E*TRADE

Lousy customer service and zero follow-​up. Manager was full of excuses for their customer service contact failure for two weeks
Of no return phone calls.

Extremely unprofessional «Financial Consultant». They reached out to me and proposed to help me analyze my portfolio. I talked with a «consultant» over the phone and was asked to bring all my statements from other financial institutions for a face to face meeting in Palo Alto.
At the meeting, he made copies of all my statements and said that he would get back to me in a few days with an analysis. On March 1, I got this email:
«I did not have enough time to construct a Morningstar report for you, I did notice a lot and I mean a lot of overlap regarding your investments. I definitely recommend consolidating your accounts to make retirement management easier for yourself not only for tracking performance, but to limit the amount of expenses which are pretty high. Next week I have more time to finish the reports for you, but I ran out of time this week.».
Then, I didn’t hear from him for 3 weeks. So I emailed him for a status update and this is the response I got:
«I apologize for not getting to you sooner, but unexpectedly I was elected to present at our national education event this past week and with the quarter end, I have been bogged down with paperwork and meetings. Lastly, due to compliance and an internal audit I had to clean out my client paperwork and your information was disposed of during the process. I sincerely apologize for not following up on what I said I was going to do for you as I understand how unprofessional it may seem.»
So if you want to be treated like scum, go to eTrade. I will be closing my account there very shortly. When I called to their 1 – 800 number to tell them I was going to close this account, they didn’t even bother to ask me why I wanted to transfer my account to another institution.

I have had an incredible experience with the Palo Alto branch from the moment I transferred over from Fidelity. Customer service was great at this branch. From what I understand from other acquantances that have used this branch in the past, there is fresh management on site. If you have had a poor experience… you need to give the Palo Alto site a chance to make it up to you

This review is twofold.
First, E*Trade as a company:
They suck. Customer service is putrid. They FAIL at it horribly. And they do ridiculous things just to make it hard for you to trade so that those 60 days of free trades evaporates before you know it. My money was tied up and unuseable for 30 of those 60 days. Negative one star for you E*Trade…and I’m gonna short you guys 10,000 shares right before your stock goes down the toilet so I can make back all those ridiculous fees you ppl charge.
Second, Palo Alto E*Trade branch:
Two stars. Only because the few times I went in to try and fix the BS, that their telephone reps created in my account, I was greeted properly and they genuinely tried to help. Other than that E*Trade can eat s*it.

Walk-​In with a half million dollars and they could care less. They screwed up a money transfer and dont give you the time of day after realizing the error. Expect lousy service from these people.

Pretty straightfoward transaction I had here. Was looking for a business checking account application, and the lady who helped me pointed me right to it. No frills. It is interesting however when I called earlier that at some point the automated message machine started to speak to me in Mandarin. Random.

I used to be a happy Etrade customer until the day I needed to transfer a large sum to a title company to buy a house: I called Etrade, and they had me go through the routine security verification questions to make sure I was who I claimed I was. After the last question, they simply told me that I had failed the authentication test, and the only way I had to have my money was to PHYSICALLY go to an Etrade office to unlock it !!! Because of this, we had to delay close of escrow. I am now with Ameritrade. Etrade deserves to go bankrupt with such poor customer service.

I cannot tell you how much I loathe ETrade.
It has been ten years since they screwed me, but believe me, I will NEVER forget.
Summary: I lost the list price of an imported luxury car because they were very slow in executing my trade – by three hours! When I contested the issue, they said that they never promised to execute trades quickly — and essentially not to let the door hit me in the ass on my way out.
Do business with ETrade at your own risk!
If I could give these crooks less than one star I would.

There’s not much you can actually do at this branch. However, I love Etrade as a bank. I don’t pay ATM fees, and their Web site is awesome and pretty easy to use.
But all you can do at the branch is deposit checks or open new accounts. That’s fine though, as there’s an ATM and no fees — so if i ever need cash, I just do that.

Etrade while overall not bad gets an F especially when compared to other brokerages (pretty much any other) that have really upped their game. Their commissions are fairly low, but not that much lower than say schwab or fidelity. They usually make up for those low commissions by nickel and diming you with various fees and charges.
Where they really fall flat is customer service. The call centers are filled with idiots who don’t really help you much and could use a lesson in manners.
The agents at their branches are much better, but they couldn’t help me when they decided to lock out my account because I logged in from work. Then you have to send in a notarized letter or show up at a branch, but oh wait their branches are few and far in between.
Go with Schwab or Fidelity. They both have better research, better web sites, and much much better customer service with branches that is not a day trip away. Unlike Etrade, they actually want to help you and have you as a customer instead of trapping you as a customer. If you ask, they’ll most likely give you perks like free trades

I HATE ETRADE!!!
When you open an account, doesn’t matter what type, even something as simple as a savings account, they don’t let you touch your money for two weeks. FOR NO APPARENT REASON. I transferred money which was 200% CLEARED and readily available but they just like to hold onto your money for shits and giggles. Customer service sucks as well. One of the reps was so retarded and had NO answers to my questions. And if she did have an answer, it was the wrong one. She transferred me to another rep that had the correct answers but that still doesn’t make up for the stupid corporate policies they have.
Did you know that they do «international wire transfers» but they do not wire money in different currencies? How retarded is that? The only way you can do a wire with international currency is if you open ANOTHER brokerage account with Etrade. How convenient!
And the rep kept talking about money laundering and saying my account will be flagged cuz I want to make a wire transfer??? WOW, anyone moving to another country is automatically flagged as a money launderer by Etrade. They are so SMRT! I spent an hour on the phone mostly with incompetent people with incompentent polices. Once they ALLOW me to touch my own money, I am closing the account ASAP.
Oh yah, they don’t really have online banking. You have to FAX wire transfers. Citibank is 10000x better in terms of online banking and wire transfers (that take 1 second to do online and one 10 sec phone call to verify). Screw the extra % for interest @ Etrade. It’s not worth the time that you waste dealing with these idiots.
I HATE ETRADE!!!