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Non-Tech : Online Broker Down - Sue 'em - EGRP, JBOH, AMTD, SCH, NDB -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pluvia who wrote (4)	2/4/1999 8:59:00 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 253

New York Attorney General To Probe Online Brokers Office Has Received Dozens of Complaints By Jack Reerink Reuters NEW YORK (Feb. 4) - New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Thursday he would launch an inquiry into the online brokerage industry because his office has received dozens of complaints about delays and glitches from consumers trying to funnel stock trades through cyberspace. ''The public knows that there are always risks involved in investing in the stock market,'' Spitzer said in a statement. ''But part of the risk should not include questions about whether trades will be executed promptly or whether online brokerage firms can deliver on the services that they've promised.'' Investors funneled a record 340,000 trades a day through the Internet in the fourth quarter, up 38 percent from the third quarter, and trading volumes in January are rising at the same clip, according to industry reports. About one in seven stock trades now takes place online. Internet brokers have signed up some 7 million customers, and many expect that number to rise to more than 10 million at this year's end. The surge in Internet trading, however, has led to many system outages at brokers, frustrating many investors. Major Internet brokerages Charles Schwab Corp. , E+Trade Group Inc. and AmeriTrade Holding Corp. all have reported outages and software glitches recently. Many E+Trade customers were unable to trade on Wednesday because of an outage and three investors called Reuters to report problems again Thursday morning. E+Trade, which recently was ranked the best overall online brokerage by Internet research firm Gomez Advisors, Thursday morning still battled problems caused by malfunctioning software installed on Tuesday night, a spokesman said. The firm had fixed the problem by around noon, he added. The glitches already have attracted the attention of regulators and lawmakers. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Arthur Levitt recently warned cyberspace investors that they can end up paying more for a stock than they thought because of system delays and Internet shares' wild price swings. Stocks such as those of Internet media company Yahoo Inc. can gain or lose tens of dollars in the space of an hour. Four lawmakers, among whom Democratic Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, on Thursday wrote a letter to Levitt, asking his agency for more information on online investing. ''We are concerned about the potential for a speculative bubble or 'tulip mania' affecting Internet stocks; the capacity and other operational problems afflicting online trading systems ... and the adequacy of the SEC and other relevant regulations and resources for policing this market place,'' the letter said. The U.S. Senate may hold a hearing on online trading as early as next month, the letter said. Spitzer's office has fired off letters to several online firms, asking them to provide information about their services, such as the number of customer support people they employ and the average time it takes to process a customer's trade, spokesman Scott Brown said. Brown declined to say how which firms the Attorney General has targeted in its inquiry. ''Based on the tremendous growth of online trading, and a corresponding increase in complaint calls to my office, this is an issue we must look into,'' Spitzer said.. ''Unfortunately, it seems that often the information super highway is full of potholes for consumers.'' 14:52 02-04-99

To: Pluvia who wrote (4)	2/5/1999 10:48:00 AM
From: StockDung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 253

Investors Blast E*Trade for Glitches AOL Investment Snapshot (tm): EGRP By EILEEN GLANTON .c The Associated Press NEW YORK (Feb. 5) -- Online investors angered by a second straight day of trading problems at ETrade chose a familiar medium to lodge complaints. In more than 1,500 e-mail messages and streams of nasty notes in Internet chat rooms, investors blasted the snags at ETrade, which says a software glitch caused outages Wednesday and Thursday. On busy trading days, most online brokerages can experience delays in fulfilling trade orders, though ETrade's troubles had nothing to do with system capacity or heavy volume, a spokeswoman said. New software installed Tuesday night malfunctioned Wednesday morning, knocking out the trading function for 75 minutes. About 5 percent of ETrade's customers were unable to trade electronically throughout the afternoon. The system functioned normally for the first half-hour of trading Thursday before crashing again at about 10 a.m. EST. Some service was restored within an hour, and the system was entirely fixed within two hours, said Lisa Nash, vice president for customer management at the Palo Alto, Calif., brokerage. ETrade brokers were able to fill telephone orders, but many callers experienced lengthy delays, even as ETrade put more staff members onto telephone detail. ETrade set up a special e-mail address to handle customer complaints, and many investors turned to Internet chat rooms, disparaging the brokerage with nicknames like EtrytoTrade, EDelayed and ETrash. Vincent Crisci, an ETrade customer who trades over the Internet several times a week, said he is frustrated enough to look into other services. ''I think there is both a legal and implied trust or contract to provide uninterrupted services during market hours,'' he said. Crisci said he lost money Wednesday when the system outage prevented him from canceling an order to buy stock. ETrade's woes have added fuel to a new inquiry into the booming Internet brokerage industry by New York state's attorney general. Citing a wave of complaints about system crashes, delayed trades and constant busy signals, Eliot Spitzer's office has asked a number of online trading firms to provide reports on their services. Spitzer, who took office in January, released a statement saying: ''The public knows that there are always risks involved in investing in the stock market. But part of that risk should not include questions about whether trades will be executed promptly or whether online brokerage firms can deliver on the services that they've promised.'' Spitzer's office has asked several online brokerages to provide information on their operations, but a spokesman wouldn't name the firms. The inquiry follows a stream of warnings in recent weeks from state and federal securities regulators, who have urged online investors to use caution and be prepared for possible delays. Last week, Arthur Levitt, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, issued a warning to ordinary investors. ETrade said it will handle complaints on a case-by-case basis, but wouldn't say whether it plans to mollify customers with offers of free transactions or any other reimbursement. ''They are vocal, but they are fair,'' Nash said. ''We know they are very frustrated when they can't place a trade.'' ETrade's e-mail address for investors who want to ask questions or lodge complaints: service2@etrade.com. AP-NY-02-05-99 0015EST