So earlier, I posted a review on Questrade’s online brokerage. Generally, I am very happy with Questrade and their $4.95 max $9.95 trades. It’s very easy on the wallet.
Usually, their customer service has been excellent and I’ve been very happy with it.
Recently however, this one morning I was trying to contact them, this happened:
Background: The reason why I called Questrade was because I was selling a stock (in my Bloomberg app, I included both my BMO investorline purchase of the stock combined with my Questrade purchase of the stock, so I wasn’t clear what I bought the stock at for Questrade- it threw me off). On the Questrade webtrader, it said I have a capital gain of $50 and that I bought it in October 2009 for $36.73 therefore netting a capital gain of $50. I wanted to get rid of the stock anyways and use that capital to buy other stuff…
BUT… AFTER I sold it, I checked my old records (the little slips they send you after your trades) and I had actually bought it in February 2008 for like $54.20; and now it was $38.73. So I actually had a capital loss of $450. Dissatisfied with the misleading data on webtrader, I decided to call and complain (though I should have known better, because one night the webtrader data showed I had $23,000 in capital gains when it was only $230 for another stock).
Calling the Questrade client support/ trade desk number while having breakfast (about 10AM EST)(I put it on speaker phone) I hear:
- 20 minutes of elevator music with random punctuation of music about every 5 minutes saying “Thank you for calling Questrade, we value your call, your call has been placed in priority sequence” or some crap like that.
- Then suddenly, I hear that my call is being transferred (the elevator music stops, I hear a dial tone so I get excited)
- Doo…dooo….dooo…dooo…doo…I wait… doo..doo..doo..doo…
- This dial tone sound goes on for another 10 minutes; no one is picking up the %$*#)*% phone (I am getting pissed at this point)
- Being the impatient Generation Y that I am; I hang up and think “Aha! I’ll try to contact them through LIVE HELP… it worked last time quickly”
- So I go on my computer to get linked up right away
- And then I wait for another 20 minutes, every five minutes I get “The next Live Help representative is going to help you” or something like that.
- Then I FINALLY get someone (Murphy’s Law, by the time I get to someone, I’m having to leave for work or else risk being late)
- So the Customer Service Rep asks for my account details, and asks me what the problem is
- I start telling my story, writing feverishly, and ask if the trade can be cancelled or somehow reversed (since it takes three business days for a trade to complete) because webtrader gave me misleading information leading me to sell instead of hold
- Then the Customer Service Rep doesn’t respond to my question (you can see if they’re typing up a response, much like MSN messenger). I wait another 10 minutes. Frustrated and late for work, I tell him to email me the answer instead.
- So in the email I get the answer that I was expecting, which was basically a “no, tough luck“; it’s your responsibility to check your transactions, even if Questrade’s webtrader details is screwed up (and it shows that you’ve got a capital gain, not loss), you’re SOL.
One other time, after another stock I had did a SPLIT, the data was wonky for the longest time. I kept waiting for them to correct it, but in the end, I realized I had to call in myself to tell them that the stock split and I actually have X number of shares, not Y. They corrected it for me on the spot.
What about you, have you had a positive or negative experience with any online brokerages? What has your experience been with Questrade? Is Questrade in the good books or bad books for you?
You might also want to check out these posts:
so do you still recommend Questrade after this episode? I’ve been thinking of opening a TFSA account with them lately.
Hi Paul,
Yes, I wholeheartedly would! I signed up for a TFSA account myself. They have different trade platforms that are better than webtrader. The other one that is free is a Java based platform called “Questrade WEB” and I find it to be much more accurate and easy on the eyes. If you want to see my post on the Questrade’s Tax Free Trading Account here it is. I like their low commissions- can’t go wrong. I’m up 6% already in my tax free trading account, and that would have been eaten up by commissions if it weren’t for their $4.95 trades.
Thanks for the quick reply.
.-= Paul´s last blog ..Paper trade: Long CADJPY @ 86.88, Stop 86.10, Target 88.0 =-.
questrade are awful. charging fees where not applicable. Weeks of whining at them, they tell me theyll refund, very sorry. Still no refund 2 weeks later. STAY AWAY.
@Rob Sorry you had that experience! Where did you find that they were charging fees? =(
I completely agree using the above comment, the internet is with a doubt growing into one of the most important medium of communication across the globe and its due to websites like this that suggestions are spreading so quickly.
Questrade is terrible. I am fighting with those guys to recover $1000 for a stock split that their system “missed” as ususal. Here’s how it works: You have a 100 shares at $10 each for $1000. The stock splits 2 for one. QUestrade won’t give you 200 shares at $5… INstead, the following day you are down $500… as you now have 100 shares at $5… I sent about 13 e-mails over the last 3 months and talked to 3-4 guys… they all seem to understand but they don’t change the number. In my case, the numbers are a bit different but I am down $1000 on the WY ticker. I am e-mailing the CEO this Friday if I have no action… ANyway, I am out as soon as this is resolved. If I leave now before it is corrected, they will pocket the $1000 on my behalf… I am stuck for now…
Mediocrity spells: Q U E S T R A D E
@Eric- Thanks for sharing Eric. Yes I agree that their stock splits are done terribly. I had the same problem. I then ended up calling in and the person on the phone asked me straight up how many shares i NOW have after the stock split. So I could have made up any random number and it would show as that. Have you tried talking to someone on the phone (like calling them?) I find that they are pretty useless on email. Their online chat system isn’t too bad, though.
I use QuestradeWeb too. I’ve been happy with it so far but am hoping I never have a need to deal with customer service!
@Tom- Yeah, I’ve had no issues at all with QuestradeWeb. Much better interface!
I have been working with Questrade for over two months to set up an account. They have gotten pretty well everything wrong. I finally cancelled out. A supervisor called to ask if I would give them another chance. She would call back within 48 hours and I could say yea or nay. She never called back, but completely set up the account saying that it was because I had requested it.
I’m going to cancel the whole thing if I can get my $1,000.00 back. They have been a night mare to work with.
@Shirley- Sorry to hear you had a negative experience. Believe me, getting your money back is a PAIN IN THE BUTT. Good luck with that
Try and keep on asking to speak to a supervisor and don’t give up calling. I had to call every week for 3 months to get my faulty bill payment back. It was worth it though.
Hello,
My questions is which trading house would be a good choice for me here?
I am trying to use Questrade however the orders don’t get executed and so I then just watch the stock go up. I put in an order to buy at .045. My last order stayed at .045 all day then 30min before the market closed it went to .054
This has happened before and I am not sure what to do. If I can’t buy stock I can’t sell stock and my research is then a waist of time.
Date of Order: 01/03/2011
Time of Order: 09:37:48 EDT
Status of order: Canceled (end if the day automatically)
Order Id: ******
Action: Buy
Quantity: 12500
Symbol: VIAP
Price: $0.045
Time in Force: DAY
Notes: The order was manually canceled.
Anyone trade penny stock successfully in Canada?
@Jeff- hmm that’s interesting. You should contact the questrade people directly about that. They’re usually pretty good about answering technical issues like that.
Thanks for the response Young! I sent them a fax an hour ago and will see what they can do about it in the next few days.
TTFN
@Jeff- have you tried talking to them online? Through the “live chat” option. They are pretty responsive. I would hesitate against a fax, they don’t seem very organized with their paperwork. If you email them it takes them 48 hours to reply to you. I found that calling them or using live chat was the best approach (and believe me, I’ve talked to them a lot… complaining about stuff!)
Hello Young,
I have and they said that just does not happen. Then I showed them the info (like the order I pasted above) and they said oh, OTC orders can take a long time, especially if it is a limited order. I then told him that I can only place limited orders on OTC as the Questrade system will not let me buy market. He really had nothing useful to add.
I am still in the same gravy boat. Once when I was chatting online and getting no results I asked to speak to a manager. His name was Mike and he would not put me onto a supervisor.
I will call them as well tomorrow and have another go at it. If another trading house charged a flat trade fee of $30.00 with no extra fee for larger orders I would use them in a flash!!!
@Jeff- Oh man.. sounds like you have a big headache on your hands! Good luck! Let me know how it goes
young – you had the right idea faxes don’t seem to get a response with questrade, so I phoned and asked some questions. It seems that if you click “all or none” on larger otc stock orders, the order will probably not go through. For some reason if you leave “AON” unchecked the order goes through in one execution even with a large order – go figure! I was also told that even if it takes several transactions in the “day” to buy all your orders, you still only pay one commission. But, if the orders go over to the next day you then pay commission again (so pick good for a day). The customer service is a 2 out of 10. It seems that they really don’t want to talk to anyone – just collect the commission. However the price is right and I will save cash and in this game that is what it is all about.
@Jeff- Glad you figured it out at the end of the day. I do like how it is $4.95 and basically what you pay for is what you get. I would rather keep my investing costs low than pay $29.95 for a trade commission. I can sacrifice for customer service
I have not found one person to say that they are satisfied with Questrade & their customer service. This company is THE WORST NIGHTMARE you could imagine – to deal with.
Try calling them – they do not answer for hours
- If you email -they do not answer for days or do not answer at all
- try live chat – most of the time does not work
- eventually if you get someone on the phone – person is plain lying to you or can not help or do not know anything
BEWARE – STAY AWAY !!!!
@Chris-@chris- Sounds like you have had a bad experience. I would not recommend emailing them, but I do find that livechat and calling them quite effective. I think with the recent changes to the interface, there have been MANY calls, and higher call volume. Before, I didn’t have to wait too long (maybe 10 minutes max) to speak to someone, but I’m sure it’ll resolve once everyone settles with the new changes. I’m okay with paying $5 per trade and dealing with a smaller company (that is obviously having some growing pains) than $29 per trade for a big bank brokerage.
@ young …
Hm, I’ll bet anything that YOU ARE WORKING FOR QUESTRADDE !!!
This is exactly what they were stating as excuse & it is very curious that you repeat “company line” to the letter. I seriously doubt that you are genuine poster – you are just paid Questrade employee
@chris- you’re mistaken my friend! Believe me I share the same frustrations as you. I tried calling in today for the “urgent trade” matters and the phone was actually busy! I was shocked. I also tried live chat and now they don’t even give you a timeline. I think the customer service is crap but I would take that to save $25 a trade.
@ young …
It is possible I made mistake, but I doubt it.
You must admit -It is HIGHLY suspicious that you defend Questrade by repeating their “official excuses” to the letter.
Anyways – to summarize – if you like to:
- call Questrade and wait more then one hour for someone to answer
- to call them and get busy signal repeatedly
- to contact them via Live Chat and wait 50 minutes or to see that Live chat is NOT available
- wish to wait 5 or more business days for reply to you email
- try to log in to your account but service is down
- to deal with totally RUDE & UNPROFESSIONAL “customer service”
- Then Questrade is right for you !
@chris- You certainly sound angrier than I was. Perhaps you need to contact Questrade directly and ask to speak to a manager? Did you take your money out of Questrade yet? You seem very dissatisfied with their service.
What’s up with questrade and trying to sell a limit order. I bought some stuck and it went up so I’m trying to unload but nothing is being accepted. It just sits in queue . The price already went way above what I was trying to sell for and there is huge volume on this stock but I still can’t unload it. Tried limit and market and they both just queue forever while stock goes up or down.
In all, I can’t say I’m happy with QT. It isn’t exactly horrible but they system is quite garbage. They need some serious interface changes.
@Johnboy- That happened to me too- what I found was that I already had ANOTHER limit order in place. If there is another order in place, your order will be nullified. Have you tried calling them? Or looking into the history? I do agree that their system isn’t very user friendly at all.
Questrade customer service is a nightmare. I can relate to the other comments on this blog. No answer, no replies, being “left for dead” on the Live Chat…
I could deal with the wonky trading platforms and having to log in to a completely different company’s website to see my dividend distributions (until recently), as long as I never had to deal with an actual person there.
However, I have been trying to transfer out my account to a U.S. broker since I relocated to the United States in June. My U.S. broker has had to initiate the transfer out on three separate occassions because Questrade rejected/lost/ignored/claimed the paperwork was incomplete. This has been a complete hassle and I have wasted at least 15 hours of my time trying to make this transfer happen (and note that it has not been completed yet!) I contacted Questrade and asked if they would waive the Transfer fee because of the huge hassle. I got a standard “all institutions charge transfer out fees.” Not even a “sorry for all of the problems.” Thanks for coming out, Questrade!
Lesson learned: you get what you pay for and in the case of Questrade, you always end up on the losing end. Avoid them at all costs.
My experience with Questrade is not that great. There are just insufficient warnings/notices for fees that we have to pay. Here are some issues that I encounter:
- Pay interests when purchasing US stocks with Canadian dollars (Questrade assumes you are borrowing the US dollars which is nonsense). If this is the case, there should be at least a popup warning when the user is purchasing US stocks. Apparently, there isn’t any warning and user have to pay heavy interest fees after the stock is sold.
- Heavy currency commissions when you are trying to convert one currency to another currency (I asked them and they told me its around 1.5%). You have to pay another 1.5% when trying to convert back to the base currency…ouch?
- $4.95-$9.95 is just the commission that you have to pay to Questrade. If the exchange requires other fees, you are responsible for it.
- Balance is not in real time.
The commission is reasonable but there are insufficient notices for other fees (hidden fees?). Many fees can be avoided if they provide notices to users but they didn’t.
Best