Posted for a friend who is NOT HAPPY
Letter to E*TRADE customer service: (dated 2/3/99)
What the hell is going on! This is the worst customer service I have ever experienced from an on-line service. Your site has been down all day, not counting countless other times when it has been down as well. And forget trying to access you by phone, I've been cut off a number of times after waiting, in some cases, for more than one hour. Just goes to show you that a company's stock price has absolutely NOTHING to do with the quality of its services.
Some of the other problems that I've had are documented as follows: (excerpt form existing post)
1) Somebody else's (Steve and Mary Ann Lee to be exact) account got linked to mine. I was able to go into their account and see everything they were doing. Initially I though that it was my account and that E*TRADE had just typed the wrong title on the account; however, when I tried to correct the problem, E*TRADE tried to convince me that this was just not possible. I sent them hardcopy proof and the problem was rectified two days later.
2) E*TRADE inadvertently deposited funds into one of my IRA's, and it took up to the 11th hour for E*TRADE to correct this problem; otherwise, I was subject to a 6% IRS penalty for excess annual contribution. Again, I had to provide documented proof to E*TRADE to correct this problem. Just imagine trying to correct an error that would have to involve both E*TRADE and the IRS. By the time I was finished I'd probably be in jail, have over $100k in attorney fees and my house would have been seized by the US Treasury Department.
3) When transferring funds from another institution to E*TRADE, the funds were in limbo for almost two weeks, i.e. I could not trade, see or do anything with those funds. This was in sharp contrast to their assurance that the "swing" time (which is after the 4 week it takes for the paper work to clear and be processed, the actual time when that the funds would disappear from the source and reappear in my E*TRADE account) would be no more than 24 hours. In speaking with the source institution, they told me that the funds had long been transferred to E*TRADE, but E*TRADE claimed that the source institution had not transferred the funds yet. Well, who do you think I believed. My guess is that E*TRADE temporarily lost, or accidentally deposited the funds into somebody else's account, because when I spoke to E*TRADE customer service after the transfer was finally complete, they mentioned that the funds were being transferred from some other mysterious E*TRADE account. When I attempted to dig further, they began to stone wall and deny in a very Howard Hunt-ish style.
4) When I look at the activity for one of my accounts, I still see activity that it not even mine, but instead is apparently from some other person's account(s). Again, I've had to provide documented proof because E*TRADE is not even able to see the same information that I can see from my browser. I am still trying to get E*TRADE to correct this problem, but they don't seem to know how nor do they seem very concerned. I was told "your balance is correct, so I don't see what you are worried about". Well, don't mind me for being picky, but is does bother me just a little as to how their accounting information can get scrambled between accounts. They should be treating this problem as a symptom of a malignant cancer. I guess they have much bigger fish to fry, like getting more victims, I mean more customers.
I've had nothing but problems with E*TRADE and intend to move all of my accounts to another on-line broker as soon as possible. I will attempt to influence as many people as I possibly can to discourage patronage with E*TRADE.
There is absolutely no excuse for not at the very very very least letting us valueless customers know what the hell is going on! You have many more customers than you can possible handle, hopefully this situation will be rectified by natural selection.
Thank you,
Soon to be ex-customer
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Response from E*TRADE customer service:
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E*TRADE
Someday, we'll all invest this way
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Dear Customer,
We at E*TRADE would like to apologize for the interruption of electronic
trading service that occurred on Wednesday. As a pioneer and innovator in
online investing, we continue to be committed to the goal of being the
leader in electronic personal financial services.
The service interruption that occurred was specific to the trading function.
During the interruption, customers temporarily could not enter orders
through either the trading page on our Web site or the Company's interactive
voice recognition system. Customers, members, and visitors continued to be
able to access other content areas of the site, including news, quotes and
charts. The interruption was not volume or capacity-related. Rather, it
was caused by a software change which was made Tuesday night and which
malfunctioned after the opening of trading on Wednesday.
Throughout this time, E*TRADE customer service associates and brokers
continued to assist customers with their accounts, although we realize that
some of you may have been unable to get through due to the heavy volume of
calls during this period.
At E*TRADE, we always strive to enhance the quality of the products and
services we deliver to our customers. We have built one of the most
advanced and reliable technology, service and support infrastructures in our
industry.
We know, as most of you know, that technology is imperfect. That does not,
however, deter us from our commitment to being the best. There are many
specific actions we have already taken to realize our long-term vision:
Nearing completion this month of our newest, state-of-the-art technology and
customer service center near Atlanta, some 6 months ahead of the original
schedule, to meet increased demand for our services.
Tripling our server capacity to ensure we maintain our goal of 75 percent
excess capacity.
Expanding the self-service capabilities of E*STATION, our 24-hour online
customer service center.
Rolling out semi-weekly Customer Service Electronic Town Hall meetings led
by members of our Service Quality team.
Creating immediate access to our Web site tour for new customers to quickly
introduce them to the dynamic tools and rich content we offer on our site.
Expanding our customer service team to handle the increased volume of
customer inquiries.
These, as well as many other actions, represent our ongoing commitment to
meeting the needs of our most important asset, you, our customers. Still
this does not excuse the inconvenience you may have experienced on
Wednesday. We thank you for your continued support. We will work with
diligence to deliver the service you expect and deserve.
Sincerely,
Dan Ramsay
E*TRADE Customer Service
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