Terrible service by Stock BrokersI have two well-known stock brokers. Their service is now (Corona virus? ) execrable. Now, I don’t want to start out by naming them, but I will , if requested. Anyway, I’m thinking of replacing them, so I’m here to ask: ARE THERE ANY BROKERS WHO ARE NOW GIVING ACCEPTABLE SERVICE?
Oh, when I say bad. I’m referring to pick-up time on phone calls and response time on E-mail messages. I just don’t believe that Corona virus is a good excuse for companies in their business. Am I wrong?
Sincerely,
Gumbotori
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Funny you should ask, I just filled out a post service survey asking about how my customer experience was after a phone call. I tried to do an internal transfer from one account to another, something I’ve done numerous times. I subscribe to Jeff Brown’s SPAC service and for some reason, want to keep the SPAC purchases separate. I was met with a message stating that the service wasn’t available. Needless to say I missed the buy price and never was able to buy it. Then, I tried to buy a different stock on the main account that I have the cash in. It wouldn’t let me do that either saying that I didn’t have the funds available, even though I know what I have in there and I’m looking right at where it says Available cash for trading or withdrawal. So I call and have to wait 50 minutes. I get through and the guy, who was very nice, stated that he doesn’t know why I couldn’t transfer the money, but stated that he was more than happy to do that for me now. Too late! I missed the trade! As you may or may not know, when you purchase these SPAC, you purchase units that need to be split into warrants after a certain time. To do this, you have to call your broker and request that they do that. So I ask the guy on the phone if he can do that. He replied that he could not, but can transfer me to the department that can, but there’s a 30 minute wait. I asked can you give that number so I can call direct another time? He replied, no, you have to make this initial call with the 50 minute wait time and then be transferred from there. So I said ok, transfer me since I was already that far in. After 25 minutes, the music stops like the call is going through. THEY HUNG UP! After an hour and half wait, nothing was taken care of and now I have to do it all over. Ain’t nobody got time for that! ..Needless to say, I was not very nice in the survey and stated that if I had the time and patience to close my account and transfer everything, I’d be gone. That was Friday afternoon, I’m curious if they will follow up or if they don’t care. Sorry I rambled, but man! I am however, happy that I wasn’t talking to a live person afterwards. I don’t like to tee off on somebody who really didn’t have anything to do with the problem. But sure would have.
LoL!
Customer service DIED in the 70’s!
lol this sounds like what I go through every freaking day
I know who NOT TO USE – ALLY!!!! STAY AWAY! STAY FAR AWAY! THEY ARE IDIOTS! They bought my old Broker – Trade King. Trade King was GREAT! They took that great service and made it into an excrement sandwich for me! STAY AWAY!!!
schwab / td / merrill are in the midst of merging which may be the source of your issue
until that settles i wouldn’t expect timely service
webull’s not usually bad but they blocked my gme trades about the same time robinhood did – my real problem with webull is no access to OTC markets
other than that it’s a very robust platform
It really depends what you are trading – since they are all free you can use them at your leisure…I know it sounds like a pain to have multiple accounts but there is no single solution afaik….. tradestation for futures, betterment if you dont like robinhood, moomoo for mobile… you are going to want some crypto wallets to go along with this…IOTA, for instance, requires its own application
gumbotori, I came “thisclose” to responding on the same day I read your post but decided to calm down and take your cue to refrain from mentioning names. It was a day I was so exasperated by the rapid deterioration in customer service from my brokerage house and was almost sure it was one of the companies you were alluding to. Oddly enough, I was impressed by their reps doing their best to pick up phone calls from their remote locations during the early months of this pandemic. But just when one would think a procedure would be in place for better connectivity and improved platform issues months later, talking to a live person has been almost impossible while their system continues to be unstable or crashing frequentlly.
Finally last week, I got hold of a rep and whined about my falling in line for a live chat – a 3 HOUR WAIT – only for the chat box to disappear around the time it was my turn to receive service. After the rep resolved my trade entry issue for an ETF (not even a restricted stock), I took the opportunity to ask rather bluntly, “What is WRONG with your company?” and proceeded with a litany of complaints.
The first part of the rep’s response was somewhat understandable. The 2nd half, I thought, was very interesting. Here goes:
1) Tax season is their busiest time of year. (I interpreted this as the number of tax-related inquiries have overwhelmed their remote answering system, so did not comment further.)
2) They are experiencing a deluge of new accounts transferring from Robinhood, a falling out resulting from Game Stop and other issues. My brokerage house is now so overwhelmed to the point where they – get this – are HIRING people to meet the demand.
Imagine that, a company actually hiring despite the mergers going on among brokerage houses and banks and during a pandemic. Maybe things will actually get better?
Bunion132:
I have been wondering why no one had commented on my post, but now I see that I just hadn’t seen the replies. Anyway, I now know that E-Trade and Ameritrade are not the only companies giving bad service. This is good, because I was beginning to doubt myself, Was I becoming an old crank? This was a possibility, because I have now asked three people if they had had any problem getting their Corona virus shots. I asked them because I needed people with whom I could share my TERRIBLE experiences in making appointments. However, much. to my surprise, all three people told me that it had been very easy for them, so I had to keep quiet. Anyway, getting back to Broker’s service, It’s bad, because such service is bad, and the excuses I’ve seen just don’t cut it. They don’t satisfy. I don’t believe them.
Finally, remember the last question I asked: ARE THERE ANY BROKERS GIVING GOOD SERVICE? There must be some, mustn’t there? I’m serious. I’m ready to switch my account
(Sat Mar 6, 2:51 PM PST)
Good luck in receiving a response for that last question. Maybe there is such a brokerage house still providing good customer service and I wouldn’t mind knowing which one(s) myself. I was recounting my experience with E-Trade and sure enough it was one of the two brokerage houses you were referring to in your original post. I can understand your rejection of the “excuses” given by the Rep I spoke with because in pre-pandemic days, those would have been simply unacceptable.
However, as I write this, I now realize the much, much bigger picture that you and I are forgetting because of our own frustrations. Reality check is, these brokerage houses lost their main cash cow: charging commission fees for every trade executed.
When Robinhood changed the dynamic of how brokerage houses made their money, the situation forced the mergers of brokerage houses and other financial institutions we see happening today and will probably see more of in the future. Having lost the cash cow, revenue-driven trades are coming from Options, Day Trading and similar venues that entail maintaining a Margin Account, and to a lesser degree commissions from certain OTC and some foreign securities. Apparently, not enough money is being generated (yet) by all these other venues to be able to maintain a decent level of service for all other customers once considered valuable.
Case in point is my “demotion” from being a Platinum customer (one that met the criteria of “X” number of trades per month despite my not being a Day or Options trader). The brokerage house is no longer receiving revenue from the likes of me, so that preferential treatment of answering a call linked to my phone number is probably being routed to that very low priority if not actual do-not-answer pile.
A long time ago, I worked at Fidelity Investments answering inbound calls all day, it was always busy.
I’m a pretty simple person so I have some of my accounts with them. I usually go into their office to talk to someone in person when I need to get something done, usually no line. I remember opening an account with them, I got assigned a customer service representative that gave me a call (maybe the same day or next day) introducing themselves to let me know their direct line phone number but I’ve never had to use it. It’s understandable if you’re not able to go to the office because of availability or time.
I know I didn’t answer all of your questions. I’m also not an active trader, therefore I don’t have many reasons to call or send an email to a brokerage company.
I wanted to add, I had an account with Vanguard, no complaints but I moved it over to Fidelity, my reason was if I needed to get things done in-person, I have that option, getting them to sign something, notarize paperwork, et cetera. Still with Merrill Edge, maybe 15+ years, have a new account with WeBull, still checking it out, and Ameritrade(I was with Scottrade).
Answering your last question. Due to the stock market melt-up, more new accounts are being opened and reports about the daily average revenue trades(DARTs) at all of the brokerage companies are up. TD Ameritrade saw the largest increase in DARTs, at 312% from the comparable quarter last year.
I’ve been pretty happy with Fidelity over the past 3 years since I”ve joined. However, with the melt up starting last Fall, brokerages have been overwhelmed with new accounts and increased trading. I have a Pixel phone with the new Google feature that mutes the hold sound and alerts me when they’ve come back on the line, making long hold times bearable, as I do other things during that time.
Last week, I was excited and anxious as I was about to place my first options trade and called the options desk for help. He was helpful, but after a while he became a bit impatient, as I was not “getting it’ as fast as he thought I should. Somehow we got disconnected. Not saying he did it on purpose, but who knows? Anyway, I like their platform and huge amount of educational resources from articles to videos, etc.