It’s too bad, because eNorthern had really cheap prices on share certificates, which is one of the reasons I was interested in them in the first place. Only $20.00. I’m not sure why, but now eNorthern is closing its “doors” to new business. Here’s what they posted on their site, if you click on “Open A New Account” (why they don’t just put it on the homepage, I’m not sure).
Notice from eNorthern:
“On or about August 1, 2008, eNorthern will wind up its online discount brokerage business. To maintain uninterrupted access to your trading account, Questrade, Inc., a Toronto-based securities firm, will assume the role of your online broker on or about August 1, 2008. Questrade is a member of IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada), CIPF (Canadian Investor Protection Fund), and a participating organization of the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange and the Montreal Exchange. Questrade also offers unique services such as the $4.95 stock trade and USD in RSP. For more information on Questrade, please visit www.questrade.com.
Your account will be automatically transferred to Questrade on or about August 1, 2008. In order to trade in your new Questrade account, you will need to complete and sign Questrade’s account opening documentation. Questrade will provide you with further details on this transfer after July 15, 2008. If you do not want to transfer your account to Questrade you must inform eNorthern in writing by July 30, 2008 or inform Questrade in writing thereafter by August 31, 2008 and your account will be transferred to another brokerage without charge. Questrade wants your transition to be as seamless as possible. Questrade has set up a special customer service team for eNorthern clients to answer any questions that you may have regarding the transition. To speak to a dedicated Questrade representative, please call 1.888.QUEST.66 (1.888.783.7866) or go to Questrade’s website to email or start a chat. To speak to an eNorthern representative please call 1-888-829-7929. Questrade looks forward to serving all your trading needs.”
Questrade Certificate Prices Outrageously High
I keep going on about these certificate prices because they’re one of the ways you can enrol yourself in a DRIP. Buy a share, then have it certificated. But the certificate prices at Questrade are something like $300. It’s like they’re really trying to discourage it for some reason – saving paper? I doubt it.
I have my own reasons for not following the switch over to Questrade, however. I’ve read a lot of negative word-of-mouth about their brokerage service. Enough that I don’t want to try it. You can always try to convince me otherwise, though. Right now it looks like I just wouldn’t need them. I’d go with TradeFreedom before Questrade. What about you? Are you really disappointed with this move by eNorthern? I didn’t have a big account there, anyway, so it’s not going to be a real problem for me to move it out.
One less discount broker in Canada… making some of the others look even more attractive.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post
It is to bad that they closed down. I really liked their service and pricing.
I am in the same boat as you I think. I have 6 drips already and don’t need any more at the moment but after the last stock market hiccup it would have been nice to buy some stocks quickly. The issue being that with DRIPS you have to wait until the next purchase time.
Which can be months away.
Mark McKay
BEWARE OF QUESTRADE’S SHADY 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 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 TaxFreeSavings 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 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 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 $370.49 CAD… just like that.
I’m not going to go in to greater detail but the same thing happened the next two days as well 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 to prove it) 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 the forex website), my 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 audit would be around $500.00 in total and would not be refunded even if they found that Questrade took money from my account.
I then attempted to go higher then Rob by using this excellent comment post and contacting Emil Vojkollari and Nicholas Roussos who seem to help people on this blog 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 QUESTRADE…DON’T, ANYONE THAT HAS AN ACCOUNT ALREADY…CLOSE 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.
Thanks for that update, Zack. I’m sorry to hear about that. I do not use Questtrade, so I cannot comment (and I was not endorsing Questtrade in the post, but merely passing on the info eNorthern gave me).
Perhaps others with Questtrade experience can add to these comments. Let us know if it gets fixed!
Yes I know you were not endorsing them, your article was completely unbiased. I have just felt it necessary to post my experience at every site that has mentioned Questrade in an article/blog, etc. in an attempt to educate the public so that this does not happen to any other unsuspecting people simply wanting to grow their savings. Thank you for the kind words.
I had a similar experience. First, Questrade lost my paperwork after I had it couriered. When I found out, I complained and got so frustrated with the individual on the phone that I finally said to forget it, and hung up. Later, I called back to ask them to actually “look” for my paperwork, and the same guy answered (Hector), and when I identified myself, HUNG UP ON ME. Then, I called back to complain about this, and asked to speak with a supervisor, and this guy (Emil) said that he must have dropped my called by accident and I told him that this guy just hung up on me, after their company losing my signature page and cheque, and he proceeded to tell me that HE was a supervisor. Yeah right. When I challenged him about their losing my paperwork, and told him I wanted to speak to an actual supervisor, he ALSO hung up on me. I’m trying not to have an aneurysm, at this point. I then called the order line, and told this independent guy what had happened, and he said a supervisor would call me back. Well, didn’t they send a kid called Robert Chandler to call me? You know, he may be a nice enough person, but I wouldn’t know as he was sounded like a 17 year old and was the most inarticulate brain-numbingly stupid “supervisor” I have ever spoken with. He was completely unable to answer any of my questions, blamed the phone system for “going down all morning…” for timely demise of my phone conversations, and was completely speechless as to what to do next. He could not care less about the fact that two of “his” employees hung up on an actually NICE customer. When I told him I wanted to speak to someone above him, what did he say? He said that he was as far up the ladder as I could go to complain, unless I wanted to send a generic email to blah-blah. He basically had nothing to say, so we had all this dead air time, and there was not alot he seemed about to do to fix things. So, I proceeded to give him ideas on how to solve these problems…because he didn’t have a clue.
I sent him my paperwork, again, by courier, and they picked up the cost. But my nerves are shot and how will I ever trust them with my money after they lost my personal information (after I went out of my way to register to send it in)?
Now, I hear about them messing up with people’s money above? You know, E-Trade lost my money and my paperwork, so I dumped them. Then TradeFreedom lost my paperwork, made mistakes on my account, and then literally refused to give me my money back (can you imagine?), and now this. I am totally peeved and disappointed at the service I’ve received, and have no idea where to go next.
They seem to be good for routine problems, but god forbid something actually go truly wrong, because you are on your own there with only “Robert” to help you.
Not responding to customer complaints does not look good on a company. If anyone knows of another, better discount brokerage, please let me know..
******************************
Edward Kholodenko, President, CEO Questrade
C+ rating at the London, ON BBB (TO’s is closed)
“Customer Complaint History
When considering complaint information, please take into account the company’s size and volume of transactions, and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm’s responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints.
BBB processed a total of 10 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 10 complaints closed in 36 months, 4 were closed in the last year.
These complaints concerned :
1 regarding Advertising Issues
1 – None of the Above – Advertising Complaint Issue
3 regarding Billing or Collection Issues
1 – Failure to correct billing errors
1 – Failure to substantiate charges
1 – None of the Above – Credit, Billing or Collection Complaint Issue
4 regarding Refund or Exchange Issues
1 – Failure to honor promised refunds, exchanges, or credit
1 – Failure to honor refund, exchange or credit policies
2 – None of the Above – Refund or Exchange Complaint Issue
2 regarding Service Issues
1 – Failure to honor service estimate or agreement
1 – Improper or inferior service
These complaints were closed as:
6 Resolved
5 – Company addressed the complaint issues. The consumer failed to acknowledge acceptance to BBB.
1 – Company resolved the complaint issues. The consumer acknowledged acceptance to BBB.
2 Unresolved
2 – Company failed to resolve the complaint issues through BBB voluntary and self-regulatory process.
1 Administratively Closed
1 – BBB determined that despite the company’s reasonable effort to address complaint issues, the consumer remained dissatisfied.
1 No Response”
Wow, have others experienced this too? I have not used Questtrade myself but from the research I had done a year or more ago, they wouldn’t be my first pick anyway. Tradefreedom and Scotia’s iTrade were looking better. Until then, I can definitely fully recommend TD Waterhouse – I have never had any problems with them, they are like a rock. Of course, you pay for that.
I’ve been using Questrade for a couple of years and never had a problem. I know MDJ and others also use them.
I’m sure every brokerage makes mistakes and it’s the people who have something go wrong that are most vocal about it.
Well…. I just had a RESP account open for my son. And to be honest, besides them screwing up on transfering my money from a different brokerage it was fairly pleasant…
NOW THOUGH!!!
Yesterday I had 14,000 shares of GGN.TO and 5000 of SBB.VN and $512.00 cash.
Same day I sold all 5000 shares of SBB.VN and bought 900 shares of HDG.TO. K?
Now TODAY:
My 14,000 shares of GGN.TO are missing, I have negative that’s -5000 shares of SBB.VN and I have the 900 shares of HDG.TO…
So… where did all the GGN.to and sbb.to shares go???
And… WHEN was my RESP approved for SHORT SELLING????
what is going on here!!!????
They have a nice live chat option I used… Yang? said he’d email me back… WHAT???
That’s wrong… If they don’t email in 10 minutes I’m calling.
crazy,
Lee.