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

To: norm chin who wrote (15087)	10/28/2000 4:09:03 PM
From: Richard James	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

Dear Mr. Chin, The purpose of my post is to invite persons that believe they have been victimized to contact me by sending me a private message. I suspect that many Datek customers to not feel that they suffered as a result of any problem with Datek regarding the opening of their account or transfer of assets into it. I have no interest in persuading them otherwise. These are hypothetical examples of problems that I have read of in the past with brokerage accounts, but I have no evidence that they have occurred at Datek and do not mean to suggest that they are a problem at Datek. If any persons have suffered similar problems, they may wish to contact me by private message. As for those persons that believe they suffered damages as a result of Datek's malpractice in "opening new accounts and arranging for the transfer of assets to Datek." For example, and this is not the case of any client of mine, take the situation where account transfer instructions are included with an account application. However, the broker fails to request the assets to be transferred from the XYZ mutual fund. After several weeks pass, the account holder contacts the broker and the broker admits this is entirely its back offices fault. The transfer request is sent to the old broker and assets, consisting of $100,000 cash are promptly delivered to Datek. During the month the transfer was delayed, the customer was receiving a very low rate of interest, say 1% per annum. One deposited at Datek, they would earn 4%. The customer loss 1/12th of 3% on that $100,000. Forgetting about compounding, that is a clear loss of $250.00. $250 is a lot of money to a retired senior with no other income other than social security. The above example assumes that once the money arrives at Datek, it is deposited in the customers account. What if it is deposited in another customer's account and Datek takes a month to discover its mistake and during that month the customer, who wanted to buy $100,000 worth of QQQ, missed a 10% market move. Should that customer have to accept 30 free trades in lieu of interest or is he/she not fairly entitled to be compensated for his $10,000 loss?