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

To: Tom_ who wrote (11661)	4/15/1999 8:48:00 PM
From: Sir Francis Drake	Respond to of 16892

Tom - I appreciate your perspective on Datek's recent performance as a broker. I agree that Datek does many things right: order execution, which continues to be the best in the business (IMHO), accurate accounting with instant updating (this is a biggie, and I'm truly grateful), extremely reasonable fees and costs (free wire out!), good margin policies and interest. I have praised Datek many times when it comes to these things. However, it is undeniable, that Datek's servers are simply overwhelmed - they have signed up, and continue signing up considerably more customers than their systems can handle. All the good points are irrelevant, when I am prevented from trading (exiting a losing position, or initiating a winning one) due to these problems. And I certainly disagree with you when you state that "fast notifications" are a feature of trading with Datek... not in my recent experience. My criteria for a good broker are pretty simple: if I find myself losing considerable amounts of money, due exlusively to technical problems, then that broker is not fulfilling their primary function. Yes, Datek may be better at some things than other brokers. But I chose Datek, therefore it's cold comfort to me that there are worse losers out there. And sad to say, in some respects that do matter a great deal, Datek is now substantially worse than other brokers (non-marginable and non shortable stocks). You write: <<However, IMO, Datek's current shortcomings are not founded in some evil intent or a purposeful policy of ignoring of customer satisfaction, but are most likely a consequence of available resources and competencies.>> Datek does not "intend" to ignore customer satisfaction? Odd statement. I'm sure Datek's management doesn't sit around a table discussing ways of "ignoring customer satisfaction". But when you sign up more and more customers, knowing FULL WELL, AHEAD OF TIME, that you don't have the systems in place to handle such a load without severely affecting customer satisfaction, you are most certainly IGNORING customer satisfaction. They know their systems can't handle the load - they've had, by now, years of experience in that regard (since 98) - so they can't plead ignorance. No, the situation is quite obvious. They have to choose one of the two: keeping the customer load commesurate with the technical system capabilities, or all-out growth without heed to customer satisfaction. It is quite obvious they chose the latter. Many companies do. At Home, the cable company chose a similar route - they are signing far more customers then they can adequately service. The gamble is that natural inertia (it's a hassle to transfer accounts), lack of consumer awareness and positive account trends (they will gain more customers than they will lose) will carry the day. They know there will be a vocal minority of unhappy customers who see what's going on. They can't do anything about that - which is why they rarely visit this thread anymore. But, in a cold business light, they figure that at the end of the day, our unhappiness will be more than offset by extra income from new customers. I happen to think that there comes a point, where such practices boomerang against you. Good luck in all your investments! Morgan

To: Tom_ who wrote (11661)	4/15/1999 9:25:00 PM
From: Bill Rood	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16892

Tom instead of considering peoples posts abusive or silly try to gauge the rage included in these posts. My posts for instance vary from when I simply cannot acces a server,versus 10 min cancelling while I am unable to reenter the order, versus losing 6 points because of any or all of the above. I invite you to join #daytraders where you will find 1400 traders many former and present datek users so you can judge datek customer sentiment for yourself. For fear of jinxing myself I made 11 round trips today from open to close and had the best fills since I have been with Datek. If today was the norm they would be the best bar none. Best of luck Bill