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Non-Tech : E*Trade (NYSE:ET)

ET 16.80

0.0%

Dec 5 9:30 AM EST

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To: Spytrdr who wrote (11631)	2/12/2000 12:58:00 PM
From: Jim B	Read Replies (1) of 13953

ETRADE CUSTOMERS COULD SEEK LEGAL ADVICE!! Anyone have this happen to you.. it might have and you don't know it yet! Turns out on 2/7 Etrade credited active customers with a credit with an explanation that just read "active investor rebate". 5 days later they are taking it back. That is of course unless you've already invested it and lost it. In that case they'll be liquidating your account and/or sending you a bill. This rebate was a duplication of October 1999's active investor rebate but since they offered no description of the recent credit it was likely assumed by all that this was a reward of either January 2000's trades or for prior trades. I got a rebate of over $2000 and went on to write checks and trade against it... and lost some of the money. This morning I woke up to find it gone from my account with a short note that read: <<Subject: Active Investor Rebate Reversal On February 7th, we erroneously credited your account with a duplication of your October 1999 Active Investor rebate. A reversal to this credit, noted as "Active Investor Rebate Reversal," will post to your account by tomorrow morning 2/12/00. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Your Active Investor Rebate for February will post on February 29th >> I called etrade and they said this happened to LOTS of people and that they are only saying they are "sorry" for the trouble. But guess what!?! They admitted to knowing about this DAY ONE! So if you called in they told you it was an error and NOT to trade those funds. However, if you didn't call in and assumed the money was yours (and why wouldn't a heavy trader assume that) then Etrade did not notify you until late last night (after market closed). So Etrade sat on its hands while we invested our rebate and now that some of us might have lost part/all of those funds they want it back. Anyone think legally Etrade might have a difficult time getting this money back? I do. Why? Because they knew about the error and made no effort to alert folks IMMEDIATELY to STOP TRADING THESE FUNDS. Instead they allowed folks to trade all week. Maybe it worked out for some, but I'm very upset. Oh and guess what? They don't show to have credited me now at all with a January rebate which I'm due!! They said they dont know what happened but that they'd "research" it and "get back with (me)". My family has just now opened a total of 13 accounts and traded THOUSANDS of trades last year... our 1099 form was over 70pages thick. That's alot of commission for etrade. I'm not alone on this. And furthermore I own stock, so I hope this doesn't result in some class action suit that further brings out stock down. But what it does do is mean that we have to second guess everything etrade tells us. My account balance page says I have X,XXX for "withdrawal". To me that means I can take it out or write a check against it. Not so. The website doesn't reflect unsettled trades YET it calculates the pending settlements as though they'd already settled. Thus many times I've written checks only to have them bounce because the website was wrong. Morale of the story: If you get a rebate call etrade to see if it's really yours. If you want to make a withdrawal or write a check call etrade to make sure what the website says is accurate (it's supposed to be real time for platinum customers). If you make a trade call etrade to see if you were really filled. If you get a note saying you got an IPO... call Etrade to make sure. If you get a note saying you didn't get an IPO.. call etrade to make sure. Odds are. Reality is the exact opposite of what Etrade says it is. Be careful out there folks. Anyone know of a better brokerage?? Sad thing is I've tried several online brokerages and this ... believe this or not... Etrade is the best one unless I want to goto full service.. or somewhere in between like Schwab. jim

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