What is the biggest mistake customers make?

Scottrade restricted my account because of their own mistake, my options?

• My broker company Scottrade, Inc. made a big mistake with one of my previous securities and caused me financial loss because of their mistake. They have restricted my account and funds even though it was Scottrade's mistake. The security in question had a reverse split but Scottrade did a mistake and made a forward split instead. I thought there's no way such a big broker company would do such a big mistake and I trusted their trading platform, which needs to be completely precise. After all money is at stake. When I signed up with Scottrade i expect a fully professional and precise trading platform. And in this case I had to trust their system as there was no time for me to call Scottrade and make sure such a big company has made or hasn't made a mistake. It's not my job to make sure they didn't make a mistake but Scottrade needs to provide error-free service that prevents novice-traders and other investors to get in such situations. I trusted ST and I believed a forward split was made and that I had to protect my profits. And because Scottrade made a forward split instead so I believed a forward split was made and that if it was really a mistake then sure Scottrade would have a restriction on that security. But that wasn't the case and Scottrade let me trade it. I put those shares for sale and had no restriction to sell it. Usually Scottrade has trading restrictions on R/S or F/S stocks but not so in this case. They only restricted the stock after I called them. They also issued no warning or statement to this date whatsoever. The trades went through but all the trades then got canceled within about one to two hour(s). Then i immediately called Scottrade to make sure all was ok and they told me they made a mistake with having confused a reverse split with a forward split and that all the trades were canceled. My account money balance and brokerage market value was restored back to it's previous state and I specifically asked if all was good now and no other implications expected and they said yes, all good. That was also recorded on their phone-call system that day which can be retrieved from their system. I did not/ do not possess any of those trades or money from that day at all and yet Scottrade has restricted my account, money and are not willing to give me a time-frame for their investigation. 2 weeks passed by and I almost forgot about the whole thing as there was no reason to think otherwise. There were no restrictions on my account and Scottrade told me all was fine too on that same day I called like I mentioned. However I then wanted to get some money out of my account and suddenly the Scottrade compliance department tells me they can't do it and have to restrict my account for their investigation about that incident. I have listed all my points to the Scottrade compliance department's manager and also have made screenshots from that day's incident with further documents and proof that Scottrade made the mistake. I'm also aware that there are more shareholders who got hurt in this confusion caused by Scottrade. It's now three weeks since my account got restricted and i can't access my money and Scottrade is giving me no time-frame upon my request. It's absolutely unacceptable that they're holding my account and money hostage because of their mistake and that caused a lot of confusion amongst the shareholders of that security as well as made some of them perform these trades when they trusted Scottrade's trading platform. Now i'm being hurt financially because of Scottrade as with each day that is passing i can't trade nor access my money. Scottrade's compliance manager seems not willing to cooperate and it seems that Scottrade is trying to look for any possible opportunity to blame their customers but themselves for Scottrade's big mistake. It's Scottrade here who needs to be investigated by Finra/ SEC and fined for this big mistake and confusion they have caused as well as them not being professional at all in regards to this case. Scottrade also needs to be immediately forced to lift the restrictions of individuals like me who got confused and hurt financially by Scottrade. I have already talked with a legal council/ law firm and they agree with me and that Scottrade can't restrict me like this as well as they should've given me a time-frame for how long my account restriction lasts for their "investigation" (which they still didn't provide me with). I really wanted to solve this in a friendly manner with ST but they're giving me no choice other than getting my attorney up and running. Ideally i'd like to avoid this and get my money asap from my account. What are my chances requesting a check of all my cash/ money balance and my ST account to be closed. I no longer want to be with those shady crooks if they are restricting me because of their mistake

• Answer:

  Call them. Call the SEC. Just make sure that they fix this for sure. Make sure that you followed all rules from the SEC and Scottrade before though.