| |
I have been using Web Street Securities for several months and give it a negative review in all areas. I'm a experienced trader, for decades, have used several brokers, have two I like very much right now, but opened a small account at Web Street for the streaming quotes and the Level II and the free commissions on some trades. Here are some of the problems I've encountered there.
1. You cannot place two orders on one stock on line. That is if you want to buy or sell some shares at different prices, the system doesn't allow that online. That's a flaw in their clearance house and they are going to some day do their own clearing, so that may be fixed some day. You can make the trades if you place the orders with a broker. But sometimes there is a long wait for a broker, and sometimes they charge you a higher commission when you trade with a broker, even if it's due to flaws in their system.
2, The online software is buggy -- especially on a Mac -- and slows down the whole computer. I use computers faster than the fastest PC and fast connections. Only Web Street slows down my computers that way.
3. The Level II doesn't cover every stock, seems slow (late), doesn't update automatically, and often when I go to Level II, all quotes stall, so I have to go through a complicated, slow method to get quotes started again. I eventually turned off Level II, thinking if they improve it, I'll turn it on again.
4. The dynamic quotes don't always work. I like them a lot, but often they just don't work at all. I finally turned them off last week, too. I can't rely on them, pay for real time elsewhere, so Web Street's dynamic quotes had become an unreliable backup quote service for me, Web Street bogs down the speed of my computer, and the company has other serious problems.
5. The record-keeping there is flawed. One cannot obtain correct information about buying power. It's wrong online and whoever you talk to gives a different answer, whether a broker or a customer service rep or margin department. I've never seen any brokerage firm give inconsistent and incorrect buying power information, but for Web Street, that's the way it is.
6. One time I talked with Ryan in margin and he gave me wrong buying power information, on which I traded. I bought too much and didn't know. Some days later I tried to make a trade and my account was "restricted." The broker I asked couldn't figure out why -- from the records he saw I'd done nothing to lead to restriction. Ryan explained I'd overbought. He agreed it was due to his giving me wrong info (though I'd found he never "remembers" what he's told me), but insisted I had to sell the stock I'd overbought. On 4/3/98 at 10:46AM Ryan said he would take me off restriction and give me $100 towards commissions to make up for the money I'd lose in selling the stock. It took more than 24 hours for him to lift restriction and as far as I know that $100 credit was never provided.
7. Ryan has an assistant named John. If I'd end up reaching John when I'd want to know my buying power I'd get a 10 minute response, with no number at the end of that!
8. I complained to a supervisor a few months ago, who had said the online software was going to be fixed in a few days so correct buying power info could be obtained online. It was not fixed.
9. They all seem to lie. The supervisor, Michael Graff, one of the more efficient people there, was "not aware" that the online software doesn't give correct balance info or buying power info. The margin dept never remembers what numbers they've told you. The staff's computers never seem to give the staff any basic account info in a way they can view that basic info at a glance. They had someone in charge of new accounts who also remembered nothing he'd ever tell you that he'd do.
10. Last week I had a trade, the commission for which should have been $15, but I just happened to notice that it was $65. I called margin, got John, who said that particular error sometimes occurs (he doesn't know why) and is automatically corrected by the next day. The next day the error was not corrected and Customer Service said that a complaint must go to the supervisor for correction for any correction to be made about commission errors.
11. It's typical of my experiences there that no two people ever provide the same information at Web Street.
12. Because of the incorrect commission last week, I was reminded of the $100 credit and decided to try to pursue the matter of that $100 credit. Early in the day I was told that no one in customer service can access records as far back as April, and to call after 8:30AM -- implication being Customer Service can access older records later in the day.
I called again after 8:30AM, was told the supervisor Sherry Smith was the one to whom I had to speak (since Customer Service can't access records back more than 45 days -- at all), and she isn't in till after 9:30AM.
13. You can imagine how I felt about having to hash out a problem during market hours but this wasn't the first time I was forced to do that sort of thing during market hours at Web Street. Margin always wants to be called during market hours, too.
14. Still, market open, Sherry Smith couldn't be reached, so I left a message on her voice mail. Some assistant of hers called me back for her. Another man named John, I think -- but I'm not sure.
15. He said HIS records don't go back to April! How can it be that a brokerage can't access records back four months on their computers? I said I found it unlikely that there was no one who could access customer records back to April.
16. He said "he would try to find a copy of an old statement of mine lying around" and put me on hold. When he got back to the phone he told me that Ryan told him that he'd never agreed to a $100 credit. Of course, Ryan was being untruthful to this fellow, (not the first time; in my experience, Ryan doesn't remember anything that he says) so I asked if John'd looked for the records as he'd said he'd do when he'd left me on hold. At that point, Sherry's assistant told me "We're never giving you that $100" and hung up the phone on me. Ah!
17. So, I called back and asked for Joe Fox, the President of the company. He was on his way to a meeting, assured me I'd get the $100 and more, and would call me back later that day to hear the rest of my complaints. That was on either Tuesday or Thursday morning, and he hasn't me called back yet.
18. There's more. Last week's trade eventuated in a cash credit in my account, so I wanted to get the money out of there, while not leaving myself any margin debt, (to make transferring the account out of there easier). I was told that to get my money sent to me I had to send email to the margin department or a fax to margin. I have several brokerage accounts and this is another "first" for me. I emailed in the morning on Thursday, but the next day my balance showed no withdrawal. I sent another email on Friday morning and that afternoon called margin to see if the request was received and the check cut.
19. I got John, Ryan's assistant. He said that it's not his job to deal with that and that I had to talk to Brandon, but Brandon's line was busy. John tried three times to put me off by saying "if I sent the request they received it." He didn't want to look for anything. I insisted that I wanted to know that he had the request and that the check was going out. There had been that failure the day before.
John said he saw no request in the request pile, and even though it was a little after 1PM, he promised he'd still send the check if I sent another written request. John listed a half dozen regulatory agencies, said it was required by them that they have that written request to cover sending me that check. (I was riveted. Isn't it amazing that no other brokerages are subject to those requirements requiring written requests for withdrawal of funds? I said nothing, however.)
I said (twice) that I'd like a $7100 check though I'd asked for $7000 in my missing emails. He said he'd do that and wouldn't send duplicates.
On Saturday I received a $7000 check, not the $7100 I'd verbally requested. I don't know if it was due to the written request or the verbal request or if I'll receive duplicate checks. I assume, consistent with all my experiences there, that the worst will happen -- I'll get three checks for $7000 or $7100, that they will never acknowledge their mistake and that I'll be the one to pay for it.
I'm going to email this to Joe Fox, since he never did return my call. On the positive side, he did take my call and spoke to me for a couple of minutes.
Also, he told me of a way to get correct balance information on line (something no one else had told me; possibly no one at Web Street knows correct balance information can be obtained online).
Good luck to anyone using Web Street.
Linda |
|
