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

To: Fred Puppet who wrote (10138)	11/4/1998 12:55:00 PM
From: EK	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

The way to get Datek to be more responsive is to make this issue more public. I've sent the following message to Barrons, Howard Gold, editor, hgold@online.barrons.com, and to the WSJ, Neil f Budde Editor, budde@interactive.wsj.com. Maybe the others on this thread who have a problem can do the same. Also, does anyone have any other contact email addresses that could be useful for a campaign? My message was: Barron's has rated on line Brokers in the past. Many folks place a great deal of faith in those ratings and act accordingly. While, as with any business, there are bound to be bumps and misses along the way, the problems with Datek have become serious and potentially dangerous to many unsuspecting investors. I say investors because traders have become aware and are taking proper precautions, I hope. The occasional investor who may not have encountered the problems yet may do so when it is too late and has lost a great deal of money. Datek has performed so wonderfully for so long and at such fantastic prices, people have given them the benefit whenever there were misses. Now however the lack of access to accounts when required has cost traders and investors thousands of dollars. Rather than $10 per trade, some trades end up costing $1,000 $2,000 +. Never mind the lost money on trading or investing opportunities, like today, because their unreliable servers have kept some investors or traders on the sidelines -- I being one of them. The more immediate danger however is if the market starts to sell off and those investors who are unaware of the problems are unable to react. There should besom sort of alert out there for all Datek clients to use caution. Read the SI thread on Datek for a quick take on the problem.