Well you are right about one thing; all brokers have pros and cons. The same broker you are bashing could be someone else favorite for some reason. I don't use Etrade, never even tried to. I am comfortable with Forexchief broker, no hidden charges that I know of. Everyone has their preferences.
The problem that I had with E-Trade, and the reason why I left them, was that the numbers on their trading platform did not match the numbers on their confirmations. The confirmations were correct, but the numbers on the trading platform were off. There were small discrepancies which could be explained to the penny by the inclusion of their basic commission on, say, the leg of a spread, when the commission had not actually been charged. The discrepancies were not attributable to differences in rounding off fractional amounts. When I asked about this, every rep I talked to agreed that the numbers on the platform should match the numbers on the confirmations, but that's as far as I could get with customer service. I also had another issue with the numbers on their trading platform, so I left. E-Trade was, however, as I said in another post, the only one of four brokers who, on their 1099, treated GLD options as 1256 contracts, and I believe that was correct, so that's to their credit.
Thank you for sharing and for warning ET community. All Etrade problems are really a joke, respect what Credit Suisse (Bahamas) and UBS (Bahamas) did on us. If you have a minute, please, file a complaint against them in Finra, it is really easy, can bring you some refund but most of all help to stop these sharks attack against independent traders. http://www.finra.org/arbitration-and-mediation/initiate
Where does file a complaint ... against traders blaming their brokers while not providing substantiation of any kind?
The persistence of dishonest service providers is remarkable - they believe themselves to be unpunished forever, but the world is evolving towards Justice and Truth, even in Switzerland - please, see the attached article. Slowly but surely, all loopholes of dishonest brokers, making profits on traders aiming to be profitable, are getting shut down. And if any broker wishes to survive in this new and just reality he must complain to his own conscience, refund his clients, repent and adjust to the modern way of the industry - no more hidden fees, churning, fictitious trading, etc.