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Non-Tech : Datek Brokerage $9.95 a trade -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richard James who wrote (12431)	6/9/1999 1:22:00 PM
From: Jim S	Respond to of 16892

This is an email I sent to CNBC (marketwatch@cnbc.com). If several of us would pester them, we might get some publicity for the problem -- obviously complaints to Datek do no good. But, if we can impact their new customer acquisitions, we might get their attention. Once again, Datek Brokerage was down during the open today, which can be a very frustrating (at least) and/or expensive (at worst) situation for us customers. And, they are not alone in having either volume overload or equipment problems. I appreciate the "logon page load" times that get reported occasionally, because it is a recognition of the needs of many investors. But (you knew there would be a "but," didn't you? <g>), the logon page isn't where the server problems lie; it is the internal DNSs of the various brokerages that lag, stall out, overload, or go offline that cause the problems. It does little good to get a fast log on if being logged on won't allow account access. Further, just because you might be able to get a page up quickly from your offices in the Northeast, it means little to those of us who may have 15 or 20 hops through various routers to reach the same brokerage servers. I realize that it is not practical for you to have accounts with all online brokers, or even with just the major brokers. It would be very helpful though, if you would have some means for us customers to let you know when problems occur so you could report the problem and hopefully provide us with pertinate information. When thousands of us try to call our online broker vox, it does nothing to help the situation. Could you set up a "brokebroker@cnbc.com" sort of address so we can let you know there are problems? Your use of the info would then be under your editorial control, and when problems occur/reoccur, you would have some solid data for a news story. Thanks for considering the idea. jim