Why is customer service so bad at most brokers?

U

UVXY20

Had a rep at Merrill who did not know the difference between portfolio margin and Reg-T. IB is a thread jungle online and impossible to reach by phone. Schwab has disabled one of my accounts for three days now because of a switch to TOS, promises to have it up every day by phone and then never gets back to me. I could go on.

Is there anyone out there that is fast, knowledgeable, competent, and doesn't rip me on commissions? Just stock and options. I assume no one offers great customer service plus futures and FX.
 
UVXY20 said:
Had a rep at Merrill who did not know the difference between portfolio margin and Reg-T. IB is a thread jungle online and impossible to reach by phone. Schwab has disabled one of my accounts for three days now because of a switch to TOS, promises to have it up every day by phone and then never gets back to me. I could go on.

Is there anyone out there that is fast, knowledgeable, competent, and doesn't rip me on commissions? Just stock and options. I assume no one offers great customer service plus futures and FX.
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You would get it at a big bank, but you need to make at least 100k USD in commissions per annum. Usually it is very expensive to get people at broker with good knowledge. It is too expensive for them and most of their customers have no need for any advice. You would get it only for full on any of the big investment banks. But your portfolio needs at least 500k I think to get access too. That is why IB and other normal (discount) brokers do not have the staff behind. It is only interesting for brokers where clients have large portfolios.
 
Give Schwab the 3 days to get it right. HUGE amount of accounts they have to integrate into their system. They had to do it sometime...I am sure they are working around the clock on this issue. They want to get it right...

Disclosure...Schwab stock holder here.

When I first saw that Schwab was buying TDA, my first thought was "how are they going to integrate TOS". You can't flip a switch. A lot of bugs to work out, to get it on the Schwab platform...

You may not like the exit fees you would have to deal with. Give it some time...Reflect in a week or two.
 
I also noticed AMP's service quality has been deteriorated significantly recently. A bad sign..... Anyway, I am moving to Advantage so I don't care.
 
I've, via a WebTicket asked my home bank, where I am a client for more than 5 years now, a simple question regarding their latest ads they had sent me enclosed together with other normal postal mail.
Now it's more than 10 days and still no answer... :)
It seems they seem to service only the very richest of their clients...
Banksters paradise :-)
 
I hear you, over the years I certainly had some similar experiences.

I can recommend tastytrade based on almost 2 years of experience and I have 2 accounts with them. Tech support has been cordial and competent for me, with that department I have always been able to get through by phone. There you can trade stocks, options, and even futures in an IRA. No forex currently, but they do have cryptos in non-IRA accounts.
 
Cabin1111 said:
Give Schwab the 3 days to get it right. HUGE amount of accounts they have to integrate into their system. They had to do it sometime...I am sure they are working around the clock on this issue. They want to get it right...

Disclosure...Schwab stock holder here.

When I first saw that Schwab was buying TDA, my first thought was "how are they going to integrate TOS". You can't flip a switch. A lot of bugs to work out, to get it on the Schwab platform...

You may not like the exit fees you would have to deal with. Give it some time...Reflect in a week or two.
More...

Schwab is now on day four, and I'm not wasting my time with them anymore. (And I have half a mil there! Imagine what they do to small fry.)
 
UVXY20 said:
Schwab is now on day four, and I'm not wasting my time with them anymore. (And I have half a mil there! Imagine what they do to small fry.)
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If I was a broker and was hurting my clients like this with an integration, I would at least kick back some commission or toss some free stock their way. You know the saying, Money talks and .... walks.
 
UVXY20 said:
If I was a broker and was hurting my clients like this with an integration, I would at least kick back some commission or toss some free stock their way. You know the saying, Money talks and .... walks.
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yes it does. And your account isn't big enough. When you get to the magic size, you will have a guy at Schwab who will make sure everything works. He will likely know your first name and will answer the phone with "hi UVXY20" as opposed to "may i have your account number and date of birth"
 
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