ShareBuilder

This complaint is about Capital One ShareBuilder in reference to an individual brokerage account that I opened with them on 2/18/15. This account was funded with a large deposit from my Bank of America checking account on 3/12/15. The complaint does not involve Bank of America.

On 3/12/15, I received a message from ShareBuilder that these funds would be on hold and the account would be “under restriction” for 5 business days, which I was not made aware of before I initiated this large deposit. The message stated that I could have Bank of America fax to ShareBuilder some information that showed that the funding account was legitimate and the funds were available in the Bank of America account before they were sent to ShareBuilder. Subsequently on 3/12/15, I contacted Bank of America and asked for them to send this information, which they did.

On 3/13/15, I received another message from ShareBuilder that said the information received from Bank of America was not sufficient since it did not contain the bank representative’s signature and the bank representative could not discuss client information on the phone due to security reasons. I again visited my local Bank of America and requested the information to be signed. Bank of America faxed in the revised information to ShareBuilder on 3/13/15.

On 3/16/15, I received another message from ShareBuilder that the information faxed to them by Bank of America on 3/13/15 was still not sufficient. I called ShareBuilder and was told that I would just have to wait the 5 business days before the funds would be made available, which I reluctantly accepted. I confirmed with ShareBuilder that the funds would be made available in my ShareBuilder account on 3/19/15 and the call concluded.

On 3/17/15, I received yet another message from ShareBuilder that stated that my individual brokerage account was reviewed by the ShareBuilder Operations Department and it was determined that the account would be closed and the funds would be credited back to my original bank funding method 60 DAYS (!) after the original deposit on 3/12/15.

I immediately called ShareBuilder to see why this decision was made and to see how I could recover the funds immediately rather than wait 60 days. ShareBuilder could not provide a reason why the decision was made and I was told that I would need to wait the full 60 days to recover the funds.

I respect that ShareBuilder and other companies have a right to choose who they do business with, but if the business relationship is terminated for whatever reason, then the funds need to be credited back to the account owner AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. It is not reasonable that the account owner should have to wait 60 days for the funds to be returned. Likewise, it could be considered common courtesy to advise the account owner of the reason why the Capital One ShareBuilder Operations Department has decided to close the account.

Based on this experience, I will advise everyone I discuss finance with to not do business with Capital One or Capital One ShareBuilder. This company clearly has dishonest business practices including misrepresentation of deposit status (account restriction for 5 business days after a new deposit), poor client customer service, inability to efficiently refund customers of their rightful funds at account termination, and overall company disorganization.

To start, I received some free trades from Sharebuilder for completing one two of their phone surveys. Well when I received the promotion codes, the person I spoke with both times told me that the codes were for free trades. The persons did not clarify what type of free trades they were, just that they were free. So I placed the promotion codes on my both my stock and IRA account with Sharebuilder and viola, I got 5 promotional codes on both accounts.

Today, I went to both my stock and my IRA account to sell some stock and went through the transactions of doing that. After waiting most of the afternoon and the evening, I get my trade confirmations and I've been charged commissions for all the trades when they were supposed to be free.

I call Sharebuilder and speak with a Manager and she told me that it was my fault that I did not pay attention to what they website was telling me about the charges for selling the stock. I told her that I have free trades on my account and I shouldn't had been charged and she told me that the free trades I have on my account were for free automatic investments. Mind you, no one told me what type of FREE it was when I was given the promotion, so basically, the stock I sold today was literally given to them and all I got back was a mere penny. When I asked who to make the complaint too in regards to this issue, I was told to contact FINRA, that the company handles all disputes with Sharebuilder and such. When I went to the FINRA website, I figured out why they referred me to the site. In order to make a complaint against them, a person has to pay a filing fee to make a complaint and that fee isn't cheap at all. That's how they get away with doing what they are doing. They got 4 different stocks from me today and all I got for the stocks I sold was a 4 cents. Someone really needs to put them out of business so they can't cheat anymore people with what they are doing.

My email to share builder.
Complain about thier delay that cause me to lost big .
I would like to find out how much they sold and why they gave me the minimum and cause big lost.

My second email to them (2)
I forgot to ask you to evaluate and search for timing and pricing on 10, 000 GM stock which I asked to be sold, on June1, 2009 and I lost huge on GM too.
Thanks again to share my concern with your manager.

My first email to them (1)
Still, I am wondering about the trade of my stocks. Delay from your company should have some reason.
Stock market opend and CIT started with $1.64 and mine was traded for .41 Cents. instead of $1.55

I believe there should be more explanation about my lost and timing. your company looks likes does what ever it takes to uses the delay for some other reason that I can not understand it. I believe any seconds delay makes a big difference for somebody as it did for my lost.
I believe you should send my request to your manager for more information. and I am going to continue to find out about this matter.

share builder respond (1)
It was nice speaking with you today. I just wanted to follow up with you with information I have received from our trading department. CIT trading was halted yesterday and did not begin to trade again until 9:35:43am EST today. Once trading resumed we placed your order in the order it was received and the price was .41 when your execution took place.

Thanks for getting in touch. I hope I answered your question thoroughly. In case you need to follow up, your inquiry is reference number 3025448. Think of another question? We probably have an answer on our website. Start at our search page here. Thank you for being a ShareBuilder Customer.

Thank you for your email response. Please be advised that we have further reviewed your order for CIT #[protected], and have found that the details previously offered to you were absolutely correct. Because the market began trading on CIT the morning of July 16th well below your stop price of $1.55, your order was immediately triggered and executed as a market order. At that time, the bid/ask was .40/.41.

share builder respond (2)
You further emailed an inquiry in regards to your 10, 000 share order of GM placed on May the 30th. This order was executed the morning of the 1st (June) at 9:39:41 ET at a price of $.51. Please note that trading was also delayed for GM on this day, no trade was reported until 9:35:49; at the time that your trade executed the bid/ask was .50/.55.

We appreciate the opportunity to help you with your investment needs. If you would like to follow up on this, please reference inquiry number 3025448. We also have a great search tool that can help you find answers to any additional questions you may have about ShareBuilder.