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.