Steve,
Can thread be expanded to complaints over Full Service Broker's?
I'm sure many people when their on-line broker is down go to
a back up Full Service Broker. What if THEY screw you too?
Hope you don't mind my posting letter I sent CEO, and just
like with on-lines, NO RESOLUTION!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
****LEGG MASON FULL SERVICE BROKERAGE ALERT**
Anyone else having problems with LEGG MASON Brokerage,
POST HERE!
Letter I just wrote to CEO: Response same as the worst of
any on-line brokerage:
Mr. Raymond A. Mason
Legg Mason Wood Walker
100 Light Street, P.O. Box 1476
Baltimore, MD 21203-1476
Dear Mr. Mason,
I am writing you concerning a situation in your Pikesville
office. The Branch Manager is aware of the situation with
Mr. xxx,xxxx, but is unable or unwilling to attempt
to rectify it.
On December 3, 1998, I came into the Pikesville office
to talk to Mr. xxxxx, who had called me to let me
know he was taking the place of xxxxxx, whom I had made
a number of trades with.
I had spoken to him about the recent extreme upmoves
made by companies like EBAY, AMZN, ONSL, BAMM and
other fast Internet mover's. He had neither heard of
or was not aware of any of the companies to which I spoke.
I found it quite unusual that any broker could have
avoided at least the knowledge of these recent
Internet stocks that had made such spectacular moves.
When I got home , logged onto Silicon Investor,
my friend who is an excellent technical analyst
advised I short the stock MALL . I called Mr. xxxxxx,
who made another call to see if the shares could be
borrowed, and I shorted 4000 at 34 1/8. The next day
I saw MALL drop to $26 (see enclosed chart).
I immediately called Mr. xxxxx to buy-back my shares at Market.
Being well aware of the quickness these stocks move,
I would not place a "Limit Order." Instead of acting
on my request, Mr. XXXXXX told me to wait while he
got a price. He returned to the phone saying it
was $36, did I still want to cover.
I was incredulous, having realtimequotes.com,
did I ever see an incorrect price. I told him
to go check another brokers machine, while I
verified my real-time price elsewhere. By this
time at least 3 valuable minutes had passed,
and when Mr. xxxxx returned, he said the price
was now $28, which I also confirmed
The crux of my complaint is that when I first
called Mr. xxxxxx, he not only did not follow my
instructions, but also had no understanding or
appreciation of the importance of time in executing
my order. The fact is that he punched either an
incorrect symbol in his machine, or his machine
was not working correctly (doubtful).
Had he acted in accordance with my directive
I would have covered my short at $28-$28 1/8,
Hoping this matter can be resolved quickly.
P.S. IT HAS NOT BEEN RESOLVED!
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