Monday, April 22, 2013

Questrade Really Sucks

This is hands down the worst trading platform on the planet. In addition to the hidden fees the service is absolutely unreliable.

Last month I took money out and was sent a notification that mu trade was cancelled. Since it wasn't a trade I called to see WTF?? They had no explanation. 10 days later the cheque showed up in the mail.

This month I took money out on the 9th. Well, today is the 22nd and no cheque. No notification they screwed up again. So I have to waste more time. These people have zero respect for their clients.

I've noticed that cheques are taking longer and longer and longer. What once took 7 day tops is now heading into two weeks. By the time you discover they've screwed up yet again you could be looking at over a month to get a cheque. Why offer this service at all if your only suggestion is to use electronic transfers? That's their suggestion as to how to solve the problem! It's kind of like admitting they are not competent to put a cheque in the mail.

Don't get me started on how crappy the interface is. We are constantly downloading updates but there's no real improvements. The graph functions are just garbage.

I signed on for the cheap trade because I was trading a lot. I've moved most of my money out because they are completely unreliable when it comes to transactions. So it seems the only way you can get anything that resembles a competent service is to pay a high price.

If you are thinking about Questrade as a solution to your trading needs think again.

Update:

Just got off the phone with these clowns.

Withdraw requests

DateAmountCurDelivery methodStatus

10/04/13
$xx,000.00CADCheque - Cheque MailedCompleted


This is the actual request. So what do they tell us you ask? Well, they quoted the information from the last transaction seemingly oblivious to what we were asking them to look into. <Insert eye roll here>. So, I'm on the phone with them again. In the last call they said the mail room takes 8 days plus 3 days for transactions to clear. Clearly that person was making up excuses to justify what appeared to be a very long transit time. That one said "It was mailed on the 19th".

Well, clearly that was bogus info. I clued in because the amount was wrong! In frustration and extreme annoyance I hung up and waited to cool off. Then I called back hoping for a different slightly more intelligent person. So, through the long attempt to get a human on the phone and the wait... tick tick tick.... Finally a human.

This time I was able to get them to look at the right info and wouldn't you know it, they claimed it was sent on the 12th. Oh what wicked webs we weave. Now the mail room is back to normal times and it's the post office's fault. It sure seems they have no trouble getting bills here on time. And now for the joke of the day. I can send a letter to Buckins Newfoundland and it takes 5 days! I seriously doubt these people are telling the truth.

So I warned them. If it's not here tomorrow I begin filing complaints with the regulators responsible for licencing their business. And again, their only suggestion to resolve the problems is to use E banking. To which I challenged them "Why do you offer the service"? Ohhh, cat got your tongue? Silence. I could smell the bewilderment. So I explained that this was a false inducement that got me to sign on in the first place and that would be one of the corner stones of my complaint to Fair Practices. I told him to make sure this conversation was on their files. That way when I completely withdraw the rest of my funds they will show up as advertised.

So beware, the mail service they offer does not live up to what they claim. (Depends on which person you get on the phone and what facts they give).  To me it sure seems like they want to push everyone into E Banking. My answer to that is simple stop offering mail services.

11 comments:

  1. TD Direct Trading is the best online brokerage, always wins the awards and best customer service titles, I love TD bank. Amazing service, platforms in my opinion, and top-quality protection. Switch to them.

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  2. Always been happy with TD Waterhouse's service, can always talk to someone on the phone if needed

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  3. webs, i use Qtrade and TD...Qtrade i like way better because when you sell a stock in Qtrade, the money is in your trading account either to buy another stock or transfer to your chequing account instantly...with TD when I sell a stock it takes 3 days for my money to show up. $9.95 per trade if you do 30 trades a quarter. And if you have no money in your account ready to buy a stock, you can buy a stock and do an electronic transfer later. I have been with them 3 years and best in my opinion bar none.

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  4. I banked at TD a long time ago back when they cut hours so bad I couldn't operate my business effectively. I had a personal broker who took money and put it in a fund that it wasn't supposed to go to. Then came the scandal when a bunch of other people found they were being manipulated into high commission investments. That was enough for me to never bank there again. It took 10 years to sort that out with Revenue Canada and I never ever got the tax slip from that so I ended up paying a few hundred bucks for that and RC never penalized the fund. Go figure.

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  5. We have QT accounts and BMO Investorline accounts. I much prefer BMO, had troubles with funding the QT accounts, customer service and extra fees. The only beef I have with BMO is that they don't take into account the total value of all of your accounts (spouse's accounts are linked through our bank account)so that you can trade for the $9.95. The fee per trade is $29 but the research and services are much superior.

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  6. Hi Webgogs,

    I work at Questrade. Let me assure you that we’re taking your concerns seriously.

    We do encourage people to use electronic banking because it’s faster and easier for clients to receive payment, and you avoid certain risks, like cheques lost in the mail. However, you’re right. We do offer mail service, and it’s important to us that if we provide a service we do it properly.

    I’d like to help resolve this issue. Please email your contact info to me at: community@questrade.com, so we can look into this for you.

    Sincerely,

    Laural – Team Questrade
    Questrade, Inc.

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  7. I can't help you fix your company nor am I inclined to. It's bad enough that I have to order cheques just to send a void one so I can transfer electronically. That's the main reason I went with mailed cheques in the first place.

    You didn't seem to give a crap about the previous problems. You're responding now only because of the awareness this blog is creating about your lack of good service. Average Joe doesn't have a public voice. How are you treating the rest of your customers?

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    1. Poorly. I am living proof that even if you use E banking, Questrade still makes you jump through hoops to withdraw your own money. Back in 2010, I made a little cash and decided to pull it out for downpayment. More than 1 month it took me to get the money through E banking. Many hurdles and out right lies that I've got all documented in many many emails. The deal almost fell through and I would have been out $20k. Thank you Questrade, NOT!

      I no longer use Questrade and sneer every time someone gives great reviews for them clowns. To those who love Questrade: you just wait, a day will come when you want to withdraw, and that'll be the last day you love them. I loved their low pricing too until then. Heck, I had 3 accounts opened with them back in the good old days. That's how much I loved them. Not anymore.

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  8. Ya, I hear you. They screwed up our last transfer too. I am having a hard time remembering a time when something didn't go wrong.

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  9. I'm thinking of doing regular Questrade bashing just to see if their marketing firm is paying attention. Perhaps if the public becomes more aware of what screw ups these guys are it will start to get expensive. They treat our financial needs with zero regard. So just maybe if it cost them enough money they will change their policies and actually start behaving like a responsible company.

    Why is it that companies only listen to their customers when it cost them. WTF! @!$!&*#%, I still have graphs that show green down and red up??? and only half the graph comes out right. You've had 2 years to fix it.

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  10. I should have read the fine print before I signed up with questrade. I was paying 30$ a trade at rbc for any market order (buy or sell). My first trade a questrade was 42$ not 10$ as advertised. RBC and other major brokerages have ECN fees priced into their trading fees questrade does not. Questrade is basically hoping that people don't pick up on this. I still have most of my investments at rbc and will qualify for lower trading costs soon. Would not recommend questrade. What they do is not illegal, but highly... highly... misleading advertising. They tried to convince me other wise. I said refund me the extra 32$. They said no. I said case and point.

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