Wealthsimple threatening to charge me for MacBook promo despite following their own support team's instructions — need advice
Hey everyone, looking for some advice on a dispute I'm having with Wealthsimple.
Last November I participated in their Q4 Apple Deposit Campaign — deposited $100k+ and qualified for a MacBook Air. The promotion has a 730-day hold period, but includes an exemption for FHSA and RRSP withdrawals made for the purpose of purchasing a home.
Before doing anything, I contacted their support chat specifically to ask how the exemption would work, since withdrawals from registered accounts on their platform are routed through your WS chequing account first before going to an external bank. I wanted to make sure I wouldn't accidentally breach the hold period.
Their support chat told me clearly: as long as I selected 'home purchase' as the withdrawal reason and completed the CRA questionnaire, Wealthsimple would recognize it as a qualifying withdrawal and it would not count against the promotion. I have this conversation archived.
I followed those instructions exactly. I withdrew $30k from my FHSA and $33k from my RRSP on June 8th, selecting home purchase as the reason. Those funds sat in my WS chequing account, and on June 20th I sent $120k to my external bank to fund my home purchase.
Wealthsimple is now saying the June 20th withdrawal doesn't qualify for the exemption because it came from my chequing account rather than directly from my registered accounts. This requirement appears nowhere in their terms and conditions. And more importantly — it's literally the only way to withdraw on their platform.
My allowed withdrawal buffer was ~$85-87k at the time. If the $60k in FHSA/RRSP funds is correctly treated as exempt, my non-exempt withdrawal is only ~$58k, — well within my limit.
When I disputed this, they demanded I redeposit $49k by July 4th or be charged the full retail value of the MacBook. While my complaint was still open and unresolved. Then on July 3rd they sent me a code of conduct warning saying my multiple support tickets constituted abusive behaviour and threatening to terminate my account.
I've already filed a complaint with OBSI. But has anyone dealt with something similar with Wealthsimple? Any advice on next steps would be appreciated.
TL;DR: Wealthsimple's own support told me my FHSA/RRSP home purchase withdrawals would be exempt from their promo hold period. I followed their instructions. They're now charging me anyway, and issued a code of conduct warning when I disputed it.