E*TRADE Reviews

Now I figure I have a checkbook from ETrade, regular checks they sent me a long time ago in a regular checkbook. So, yearend is here, and I am making my end of year tax credit donations to charities as allowable under AZ law. I think I'll use the cash in this account for them to spend it down. I wrote the checks and sent them to charities. And today, I find out that Etrade is bouncing the checks because the checks have expired! Nothing on the checks or checkbook says that these checks have a 'use by date' like milk.

I now ask Max to contact ETrade because I am so mad that I am about to lose it. He did, and they told him about expired checks and how yes, the issues will most likely have to pay fees and I cannot write a check to clear the account. I sold my last security supposedly today, and they said they will send more checks. Really, one should do it. My friends, if you have an account with these people, run, don't walk to close it. This is one of the worse companies I have ever done business with.

Three weeks later, still no movement of the money. I emailed E-Trade to ask why the transfer had not occurred. Rather than emailing me at my email address, they responded to a Security Message Center at the E-Trade site and said the only page they received was the front page! The forms were sent by snail mail, not fax! How could they have lost all but the front page? Please note that throughout all of this, E-Trade has never initiated communication. If something was wrong with my forms, they should have contacted me. I am eager to move all of my money from E-Trade. I have contacted the SEC. I wonder if I will be able to transfer my money out or if they will just dance around the request as they are doing with the IRA.

The money we hoped to rollover from the IRA is to be used to buy service credit for the State Teachers’ Retirement System. Each month that passes causes that service credit purchase price to go up and also to be re-figured. It is costing me time and money.

I was a regional vice-president, and I travel within my region and accessed the account (to check emails from e*Trade, as they have not activated the brokerage account). It the most horrifying experience of my life. The agents are so unprofessional, and it a complete waste of my time. e*Trade still hold $5000 USD for the past few years, and to date, I have not been able to either get these funds back. They did not activate my brokerage account! I wish some government body can investigate as e*Trade is not ethical!

They lost my notarized letter by accidents, repeated tricky requests to me even if I was not able to do their requests. Their requests didn't make sense at all, like requesting my source bank to promise I am the account holder. But E*Trade didn't care, and would hold my fund forever until they smelled possible lawsuit from me.

Their representatives had been really rude during my communication with them. Some of them told me if I satisfy their request, they would consider removing the security hold on my account. Some other representatives directly hung up on me and refused to communicate after I finally satisfied their request (and that was hard to do). They even got rude when I pointed out that they did receive my notarized letter. Their service and attitude were very bad through the tedious discussion, which took me 3 months of time, countless calls and headaches. The funny thing is they kept making difficult requests to me, but they could never give me a clear answer why they placed the security hold on my account.

After reading hundreds of complaint in the Internet, I know my case is not rare. It looks like E*Trade is doing every possible trick to hold customers' money as long as they can. Very unethical and disgusting.

Well I lost my stocks, my money and asked a lot of questions. I did business with other companies and never had this bad experience. I will never do business again with E*Trade. I don’t recommend them and if you do, I wish you luck.

I think what could have helped expedite the process was that I sent two copies of the notarized letters. One copy was sent to E*Trade's local relationship manager who has met me in person and knows that I am the bona fide account holder. He and his other colleagues based in Asia helped to expedite the process. On my part, I additionally enclosed (i) two sources of government issued identification that contained my home address; and (ii) statements issued by E*Trade with my name, home address and account number. Finally I explained to the account activation department that I logged into multiple computers because I was traveling and there are two computers in my study. My account was reactivated with 48 hours after I was locked out.

The first customer service representative explained that there was a block on my account because of my depreciated home value and I should have received a letter. I explained that I used their online tool because that had the most recent information and if my account was blocked - why would it show an available balance? She understood my concern and passed me on to her supervisor.

I explained the situation to the supervisor and he asked me to fax him proof of my claim. I did so immediately while we were still on the phone. I thought he was going to fix my problem. I waited for him to confirm receipt of the faxed E*Trade web statement. When he received it, he said, "I had you fax that to me because this is a problem that we thought was happening; but our technology team said it was not. Now we have proof to give them so they can fix the problem."

Great, they acknowledged they have a problem. I then tried to work with the supervisor to fix my problem (bounced check). Brian explained that I should have used information on my December 2008 statement and not the online information to make a decision. I asked him if that made sense to him. Who makes decisions based on 4-month-old information? Don't you provide online tools with near real-time information to help your customers make timely decisions? Basically, he did not have the authority or desire to do anything to help me. I've had nothing but negative experiences with E*Trade. As a consumer, I find it totally unacceptable that they provided access to incorrect information that is going to cost me time and money to fix (still incorrect even after my call).

What liability does E*Trade have in this? Has anyone else experienced a similar problem? They claimed that I was the first person to be able to produce documentation of this problem but they also acknowledged that they have heard similar stories from other customers.

When I logged onto eTrade I found my account gone including its records which to me must have been some federal law violation. I called eTrade and was told they didn't want my business and I had to write a notarized letter instruction them how to process. I went to TD Ameritrade which helped me file the paperwork and told me stories about other eTrade customers. By the time I got my funds to TD Ameritrade, I had lost $45000 (I lost at least $45,000 to $50,000 since I was not allowed to access my account during a critical stock market decline).

I filed with the SEC and got a letter from E*TRADE FINANCIAL. My account information started to show up and now I had -$17,000 balance plus they had moved 99,000 shares of something into my account. About a week later they simply zeroed out the balance and deleted or transferred the 99,000 shares of something elsewhere.

I contacted ETRADE today (10/08) and found out that there is an additional 7 day hold on my funds, though it was verified that you are indeed in possession of my funds as of today. In essence that gives you the use of my funds for another 7 days, and there are (to my disappointment) still no trades for me. It seems very unreasonable considering that we are in an age of electronic transfers that you would hold my funds for such a length of time.

This is ridiculous and bad business. I had hopes of doing some trades, but you guys are so hard to work with. I also spent a lot of time on the phone to your representatives trying to sort this thing out. I was put on hold for a long time. You should release my funds immediately. I wish to close this account immediately. I expect to be refunded my money immediately. THIS HAS BEEN A HASSLE AND A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. I will not recommend ETRADE to any of my friends (all who invest heavily). Close my account and refund my funds. I will file an FTC complaint. This is a bad policy that needs to be corrected.

I sent them, and it has been nearing a week now and have not heard back. I have tried to call them almost every day, trying different times, holding for great amounts of time each, only to finally run out of time after 20-30 minutes. I have submitted an online help center request. They are suppose to be answered in 1 business day. Mine has exceeded that time frame and I haven't heard anything back. I cannot withdraw my funds, use the funds or anything. They are sitting on my funds and I cannot do anything about it because I cannot get a hold of anyone to resolve the issue, or even close the account.

I will say that I have had some bad experiences with different companies and different services. But at least with all of those experiences, I was able to at least talk to someone to feel as if the issue was going somewhere. I do not even get that with eTrade at this point. This is by far and away the worst customer service I have ever encountered. For a big company, with such a big marketing machine, the way my experience has went, I'd think I just bought a real estate system off a late night infomercial.

I hate them and i lost 1000 because of them. The stock is in LIMBO. Can't be sold. I hate E*TRADE.

I decided to call back a couple of hours later, and this time I spoke with Amir **, who told me I need to wait 3 business days to have the money credited back to the account. Tarketia **, who claimed to be the supervisor, said she was going to call me back after she find out what happened to the stop payment. I received no phone call from E-Trade at all. I called E-Trade again on Monday, 9/29/08 and spoke to John **, who told me the money is now available, and he requested that it be fedexed overnight and waived the fee. I got the confirmation number, and waited for my check. It is now October 1, 2008, and I still haven't gotten my check yet.

I called and spoke with Leslie ** who told me she is going to research whether the check was fedexed or not, and said she or someone from E-trade will call me back the same day. No call yet. It's now almost 5 pm ET. I called E-trade again, and spoke to Brian **. Now he is saying that the check was mailed out regular mail instead of FedEx, which means there's a chance I might not get the check again. Is there any accountability on E-trade's part? Can we, the consumer, sue them for our loss? See, if we send in our payment, and it was late, we got penalized. Why don't E-trade get penalized for all their incompetence?

What a surprise. eTrade has my $...do I have any recourse to dispute these charges. They tell me that I can't dispute the charges since they have the $. $421 owed to eTrade

August 27, Called about status. They could not find FAX. They said re-FAX to a different Number. I did

Sept. 2. Call about status. They could not find any FAXes. I escalated the call to Sr. account manager Bryson, He said, He would personally look into the request & call back. He did not call.

Sept. 3 Talked to Sr. Account Manager Rob He said, He would follow up & call me back He did not. On the above 2 calls, I ask that the checks be sent FEDEX overnight.

Sept 4, 8am. The money disappeared from my account(on line) Sept 5, 1pm. I called the 800 # & ask for the FEXEX shipping #. Their answer was, They had 72 hours before they would send me my checks. Last night, I woke up wondering if this bank was in financial trouble. Was this why they would not send me my Money?? I hope not, but I am closing all my other accounts.

I lost interest$ because of this delay. Also,I lost a higher interest rate on my roll over CD.

We will have to track down all the checks that were written and re-write them. I am not sure yet how much it will cost as I am not sure how many checks have bounced at this point.

If I was not honest, I could withdraw the whole line of credit after the house sold! I inform them of the house sold a year ago & the loan paid off through escrow company base on the pay off demand provided by E'trade. However, they never remove that negative reporting from my credit report.

After I sold that house, I bought another house in 2006. In Apr 2007, when I tried to refinance my current house (the loan rate was lower than what it is now), I did not get approved due to that negative reporting. I actually did not know about that negative reporting until the lender process my loan application.

Then I contacted E'trade. They still did not remove that item from my credit file. I would have to pay a higher mortgage rate with that negative info on my credit. If they fix it now, I still can not get the same loan rate as low as I should have it last year. But they still have not correct my credit file yet.

They took my money. I ahve 5 accounts there counting a brokerage acct. they said there closing them all. My disability will be return to social security, and they would do whatever they want regardless of my situation, I had like 9 each and each Charged me and I disputed immediatly. it took them 9 days to stop the debits. I have expensive medications and Mortgage check already mailed. if they close my accts I will lose everything for being persistant to get answers, there site garuntees $0 liability.

I was told I wouldnt get nothing back and it will be a while before I will have acess to my funds. My medication money is being held. they also have over $1000 of my bill money, a mortgage that will destroy me. I cant believe customer service can destroy your life cause they dont like you, I never cursed or raised my voice at all. I have been dealing with this for weeks. cant handle anymore of this, please someone help and act in my behave, My disabilities leave me help less

Explaining that I travel globaly 240 days a year also fell on deaf ears. I was then told that I would not be able to trade or cover any margin debts currently on my account until my account was reinstated. I was then told that a nortarized letter of Authorization is required within one hour from my phone call to re-activate my account however, after inquiring about what a letter of authorization is, I was not given an answer.

I further explained that I am in Iraq and do not have access to a fax machine and since emails with attachments are not allowed the only option available to me is the postal system which requires at least ten days for delivery. In this current stock market I am loosing several thousands of dollars because I can not trade. I attempted to draft what I thought Etrade might demand in an LOA and sent it via email despite their restrictions, a reply was received stating only that attachments are not allowed, please mail your request. To send the required letter requires a minimum of ten days and we are already long beyond that. At this point Etrade has offered no follow up, no assistance and no resolution.

Damages have not been determined at this time. There are margin interest cost that are rising but since I have no access to my account I am not able to determine this amount. The biggest losses come from not be able to trade stocks and given the current market condition this results in thousands of dollars per day.

it is now July 16th and only until a 5th call on Monday the 14th was my request to have this account closed acknowledged; it was written on their books for July 15th @ 7pm! I do not feel that this is acceptable, efficient or a price I should have to pay considering it is not a trivial amount of money, it is a mortgage payment.

I have provided all the nessecary documentation proving I am the person who initiated the transfer of funds- such as a copy of my DL and passport and a w-2. I don't know what the proper procedure is on returning an account like this, but I do know that I am entitled access to my money and that it doesn't take 3 weeks to post a wire. I have no reason from them as to why the money has not posted, nor a wire number that states they have in fact issued it. Every time I have called, I get the same waste of time answer stating ''the money should post by today, if it does not, call tomorrow.'' or the really cute, '' I understand your frustration, I have done everything I can, the securities people that handle wires have gone home for the day.'' I have spoken to them (numerous times) well before 2pm and their incorrectly noted 7pm.

Apparently in 2005 E*TRADE took started charging my account a monthly service fees. This was never disclosed to me. I called E*TRADE and basically told that they have the right to change the account conditions any time, and it was my fault not paying attention to the account changes available on line. An argument ensued with the bad attitude non helping creodont E*TRADE broker. I decided to cool off and wait for my next statement before dealing with E*TRADE again.

Surprise! When my next statement arrived, E*TRADE stole my stock and sold it. I never provided authorization for the transaction. I called again to discuss. They said I had to write to the complaints department. I did. A letter was received from E*TRADE shortly explaining that my account was closed due to inactivity and sold off due to the fees owed. Although the transaction didnt cover the total fees owed, they zeroed by account. Well thank you E*TRADE! I will file a complaint with the SEC.

The impact is based on principal. A private citizen owns property; in this case it is stock in a company. The government forces me to use a broker to hold this property; in this case it is E*TRADE. I consider E*TRADE to be in a contract and as long as Im alive my property is being managed by this contracted company. 1. You would think that something as important as changing a contract, not initiated nor in my benefit would be illegal. 2. You would think it to be illegal to continue to charge fees to an account beyond the balance of the account. 3. You would it to be illegal for a contracted company to seize my property and sell it.

I have lost thousands of dollars due to margin changes during the transactions. I continue to be charge fees.

I have lost thousands of dollars due to margin changes during the transactions. I continue to be charge fees.

Sometime during 2007 or 2008, eTrade intentionally and maliciously blocked access to my unrelated IRA account in which they are custodian. This is despite the presence of both equity and option securities that have time-value that, if not monitored, may loose value. I have called their company repeatedly regarding this action and they have intentionally withheld the access to these securities.

Instead, they have either disconnected my phone call (multiple, multiple times) or put me on hold under the premise that another individual was necessary to resolve this issue. I believe eTrade's actions are an intentional violation of the Securites Exchange Act of 1934 which requires they provide access to the securities for which they are custodian. I have filed a complaint with the Securites Exchange Commission.

Loss ability to sell declining securites and to sell securities with limited life (and to thereby sustain losses).

We tried to transfer the $10,000 to another firm and ETrade refuses to do so and they intend to keep charging the fees for inactivity until the account is used up. We are senior citizens on disablity and social security. We both are suffering from life threatening diseases. $10,000 is a lot of money to us and we need the money to help pay medical expenses. We were inactive because the $10,000 was all we could invest. Now it appears that ETrade intends to steal our money because we can not afford to pay their inactivity fees. To all of you other people out there, stay away from ETrade.

No access to your own money, no one willing to do a thing about it! How many other people has Etrade pulled this on?

I know depreciation of my stocks during this period was only $ 550, and I had received $150 myself but the rest is missing and E-trade is not telling me why they have taken my money. I want to alarm everyone to be carefull e-trade canada is taking moneis from your accounts by charging interest fees on loans you haven't ask them to give you and at the same time they are giving you credit or buying power that you never use.

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.

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.

E*Trade then began to question my mother on whether she knew what she was talking about, if the check had in fact been in the envelope, and questioned whether there was even a check for this amount to begin with. After speaking with three customer service representatives (of which names and employee IDs can be accounted for) she spoke with one representative who asked for the tracking number of the envelope.

I called this representative back with the tracking number and spoke with an individual who then also questioned whether I mailed the check. At which point she told me she would request a research on the account, which would take two days. My response to this was, You want me to wait two days while you find $30,000? Will I get any updates?? She replied with an attitude that it wasn'tt a big deal and there was nothing more that could be done, and that I would get calls with updates.

Not receiving any updates via phone or email I called in to speak with a manager for the status of the research the following day. I spoke with a manager in the banking department who requested I send a copy of the $30,000 check. I faxed him a copy of both checks that same day. The manager was then to call me when he received the fax. After not hearing from him I called the following day to attempt to reach this manager. After speaking with a representative who was hesitant to send me to this managers extension she gave me to a different manager, who then transferred me to the manager I requested. I left a voice mail and requested he call me back, he did in fact call back 20 minutes later confirming he had received the faxed duplicates of the checks. I was then told that I would need to wait two business days.

I called everyday a couple times a day checking on the status, still no updates were provided. The only response was that the research was still in process. I spoke with a different manager requesting I get back interest on the missing $30,000, he agreed and put a request in for this to occur. He stated that if it didn't happen automatically it would be manually credited to my account.

I also informed this manager that there was a signature request form on the front of the shipping envelope that I did not get returned to me either. I also informed him that I was doubted the entire time that I even had these funds, and wanted to know what would be done to make this right. He said he would give me back interest and immediate access to the funds once they were located, if they were located. He said the funds would be available the same time as the $10,000 deposit as they were supposed to be received by E*Trade at the same time.

February 22ND the $30,000 check was miraculous found somewhere in E*Trades institution. None of the representatives or managers I spoke with gave me an answer as to where it was, nor an apology. February 24Th I called E*Trade after looking at my account on line and none of the funds were available. I was then told the $10,000 would clear the next day (Monday 2/25/2008), but the $30,000 would not clear until Thursday or Friday.

I asked to speak with a supervisor regarding what I was told in the past about having immediate access to these funds. I was then left on hold for 25 minutes until I hung up and called back. At which point I was told to call the manager of the banking department the following day, and that their hours were 8a-12midnight.

The following day I called to speak with a manager, the representative would not let me speak with one. He said that it was a waste of everyones time since there was nothing that could be done. Bringing me close to tears I called my mom to ask if she would call and inquire about the issue while I went to class.

My mom then called and spoke with a supervisor named Jessette. Jessette told my mother that she would look into the problem of the funds not being readily available. My mother was very clear that a financial institution that lost funds and had bad customer service skills was not a place her and her daughter wished to do business. Especially when they suspected us of lying about sending the funds and then later not apologizing once they realized it was their error.

As previously agreed the funds were to be available and not held, so my mother informed Ms L that if the funds were not released by days end our financial business would be taken to another banking institution. Ms L assured a phone call regarding status and availability of funds by days end and promised back interest to the original deposit date within 24-48 hours. Neither have occurred.

None of the Federal regulators (SEC and OTS in this case) get excited about a handful of customers who appear to have been treated badly by E*Trade in holding up their withdrawals for a few weeks before releasing the funds, based on E*Trade's bogus security concerns of accounts being compromised. E*Trade's explanation to regulators will be: Things unintentionally run amuck with improper supervision of the lowest level employees in an offshore call center, and unintentionally poor internal coordination. E*Trade should not be criticized for an overabundance of caution when it comes to security and fraud prevention in their customer's best interest.

However, given E*Trade's current precarious cash flow position, suppose this was a process orchestrated by upper management to be intentionally applied to thousands of E*Trade customers, rather than by accident and incompetence to a handful of customers? What if: An E*Trade executive devised a scheme to withhold meaningful amounts of funds from significantly more than a few hundred of its customers? First, what is a meaningful amount to a company the size of E*Trade? E*Trade claims on its website, in April 2008, to have $176 Billion in Customer assets, and 4.3 Million accounts. That is an average of $41,000 per account.

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.

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.

After being put on hold for over half an hour, I was told they found the document (a major victory) but that it would take 2 or 3 business days to activate the account for trading and there was nobody I could talk to who could do it more quickly. ETrade has by far the worst customer service I've ever encountered.

Consequences unknown at this time. It will depend on whether the security I was attempting to trade goes up or down.

E*Trades only offers to rectify the situation were for me to add more cash to the account so they could take out more fees. If I transfer to another firm they will assess me another $60. If I liquidate they will only charge $39. All though one holding is valued at less than the transaction fee. I am amazed that they don't notify the customer if there account goes into a negative cash holding. The only positive I see is that ETFC is down 70% since the started assessing me their fees.

I am a student and faxing costs me because I do not own a fax machine. I even got a thank-you in the mail from etrade thanking me for renewing my CD. I called etrade. I talked to a Christopher Bingham and he said I could fax it directly to him and he would take care of it. I called to follow up, not trusting they had received my fax, and I talked to several people over the next couple days. One representative said he spoke to Christopher and that Christopher had received my fax and was taking care of it. So I called the next day to follow up and got a different story. I spoke with a Johnny Shia and he said he could not get a hold of Christopher and did not have a record of my fax and asked if I could please fax it again. Obviously I was way beyond the grace period, but it was because of etrades ineptness. I consented only on the condidtion that Johnny gave me his personal extension. I was tired of hearing the same empty promise that the representative would follow up. Johnny Shia has been the only one to follow up.

I called etrads 800 number because I wanted to see if it showed that my account had finally been closed out and my money shipped. I spoke to someone who put me on hold for the longest time only to tell me he couldnt located my fax in the system (they supposedly scan them into the conputer becuae they have 3 locations). I then called Johnny to make sure my fax was received, and in fact it had been. Obviously their system? (if you can call it that) is a mess. He said it was being processed and he would call me when my money would be shipped. He actually did call to tell me they had sent my money Fed Ex, which I has specified in my fax. My money finally arrived April 24, 2008. Johnny was the only person I spoke to who actually does what he says he will do. Therefore, do NOT do business with etrade, but if you must talk to Johnny. In all, I had to send 5 faxes and wait a month and a half to get my money sent to me.

When I try to call etrade back, I am placed on hold for excessive amounts of time, never reaching a customer service representative, and therefore STILL can not close my account.

I need to close this account, but I am not able to close it because I can never reach a representative to close my account.

Etrade absorbed my $25.97 for a service fee and the account is STILL open.

I have sent such a notarized letter which asks them to close my account and wire the funds to the bank account that they have previously verified. They are now refusing to do that because they have not yet authenticated my notarized letter. The first person told me it would take 48 hours, the last person I spoke with said that he will contact me next Thursday, which is 6 days after their receipt of my notarized letter.

This goes beyond stupidity, malfeasance and incompetence. Etrade has intentionally put in place customer service procedures to insure that any attempt to withdraw funds from Etrade will be very seriously delayed, which guarantees Etrade the use of your money for free.

Some advice to the people who want to sell stocks while they are going through this nightmare. As incredible as this may seem, while they are adamantly maintaining that they can't talk to you until you have authenticated yourself with this Notarized letter nonsense, if you tell them that you want to close your account with Etrade, they will conference a broker onto the phone call and let you sell all of the securities in your account, even though supposedly in their eyes you are not the authenticated account owner. This will not get you the use of your funds, but it will be helpful if the sale of all your securities will limit potential future losses.

How to explain this paradox? Since Etrade is intent on depriving you of your assets by retaining them for their own use, I strongly suspect that customer assets in the form of cash are more valuable to Etrade than customer assets in the form of securities, hence they are more than happy to let you liquidate securities even if you are not the real account owner. Their security procedures are designed to thwart only those potentially fraudulent transactions that would not unilaterally be in Etrades best interest. There seems to be no problem with potentially fraudulent transactions that benefit Etrade, such as turning securities into cash.

Hopefully what they are doing will turn out to be illegal, and the persons responsible for this scam will be awarded a sabbatical in a penitentiary.

I got confirmation that the transaction was verified. Then my account was put into secure mode due to the incorrect answers to the 1st set of questions. This tied up my entire account. I called to get it cleared up. I was told that I had 1 hour to fax them a list of personal financial information including a copy of a government issued ID with my signature. I faxed it within 15 minutes of my call and had a successful transmission report. I called 1 1/2 hours after I faxed and was told that they did not receive the fax and that there was nothing more they could do for me since I didn't send them a fax. That fax option was only good for 1 hour. Then they told me that I had to get a notarized copy of the same information and overnight it to them, but they wouldn't give me an address where I could get a signature for the receipt...only a P.O. Box.

I was told that I could not speak to anyone else since I was not verified even though I had successfully answered all their questions and was able to logon to my account. Afterwards I checked online and found many similar complaints.

This has delayed funds that I needed urgently for medical treatment. They still are not transfering my money. I had to pay for a notary and because I have a disability and can't drive I had to spend $44 for cab fare to get the notarized information expressed to them. They took up 2 hours of my time while I was at work. VERY FRUSTRATING.

It seems there is some kind of racket where they can prevent their company from going under by outright stealing customers' money. I wish I could prove it. Even though the statement clearly shows they stole my money, they know I can't get justice without spending a lot more than $43.24. If there is a class action against this company, I will gladly join.

From 2004 to 2008 I did not use my eTrade account, and recently found out they had been charging $40 per quarter no activity, taking my account to negative $300.

Wishing to close my account, I mailed them a check to cover these fees bringing the amount owing to zero.

Upon phoning in and telling them I wanted to close my account, the operator handed me over to a new agent who said that a security restriction had *just* been placed on my account. The only way I can modify my account is to fax them ID verification and go through a series of detailed account history questions (which I very likely do not know).

The saga is still not over.

Roughly 10 hours of phone calls and hundreds of dollars spent to cover their no activity fees.

This is not the first time E*Trade has cheated my IRA. The last time it cost me thousands of dollars because they let a lot of money just sit for six months without transferring it to the proper place. I called over and over first to confirm they had received the instructions and follow-up calls. Every time I called they assured me that it was being processed. After 6 months they put it were it belonged but refused to pay the interest it would have been receiving. To the person that got turned down by E*Trade: count your blessings. Wish I had.

The funds are to be combined with other funds to make up a miminum deposit. Until this CD is received none of my IRA is being invested in the best way.

I spoke with a customer service representative, then his supervisor, Roger. Both told me the same thing. Company policy is to hold verified funds in a new account (regardless of history with the bank, or funds in other accounts exceeding the amount deposited) for nine business days following the date of transfer.

I contacted Etrade with the above information and was told that the savings account would be opened once Etrade received a copy of the clean report from ChexSystems. On February 24, 2008, I faxed a copy of the ChexSystems report to Etrade. On February 27, 2008, I called Etrade to follow up on the status of my application. I was told that I needed to go online and resubmit the application. I did, and was declined again. I contacted ChexSystems who assured me that there was no negative information on my report. I called Etrade and was transferred to four different departments before I reached someone who told me there was nothing they could do. She said that faxing a copy of my report was of no benefit. I asked her what I should do; she offered no solution. I asked for a supervisor who told me that I needed to mail in an application with a copy of report from ChexSystems. She could not retrieve any information from previous applications and I would surely be declined again if I attempted to apply over the phone. I am a business owner. I would be appalled if a potential client of ours received this level of service while trying to give us their business.

I do not have $18,000, nor will it fit into my budget. I feel e trade was neglectful on there end and find it perposterous that 3 1/2 years later this is dumped on me. The facts are they legally can sell my house at this point and there is nothing i can do. In addition, they can prevent me from selling my house which i plan to do in a year and 1/2. I have called many government listings and consulted with anattorney. I have a couple leads on how to correct this predicament, but nothing solid so far. Needless to say, this single mom of two young girls is completely stressed out! My credit is not at all as good as it was when i bought my home & to top it all off I am starting a new job in one week, which will also impact my ability to lend or refinance!

Unable to transfer funds out the eTrade to pay bills. Unable to sell stocks which are at a record high.

Therefore, I lost $1,000 dollars.

I then logged onto my account and didn't see or hear anything about the promised 50 free trades. I wrote to their online Customer Service department from within my account. They said that the offer only applied if you opened up the IRA from within the promotional icon on their website. If you just went ahead and opened up the IRA on their website where they direct you to open it, the offer doesn't apply (you don't get the 50 free trades as promised.) Interesting-- I had read the fine print about the IRA promotional offer very carefully before opening the IRA, and it said nothing about this!

Secondly, they said, I was not eligible for the 50 free trades because another account with the same login ID had at some point been eligible for a promotional offer. I don't recall having taken advantage of any promotion offered with the account they referred to (my son's), which used the same login ID. Could this have been 6 months ago???!! Or never? Here they referred to the not available with any other promotion fine print of the open an IRA promotion to justify not giving me the free trades.

I can't believe this. I truly feel that I have been scammed. I am an intelligent and educated person, as I imagine most people using eTrade area, and I thought that eTrade was a professional service. I feel that this was a deliberately deceptive advertising campaign to get people to open up IRAs before December 31, with deliberately deceptive ways to create ways to not offer people the promised promotion.

Called them 12/14 and was told they didn't receive any of the faxes. I gave them the name of the person who said she did receive it. They checked with her and yes they had it. Sorry, sorry, sorry for the difficulty. They would handle it personally. It would be in my account Monday 12/17. Well guess what? It's Tuesday evening and still no money. I'm at my wits' end! Their customer service is HORRIBLE. Too many people, NONE of them give a damn. I don't care how cheap they are this isn't worth it.

I have lost out on the interest my money was earning in my savings account before I sent it to e*trade and the stocks I wanted to invest in have gained in value in the 30+ days that I have unable to access my money.

I faxed it TWO more times to TWO different fax numbers. This time one of the people called and verified she received it. I waited another week. Called them 12/14 and was told they didn't receive any of the faxes. I gave them the name of the person who said she did receive it. They checked with her and yes they had it. Sorry, sorry, sorry for the difficulty. They would handle it personally. It would be in my account Monday 12/17. Well guess what? It's Tuesday evening and still no money.

I'm at my wits' end! Their customer service is HORRIBLE. Too many people, NONE of them give a damn. I don't care how cheap they are this isn't worth it.

I have lost out on the interest my money was earning in my savings account before I sent it to e*trade and the stocks I wanted to invest in have gained in value in the 30+ days that I have unable to access my money.

So far, since we are still in transit of trying to get our money back, I cannot say for sure that there are any damages presently, but if things do not go as planned we could lose up to $300.00, which is the amount we transferred in hopes of buying stocks.

Then one day my account disappeared! I called and this guy who seemed to know what he was talking about assured me that it was a common system malfunction and everything would be fine within 24 hours. It was restored within a few hours, but the cash I had in the account disappeared a few days later. Another call and it was restored. Then I made a purchase using that cash. When it disappeared again my account went negative. Suddenly nobody was reassuring me. The reps were treating me like I was doing something nefarious. One young woman actually tried to explain to me that I owed e*Trade additional money. This lasted about two weeks before I got ahold of someone who bothered to look at my account history and realized there was a glitch. As soon as it was fixed I began to transfer the account to another brokerage. Guess what. The cash disappeared again and I ended up with a negative balance in my new account. Fortunately, my new broker dealt with e*Trade and in a few weeks had recovered the cash. It all just took a lot of time and caused a lot of frustration, there were no monetary losses. However, I was diligent, if I hadn't been paying attention who knows what would have happened.

I lost about $600 and much time chasing reasons for the account being choked by service fees.

On 11/9 I called again, was told they would process a new application and that I needed to fax social security cards and a utility bill showing my mailing address as well as my physical address (they're different). They gave me a new account number and a different fax number. I complied on 11/9, and called them an hour later to make sure they had received the fax. They had. I spoke with a manager, who assured me he would call me back by the next day to let me know whether they had all they needed. He never called. On 11/15 I called again, spoke to a senior banker who assured me they had everything they needed and it was ok to process the account, and that he would call me by the next day. He never called. He had also given me his phone extension, but was never available when I tried to use it.

On 11/20 I called again, asked the person I spoke with to have the senior banker call me asap. He did not. On 11/26 one of their representatives called me, asked me and my husband a few questions to make sure we were who we said we were, then told me the account was approved and would be opened within 2-3 days. It was not. When the account was still not activated, I called again on 12/3, and spoke to an account specialist. He said he would have someone call me with a new account number by the next day. Guess who never heard from anyone? On 12/5 I went to E-Trade's web site and emailed their customer service dept. this entire scenario, complete with the names of the people I had spoken to. Their response? They sent me an email, and told me to call them to settle the matter! I did call them today, and when the person on the other end of the phone again told me they had no record of any account in my name, and that the senior banker was not available for me to talk to him, I finally told them to forget it, that I had found this web site and was going to post my story. I've joined the apparently large crowd of people who will NEVER deal with E-Trade again. Thankfully I didn't lose anything but time and paience.

After calling Etrade to clarify the issue, they placed blame on the banking institution and told me to call them. However, my bank did not find anything wrong. I called Etrade again, informing them of the situation and was told to attempt another transfer. That transfer was denied and this occurred three times. To date, Etrade has blocked my account and no representative is allowed to speak to me except through written letters. They have not responded.

Anyway, some idiot moved the $100,000 out of the IRA money market without my husband's permission. Mind you, we weren't surrendering the IRA funds-- just wanted to transfer the hundred thou out of the money market into the CD within the tax-free IRA account.

Fast forward to last week. The IRS sent us a bill because we hadn't paid taxes on the interest on the $100,000 CD!

Turns out they moved the money from the IRA and misregistered it as a regular account. We cannot get any satisfaction from their outsourced Philippino help line, nor from the local relationship manager who was unbelievable rude and had a real blame the victim attitude.

In four separate phone calls to four separate people, we were told they would solve the problem within 48 hours. It's been a week. Every phone call says something different, but one of their people said: We can't do anything. You just have to pay the tax until the CD expires in 2010. Unbelievable.

I am in the process of pulling out all the other funds and putting them at another brokerage. We may hire a tax lawyer. E-Trade has not been able to produce anything historical that shows the money was moved out of the IRA. We have statements--new account number, true--with the IRA statements, so didn't realize until the IRS notice that this money was invested outside the IRA without permission. They are so horrible.

Consequences kick in soon unless we can resolve this because the IRS says we owe them tax on 2005 interest gain and presumably will continue to do so until the CD comes due.

This year in Feb they just slapped a $25.00 dollar insufficient funds charge on for no apparent reason and I called and had it reversed. I noticed it again last Friday and called in and had the charge removed and then yesterday (Sunday) I got a call on my cellphone from a third party organization - not E*Trade, wanting to know why I haven't made my HELOC payment this month - it is showing as being already taken from my account 10 days ago.

UGgggh, I feel trapped, I hate E*TRADE. I only have the Checking because it gave me 0.5 point deduction on my HELOC with direct debit. I can't afford to pay off my HELOC right now.

I look for this to be a long process, but there are other options such as smallclaims court (in CA, they're rather stringent) and filings with the SEC. Other undisclosed snafus are ordering checks sans telling you the cost + ordering a debitcard sans disclosing cost(s). One thing I do is call each day lodging my concern at high decible levels--that the individual will hear and get sick of hearing me. The advantage is that there is a physical office in the vicinity.

There is no resolution at this writing and I expect a protracted effort-that this company thinks that I am a woman sans support. ETrade needs to rethink its policies regarding consumer treatment, especially in the era of 'blogs.'

The following week, I called customer service and asked about the status of my account. I explained to her that I faxed in proof of address a week ago. She said that my information was not in the system and that my application had not been receeved yet. I told her that it had been received because two reps. had left a message requesting more information. She did a search using my child's name and still could not find anything.Her only response was that sometimes it takes 10 days to process information (10 business days had already passed).

I took the hint and paid $50 to have my bank issue a stop payment on the check.

When it came time for the next payout I was informed there's a three day hold on the funds before it can go to the other bank, which contradicts what I was told by at least a half-dozen people at E*Trade.

This company is so disorganized, one part of it doesn't know the other is doing and they will lie to cover it up. Every customer service person will give you a different response.

Apart from not getting the funds on time, due to that, I had $100 of bounced check fees.

I received said card and returned it to them 3 days later. Over a week passed and still my money did not appear in my savings account. I sent an email. The response was, Unfortunately, using the information provided in your email, I was unable to locate an account in your name. However, we may need to use different identifying information to locate your account. Please contact us at the number listed below so that we may further assist you.

I called the 800 number and spoke with a representative who spoke so little English that she absolutely could not understand me or why I was calling. I asked for a supervisor. After a VERY long wait, the same rep comes back on the line and says there are no supervisors available. I terminated the call and sent another email letting them know that this is unacceptable and requested to close the account. No response. I drafted a letter ordering them to close the account and return my deposit and put it into the mail.

I also Googled to see if others had this sort of problem and was dismayed at what I found! I hold out little hope that I will ever see my money again. Fortunately it is only $25.00. I am now extremely concerned that I will have close my checking account to keep E*Trade from making illegal transfers from it. I have my direct deposit and all my automatic payments for things like my utilities attached to that account. Closing it and opening a new one will be a hardship. I can not tell you how sick I am about this. Yes, I do accept my responsibility for not seeking out this information in the first place.

My initial research was into the savings account itself, not into problems with E*Trade and that search turned up good reviews including that they have outstanding security features the main selling point for opening this account.

I told them that this seemed to be a 'bait and switch' operation, and that everything was prepared to go. The supervisor stated that there is fine print in the paperwork stating that they have the right to change anything, even AFTER closing. I stated that I would postpone closing over the weekend, while I thought about all this.

My submission fee was returned by E-trade when I backed out of the deal. However my attorney fees for all work done to that point(title search, time, etc) approached $1000, which I had no recourse to request a refund. Incidentally, the E-trade mortgage supervisor stated 'your attorney shouldn't charge you unless you proceed with the deal' and when I stated that no attorney would prepare all this (weeks of phone calls with online department and so forth), she stated 'well I've only been doing this for 10 years, so I guess you know more than me.'

I was correct about the attorney fees, and never rec'd any apology or credit from E-trade. I also had to fight to get a partial refund of my real estate deposit, as I was considered to be the one in default by the seller. My total out-of-pocket, in addition to losing the deal itself, was approx $2000.

It is now April 26th, and today I got another such message, again asking for information that has been delivered long ago. I have repeatedly demanded to speak to a supervisor, but have been ignored. I have sent numerous e-mails to their customer Service department, but the response has been more of the same---need missing information that they already have. This firm is so incompetent they should be put out of business. I cannot trust them to handle my money! I now have a one inch thick file of telephone logs, e-mails, and letters----all to open an account??? Unbelievable. If anyone is thinking about opening an account with E*Trade and would like more information, please contact me and I can make copies of correspondence available.

I have wasted hours and hours of my time in trying to do a simple matter---open an account and give this company business.

I answered each question accurately and it still said that it couldn't verify who I was and to call their 800 number for verification. I did and got the answer you have to send a notorized letter saying you are who you are. I'm like NO! I've been put out enough. First, I have to wait a week for the stock I sold to go into my etrade account (which I guess anyone can access my account and do). Second, you allowed me to put my bank information in and set it up for direct transfers with no security questions (again, I guess anyone can log into my account and do that). Third, you have (without my knowledge and consent) did a background check on me to decide what personal security questions to ask me which only I am supposed to know and the answers I correctly gave, you said were not correct (I don't know how). Forth, You make me call a 800 number for the security department and you ask me for my social, my address, my father's middle name (challenge question) to verify who I am and are able to talk to me about my account over the phone yet they still won't allow me to transfer my money because they say that anyone can access my information. Hello!

If that is so, then Etade is not a secure site and my information is available to anyone. Also, I have spoke to several associates with etrade and they all say that have no manager or no supervisor I can speak with and that I have no choice but to comply and send a notorized letter saying I am who I am. Which to me, seems less secure than the measures I took in the beginning. After yelling and screaming at Etrade people, I pull a little truth out of one of them saying We have to protect our client's interest...meaning my employer.

I understand that to a certain degree, but I told her that I was not cancelling my account but just withdrawing some funds from it to help me with another situation. And that they needed to realize that the money involved was not my employer's money, it was not etrade's money but it was MY money! Because I had issues with thier handling of the situation, they promptly locked me out of my access to my accounts, disabled my etrade checking account and my etrade debit card to keep me from pulling my money out. All because their 3rd party security team didn't have my personal information correct (which I didn't give consent to have).

I was very dissappointed with their handling of this entire situation and as a result, I have decided to cancel my contributions to Etrade and opt out of my ESPP with my job.

Because I was unable to transfer my money from that account to my personal bank account, I ended up bouncing checks and incurring alot of overdraft fees and NSF fees!

He kept calling, but when I told him I wanted to make a portfolio of cheaper funds he wouldn't return my calls. Go figure! At the moment, I'm sitting here on hold on the phone with them an unusually high load of phone calls... But it seems like every time I call it's unusually high. They need someone who can do math to figure out the definition of 'usual'. That's what I like, bankers that can't do math.

On 3/6/07 I canceled the accounts and sent a confirming email 3/7/07 with a request my funds be returned.

On 3/9/07 I noticed the accounts were opened but the distribution of funds was very different from what I had written in plain English on the applications originally sent.

Since 3/9/07 I have contacted about 13 Reps, one supervisor, sent 2 Faxs and one letter to a Sr.VP with NO RESULTS

Mr. Jarett Lilien in Arlington VA is the president of ETrade. Mr Bob McDonnel is the Attorney General of VA. These two will be meeting soon if I do not get some action by 3/21/07

I have lost several hundred dollars in lost interest and several hundred dollars because of interest rate changes during the month. The stress of dealing with these people is greater than combat

I used a bad check to pay my property taxes. After receiving my check back as a closed account I incurred over $300 in penalties and fees.

Over three months passed with no action or response from Etrade. We called to inquire about the status, we were informed that they received the letter of instruction but did not do as instructed because they need us to complete new account forms. Of course they did not inform us of this situation. We requested the forms, we completed them, had a question about a particular line on the form so I called the help line, through this call I was informed that the forms I had been sent we out of date and they would send me new ones. Pretty inconvenient, as a club, we have many members, getting the signatures of all members on an application is time consuming and difficult, to be told the three pages of signature I had were on the wrong form (which I got from Etrade) is inexcusable, but I got the new form and obtained all of the signatures again.

It is by now Fall, the completed brokerage forms, along with a bank account application and a new letter of instruction requesting a transfer from the brokerage to the new bank account were sent to Etrade, all in one package. The bank account was opened, the money transferred, however they will not allow our club’s agents to access the new account or the old account because they say they never got the application (that was in the same package). So they removed money from our brokerage account and placed it into a bank account but will not tell us what the account number is or allow us to access it. And customer service is helpless to assist, they claim to have not received the package (thought they have a copy of the first sheets and acted on the last three sheets of what was in the package) and they suggested that I complete new application forms.

Faa, like that is going to happen, we are closing and moving to a full service brokerage. By comparison, in one month, working with Charles Schwab, I have successfully opened three trust accounts, two college saver accounts, a Rollover IRA account transfer, a trust bank account and transferred several stock Drip account balances with only two phone calls and sending forms once.

I have accumulated $474.36 of fees that had I known that this were to occur, I would have ended my relationship with E*Trade.

I quit trading in this account because of all the problems and now E*trade has started charging me what they call inactivity fee of $40 dollars every three months. Finally I decided to close this account and transfer my securities out. It has been over a month and I am still going in loops and having problems with them closing this account. There are some worthless stocks in the account and even though I have filled the proper form they have not cleared the account so it can be closed. Ever time I call, the call is redirected to offshore customer service like Philippines , and after waiting more than 30 minutes you get disconnected! As much I have had bad experience with E*Trade , I enjoy doing business with Ameritrade, Fidelity and Scott Trade.

I have lost over $16,000.00 as of today Sept. 2, 2006

The last time I called (and after a particular heated exchange with a CSR), my husband's debit card was reported stolen to VISA (the next day). Neither me nor my husband reported this card missing. My husband and I have reason to believe that the E*Trade CSR stole his identity to close his debit card (as this person had knowledge that we would have no access to cash if my husband's card was reported stolen). I am afraid that since this person used our personal information to close his card that he may continue to use our personal information to perform other devious acts.

I cannot believe that a bank with almost solely an on-line presence would have such broken processes. Not once during this process did ETrade contact me to tell me of issues with trying to change my name. More importantly, however, I am exremely upset and concerned that ETrade would employ a devious employee and I am fearful that my and my husband's identities have been stolen.

The other negative experience was with E*Trade's online Bill Pay system. E*Trade issued payment a day later than scheduled and, as a result, we were assessed a hefty penalty fee for the late property tax payment that E*Trade caused. After several phone calls and ignored faxes, we spoke with one of E*Trade's branch managers, Amy Alley. She was very unprofessional and rude for the entire conversation. That was the final straw for us. We're in the process of switching our accounts to another institution. I wouldn't recommend E*Trade to my worst enemy!

We were assessed a $250.99 penalty fee from our property tax collector's office because E*Trade did not deliver a payment when it was scheduled in their system (E*Trade's online Bill Pay system). E*Trade refused to cover the fee caused by their negligence.

I was fed up so I decided to transfer my accounts to Scottrade. That was 2 months ago and I still have one account that they won't transfer because it has a worthless security in it. Well I have sent in the form twice to get rid of the security and it is still on my account. I tried to wire some money to Scottrade last week. It was supposed to go out the same day, well it is the following week and it still hasn't gone out. My wife and I had about 1.5 million dollars in the 5 accounts.

In Dec. 2005 I was notified that I had $118 left sitting as cash with no stocks. By April 2006 it was worth $90, but after the $50 closing fee and $10 cheque fee, I get about $30.

I sent TWO. The first they insist they didn't get, until they said they got both. Now, I am being asked to fax a third copy of this same form to them. Problem is, it's a joint account with my mom who lives on the opposite coast. I have waited on the phone for someone to pick up for as long as 1hr 45 minutes - and have given up without anyone picking up several times after waiting that long. All I want to do is close this account, but etrade refuses to do so.

I believe this is a dereliction of their fiduciary duty, to accomodate questions which will impair my credit rating due to their erroneous actions. The damage suffered is my worrying about my credit rating as my first home is completed, the time I've spent trying to resolve this and the 25 dollar nsf fee they've charged me!!!!!

It is now going on three weeks and I've received no call and my account is still non-existent. I've called customer service four times (I was once on hold for 2 hours) and they just tell me the same thing—I need to talk to a "Linda." The last person told me my account was flagged with the word "indictment," which has sent me into total panic mode. I have never been indicted for anything ever!

I've sent 5 emails, 3 faxes, one letter, and I've left 5 phone message for this "Linda" (whose voice mail does not identify her by name nor that she even works for e*Trade) and I've heard nothing back. In my last message, all I asked was for her to please call me back just to reassure me she is real, there really is an "e*Trade", and we would eventually straighten out the situation. I received no call.

Frankly, I beginning to think I've been hustled and I will never see my $2000 again. E*Trade has my money and it looks like they are keeping it. Stocks that I would have sold have lost money and I can do nothing about it. Approximately $600 cash is just sitting in my Brokerage that I need to pay bills, but I cannot access it to transfer. This phantom " indictment" charge has me terrified—has someone stolen my identity? Oh, just for comic relief, yesterday I finally did receive something back from e*Trade. It was an email form letter suggesting I consult their automated online Help Center "designed to answer many questions." It's a nightmare.

1. My first buy order on VYST – it sat there appearing to be an “open order” for a very long time – no response from Etrade on whether it executed nor could I cancel it. I tried calling Etrade and was on hold for ten minutes – I couldn’t wait so hung up. Bad enough your site was not updating information regarding trade status but I was unable to get someone on the phone.

2. My sell order of CALB – I put the order in on the bid – the bid was large enough for that order to execute right away. It sat there for 15 minutes – I once again had to call Etrade and waited 10 minutes before a broker picked up the call and put me on hold another 5 minutes to get the trade executed. Luckily for me it was not a stock that was moving – I would have lost the trade within that time if it were. Of course your Etrade broker blamed it on the fact that it was a penny stock. I have heard that excuse so much from ET. Funny, I never have execution problems on pennies when I trade with Ameritrade nor do they use that excuse.

3. My third and longest call was to customer service regarding the fact that I still have yet to see a credit to my account from my points that I accrued through an Etrade credit card program. Any points earned in 2005 were supposed to be applied to 2006 trading for free commissions. Last year it took me about five phone calls for Etrade to credit my account for free commissions – it was like pulling teeth to receive something I was entitled to. Once again it looks like the same problem.

I called and was put on hold for 15 minutes. I then spoke with a customer service rep that didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. He kept insisting that it had “run out” and that I wasn’t entitled to the free commissions. I tried to calmly explain to him that he didn’t understand the provisions and that I needed to speak with someone who did. He finally was able to pull up some information that proved he was wrong and that he was reading old information. This took another 15 minutes for ME to explain an Etrade program to one of YOUR representatives.

After taking up about 25 minutes of my time he finally transferred me to someone within the credit card department who at least seemed to have a clue on what was happening. She promised me that she would research why I have yet to receive a free commission when I am indeed entitled to 24 this year with the points I accrued. That took another 10 minutes on the phone.

ETRADE is an absolute disgrace! By taking on Harris Direct you have compromised your original customers – real nice! Etrade obviously can’t handle the new load of customers and was ill prepared – new personnel should have been hired and trained prior to the merge.

I have much cash in my account from a recent sale of stock and I can't get to anyone to see if they know what to do with my cash. Harrisdirect made mistakes and in less then 5 minutes corrected the problem. I can't talk to anyone at ETRADE about this problem; how can the exchage allow this company to operate; can I go after the exchange and etrade?

I called back in June... while talking to a CS rep, he saw my account was flagged – the account manager had flagged my account so she would be contacted. So the CS rep forwarded me to the AM, who happened to have a manager in the office with her. The AM told me that I needed to send another $80 because the first check of $80 was for the unpaid service charges.... she said she forgot to add that number to the total that she gave me. She gave me her phone number and extension to call when I send the check so that she could monitor the payment. AND she would credit back any service charges that were accrued from April because I was in the process of closing my account.... But I needed to send a second $80 check for the 2 different stock certificates.

Somebody is playing god with my account without informing me about the issues. Even if I did something wrong I should be able to know. In the mean time my wife has also started a account with eTrade bank, but is now scared of taking any action.

On each occasion a small amount of interest was left in the account (despite the fact that I knew the exact amount in the account when I wrote the checks). Later, I began being charged fees because I did not have a minimum balance in the cash account. When I contacted Etrade the third time, I was told that I cannot liquidate a cash account which is associated with stocks and that I had to pay the fees.

Yesterday, I received an email from Ryan H in which he indicated that he would be able to provide me with the tracking number on Tuesday, October 22th. I suspect that Etrade never mailed this check on October 7th, 2002 because the tracking number is available to the sender as soon as you put the check in the envelope. I fear that my money may be lost right now.