Complaint Review: E-TRADE

I purchased Sirius stock on 11/29/2004 from E-trade. I had been downsized from Trans Union credit bureau, and had cashed out my 401K in order to make my bills. With the $6000.00 that remained, once I had found another job, I invested in Sirius. I purchased 970 shares at $6.50 per share, for a total investment of $6115.00. At that time I paid E-trade the necessary up-front fees and commissions. Over the last 4 years Sirius has gone up and down. I checked in on my stock from time to time, to see what the balance was. Since the stock fluctuated I never thought that some of the downturn was due to E-trade stealing from me. I'm sorry, they tell me that I was charged fees. I had a self-managed account, so I'm not sure what they were charging me fees for. In any event, I went on my E-trade site this evening, because I know Sirius has taken a hit in this recent economic downturn, and wanted to see what my balance was. I was shocked to see that the account showed my stock was sold off on 10/24/2008. I assumed someone had committed fraud and called E-trade immediately. A Mr. Torres answered and went over the account with me. He told me that my account was liquidated to pay the $40 per quarter fees assessed by the company for inactivity. I was completely shocked. Here, a company I trusted with $6000.00 of my money, liquidated my account to pay themselves for NOT managing my money. I requested a supervisor on three occasions, and although I was put on hold, it was Mr. Torres who came back on the line each time. I told him they never called me to tell me I owed fees, they never wrote me to tell me I owed fees. Nor did they contact me to tell me that my account was going to be liquidated. This has to be criminal. He told me that the fees were legitimate and there was nothing he could do. If they did this to me, imaging how many other Pennsylvania consumers have suffered the same fate. I can tell you this, they are appropriately named investment brokers. The more you invest the broker you get.

Fatty mcbutterpants
Upper Darby, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.