MRG
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2013
- Messages
- 11,079
No, but a bunch of ex-Robinhood traders are moving to Fidelity.Nobody here is switching to Robinhood?
No, but a bunch of ex-Robinhood traders are moving to Fidelity.Nobody here is switching to Robinhood?
I never really have a reason to call them. What kind of questions are people asking that they need to call in? I generally prefer to use secure message or chat.
Re Schwab and TDA, I would counsel patience over apoplexy.... Well, after being on hold for an hour and twenty minutes, I was able to finally talk to a CSR. She was state based (working from home and had to fess up when her dog started barking) and was able to help me (they had to create a whole new online account!) fairly quickly. I think it's pretty ridiculous that I wasn't able to recover the online account (or create a new one) without calling. I already had 2FA enabled as well as security questions, PIN and "secret word"...yet I had to call.
OH, and there was no "call back que"...I had to sit on the line. With that experience alone, I will probably move the IIRA over to FIDO as well. Hopefully I can do that without calling anyone.
Save yourself a lot of time--unless it is really simple, no one at Fido will give you answers about bonds except their bond desk. Just ask for the bond desk at the get-go, even their auto answer service will connect you.I asked her back if she knew anything about corporate bonds... she said NO... I said put me on with someone with at least some knowledge... terrible these days... sometimes when talking with them they act like they are economic students working part time...
+1 True for the Schwab bond desk as well. At Schwab at least, the bond guys are not paid commissions so they can give you fiduciary-quality advice with no agency problem.Save yourself a lot of time--unless it is really simple, no one at Fido will give you answers about bonds except their bond desk. Just ask for the bond desk at the get-go, even their auto answer service will connect you.
I've been with Schwab for almost 40 years now and have always felt their customer service is among the best "in any industry". I've had a few account executives over the years that I had personality clashes with but a quick call to their boss or the customer service hot line fixed that. (Switched AE's asap)
Here's a specific/recent example of why I think they have pretty good customer services:
The past few weeks I understand all the brokerage firms have been having technical problems with all the record high volumes. (System overloads) Schwab had their share too... For a couple of days, trades were delayed, especially in the mornings... I'm a pattern trader and I had a coupe of trades that were delayed for several minutes and I "estimated" those delays cost me about $500.. Not a lot lot of money but it's disturbing when you are making quick trades... Anyway, I sent an email to my AE explaining my dissatisfaction... He explained what was happening and acknowledged that was not an excuse and apologized on behalf of Schwab and told me he'd send my concerns "up the line". Apparently he did since his boss called me today apologizing again for their problems and credited my account for my "estimated" losses due to their system trade delay problems...
That's an example of pretty good customer service, IMO..
Re Schwab and TDA, I would counsel patience over apoplexy.
The acquisition closed in early October. Since then I am sure it has been a planning and management nightmare to integrate front offices, back offices, account records, call centers, etc. Something like 11 millions TDA accounts, adding 30% to Schwab's total. Probably a few hundred pounds of paperwork for the SEC as well. Oh, and then there is this pandemic problem ... I have a mixture of awe and sympathy for the people trying to accomplish this.
Save yourself a lot of time--unless it is really simple, no one at Fido will give you answers about bonds except their bond desk. Just ask for the bond desk at the get-go, even their auto answer service will connect you.
I have had to call in to Fidelity two times in the last month... my impression is, they are working from home and answer the phone if they aren't too busy doing stuff at home... when you do get ahold of them and ask your question(s) they never have the answer and will put you on hold as they call who ever they get the answer from, then come back on the phone to relay the question... if you ask another question your on hold again... and if you need them to adjust one of your accounts they put you on hold and come back and say the " people in the home office " will take care of it, may take upto 5 business days.... and you get this strange feeling the " people in the home office " is more than likely off shore... perhaps India and my assigned support specialist is from India... does that tell you anything.... oh...and for some reason they report corporate bond valuation on " 3rd party pricing " and when you ask them who that 3rd party is... they don't know...so you better have a calculator at home and understand your true value of their bonds is what you can sell the bond back to them at any given time... and selling a bond back to them isn't that hard but you do need to pay attention cause you could sell 10 bonds at once but get different prices for several of the bonds... so again, you never know your true valuation until you sell and the money is in the account...