First of all, if E*TRADE's problem really was that there wasn't enough shares to go around, you wouldn't see so many people bitching about it. A few would be barking at Red Hat, for not allocating enough shares, but that's pretty much it.
If E*TRADE simply told me: Sorry, can't give you X shares, we only can give you X/2, or even X/4, because of demand, I wouldn't have any problem with this whatsoever.
But that's not what happened, was it? At first, while I believed that E*TRADE did have valid and reasonable reasons why they blew me off, I wasn't really upset that much. It was only after I started reading what everyone else was saying, and after I obtained more information, did I start to get pissed off, when it became more and more obvious to me that this whole affinity program, as managed by E*TRADE, was a complete and utter sham.
First, they started declaring pretty much everyone to be ineligible for the program. Then, when called to task for it, E*TRADE backpedaled, and with a "wink wink nudge nudge" attitude started telling people to claim that their net worth exceeds Donald Trump's.
Then, after some people were actually accepted into the affinity program, E*TRADE suddenly decided to throw them, and everyone else, out of it, unless they receive a telepathic message that they must "reconfirm" their application within a fifteen second time slot, and in the middle of the night for people in some time zones. And after they figured out that the instructions E*TRADE E-mailed for reconfirmation were actually wrong.
Only after someone (probably Young) ripped them a couple of new assholes, did they backpedal again, and sheepishly agreed to extend the alleged "reconfirmation" period for one more today, FINALLY giving people enough time to jump through the hoops that E*TRADE erected for them.
And then, after all that, E*TRADE still claimed that there weren't enough shares to go around?
Puhleeeze...
Look, how many people, REALLY, are bitching about this on Slashdot? I'd say less than a hundred. Even if that's only 5% of everyone who was left in the affinity program, after E*TRADE finished throwing as many people out as they could, and there were about two thousand people left, you're telling me that the average number of shares in an application was 400?
There was certainly individuals who applied for a thousand or more shares, but, there weren't many of them. Most people, as you said, sent in just enough money for 100 or 200 shares.
This doesn't add up. Red Hat should demand a full accounting from E*TRADE as to where every one of those 800,000 shares went. E*TRADE better be able to document that there were at least 800,000 shares distributed through the affinity program. If they can't, and if they did not give everyone the amount of shares they requested, that's food for NASD and SEC's lawyers. --
No break for E*TRADE (Score:2)
First of all, if E*TRADE's problem really was that there wasn't enough shares to go around, you wouldn't see so many people bitching about it. A few would be barking at Red Hat, for not allocating enough shares, but that's pretty much it.
If E*TRADE simply told me: Sorry, can't give you X shares, we only can give you X/2, or even X/4, because of demand, I wouldn't have any problem with this whatsoever.
But that's not what happened, was it? At first, while I believed that E*TRADE did have valid and reasonable reasons why they blew me off, I wasn't really upset that much. It was only after I started reading what everyone else was saying, and after I obtained more information, did I start to get pissed off, when it became more and more obvious to me that this whole affinity program, as managed by E*TRADE, was a complete and utter sham.
First, they started declaring pretty much everyone to be ineligible for the program. Then, when called to task for it, E*TRADE backpedaled, and with a "wink wink nudge nudge" attitude started telling people to claim that their net worth exceeds Donald Trump's.
Then, after some people were actually accepted into the affinity program, E*TRADE suddenly decided to throw them, and everyone else, out of it, unless they receive a telepathic message that they must "reconfirm" their application within a fifteen second time slot, and in the middle of the night for people in some time zones. And after they figured out that the instructions E*TRADE E-mailed for reconfirmation were actually wrong.
Only after someone (probably Young) ripped them a couple of new assholes, did they backpedal again, and sheepishly agreed to extend the alleged "reconfirmation" period for one more today, FINALLY giving people enough time to jump through the hoops that E*TRADE erected for them.
And then, after all that, E*TRADE still claimed that there weren't enough shares to go around?
Puhleeeze...
Look, how many people, REALLY, are bitching about this on Slashdot? I'd say less than a hundred. Even if that's only 5% of everyone who was left in the affinity program, after E*TRADE finished throwing as many people out as they could, and there were about two thousand people left, you're telling me that the average number of shares in an application was 400?
There was certainly individuals who applied for a thousand or more shares, but, there weren't many of them. Most people, as you said, sent in just enough money for 100 or 200 shares.
This doesn't add up. Red Hat should demand a full accounting from E*TRADE as to where every one of those 800,000 shares went. E*TRADE better be able to document that there were at least 800,000 shares distributed through the affinity program. If they can't, and if they did not give everyone the amount of shares they requested, that's food for NASD and SEC's lawyers.
--