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                Date: 1999-02-06
                 
                 
                E-Trade: Wenn Broker weinen
                
                 
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      Freitag war dritte Tag in Serie, an dem das Handelssystem  
der Online-Brokerfirma E-Trade in die Knie ging. Erboste  
Kunden blieben auf ihren Aktien sitzen, das Servicetelefon  
funktionierte so gut wie hierzulande die Telefonauskunft der  
Post. Der Kongress hat mit Untersuchungen begonnen, ob  
im elektronischen Börsenhandel das Wort  
"Konsumentenschutz" eine unbekannte Grösse ist  
 
 
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Kora McNaughton  
February 5, 1999, 2:40 p.m. PT  
... 
E*Trade believed it had fixed the problem by 1 p.m. ET on  
Wednesday, but at 12:20 p.m. today, the trading function  
was again inaccessible to users. The service went back up  
around 12:50 p.m.  
 
Today's outage was an aftershock of the malfunction that  
affected the site on Wednesday and Thursday, the result of a  
software change gone awry, the company said. "We're  
monitoring it very, very closely, and we were able to resolve it  
fairly quickly," said Judy Balint, E*Trade's president and chief  
operating officer.  
 
Shares of E*Trade fell with stocks of similar companies as  
the Nasdaq dropped more than 35 points.  
... 
 
Balint said today's interruption did not have a great impact on  
user volume, which is usually heavy in the morning but  
lightens up around lunchtime. E*Trade executed more than  
300,000 trades this week, compared with an average volume  
of 200,000 per week last quarter, she said.  
 
But some who were unable to get through to their E*Trade  
accounts said they aren't willing to take any more chances.  
Mike Lydon of Mountain View, California, said his emails to a  
special customer service address had gone unanswered for 2  
days. "I opened a Schwab account yesterday and it's  
working great so far," Lydon said. "It might cost a little more  
to trade but it's worth it when you have your money on the  
line." Later, Lydon called E*Trade to close his account  
altogether, only to be asked to stay on hold for at least 30  
minutes.  
... 
This was the third day of problems on E*Trade, the third  
largest online broker with more than 676,000 active accounts.  
On Wednesday and Thursday, a software upgrade that  
malfunctioned caused the brokerage's trading capabilities to  
go dead for a period of time, the company said. Service was  
restored to most account holders by the end of the trading  
session on Thursday.  
... 
 
But for some account holders, the reason for the service  
interruption was irrelevant. "I am done with E*Trade now. I will  
shop around for a better broker even if it is more expensive,"  
said Rauf Adil, who trades heavily in Internet stocks.  
 
Regulators are also taking a closer look at online trading. The  
New York attorney general has begun an investigation of the  
industry after receiving "dozens of complaints" in the past  
month from consumers about delays in processing trades  
and Web site crashes.  
 
The New York State Law Department has sent letters to  
several online brokerages asking that they provide  
documents, reports, and other information regarding their  
services. The goal is to develop safety precautions to protect  
investors, who have complained about money lost because of  
poor service.  
..... 
E*Trade has is considering whether to compensate account  
holders for delayed or missed trades. "We try very hard to  
take a look at it on a customer by customer basis," said  
Balint. "We believe in doing the right thing by our  
customers."  
 
Full text 
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C31958%2C00.html?dd.ne.tx.ts2.0205
                   
 
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edited by Harkank 
published on: 1999-02-06 
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