While I did not participate in any of the E-Trade mileage promos I do have a horror story. I have had a small E-Trade account for about two years. I use Quicken and they had a promo that if you opened/transferred an IRA account you would get Q2000 Deluxe for free.

So, I opened two accounts, one for me and one for my wife. Well, they sent TurboTax, not Q2K! When I called they said that was the promo. Since I didn't have the paper backup I had to take my lumps. OK, no problem, right? Wrong!

When I opened the account I told them to use the proceeds from my soon-to-be-closed PBHG Growth Fund accounts. I had been unhappy with the direction of the fund and this would be a perfect opportunity for me to get into some equities that I wanted to own. Well, they didn't close my PBHG but merely transferred the Growth Fund from PBHG's trustee to their own. So, when I went to purchase the equities not only did I have no available cash, but I then was socked with a $24.95 trading fee to liquidate the fund, followed by their $19.95 commissions to buy.

Well, what a dummy I am. Should have, could have, would have went to Ameritrade, etc. because I knew what I wanted to buy. I let the offer of the Quicken cloud my judgement, then to ONLY receive Turbo Tax!!! When I complained about the way my Growth Fund was handled as a transfer and not a liquidation I was basically blown off by E-Trade. I told them I wanted to handle it internally but that I would not hesitate to file a complaint with NASD and the Dept of Justice. Their CS rep's response was, "So what. Go ahead." This pissed me off and I asked to speak to his supervisor. His supervisor had the same 'do not care' attitude.

Well, I have filed the formal complaints and after reading this thread think I will file a small claims suit as well! I am in the process of moving my non-IRA stocks to buyANDhold.com and looking where I want to move the IRA accounts!