TRADERS BEWARE OF QUESTRADE'S (Insert Negative Adjective Here) ACCOUNTING PRACTICES
I have had the single worst experience of my entire life with Questrade over the last few days, as I write this MY ACCOUNT IS MISSING $923.45 or 35% of my entire account balance & life savings after 3 CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF ACCOUNT IMBALANCES. I am actively spreading the word of my ordeal through any medium I can until the problem is fixed I have gotten a letter to the editor posted in the local Kingston Whig-Standard and am awaiting publication of my letters to the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun and the Globe and Mail. My uncle is one of the webmasters at Craig's List so I should have a leg up in informing as many people as possible.
I have personally traded stocks, options and funds for 7 years and ETF's, FOREX and bonds for 5, so I consider myself informed about the online broker business. I am not a wealthy person but I enjoy investing in a hands on' fashion. I had an account with E*Trade for 6 years with no problems. A few months ago I left them for Questrade because of the cheaper commissions and their favorable consumer ratings. Up until the morning of March 5, 2009 I had a very good experience with Questrade, I even got my account set up in only 4 business days, which was very impressive!
*Note all figures include commissions and exchange rates at the time of the transaction. Also, I have a Tax Free Savings account, which means no margin account, no loans, no borrowing, no overdrafts. I can do transactions up to my current cash balance, any more money and it will reject the order because of insufficient funds. I always kept U.S. dollars in my account because I only trade U.S. securities. I can prove all claims/ figures through screen shots of history and physical account activity forms mailed to me after every day that I traded. With that in mind
The night of March 4, 2009 at 4:05PM I bought 23 shares of FAZ (an ETF) @ $79.80 USD=$1, 840.44 USD (total after trade commission) x 1.27 (the exchange rate at the time)=$2337.36 CAD worth of stock in my account $54.72 CAD in cash left in my account=$2392.08 CAD is my total account balance.
The morning of March 5, 2009 at 9:33AM I sold the same 23 shares of FAZ that I carried over from the day before @ $86.86USD=$1992.81 USD (after trade commission) x 1.2785 (the rate at the time)=$2547.81 CAD $54.72 CAD (cash left in account since night before)=$2602.53 CAD total cash in account now. But there was actually $2232.04 CAD showing in my account balance when I checked it after the trade like I always do. That means my account was short $370.49 CAD just like that.
I'm not going to go in to greater detail as this report is already as long as a 17th century Romantic novella, but the same thing happened to me the next two days: taking $165.04 CAD on the morning of March 6, 2009 and then again for $396.96 on the morning of March 9, 2009. I suspended my account at that point and stopped trading. They had taken $923.45 CAD by the end of it, or 35% of my life savings (I am still young and busy paying off student loans). I would've suspended it after the first day but they assured me it would be fixed and after the second day I was waiting for this manager to call me back, which he failed to do.
Now you would think that in the face of this irrefutable evidence, and the fact that they admit a computer glitch took money through faulty a exchange of currency from a bunch of other people's Tax Free Savings Accounts over these same days, that they would admit the error. Boy was I wrong, the real fight had just begun as I spent 2 hours and 06 mins. that day (have long distance phone bill) on the phone to 3 different people at customer service, trading desk, etc. They just tried to explain it away going down a checklist of things; didn't add in trade commissions (even though the totals I used from webtrader history have them added in), exchange rate (which I took from their own forex website link that they use), my supposed "miscalculations", etc.
Each person would say they would send a report to the back office and someone would follow up with me in the next few days. Guess what, not one of them did, I called again on Friday March 6, 2009 and asked to speak with a manger that didn't call me back for 4 business days and when he did he brushed me off, even though they admitted some money was taken from my account and put back, $181.82 CAD on March 5, 2009. He refused to understand that I sold stock for this price and then my account balance said I had much less then what I sold the stock for, even though this is very simple concept. Robert Chandler is the name of the manager I spoke with. He at one point 30 mins. into the conversation said hold on for 5 mins. and pretended to have an audit done on my account, even though another manager told me audits take at least 3-5 business days.
Apparently Rob is a superhuman adding computer either that or a bald faced liar. I called him on the amazingly quick audit he was able to do and he hung up (I have a witness who was also listening to the call), after 45 mins. of denials. I spoke with him a few days later and said he couldn't bully me into submission, that I wanted a real audit of my account. He told me a real audit is $75 an hour charged to my account. I asked if Questrade was found to be at fault, would the audit be free? He said "no", the average audit would be around $350.00 -$500.00 in total and would not be refunded even if they found that Questrade pilfered obscene amounts of money from my account.
I then attempted to go higher then Rob by using a good comment blog post and contacting Emil Vojkollari and Nicholas Roussos, both in middle management, who seem to help people on the blog I saw solve problems with Questrade, and guess what? I have left 2 messages for Emil seeking assistance in the matter and 4 for Nicholas asking him for help as well and both HAVE YET TO RETURN ANY OF MY 6 MESSAGES. That is not client support, that is an abomination and I intend to make it my hobby for the next few months until every cent of my $923.45 CAD is returned to me with an apology of mass proportions. The ironic thing is that after my forensic auditor finishes his assessment I can take them to small claims court where if found guilty of taking money from me they would be on the hook for $1000's to pay for my legal counsel (my dad, who charges $300/an hour) and $1000's for their own legal counsel plus have to explain the verdict to the IIROC Canadian securities regulatory body and risk losing their retail broker license.
Sorry it took so long to read, but PLEASE, ANYONE WHO DOESN'T ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT WITH QUESTRADEDON'T, ANYONE THAT HAS AN ACCOUNT ALREADYCLOSE IT. THIS AGGRAVATION HAS GIVEN MY WIFE AND I WEEKS OF SLEEPLESS NIGHTS AND UNTOLD STRESS. This recession has been hard enough on everyone let alone being taken for 35% of my families entire savings. Questrade are at best a terrible company with horrendous customer service and complaint response, and at worst criminal with gross misconduct on the part of ROBERT CHANDLER. You don't hang up on someone or lie and say you are doing an audit that was magically finished in 10 mins. instead of the standard 3-5 days.
The fact that neither Emil nor Nicholas has bothered to return my calls proves that the upper management is also not taking customer's complaints seriously. It's sad what this world is coming to sometimes, I hope between the huge ad on Craig's list and the letter in the Whig-Standard, the letters hopefully in the Tor. Star, Tor. Sun and Globe & Mail: people will recognize the absolutely vile way they have handled me. I was only trying to get my family ahead using a discount broker to save fees, I didn't deserve this, my wife didn't deserve this and my 5 month old daughter certainly didn't deserve this. Shame on you Questrade.
Zack
Zack
Verona, Ontario
Canada
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