Comments on: Scottrade 1 Week Review

By: cldnails

cldnails — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:55:01 +0000

John, thank you very much for your feedback. Being in the software industry I’m assuming that all updates to java on your machine were up to date?

Scottrade should have immediately rolled back or issued a hotfix if this was going on. I’ve not ran into any issues with the platform and I use it exclusively. Granted, I may not be using it as in depth as you are.

By: John

John — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:22:55 +0000

I have been a Scootrade customer for close to ten years now, and I have not had any gripes until today (1/5/2011). I like using there web based platform for trading due to the simplicity of format.

But today, they implemented a Java update that was so hosed-up that I can’t imagine anyone with any managerial responsibility allowing it to go live.

It was so hosed up that the chart function was hit or miss; recalling a stock chart kept serving the same chart over; function buttons with no function and page retrieval times that came in a 25 seconds or more, just to name a few of the descrepencies.

When I called the local branch office,I could tell there was a bit of aprehension on the other side, as if I was the error, not their platform. I emailed their tech support people several time throughout the course of the day and received canned responses.

What really ticks me off about all this is that I spent the majority of the day fusing with my computer, browser and various incantations of JAVA and Microsoft’s browser trying to get this to work. Finally I called the local office again in the afternoon and found a sympathetic voice who validated that there was an issue with their upgrade.

Now I can tell you that I have worked in software development/QA in the past. ANd we sure as hell did not release a software upgrade without throuroughly testing in a controlled environment before going live. I think Roger needs to make a few personnel cahnges at the ranch.

Could you imagine a neewbie logging on for the first time today and running into such dysfunctionality. Its up there with the flash crash.

Sadly to say, I logged into my account again this evening and the dysfunctionality is still there. Obviously, the customer is not as important as one would think.

By: Donnell Perish

Donnell Perish — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 03:05:19 +0000

Will be interesting to see what happens in the next 30 days. As for the time outs, that could happen with just about any account. I mean maybe it was just an internet glitch or something. But, I know that it could get very aggrevating – especially when there is real money on the line.

By: cldnails

cldnails — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:02:09 +0000

Valid points for sure, but the withdraw limitations don’t bother me. The money I’m investing in the stock market through Scottrade is money I don’t need on a regular basis anyway, so not having access to a debit card is no big deal.

So far I’ve been happy, course I haven’t been doing a lot of trades either. Perhaps I fit into the the buy and hold investor category.

By: Review of Scottrade

Review of Scottrade — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 07:10:53 +0000

You mentioned the daunting signup. I agree with that 100%. They ask for a bit more info, but I’ve never had any security problems in the past.

I’ve used Scottrade for years and am a happy customer, but I must say it’s a brokerage for the buy and hold investor. Recently I showed interest in “writing” put and call options, which scottrade does not allow, so I opened a Charles Schwab option account that does have this feature. Not sure why Scottrade does not allow writing of options.

Some other cons are withdrawing cash and no dividend reinvestment. You must have a $5000 equity to use the visa check card to withdrawl or else you get a $15 charge. Without the use of a debit card to make withdrawls, you have to wait atleast a week to receive a check in the mail after stopping in the branch and asking for a withdrawl.