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

To: Sir Francis Drake who wrote (12279)	5/26/1999 3:29:00 AM
From: Sir Francis Drake	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 16892

More stuff coming: msnbc.com <<Mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments said Tuesday it is planning to launch a new Web site for its most active brokerage customers, offer a new wireless device to buy and sell stocks and upgrade its telephone service as it signs up thousands of new accounts a day. THE NEW SITE (at www.activetrader.fidelity.com), will be modeled after systems used by professional traders, company officials said at a news conference. Stephen Cone, president for customer marketing and development, said the company's upgraded services cover the range of methods customers may use to contact the company including the most popular method, telephone. Fidelity, the largest U.S. mutual fund company, has been opening an average of 5,000 new brokerage accounts a day, Cone said. He said about 40 percent of the new accounts are new customers to Fidelity and 60 percent are existing Fidelity customers. About half the customers who are new to Fidelity are opening brokerage accounts for the first time while the others have accounts elsewhere, he estimated. The company could have about 1.5 million new brokerage accounts this year, he said. About 77 percent of the company's brokerage customers are now online, Cone said, up dramatically from 18 percent two years ago. The Web site for active traders is available at no additional charge other than the cost of placing orders, which can be as low as $14.95 per trade. However, customers using the service must make at least 36 stock, bond or options trades per year. The site includes real time quotes, charts of stock patterns, research such as Standard & Poor's and First Call, and price alert notification. Standard & Poor's is part of McGraw-Hill Cos Inc. and First Call, a service which tracks analysts' earnings estimates, is part of Thomson Corp. Fidelity also plans to make available nationally an InstantBroker two-way wireless trading system device using the Palm VII organizer developed by Palm Computing Inc, a unit of 3Com Corp. The organizer can be used to get real time quotes, place orders and obtain market data such as stocks making the biggest moves. Eligible Fidelity customers who purchase the device subscribe to a monthly service plan which costs either $9.95 per month or $24.95 per month depending on the packages. The product was introduced in the New York city area on Monday. Palm VII: an expensive proposition On a third front, Fidelity said a voice recognition enhancement to its telephone service, introduced to some customers in late 1998, will be available to all customers in July. The system can take stock orders based on spoken requests without the need for touch-tones. Experienced users can “barge in” on the menus and complete an order in 30 to 45 seconds. In other new offerings, Fidelity will let customers update account information directly online beginning this month. Fidelity also offers online services via www.fidelity.com. >>

To: Sir Francis Drake who wrote (12279)	5/27/1999 11:57:00 AM
From: Dean Wilson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 16892

Sir Drake, DATEK prides themselves on quick market executions? Well, goodie. That does us a lot of good when we don't get a confirmation for 7 hours. And once you do receive a late confirmation, is there a time stamp on it? Not on mine. Could they fill at whatever they feel like and then pass it on to us lemmings? Looks like it. And why communicate with them at all? Try calling customer support during market hours during the day and see what happens--Do you sometimes get this line "Customer support hours are from 8 am to ..." Well, DUH. That's why I'm calling during the day. DATEK does have one system that has worked well for me--their automated e-mail support service which provides the standard "sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused" line. And have you tried transferring your money at of DATEK recently? Don't try a wire transfer. My money is still 'lost'. It's not in my DATEK account and it's not in my bank. 7 days now since my wire request and I still haven't seen my dough. Is this merely incompetence? Is it criminal? Whatever it is, it's more than a crying shame. Why give DATEK a second chance? If I ever get my money accounted for, I'm out of there faster than their so-called 'quick market executions'. dean