Has Questrade totally fallen apart?

Every broker is the same man. It’s super busy out there:

Records Highs on Market recently
Bitcoin stocks
Wallstreetbets/Reddit stocks
Pot stocks
Shroom stocks
Biotech
Gold/Silver never goes away
Usual RRSP and tax season stuff

This is a repeated trend of posts for brokerages currently where the common theme is "I can't get ahold of customer service, I'm on hold for hours, they haven't responded to my email". I don't intend that as an excuse for Questrade but many brokerages are in a similar state so before considering transferring, really investigate the state things. In practice, right now, you may find the situation similar elsewhere.

In my case for iTRADE I had a non-critical question that I couldn't get an answer out of in the FAQ, so I sent a message and it was answered in about 3 weeks.

joshnet wrote: ↑ This is a repeated trend of posts for brokerages currently where the common theme is "I can't get ahold of customer service, I'm on hold for hours, they haven't responded to my email". I don't intend that as an excuse for Questrade but many brokerages are in a similar state so before considering transferring, really investigate the state things. In practice, right now, you may find the situation similar elsewhere.

In my case for iTRADE I had a non-critical question that I couldn't get an answer out of in the FAQ, so I sent a message and it was answered in about 3 weeks.

Totally agreed. Everywhere else is the same. If u need to action something fast, I'd suggest using both call n chat option at the same time. I find chat option always works best for me.

Wow. That sucks. Is anyone happy with their brokerage right now?

Sure, there are people who have no need to contact their brokerage for anything urgent really and are just trucking along and they're probably happy. I'm in that category.

scouzer wrote: ↑I've been with Questrade for a few years. The customer service was always so-so. But since COVID, it has been ludacrous - the live chat and phones always have hundreds of people in the queue.

I even tried mailing them in December for something I need done, and that has not been actioned.

I am thinking about transferring out, but man - I bet they wouldn't even respond to a transfer out request right now.

I don't find their support too bad, I find their website slow and they need better servers.

Best thing is to do the online chat and put it in a side window and let it do it's thing for a few hours till someone answers you. Do chat logged out of your account (I go to sign up account and then they have chat button in top right hand corner) as if you do it logged in your account will be timed out and your chat window will close as well.

Don't even both trying email, I did that for a non urgent question and 2 months later still have not even heard back from them. In the end I had a few questions and jumped on chat and got them all answered at once.

Like everyone said it is everywhere, a family member I know has TD for his investments and needed to contact him and he had to wait 3 hours on phone and that is pretty much your only option as they got no chat option.

jimbob12341 wrote: ↑ Best thing is to do the online chat and put it in a side window and let it do it's thing for a few hours till someone answers you. Do chat logged out of your account (I go to sign up account and then they have chat button in top right hand corner) as if you do it logged in your account will be timed out and your chat window will close as well.

If you see the loading circle icon in the chat window on Questrade, does that mean it's working or not?

Sometimes I get the loading circle icon and other times I get a number saying how many people are ahead of me.

Email sent January 26th, no answer since too :-/

papycgf wrote: ↑ Email sent January 26th, no answer since too :-/

They used to be ok by email. Now they just take every excuse not to provide any actual support by email citing privacy, security, whatever

I emailed them just to confirm they got my letter from December, I didn't even mention its contents. They refused to answer. Stupid.

How fast are they in terms of requests to transfer in RRSPs?

I have an old RRSP account that used to be matched by my employer, but it's been sitting idle for a while now. I want to transfer it into Questrade.

Jucius Maximus wrote: ↑ How fast are they in terms of requests to transfer in RRSPs?

I have an old RRSP account that used to be matched by my employer, but it's been sitting idle for a while now. I want to transfer it into Questrade.

I did mine in 2018 and it took 6 weeks. I'd imagine it's a lot longer now.

someweirdo wrote: ↑ If you see the loading circle icon in the chat window on Questrade, does that mean it's working or not?

Sometimes I get the loading circle icon and other times I get a number saying how many people are ahead of me.

I would have to check on Monday. I don't remember seeing the circle for very long. I usually see a number like 181 people.

I hope I'm not in the minority but I really like Questrade. For me, everything they said they would do they've done it. Knocking on wood I haven't come across anything that I couldn't figure out googling, using their help pages or finding the information on here. Most recently regarding margin accounts.

No one wants to pay fees and so the crowd (myself included) will flood the cheapest brokerage in town. I'm sure if they were one of the top expensive ones wait times wouldn't be too uncomfortably long. There are people calling in with legitimate issues and then there are those who won't spend anytime looking through the support pages, googling, etc., which leads us to those crazy 2 hour wait times.

There is a cost to free/lower fees and wait times are one them thanks to the crowd looking for bargains.

Frankie3s wrote: ↑ No one wants to pay fees and so the crowd (myself included) will flood the cheapest brokerage in town.

Questrade isn't the cheapest brokerage in town. That would be Wealthsimple Trade (if you stick with Canadian listings) and, to a lesser extent, Virtual Brokers.

scouzer wrote: ↑ Wow. That sucks. Is anyone happy with their brokerage right now?

I'm with Questrade (mainly self-directed) and I'm happy with them right now. I haven't needed to contact them for anything specific. The computer handles all purchasing requests. The only "complaint" is they no longer send me a text message when they get my deposit, but then those used to come in at around 6 AM so I'm not really sure I can call that a "complaint".

I don't do anything involving options or anything complicated like that. I don't know what OP is facing that requires so many calls.

As @joshnet has mentioned, every broker seems to be over inundated with requests and calls. Complaints are across the board. CIBC, Scotia iTrade, TD, HSBC, Questrade, RBC etc.

If you have a non-personal question not in reference to your specific account, I recommend trying pinging @Questrade although John hasn't been on RFD lately. Reddit's Questrade page he seems still active. And you might find the answer on other posters that have already asked similar questions.

In terms of personal, it sucks but be patient or see whether any self-service options work. It sucks because there is not a lot of competition in Canada and all the brokerages seem content with offering what they do and customers accepting this.

FoFai2015 wrote: ↑ I'm with Questrade (mainly self-directed) and I'm happy with them right now. I haven't needed to contact them for anything specific. The computer handles all purchasing requests. The only "complaint" is they no longer send me a text message when they get my deposit, but then those used to come in at around 6 AM so I'm not really sure I can call that a "complaint".

I don't do anything involving options or anything complicated like that. I don't know what OP is facing that requires so many calls.

I have an RRSP form from CRA that needs manual processing by Questrade. No way around it.

Left Questrade years ago. Once my account grew in size, I had to get a real brokerage, saving few $ is not worth the risk.
My biggest gripe was that during their frequent maintenance period, my account would show balance of $0, and no holdings. I do not how know people put up with this, imagine going to ATM, and checking your balance and it shows 0$ when you know you have $10k.
Maybe they fixed that issue now, but its too late for me....

I always recommend big 5 banks ( especially TD Direct Investing), when you have > $50k in your investment accounts.

drzolo5 wrote: ↑ Left Questrade years ago. Once my account grew in size, I had to get a real brokerage, saving few $ is not worth the risk.
My biggest gripe was that during their frequent maintenance period, my account would show balance of $0, and no holdings. I do not how know people put up with this, imagine going to ATM, and checking your balance and it shows 0$ when you know you have $10k.
Maybe they fixed that issue now, but its too late for me....

I always recommend big 5 banks ( especially TD Direct Investing), when you have > $50k in your investment accounts.

TD was absolutely horrific for us. Total nightmare. I'd never, ever go back