It takes days to receive an e-mail reply from E-Trade's customer service. As for calling customer service, the wait can be as long as an hour and a half. E-Trade routinely warns callers to expect waits of at least 30 mins, and the waits are often much longer. That's intolerable, and yet the problem continues, day after day, week after week. Oftentimes, a customer will have questions concerning executions or confirmations, questions that can affect the outcome of trades, and yet it's often difficult or impossible to reach a representative promptly.
In how many businesses would such service be considered acceptable? You can get better service from understaffed, overworked, under-budgeted goverment offices -- probably even a government office in Russia.
The problem of delays in executions and confirmations appears to be increasing, especially at the market open and during days with heavy trading volume. Even market orders aren't always filled promptly, and confirmations are often delayed.
The manner in which E-Trade deals with customers' concerns about service is questionable, too. In an on-line discussion with E-Trade's customer service -- a chat session "moderated" by E-Trade -- questions about delays in reaching customer service were not posted; nor were questions about delays in executions and confirmations. E-Trade might have simply said something like: "We're making every effort to reduce delays." Instead, they didn't deal with the questions.
Even today, it was my impression that E-Trade's response didn't seem to address the full extent of the problem. Stressing that the Web site remained up, and that the only problem was that customers couldn't actually place trades, is just ridiculous. Also, emphasizing that brokers could still be reached by phone, without adding that the phone lines were overwhelmed and that the waits were long, seemed disingenous, less than straightforward.
E-Trade charges more than some other electronic brokerages, and yet others appear to provide better service in many cases. Customers not only deserve better service; they should insist on it. There's absolutely no excuse for it, in my opinion.
These comments are my opinions only, based only on my own experience, and I'm sure many of you disagree (especially less-active traders). But I have a feeling that others have run into the same problems. It's time that they were fully acknowledged and addressed. |
