E*TRADE, a Lesson in Stupidity: Episode 1
Although I've had an E*TRADE account for some time now, I have decided to close it down. The reason I am shutting it down is because they have quite possibly the second worst service I have ever experienced. The worst was a waitress in a restaurant in San Jose, CA.
Let me back track a few months to where this all started. Our story begins in sunny June of this year when I decided to make a small deposit of $20 per month into my account as an initiative to save money. For a variety of reasons, when E*TRADE's system tried to pull the funds there were insufficient funds available and the transfer failed. This happened for 2 recurring months and E*TRADE notified me that the auto-transfer was being discontinued. No biggie, it's what I expected.
A month or so later, I needed to pay of some hefty credit card debts to avoid finance charges and decided to sell everything in my portfolio which I was able to do successfully. Now the fun begins. E*TRADE happens to have this service called BillPay which you have to enable to use. I apply for BillPay to be enabled and after a couple of days I get a response saying everything is hunky dory. Go pay your bills to your hearts content which I proceed to do. I send out a couple of payments which will take about 5 days to send. I wait for 7 and go into the system only to find that the payments were unsuccessful. Why? Well, I got this message telling me what the issue was...
Ummmm, so what was the reason? Basically, E*TRADE has no idea why this failed, so I call them. After sitting on hold for what seems and age (15 minutes), I get a customer service rep. Let's call her Wanda. Wanda tells me she has no idea why the BillPay failed and that she will need to put this in for investigation. I get a 20 digit reference number and I'm told that E*TRADE will call me back within 2 days. So I wait... no phone call.
Whilst I was on hold previously I was bombarded with ads saying that I should try E*TRADE's online help center if I want a speedy resolution to my problems. After day 3 of radio silence I decided that I would try out this amazing answer to all my problems.I jump online and proceed to explain my problem in detail. With lightning speed I get ... no, sorry ... I get nothing.
So I call back and get a new customer service rep. Let's call this guy Dave. Dave, tells me that the reason my BillPay failed is because my account is locked. "This can't be" I cry out in disbelief, "I've been selling stock as if the stock market was crashing around me in flames without a problem!". Dave confirms that it is definitely not enabled. "Why is it disabled?" I ask curiously. Dave, tells me it's because I owe them $40. Assuming this is a finance charge for the 2 failed transactions, I ask Dave to take the fee from my brokerage account which has more than enough cash in it to cover this nominal fee. "No, this won't do", says Dave, I have to wire in the funds before he can unlock the account. Now here is the clincher, the funds are not for finance charges, this is the two, $20 amounts E*TRADE tried to unsuccessfully withdraw from my bank account. wtf? To make this even more ridiculous Dave says that E*TRADE will pay for the wire transfer fee - $25 to be exact.
Let me get this straight, E*TRADE is going to pay $25 for me to transfer $40 into my account so I can take it out again to pay bills? Hmmmm, I wonder why their share price is sitting at just over a buck?
I finally get the wire sorted out and my account unlocked, all the while I have been sending a message each day through the "amazing" online help center asking if anyone is actually working there. No response. I am now picturing tumbleweeds and desert sands in the support desk offices. I pay my bills. Tantantantaraaaa! Big fanfare, drum rolls.
No, this is not over...
Let me back track a few months to where this all started. Our story begins in sunny June of this year when I decided to make a small deposit of $20 per month into my account as an initiative to save money. For a variety of reasons, when E*TRADE's system tried to pull the funds there were insufficient funds available and the transfer failed. This happened for 2 recurring months and E*TRADE notified me that the auto-transfer was being discontinued. No biggie, it's what I expected.
A month or so later, I needed to pay of some hefty credit card debts to avoid finance charges and decided to sell everything in my portfolio which I was able to do successfully. Now the fun begins. E*TRADE happens to have this service called BillPay which you have to enable to use. I apply for BillPay to be enabled and after a couple of days I get a response saying everything is hunky dory. Go pay your bills to your hearts content which I proceed to do. I send out a couple of payments which will take about 5 days to send. I wait for 7 and go into the system only to find that the payments were unsuccessful. Why? Well, I got this message telling me what the issue was...
Your online request to pay $xxxx.xx to CHASE MASTERCARD & VISA from xxxx-xxxx could not be completed. This could be due to technical difficulties, incorrect bill pay setup, insufficient funds, or other reasons.
Ummmm, so what was the reason? Basically, E*TRADE has no idea why this failed, so I call them. After sitting on hold for what seems and age (15 minutes), I get a customer service rep. Let's call her Wanda. Wanda tells me she has no idea why the BillPay failed and that she will need to put this in for investigation. I get a 20 digit reference number and I'm told that E*TRADE will call me back within 2 days. So I wait... no phone call.
Whilst I was on hold previously I was bombarded with ads saying that I should try E*TRADE's online help center if I want a speedy resolution to my problems. After day 3 of radio silence I decided that I would try out this amazing answer to all my problems.I jump online and proceed to explain my problem in detail. With lightning speed I get ... no, sorry ... I get nothing.
So I call back and get a new customer service rep. Let's call this guy Dave. Dave, tells me that the reason my BillPay failed is because my account is locked. "This can't be" I cry out in disbelief, "I've been selling stock as if the stock market was crashing around me in flames without a problem!". Dave confirms that it is definitely not enabled. "Why is it disabled?" I ask curiously. Dave, tells me it's because I owe them $40. Assuming this is a finance charge for the 2 failed transactions, I ask Dave to take the fee from my brokerage account which has more than enough cash in it to cover this nominal fee. "No, this won't do", says Dave, I have to wire in the funds before he can unlock the account. Now here is the clincher, the funds are not for finance charges, this is the two, $20 amounts E*TRADE tried to unsuccessfully withdraw from my bank account. wtf? To make this even more ridiculous Dave says that E*TRADE will pay for the wire transfer fee - $25 to be exact.
Let me get this straight, E*TRADE is going to pay $25 for me to transfer $40 into my account so I can take it out again to pay bills? Hmmmm, I wonder why their share price is sitting at just over a buck?
I finally get the wire sorted out and my account unlocked, all the while I have been sending a message each day through the "amazing" online help center asking if anyone is actually working there. No response. I am now picturing tumbleweeds and desert sands in the support desk offices. I pay my bills. Tantantantaraaaa! Big fanfare, drum rolls.
No, this is not over...
posted by Alex Charalambides | 9:34 AM
1 Comments:
The same EXACT thing happen to me. Well, not the same exact thing, but the poor customer service and them not communicating problems, making me look like an asshole. I shut down my account too. F-them. Waiting to hear about episode 2. -- Gina
Post a Comment
<< Home