Currently I cannot reach anyone by phone. Recording says they are having technical difficulties and are "unable to connect the call." Live chat hold times are well over 15 minutes. And I cannot place an order on their website to close a put spread in IWM. The error message says "the security symbol is not valid." And yesterday, after an order was filled, the positions screen was not updated for several minutes. It was showing positions that did not actually exist because the order had been filled. And this kind of nonsense has been going on intermittently for months. I am about ready to bail out on Schwab. it's completely ridiculous. BMK
Schwab has been having issues for the last 6 months at least. The crap going on now I'm sure adds to it, but I have had issues with getting a hold of people for a few months now. I moved my long term accounts with a significant amount of asset to them back in 2011 and they were fantastic. I quickly was able to contact knowledgeable agents and resolve issues or whatever in no time. This was my experience up until about the midpoint of last year and they constantly have a message posted about long wait times etc.. I am not calling all the time, but when I do it usually is because I need an answer quickly. When I have gotten through I have had to play the transfer to another department game even though I punched the number for the department I needed. I will say at least the people are still knowledgeable and helpful when you get a hold of them, but the problem is getting to them via phone or chat.
I was just trying to sell some calls against my position in MSFT and keep getting the message that they don't have the strike loaded and contact them to resolve the issue. I had the same issue late last year and it took 30 minutes to get someone to load the symbol. I tried multiple strikes not much out of the money, so not real happy, but not sure I am going to sit around on hold waiting to see if I get someone on chat or the phone.
I got an e-mail from Schwab at about 8:30 PM (eastern time in the USA), in which they "acknowledge that this week’s heightened trading volume and volatility across our entire industry have led to significant call volumes and hold times as well as challenges with online functionality at market open for some clients," and they take these issues very seriously and sincerely apologize for any problems they may have caused." The message goes on to they are "making additional investments" in their systems to address the issues. BMK
I have the same email, the problem from my perspective is this just pushed the issue, but it has been going on for roughly a year now and they don't seem to be improving.
The problems might have something to do with this: Charles Schwab to lay off 1,000 workers following merger with TD Ameritrade (cnbc.com) Only "redundant" workers of course, but maybe not as redundant as the combined company's senior management hopes.
After they made the announcement about the merger is when the issues started. Layoffs and people leaving not waiting to find out if they are considered a duplicate employee was my guess at the problems.