e*Trade

Mathew of Long Island City, NY May 16, 2008

Mathew of Long Island City NY (05/16/08)
I Initiated an online account with ETrade on 5/5/2008. I transferred 10,000 from my bank the same day. E-Trade initially said there would be a hold of 5 days before the funds ewre available for trading. During the week of 5/5/2008 I recieved 2 emails requesting I fund the account, plus a phone message from an E-Trade representative on 5/8/2008 to check to make sure everything with my account was satisfactory.

On 5/9/2008 I called E-Trade to ask when the funds would be available for trading. At that time I was told becuase it was a new account it would take 7 business days to have the funds available for use (i.e. 5/13/2008). Also at that time I was told there was a disable hold on my account because E-Trade needed confirmation of identity. I faxed that afternoon a copy of my passport, Social Security Card, drivers licence, Permanat Resident Card, Lease, Bank Statement, and another Investment Companies correspondence with me.

The following monday, 5/12/2008 I called to confirm that the additional ID was satisfactory. The representative told me that they were not received. At that time I realized that communication within E-Trade was very poor. Not wanting to send such detailed and private personal information again I requested that my account with E-Trade be closed, and that the 10,000 be transferred back to my bank account. The representative (Jason Moore) said this would be fine, and the funds would be transferred back within 48 hours. He could not give me a confirmation number, only his name.

48 hours later the funds had not been transferred as requested, so on 5/14/2008 I called E-Trade again and spoke with another representative (Fred Savvan), Jason Moore was not at his desk. I explained the situtatoin to Fred, and he tried to upsell me again and get me to send the ID information again. I refused, stating I had sent it once already, and had in fact requested that the funds be transferred and the E-Trade account closed. He checked his computer, and was rather vague but said the trnsfer had not been processed. He said he would handle the matter personally and arrange for the transfer in 48 hours. 48 hours later the funds had still not been transferred, so again I called ETrade on 5/16/2008 and spoke with Simon Moon.

Again I had to explain the situation, and again I had to refuse sending the paper copies of ID to enable my account. Simon then said that the funds transfer request had not been sent to the department handling this, and it would take another 3 to 5 business days before the transfer was complete. I wsa quite irate, and explained I had already requested the transfer 5 days previously, and I wnated the funds transfered by the end of the day. He refused, and said the best that could happen would be that the funds would be transferred by 5/22/08. I requested that they review the initial request on the recorded record on the phone conversation (from 5/12/2008), recognize their mistake and expidite the transfer process. He could not help so I requested that his supervisor call me baclk within an hour.

30 minutes later Simon called back, and saidhe has re-requested for the funds transfer, and it would be 5/22/08 before teh funds could be guaranteed to be in my account. He had not reviewd the original phone call request, and could not explain why it takes so long to transfer money back, that took me 15 minutes to intially transfer into the E-trade account.

So far I am two weeks without access to 10,000, I have lost interest the bank account is earning, lost opportunity with several lucrative trades that I would have initiated in this time space, plus I have spent more than several hours trying to deal with E-Trade representatives. E-Trade, somewhere, has access to copies of many sensitive papers that relate to my Identity, and still, at the moment, have my money.

The invasion of privacy, the violation of trust, and the loss of money leaves a very sour and bitter aftertaste. I would not recommend E-Trade to my worst enemy.

Hillary of Buford, GA May 11, 2008

Hillary of Buford GA (05/11/08)
I set up an Etrade savings account in June 2007. I funded the account with my Wachovia checking and set up this external account for free online transfers. I called first around September when every outgoing transfer failed several times. The rep said that the accounts were not connected to my username when I set up the account and that he had fixed it. I tried again several times and still the transfers never went through. I called again around October regarding this issue and after being transfered from department to department and mostly waiting on hold for 2 hours the last rep I spoke with said he could not even pull up my account and that I would have to write a letter to Etrade in Merrifield Virginia.

I wrote five letters and received no response. Each time I called the rep would tell me that I would receive instructions in writing and that all correspondence must be in writing. I finally sent a notarized fax April 16 and a certified letter received April 25 by Etrade requesting a wire transfer to close my account.

Finally Etrade sent me a letter. It stated that Etrade had decided to use its discretion to close my account. If I did not withdraw my funds they would be mailed to me. No time frame was given. Apparently it could take a century or a few millennia for Etrade to use its discretion to act on returning my funds. Meanwhile, I have no access and no information regarding my own money. It's frightening.

To date Etrade has not returned my money by wire as requested or by any other means. It has been almost a month since my faxed request and it is fast approaching a year since my first letter dated October 23, 2007, when I simply asked what the issue was and how to resolve it.

No access to my own funds for aperiod of over six months and constantly being told to write another letter or to wait for another letter and oh by the way your account has been restricted and i can't tell you why or advise you other than write or wait for anther letter has caused a great deal of anxiety.

And now that Etrade has said it will take its own time closing and sending the money back to me and when I call its either the restriction hasn't been lifted yet and the transfer can't go through until then whenever that happens or doesn't happen at Etrade's discretion, apparently or you will receive instructions in the mail (again?!!!) which I've already (finally) received. It has been disheartening being ignored for so long while I've been trying to resolve an issue that I've been given absolutely no information about and it's a real concern now that etrade has given itself an unspecified amount of time to close my account or continue to hold it restricted from my access according to its discretion. It is hard to sleep at night knowing that Etrade has decided to exercise its discretion and has complete access to my account whereas I , the account holder, have no access to my own money because Etrade has restricted my access with no explanation and no recourse with Etrade other than call and be rebuffed or write and be ignored. I am poorer than I was before I funded the account because I have no access to my own money and no real timeframe to expect it back.

Frank of Jupiter, FL May 2, 2008

Frank of Jupiter FL (05/02/08)
On Thursday May 1st I logged on to my ETrade account at 9:34 am to check my bank account balance, and had an available balance of 152.97. I made a print of this statement. When I checked my account later on I had a negative balance of 6.10 because ETrade had placed a hold on a transfer that I initiated on 4/29/08 from another financial institution (Bank Atlantic).

The money was withdrawn from BankAtlantic on 4/30/08. ETrade is wrongfully placing a hold on this money (even though it has been credited to the account) in order to purposefully bring the account to overdraft status in order to attempt to collect an insufficient fund fee.

Insufficient fund fees.

Dave of Tampa, FL May 1, 2008

Dave of Tampa FL (05/01/08)
I have been a loyal customer of Etrade since they transfered my account from another brokerage. I gave them over 500 in commisions just for the month of April. I deployed to Iraq in Feb 2008. The account has worked fine until 3 days ago. I can log in but can't access the brokerage portion. I called the security center and answered all of their questions correctly but they told me I made a mistake and I had to send a notarized letter to unlock the account. I told them I am on a small operating base in Iraq and there is no notary here. She said there is nothing she can do - I asked to speak to a manager, explain to me why it was locked out, how I could prove my idenity in many other ways...she played the broken record game and said not without a notary.

I spoke to 3 other reps from this security department (plus two Etrade traders) and none of them cared if I had to risk my life or wait to go on leave in 6 months to fix this issue. Now I have to get my team of 10 to go on a special mission to a larger base to get a notary which puts all of us in danger from IEDs, small arms fire, and whatever else could be out there. I want to know if it is legal that they can lock my account and deny me access to my funds but unfortunately I do not have any means to fight this. I have written 10 messages explaining my circumstances and get a cut and paste reply I need to contact the security center. It's bad enough being in a war zone, but the fact Etrade will not even recognize that they are putting me in harms way and taking my circumstances of being in war is absolutely dispicable. Etrade should be embarassed on the national news.

Time, phone calls, potential enemy action, lost interest, stress, the list goes on.

Thomas of East Brunswick, NJ April 30, 2008

Thomas of East Brunswick NJ (04/30/08)
I have an account with etrade which I am soon closing. I had it dormant for about two years because I wanted the stocks I had there to sit for a while. I logged in to buy another stock recently and noticed they had charge my account 280 which I learned was from not doing any transactions. How can I get this money back?

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