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Non-Tech : E*Trade (NYSE:ET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill on the Hill who wrote (5068)	2/9/1999 3:17:00 PM
From: Paul Fiondella	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13953

Don't be afraid to do just that!!! If a supervisor or even a VP tells you that they don't care what happened to your trade, it's your problem, then by all means beat them to the punch and go elsewhere. Don't let them play with your money. I stopped trading with one company with one stock after they took four hours to report back trades to me. I have three different brokerage accounts. I can assure you that the day someone doesn't give me adequate explanations for their handling of my trades I go elsewhere. At some point in time these guys will wise up and look at the commissions they are losing from dissatisfied customers and be very sorry. By then it will be too late. ================= Incidentally, in watching the decline in EGRP which has been steady and gradual, I can't help but wonder what would happen if we had one of those sharply down days when the Dow knocks of 600 points. In such circumstances I would assume hat anyone with an online account of the Etrade type would simply be unable to sell anything. This would probably protect some people against panic but it would also leave a lot of other investors holding the bag while everyone else got out.

To: Bill on the Hill who wrote (5068)	2/9/1999 4:43:00 PM
From: Iceberg	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13953

>I agree with your estimation of what will happen but I would like to add to this. I predict that the y2k problem will exaserbate this problem and make it look like a Sunday problem. I have become way to dependant upon the functioning of the internet and telephone for my daily living. It is time to develop backup plans and change investment style and content. Bill on the Hill, I agree with your assessment, but disagree with your conclusion. We can't escape technology. We must stand firm and deal with it, not bury our heads in the sand. Yes, things could get worse. Especially in view of Etrade's current incompetent management team, and especially in view of any potential Y2K exacerbations. However, customer back-up plans, finding alternate brokers, and making investment style changes aren't the answer, as much as possibly the Etrade supervisor you talked to, and others, would have you believe. Customer efforts to pursue "back-up plans", "evasive tactics", and "running from technology" don't help Etrade address its fundamental problems. Quite the contrary. If Etrade customers were to take such attitudes, then it allows Etrade to continue on its existing path. It allows Etrade supervisors to tell you to, as you say, to take your account and trade elsewhere. For if Etrade knows customers will simply accept their incompetence, or will simply go find another broker, or will simply go find a back-up broker, or will simply change their investment styles, or any or all, or any combination of the above, then nothing gets changed. The same old unacceptable system under which Etrade currently operates will then likely persist and become the acceptable "standard of conduct". Having said all that, I realize that you need to do, as any reasonable person would, what's in their own best financial interest. But let there be no mistake about where the real difficulty lies...it's with E*trade, not you. Never let them turn the problem around. Never let them make it to be your problem when its their problem. So please be careful not to confuse the problem with the solution. That's my main point, FWIW. It's all just my personal opinion, which all-too-often, it seems, is in conflict with the majority opinion. I never have claimed to be a smooth-talkin' politician with something to hide, as the Senate apparently did this afternoon by going into hiding for their final impeachment deliberations! <g> Ice