Thread: The new TSP website is an unmitigated disaster!

Originally Posted by James48843

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.

Originally Posted by Mitchhyman

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Rcf3

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.

Believe it or not, none of the withdrawal links, including full withdrawal, have worked this entire past week. And there has never been an installment withdrawal link in the new website. So any transaction has to be done over the dreaded phone line with hours long waits and poorly trained staff. This is worse than the twentieth century when we could fill out and send in forms.

It is incomprehensible that the TSP
is not keeping participants up to date on the status of these problems. I can’t think of any logical reason for this lack of communication.

Agreed. I'm not sure how TSP is getting away with this from a regulatory standpoint other than it gets going to get a lot more leeway and free passes just because its the government. If this was a private company treating account holders like this they would get raked over the coals.

Originally Posted by retired34

Agreed. I'm not sure how TSP is getting away with this from a regulatory standpoint other than it gets going to get a lot more leeway and free passes just because its the government. If this was a private company treating account holders like this they would get raked over the coals.

I think we have to face the real possibility that they have no idea how to make this thing work. If they knew how to fix the website’s glitches they would be putting out information regarding when they expect everything to come on line. Instead we are getting crickets and even the TSP line reps have no information. That, as they say may be a clue.

I just check and partial and full withdrawal options are once again present on the website after a one week absence. Still no installment payment option and I never received a notice that my phone line cancellation of installment payments went through. Also no explanation or apology from the TSP on the withdrawal option problems.

Also after signing out I received a text and an email that my email address was changed, even though I only logged in to check my account and did not change my email. I assume that was a mistake on the part of the TSP but obviously the website is still a mess.

Originally Posted by retired34

Agreed. I'm not sure how TSP is getting away with this from a regulatory standpoint other than it gets going to get a lot more leeway and free passes just because its the government. If this was a private company treating account holders like this they would get raked over the coals.

Week 7, the new website is still a wreck, the TSP line hold time is 117 minutes as of 1:30pm eastern time. No announcements from the TSP Board. This thing is off the rails.

Got an interesting email today regarding reversing withholding adjustments on last month's installment payments (June 15). Amounts changed without our permission are being reversed back to the amounts we originally selected. They hope to have corrections made by this month's installation (July 15) but made not happen based on projections made so far.

Originally Posted by Scout333

Got an interesting email today regarding reversing withholding adjustments on last month's installment payments (June 15). Amounts changed without our permission are being reversed back to the amounts we originally selected. They hope to have corrections made by this month's installation (July 15) but made not happen based on projections made so far.

They are herding cats at this point. There seems to be no one holding them accountable for royally screwing this up.

I just received a monthly Installment payment even though I called to cancel two weeks ago and was assured my installments would be cancelled. This system is obviously broken.