Matthew, what is your policy vs subscription charges if OEC takes 2 weeks to resume autotrading again?
Pls. do not say “just do manual trades” as many people subcribes to systems here only because they can autotrade.
Pls. do not say “this is an OEC decision” as the responsability of losing OEC’s full trust lies with C2, not with subscribers
This situation is going to be a good test bench for C2 customer service orientation. I really hope C2 will not fail with respect to this…
Manuel, if a system vendor wants to delay subscription processing for AutoTraders using his or her system, please have the vendor contact me, and I’ll take care of rescheduling the billing dates.
Matthew, why would a vendor want to do that? This is not a vendor problem… Vendors also have manual traders together with autotraders so from a vendor perspective there is no reason to do that.
I gather from your answer that C2 is not willing to take a stance and refund to customers subscription charges pro rata for the period of inactivity of Open E Cry autotrading.
I believe the arguments in favor of such a request are very reasonable:
1. Certain customers subscribed to systems and chose OEC as a broker because generation3 is promoted as state of the art technology and because they cannot physically trade manually. These customers have bought a specific service: a set of systems autotraded via generation3.
2. This service has now been suspended (for 1 up to 2 weeks) by a C2 business partner (Oec) due to a serious security breach that requires longer that expected investigations.
3. Customers cannot stop the system subscriptions as certain systems have a closed number of subscribers hence stopping the subscription might mean never have access to a system anymore
Given all this I am surprised C2 is not willing to reimburse to customers the pro rata subscription fees. As a customer this seems to be a very reasonable request.
Manuel -
My post said that if a vendor wants to delay billing for subscriptions, he can choose to do so. If a vendor chooses to do this, you will not lose your place as a subscriber to a system.
Unfortunately, I am unable to reimburse you for subscription fees.
Matthew
This is embarrassing … I was a customer of IB, and I changed to OEC to use Gen3 technology, it turns out that a security breach of C2, OEC does not authorize automatic operations, which I will be paying for a system without operating posibildad . The option of manual trades is really a desperate response of children and an excuse, if we wanted to do manual trades would not subscribe to C2, I have a job and need the option of automatic trades. I think that’s part of C2 are being taken very lightly all the inconveniences to which we are subject, and we have even been exposed to that all data were available to a hacker, and yet is not on his part no willingness to send more than a couple of emails, nobody talks about any financial compensation, or that C2 takes over waiting times and lack of downtime that this entails. Security measures should have been taken long ago, are driving extremely valuable data such as bank details or credit cards. But had not bothered so far, and now who have to pay the consequences are we?
I think that C2 should reconsider its policy of customer service.
Damian - As much as I wish I could do otherwise, I can’t compensate subscribers for subscription revenue. If a system vendor agrees to delay billing while autotrading is delayed, they can choose to do that, and I can work with them to help them schedule that.
I wish I could tell you otherwise, but I can’t change the financial reality that my small company is subject to. There’s no magic wand I can wave. This is a painful time for everyone here at Collective2.
Our response hasn’t been merely to “send a couple of emails” as you suggest.
We’ve worked nonstop to identify and eliminate the vulnerabilities the blackmailer exploiter. We’ve contacted police, district attorneys, federal agencies, credit reporting agencies, security consultants, and investigators. We’re working with our AutoTrade brokerage partners to get AutoTrade back online as quickly as possible.
We’re trying our best to move forward through difficult circumstances. The only thing I can ask is that you try to stick with us as we move forward.
Matthew
I encourage OEC and other affected subscribers to do what Matthew suggested. One of the vendors of the systems I subscribe to generously offered payment credit. Note that with this option C2 is also sharing in financial commitment to help since their revenue from the vendors will be temporarily reduced.
I believe C2 is currently facing difficult situation with the additional expense and resources required to cover security issues and they can’t offer refunds directly to customers in part because of that. It is in interest of vendors and customers to insure that C2 has enough resources to operate with proper finances.
I do hope that C2, once it overcomes current challenges, will reward both vendors and customers with better terms and improved services.
Eugene
Hi,
just my thoughts, as this is not really affecting me. - But it would be probably be the best for this and similar cases, if it would be possible to simply have break periods in the subscription (e.g. one or two weeks).
This should mean: - no signals are deliivered for this time (one or two weeks) - so the vendor does not give any service without being paid, the subscription period is extended for this time with the same conditions.
(e.g., some vendors give special rates to early subscribers, if this would have to be reinstantiated by hand, it would be difficult), so it is not a "cheap" way out of subscription, but also does not cost the subscriber for nothing…
While it might be hard right now to implement this, I believe this is the optimal way of sharing the burden. After all, it was not the subscribers fault that there was a security breach. So, why should they pay (even if it is only a few who are now hit that hard that they are not able to trade).
It would also be great if such a subscription break could be made a general website feature. - After all, independent of GEN2, 3 , etc. - in general people should be advised not to trade when they are not capable of routinely checking their accounts (e.g., on holiday), otherwise the systems traded here are just to dangerous…
In this way, also some very good long term feature could come out of that…
Cheers
Klaus
