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Non-Tech : AMERITRADE HLD A (NASDAQ:AMTD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: William Vu who wrote (204)	2/12/1998 5:12:00 PM
From: Phil Jacobson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1848

William, What you say is totally logical - again it's the same argument used against AOL. Don't you remember the hell they took over jammed access lines just a year ago? They threw money at it and fixed it (well sort of) and went on to quadruple their stock price. What seems logical doesn't work half as often as good marketing. Sad but true. In mass markets being first to market (and loudest) is a lot more important than any other single element to long term success. I worked at a certain long distance company that's about to be purchased by WCOM for years and couldn't believe the number of times we sold products that couldn't even be billed for 3 months out. But it worked and we got market share. I think AMTD will fix the service - they may have conflicting priorities but they're far from idiots. And as far as I'm concerned they're focused on the most important part of the business. At any rate I do respect your opinion but my honest feeling is that you and others who short it will just end up furthering the gains with a nice short squeeze when the time comes. Happens to AOL every time they make an announcement. Phil

To: William Vu who wrote (204)	2/13/1998 10:34:00 AM
From: Roland Ott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1848

You are right that Ameritrade's server quite often isn't able to show the present holdings showing messages like "Some accounts are not updated". But what is most important for me is 1) Every time I wanted to order a trade with Ameritrade, I could do so 2) Although there might have been server problems with the bad effect that I couldn't see if my order has been completed, I received E-mail messages confirming completion of my orders always very quickly 3) If there occured any problem, e-mail support by Ameritrade is very good - the only negative aspect on this is that it is always the same person answering these e-mail questions. What happens if this reliable person leaves the company? ;<)))) Maybe the servers are much better with Datek, but if you have a problem, and you will always have minor problems with stock brokers, you will be very lucky if you get answers and solutions with Datek. Imagine this: they normally even don't answer questions conserning new accounts!