After being personally frustrated attempting to resolve an account hacking that likely occurred at a result of Scottrade's recent data breach, I can honestly say I felt a strong desire to warn others about Scottrade's behavior.
If you are unaware, Scottrade requires you to sign an "Arbitration Agreement" and prohibits you or Scottrade from using a court and jury to settle disputes. Instead, you are required to file Arbitration.
In my situation, after my account was hacked and hundreds of thousands of fraudulent trades took place, I took all of the steps as outlined by Scottrade requests. I even got 3 different police reports, multiple notarizations, etc, however, Scottrade stated that they will not refund money as a result of account hacks.
I asked Scottrade how I could utilize the dispute resolution process with Arbitration because Scottrade does not include details of the arbitration forum or how to initiate Arbitration and instead responds with boilerplate letters that the issue should be resolved in the appropriate forum.
I had previously asked Scottrade for a copy of the arbitration agreement and they refuse to respond.
It seems to me that Scottrate unscrupulously, requires customers to sign an arbitration agreement but does not provide details on how to initiate a dispute via arbitration, effectively shielding themselves from all potential disputes and firmly stripping the rights of customers away.
I can not put this more simply, if there is any dispute with Scottrade, they will provide a lacking and unhelpful response (to please regulators who count papers) and then direct you to Arbitration while simultaneously refusing to provide any details about the Arbitration.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Scottrade has engineered almost 100% protection from any liability as a result of their wrongdoing.
Do not do business with Scottrade.