Back in April, I was frustrated with TD Ameritrade’s way of handling my fiancee’s money transfers into my Roth IRA account because it took about 2 weeks for the funds to get into the account plus 2-3 hours worth of phone calls mainly consisting of waiting.
Also, part of the reason why I signed up for the Roth IRA account was because of their offer for a free copy of Microsoft Money. We signed up around mid April, and after about one month, I emailed support about the status of my copy of Money and their response was something like this.
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience, but you should receive an email to sign up for a free copy within 2-3 weeks after opening the account.”
At the time, it has already been 5 weeks and they tell me 2-3 weeks after opening the account. Obviously an automated copy and paste type of response. Another two weeks went by, and I emailed support again. I asked about the status and got another response as follows.
“We apologize for the delay. You should receive the email to sign up for a copy shortly.”
This time, I emailed them telling how frustrated I was with their lack of response and the major delay in receiving the promised copy, as I don?? even have a way to know that it is coming and it has been 7 weeks since my sign up date. I also told them that I needed it resolved by Tuesday 6/5/2007. On 6/6/2007, I finally got a response as follows.
“The order for your software has been processed and you should receive it by 6/22/07. We apologize for the delay.”
Okay, let’s see if it comes. I do not understand why I have to hand held them through the process and it finally took a frustrated tone in my email to resolve the problem. Does Ameritrade still want any customers?
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Another victim to TD Ameritrade!
I have used these guys in the past and they were no good for me. However, some of my other friends use them with good success.
I actually think their customer service is amongst the best in the industry.
far better than zecco, bank of america’s brokerage and slightly better than schwab.
also every time you depsosit money into the account, email and ask for a few complimentary trades. I usually get 5 free trades for each 5k I put into my existing acccounts.
Hmm. I never knew about the unofficial free trade offer
Thanks!
TD Ameritrade is just not too convenient with many things that I can do with a click of a button using ETrade whom I believe is a lot better. Of course, I’m paying $9.99 trades over there when I can use BofA or Wellsfargo (where I bank) to get free trades.
I would never use something like Zecco with my hard earned money though.
Yes. Zecco is the worst. No argument here.
Jon,
Why does it suck? I’m actually has been comtemplating whether I should give Zecco a try with a tiny bit of money since they are free.
ZECCO sucks bcoz they have NO customer service.
also you have to pay for mutual fund commissions. in TDAmeritrade, a lot of no load funds have no transaction fees either so there are many funds you can trade without commissions.
Adventures: I never knew there were some mutual funds that TD Ameritrade will let you buy and sell for free! This is definitley worth checking out!
I tried Ameritrade and then TD Waterhouse and the joint set up when they merged. I cannot tell you how bad I got shafted with promisses and renegs that cost me a bundle and every stock I chose performed to at least 400%. They made a bundle off my analisys and shafted me for a bundle.
All of a sudden I started getting thousands of junk emails and junk in the snail mail and I couldn’t figure out why. I got a letter from the CEO today claiming someone got into their system and took a bunch of information.
A class action needs to be set up against the who group!
Noel
that is “whole group”
Noel: Hmm this is very serious since their system has all information about everyone’s account (and assets) plus all the passwords. I’m sure someone will file one so don’t worry!
If anyone comes accross a class action or an attorney willing t file one I hope they contact me. i saved records and notes related to problems and losses.
Noel
DANGER!!! TD AMERITRADE WEB SITE CRASHED AT 3pm on 9/18/08 right after the announcement of the Resolution Trust by the government. I tried to trade on line and then tried to call a broker and neither were available. I could not sell out of my positions until the next day because of this and lost $55,000.
They were not willing to make my loses whole.
TAKE ALL OF YOUR MONEY OUT OF TD AMERITRADE AND USE A REAL BROKERAGE HOUSE SO YOU DO NOT LOSE YOUR MONEY
I lost money on 9/19 because I could not get to TD online nore on the phone. Their attitude was they just apologized but I am out over $5K. Get out of TD if you want to keep your money. Don’t rely on them when the market is really moving as they can’t handle their clients’ transactions. I felt like they were back in the 80s when things were done by hand! It would probably been faster then!
Hey herb,
That’s what stop orders are for. If you set a stop order and the market swings against you, you don’t need to call or place a trade to a broker.
If you are going to do it yourself with online shops, you should at least learn how to trade first.
I don’t feel sorry for you at all. Dumbass.
Hey herb,
It’s funny you guys bitch about the online brokers…..you get what you pay for.
At a full-service firm, you wouldn’t have had that problem.
Rob, you are in the money with that comment as with a full service brokerage you wouldn’t have to worry as long as your broker was in the office rather than hitting the links on your dime! Or maybe he has already churned your account 4 times over without you even knowing and has disappeared to Mexico.
Self service brokerage houses are an incredible value to traders (not investors) because of the reduction in commission costs alone. If you are new to the game or trying to get your feet wet; the self service brokerage is not there to hold your hand and explain every new term you have heard on CNBC. I find it funny to listen to people bitch about their brokerage on the forums as every forum is the same no matter what company… technology issues. Maybe you would like to know what the SEC says about brokerage technology issues; NOTHING! This would be the reason that all brokerages have several different methods of trading (phone, internet, broker). And because the technology is experiencing difficulties you can most certainly bet that there would be a wait time to reach a live person as these companies are not reactionary in terms of staffing to an outage.
Bottom Line — You are not the only one that has money on the line in the market and nor will you ever be treated like you are Warren Buffett; remember you are trading at a discount or self-service brokerage. If you want to take control of your finances and maximize your returns, educate yourself first then call the 1-800 numbers. Oh and here’s a hot tip: keep your trade records and statements for tax time rather than relying on your broker in March & April – Maybe that would eliviate some of the wait time for people to actually conduct some business.
Some of you talking about trading platforms may want to check out Think or Swim voted best trading platform in the industry by Barron’s for the last couple of years.