment payments will be added to the website. She had no idea why I can’t get into partial distributions but speculated that the system is temporarily down.

 

[PessOptimist]

The only possible explanation for some people seeing installment payments and others not is that they may have temporarily put installments on the website and then taken it off. Right now apparently no withdrawals are possible on the website, nothing happens when I try to click the partial withdrawals button.

I called to find out the status of my installment payment cancellation from one week ago. Someone answered after 1.5 hours. The representative said the only way for me to find out if the cancellation went through is to wait until the 15th. I will not receive any notice before then. She said there is no known timetable for when or if installment payments will be added to the website. She had no idea why I can’t get into partial distributions but speculated that the system is temporarily down.

Yeah, back to “trust us, we’re from the gubmint” of several years ago when you got your balance on your snail mail statement.

I need to stop my monthly as I did the delayed payment thing for SS and am now 70. No easy place to find installment payments and when I do, there is no option to change. If I try making a new one, it tells me $0 is an invalid amount. Ava, the ever unhelpful helper, tells me I need to do this by calling the thrift line.

My spouse is listed as “not a beneficiary” and her birthdate is listed as Jan 1, 1800. She is old but…when I click on that to edit I am told “[SUP]1[/SUP]You can only change information about this person by calling the Benefits Center.”. Benefits center? Earlier on when I created my new account she was listed correctly.

Maybe I will get up at 4AM local time and call them. Probably not. The new site has so far taken away much of our ability to manage our accounts. Fortunately my balance seems to be correct though like everyone I am missing share prices between May 26[SUP]th[/SUP] and June 1[SUP]st[/SUP]. I was 100% in G during that time.

Good luck everyone and maybe they will get it fixed someday.

PO

 

[nasa1974]

Fortunately my balance seems to be correct though like everyone I am missing share prices between May 26[SUP]th[/SUP] and June 1[SUP]st[/SUP]. I was 100% in G during that time.

Good luck everyone and maybe they will get it fixed someday.

PO

Hey PO,

I would think by know they could have shown us what the shares where for 5/16 through 6/1 by now. I'm guessing that time frame is going to be considered a Holiday even though the markets where open. The good thing it won't count if the market was down, you didn't lose any money. The bad thing is if the market was up, you didn't gain anything.

 

[tsptalk]

The good thing it won't count if the market was down, you didn't lose any money. The bad thing is if the market was up, you didn't gain anything.

You should have gotten the gain or loss for that entire period just based on the prices on June 1, which accounted for that gain / loss for those down days. In other words, the June 1 prices reflected the action from May 27 - June 1 for those funds.

So yes, it was like one of those holidays where the market is open, but the TSP is closed.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[nasa1974]

You should have gotten the gain or loss for that entire period just based on the prices on June 1, which accounted for that gain / loss for those down days. In other words, the June 1 prices reflected the action from May 27 - June 1 for those funds.

So yes, it was like one of those holidays where the market is open, but the TSP is closed.

Hope that makes sense.

It does. Thanks.

 

[Rcf3]

I just checked again at 4 pm and not only is there no installment payment window, none of the existing payment options on the site work.

I had not checked in here to read posts for a bit. I see that the TSP is still a SNAFU. The TSP blackout began May 26, so we are at the six week mark of this nonsense with no foreseeable end in sight. The TSP brain trust seems to have gone dark after saying they are really sorry for the inconvenience and that they hope things will get better soon.

I just called the TSP line and there are some new features. Now the menu includes a path to request IFT’s and a path to request withdrawals. The hold time is still long. I don’t know if this is good news or bad news. Having to do all this by phone is definitely a step backwards, but at least there is some clarity as to how to accomplish these tasks, albeit 1990’s style.

Has anyone heard what the expectations are for the website to be finalized?

 

[James48843]

Has anyone heard what the expectations are for the website to be finalized?

They aren’t even identifying the biggest problem yet- the lack of ability to initiate, or change, monthly installment payments using internet rather than phone call. You have literally hundreds of thousands who will require either help starting, or changing, their monthly payout. But with even their 800 agents, they are still unable to reduce wait times less than 1.5 hours. I don’t even try once I hear that. I need to wait 10 minutes or less. Isn’t gonna happen.

And when they do end up hiring 2,000 more photo operators, they will find costs skyrocketing, and the move to the new company will be much more exp Beiderbecke than predicted.

I don’t expect satisfactory service for the next six months at least.


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[Mitchhyman]

They aren’t even identifying the biggest problem yet- the lack of ability to initiate, or change, monthly installment payments using internet rather than phone call. You have literally hundreds of thousands who will require either help starting, or changing, their monthly payout. But with even their 800 agents, they are still unable to reduce wait times less than 1.5 hours. I don’t even try once I hear that. I need to wait 10 minutes or less. Isn’t gonna happen.

And when they do end up hiring 2,000 more photo operators, they will find costs skyrocketing, and the move to the new company will be much more exp Beiderbecke than predicted.

I don’t expect satisfactory service for the next six months at least.


Sent from my iPhone using TSP Talk Forums

The one time partial withdrawal option has been inoperable all week. It is astounding to me that this would be down with the TSP not providing any information on when it is being restored. Even the phone line rep I spoke to has no clue. Does anyone have better information on this? I refuse to use the call center any more and feel like I am being forced to move my money out of the TSP.

 

[Rcf3]

The one time partial withdrawal option has been inoperable all week. It is astounding to me that this would be down with the TSP not providing any information on when it is being restored. Even the phone line rep I spoke to has no clue. Does anyone have better information on this? I refuse to use the call center any more and feel like I am being forced to move my money out of the TSP.

At this point there is little reason to have confidence in the TSP. My fear is that as they work to fix this mess something they do will muck up the system for good and we will be left with no working features. You would think that at the very least they would set up a weekly status briefing and post the information to let us know where things stand. No information leads to conjecture, fear, and frustration. They have screwed things up royally and they have left the members in the dark. This is unacceptable.

Edit - I just checked the website for “known issues”. The same incomplete list naming a handful of insignificant glitches is posted there. None of the major issues reported on this thread and elsewhere are even mentioned.

 

[retired34]

If you are unhappy with TSP (which I am as well) and you are no longer working in the system, you should be able to rollover your money to a new financial institution without any financial penalty. Just make sure you do a rollover directly to the new financial institution and put into an IRA account on the other end to make it most seamless. It is possible to get the check directly to you and then you have a time window to deposit into a new IRA account without penalty, but seems like going direct is better. This a pretty common process if you do an internet search for rollovers. And make sure you transfer to the same type of IRA. Most of us have traditional IRA's with TSP, so make sure you move to a traditional. You can move it to a Roth but pretty sure you incur a tax penalty. Probably should talk to a tax adviser before doing that. On the TSP website, under "savings and retirement" dropdown you can select "Withdrawals and Rollovers Out" link and then proceed through the full withdrawal link and then it walks you through the rollover steps.