Peter, it seems to me the fact that you were able to get money ordered on Tuesday by Thursday, while my order of last month did not get funded until Thursday illustrates that there is indeed something severely wrong with the way these people do business.
I was told on Tuesday that the company had no way of confirming funds and could not send my money by check. I have been on the telephone with someone at Datek nearly every day this week. Instead of getting answers, I was literally stonewalled.
I asked for a hard copy check in lieu of the wire transfer on Monday and on Tuesday but was told that was impossible. My wife (who thankfully has a work schedule less demanding than mine)spent hours on the telephone yesterday trying to get our money. That statement is no exaggeration. She spoke with numerous customer representatives, one or more supervisors, and someone who claimed to be in charge of wire transfers. This person was quite rude. As with everyone else we had spoken to, he said there was nothing he could or would do to get us our own money, despite that we absolutely needed it this week in connection with the purchase of a new home.
Instead of working with us to solve the dilemma Datek created, this gentleman actually had the gall to pull our brokerage contract out and start quoting passages about how Datek was not "responsible" for its own computer problems.
We were not able to obtain any meaningful response until my wife got through to the president of Datek, Michael McCarthy. To his credit, he was at lease courteous. And by some miracle, the funds that had been to that point "impossible" to transfer appeared in our bank account last night. No apology, no satisfactory explanation, and no compensation for the time and money we spent trying to get Datek's error resolved has been offered.
$10 or so a trade may be cheap, but if they didn't make money at it they wouldn't be in this business. I expect considerably more from a brokerage company, and I suspect Datek that will someday discover that many more consumers share my view.
I for one will be investing my money elsewhere. If anyone else plans to do the same, all I can say is "good luck" trying to get your money. |
