Category: Failure

I have been trading stocks on the US market for the last few years with eTrade as my stock broker, I can say that I was happy from their platform and quick response to market orders during trading hours until the day I received this amazing phone call from them.

One month ago, someone from eTrade Dubai office is informing over the phone that I should close my portfolio with them ASAP.

WAW!!! that is not what I call customer service and when I asked about the reason, I was informed that the Dubai Financial Sector Regulators issued new rules and all clients have to abide by the new requirements and it seems that I did not, simply because I was not informed in due course. So the guy on the other side of the phone tells me, I am really sorry but you are not the only one that was not informed, we have around 1,200 clients going through the same because it seems our initial email about this issue did not reach them.

I told the guy, listen, this is very weird, when I opened my account with you, I had to sign tons of documents showing my home address, work address, bank statements and all other forms, with lots of phones numbers (home, office, mobile), how come you never contacted me when you realized that something is wrong with 1,200 clients? He goes, hmmm I am really sorry but you need to close your account.

This is the worst customer service call I have ever had in my whole life, putting eTrade to the lowest level on the list of companies I like.

So he proposes 2 options, or I totally close my account or I switch to another broker that he recommends, and when I asked my twitter stock trading friends, no one liked the recommendation.

So the hunt for a new broker started, and the with help and a long email feedback from my online twitter friend Kunal, I ended up signing with TD Ameritrade because most of the companies he recommended did not accept clients from Lebanon because of a black list (??? what and how, no idea).

What I can say that the whole procedure with TD Ameritrade was smooth, from opening the account till the transfer of my portfolio from eTrade. I had to call few times their customer service and the respond time was very short and the team was very helpful and had answers to most of my questions.

I can also say that their website and many available trading tools are amazing (online, desktop and mobile), even that I still did not dig enough to discover all of them in details, but my first impression is more than good.

So goodbye eTrade and welcome TD Ameritrade.