What's wrong with E-Trade this morning?

[powerkoala]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning

hm.. nice contact you have there, narkov.
can't imagine what will he do if we sent him hundred of complaints ?
will he fire all the IT personel there and move them to India as well ?

 

[Narkov]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning

I have listed 12 major issues I have had over the past 6 months. I'm off if they don't compensate me. I'll also be sure to spread the word to my many contacts about my ETrade "experiences". It will cost them many multiples of what compensation I have asked for.

 

[watsonc]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning

I think all the employees had too good a long-weekend!

 

[Happy]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning

All my orders were re-entered by ETrade people between 7 and 8 am on Monday.

So looks that something crashed on weekend

 

[Narkov]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning

I just had a phone call from Brett and he outlined the issues they were experiencing today. Apparently there was a power grid failure in their area. This caused an Air Con failure which meant services were relocated to a disaster recovery center.

The long and the short of it for me as a customer is that their disaster recovery plan failed. Brett assured me they are now seeking to setup contingency plans with other suppliers.

Thumbs up to him for making the effort to call me but overall I think they really need to work on a number of policies and proceedures.

 

[Basilisk]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning

Thanks for that info, Narkov.

I hope you sent him a link to this thread. :

 

[bowser]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning

Nice couple of months for the IT department at etrade. Totally screwed the website upgrade\ HSBC migration. Then their disaster recovery model falls to pieces when needed.

Surely this has been tested previously.

 

[powerkoala]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning

well, one thing on my mind till now is how come they bought HSBC customers if they are not ready at all for giving such "Friendly" services ?
maybe they were surprised of how many customers online at the same time.
in the end, we all become victim of their greeds

 

[maffu]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning

Interestingly Etrade shares are up 1.3% after all this...

 

[gremlin51]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

Have been credited with one free trade for the inconvenience, I suppose it is something.

 

[Smurf1976]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

There's a lesson to learn from all of this but I doubt that many will heed the warning.

It's easy to outsource or otherwise screw up good technical teams with the objective of saving a few $. I've seen it done and the results are always the same. It works fine until something goes wrong (like today with E*Trade) and then the few $ saved turns into a massive loss both in $ and reputation.

The moral of the story? Spending on competent technical people and the resources they need is an investment rather than a cost. Cut and you'll pay many times over, and over, and over. And it will take a decade plus to get back the technical knowledge you so happily got rid of.

I can give you a 100% guarantee that similar disasters are looming in things far more important than E*Trade. For example, the power grid itself in some states - you save maybe $100 a year through "competition" and all manner of cost cutting but stand to lose thousands when it goes down as a result.

In the long run if you want technical things done well then (1) employ your own staff to do it rather than using contractors and (2) OWN the equipment wherever possible - third party owners will always cut costs on maintenance (3) make damn sure that you do spend enough to cover things going wrong because sooner or later it WILL happen whether it be a stock broker's server, the power grid or any other technical system.

Outsourcing - doing it cheap and nasty, usually at a higher price than in house. There are exceptions of course, but not that many.

As for the bit about clocks, I can confirm that E*Trade doesn't work properly if you computer's clock doesn't agree with theirs. It's 6:30pm in Tassie right now but I need to keep my computer on NSW time otherwise E*Trade doesn't work. Same every year due to the late start to daylight savings in the mainland states (doesn't start for another month I think, then I have to change my clock again and can set it correctly).

 

[scranch]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

Brerwallabi,
What's this about free trades for hsbc clients?
I came across via directshares (was StGeorge,then sold to hsbc,now sold to etrade)first i've heard of any free trades.Bought some shares last week,brokerage about $32.95(should have been cheaper but I mistakenly hit the upgrade button when looking through the site).
I have a brother with comsec,arrived there after 3 takeovers,they are his 4th broker without him lifting a finger,his first online,I think.
Brian

 

[GreatPig]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

I had free trades for a few days after the move from HSBC. Don't know if it was based on number of days or number of trades though.

I'm back to normal HSBC brokerage rates now.

GP

 

[bowser]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

It's easy to outsource or otherwise screw up good technical teams with the objective of saving a few $. I've seen it done and the results are always the same. It works fine until something goes wrong (like today with E*Trade) and then the few $ saved turns into a massive loss both in $ and reputation.

I've heard that they're looking to relocate the data centre to India. Not for the lower support costs, but to improve their service to the customer

 

[GreatPig]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

Well Mr Spork's apology email is out:

"I'd like to thank you for your support and patience."

Gee... two gross assumptions in the one sentence

GP

 

[woodrel]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

Mmmmm. Hello all. Found this forum when trying to find out what the problem was this morning. Nice to hear all the ranting and raving. A recent mover to etrade by direct shares I have been somewhat dissapointed by customer service and outages.
I also had a stop (profit) loss triggered 18c (0.5%) higher than my trigger point. The market was moving a bit, but not that much and the trigger just happened to be the bottom of the retracement! Had the stop loss been sent to market at the right point I'd still be in the trade and made more money. I am negotiating with them at the moment. If they don't do something pretty nice I'll be looking for another broker. Anyone else had stop losses triggered at the wrong price by etrade?

 

[Smurf1976]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

I've heard that they're looking to relocate the data centre to India. Not for the lower support costs, but to improve their service to the customer

It would actually work OK as long as the Indians themselves are doing everything "in house". If they start sub-contracting then look out...

I say this as someone who frequently receives comments from people from other organisations who ask "how on earth do you you do so much, so cheaply, with so few people and resources?". The most recent one being followed by "We do 17 times as much work, because we're larger, but it's costing literally 200 times as much overall. Our costs per unit are 10 times what yours are and yet you even buy your equipment from us, with freight to Tassie added on to everything. I just don't understand how you do it so cheap and actually make it work...".

The answer being simply that we have no middle men to pay, nobody else's mistakes to fix and we are in control of everything. We do everthing ourselves from programming to public relations. We even built the floor the servers are sitting on. Because of this we have the incentive to do everything so that it doesn't fail, thus greatly reducing the overall amount of work.

What's all this got to do with E*Trade? You're reaping the consequences of what happens when there is no long term committment from those doing tech work. No personal ownership of it, corners are cut and sooner or later it goes spectacularly wrong.

Based on what's being said by others, that it started with a mains power failure, a simple UPS and diesel genset would have avoided this. Problem is that contractors won't put that sort of thing in unless it's specified in the contract, nor will they come back and maintain it without being told to do so. They'll tender the cheapest option that works today and most times management will choose a $100K quote over a $500K quote because they don't understand the finer points of the work involved and think they're getting a bargain, thus sowing the seeds of failure at some future date. Seen it too many times...

Given the nature of the business and the overall costs involved, I would have thought that they would have duplicate servers in different locations (eg one in Sydney and one in Melbourne) and that each facility would have dual (50% load each) air-conditioning systems, UPS on everything and two diesels each capable of meeting full server plus half air-con load and that they would be doing regular on-load testing of everything. That's the absolute minimum. A minor cost in their overall business but it blows the tech buget out massively...

 

[brerwallabi]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

Brerwallabi,
What's this about free trades for hsbc clients?
I came across via directshares (was StGeorge,then sold to hsbc,now sold to etrade)first i've heard of any free trades.Bought some shares last week,brokerage about $32.95(should have been cheaper but I mistakenly hit the upgrade button when looking through the site).
I have a brother with comsec,arrived there after 3 takeovers,they are his 4th broker without him lifting a finger,his first online,I think.
Brian

Brian
Check out on ETrade site My Accounts then My Rewards then trading offers you might find you might have some free trades, below is what Etrade offered HSBC customers. Loyal Etrade customers got nothing, sorry they did get something they got huge inconvenience.

Q: When will I receive my welcome offers?
Your welcome offers from E*TRADE, including your free trade offer and conditional orders offer, will be automatically set up on your new E*TRADE account ready for trading from Monday 11 September.

To redeem your complimentary 12-month membership to wise-owl.com, please visit their web site at www.wise-owl.com/etradeoffer. Please remember to have your E*TRADE User ID handy to register.
Back to top

Q: When can I redeem my free trade?
Straight away! We have set up your free trade welcome offer** , so from Monday 11 September, you can place your first trade, complimentary of E*TRADE.

But remember, it expires on 31 October 2006. To view your free trades, visit Trading Offers, click here
** Terms and Conditions apply

 

[powerkoala]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

is it down again?
seems can't go to any portfolio at all.....

 

[Basilisk]

Re: Whats wrong with E-Trade this morning?

Old and new sites working for me.