The demise of E-Trade?

Having a small account at E-Trade plus being a shareholder at recent levels(a small mark loss already however), this is not a comment with an agenda, just an observation. Noticing yesterday that while my user name and password led to my account appropriately, within 10 seconds the "operation aborted". Another E-Trade account that is partially managed here had no problem. Today same problem, so why not worry in this age of computer piracy. I did.

Calling E-Trade and finally convincing the robot to find a representative, I explained the problem and did confirm that my account was still intact and untouched. That's good and prompting the service rep, I suggested that the technical problem still needed to be solved. He said "tech support does not work on weekends"! Hmm, so why not request that they get back to me on Monday. The answer, "it's better if you just call back then so you don't get put at the back of a line requests". Wouldn't a Saturday request put someone at the front of the line. No answer. Goodbye E-Trade.

Here's the concern. On a weekend when this online brokerage is paying for their cute baby advertising to be on major sports events, E-Trade clients who have technical problems have a 48 hour hiatus from support. So what happens when the markets open on Monday. Are all problems solved instantaneously. For a firm whose raison d'etre is efficient online capability this doesn't seem to make sense. Are expenses being held as lean as possible to build some earnings and give an irrational buyer the cover to relieve hedge fund Citadel of its major headache.