The Little Guy VS. Cede and Co.

It’s here! Of course, the agent is still Mellon, but I’ll change that pronto.

My epilogue and summary will follow.

The State of Mississippi informs me via letter that $19.73 in cash has been located and the check is enclosed. As I am about to flip my lid, I find a red stamped sentence in the lower right-hand corner of the letter:

YOUR STOCK CERTIFICATE WILL BE MAILED SEPARATELY FROM OUR TRANSFER AGENT AND SHOULD BE RECEIVED WITHIN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS.

I’m beginning to see a pattern with these ink-stampings; All caps, very important message not on the standard form letter, so instead of building a custom letter, get out the bulky stamp and ink pad.

I received the appropriate form from the state of Mississippi and returned it (notarized) to the Treasury Department.

First, I’d like to recognize the unidentified reader who informed Mr. Sickels at Trustmark of my story. And I’ve corrected the spelling of his name, to boot! As you may have surmised, I received a phone call today from Mr. Sickels … he indicated a colleague had seen a “chat page” with references to my story of my AWOL stock. He very politely let me know that the State of Mississippi had cancelled the stock certificates and that I need to call the treasury dept. and get more details. Hmmmmm …. I certainly recall asking upon at least a few occasions through this journey if I needed to contact the State of Mississippi and the only time I was told,"yes", the individual could not tell me what I should ask.

Ah, I take comfort in that …. it’s the only consistent answer I have received since I began my journey to regain my stock.

I spoke with Gail at the Mississippi Treasury Dept. She informed me that I need to file a claim for unclaimed property. Hmmm…I asked if this would be identical to the one I had filed for this stock in Oct, 2000, and she replied that her records don’t go that far back. I don’t think she realizes I have already claimed the stock and it had been in my name for years prior to it’s removal from my Mellon account. I await the form she is mailing to me.

Chat page, indeed!

In a brief call to Anita today, I learned that the box of documents that arrived from archives was no. 1 of 2. Of course, we now have to requisition box no. 2 from archives. She suggested I call Jeanine when I call back.

and a little movement there. I called Anita again today. It seems the archive documents were in the basement and are now at Jeanine’s desk. She’ll be giving me a call first thing in the morning.

I trust them almost completely.

It’s been almost 4 weeks since I last spoke with Anita at Trustmark … perhaps the stock was tired and is on a relaxing trip to somewhere. Today, I dutifully dropped a message in Anita’s voicemail box, so I should be rich any time now.

I again called Anita at Trustmark ; she promised to call me back on Monday.

:-(

I’m positive that no one gives a rat’s butt about my lost shares of stock. I’ve left a voicemail with Anita at Trustmark … if you need a mental image of me at this point, picture the Maytag repairman.

While waiting for my call from Trustmark, I reflected back upon how many individuals with whom I had contact regarding my quest. I mean no disrespect by including names here, but I feel it adds authenticity to my plight. Many of the Mellon folks as just pawns in the customer service arena.

Mellon Investor Services: micsdube (I didn’t record his name), Rachel, Donovan, “Hannah", Kimberly, Ann Marie, Faith, “Chuck", Todd, Amanda, “Charm", “Jewell", Florence, Elisa, Ethan, “Loui", Eden, Mr. Hargress, and lastly, Dawn.

Cede & Co. (Depository Trust & Clearing Company): Tina, Rocco Sicranza (they don’t like to deal with the public.)

Entergy: John, Paul

Trustmark: “Geri", Marsha, Melinda, Shannon, Michele, Ken, Ned, and Anita.

My Mississippi math adds up to 31 people …. and, of course, I’ve yet to reach a resolution.

Stay tuned.

I continue leaving messages for Ned … perhaps I need to reboot my phone. In exasperation, I called the front desk at Trustmark to see if perhaps Ned has passed away – he’s not returning my calls. A nice lady located him for me, and he informed me that he had forwarded my voicemail to Anita, the person “in charge” of that area now.

TAP…TAP…TAP…

Trustmark has not returned my call since we last spoke on May 5. I began the voicemail tag game by leaving a message with them today.

Per my last entry, Michele, operations manager in broker compliance at Trustmark forwarded all the documents I had faxed to Ned – a signator on the letter of indemnity. Ned called me to inform me that any documents he would need are in archives and will take some time to retrieve. I’ll give him a week.

My life slowed enough to again launch into the saga of the missing stock. I spoke with Geri in the Trust Department and Shannon in the Brokerage Compliance Department at Trustmark this morning. Shannon directed me to the operations manager, and of course the only contact I could make was voicemail. Now I wait for the return call.

Today, I received a one page letter from Mellon, along with copies of six related pages from their archives. The biggest surprise is that the letter of indemnity was issued not by the DTC, but by Trustmark National Bank in Jackson, Mississippi. It’s certainly news to me, and now I get to involve yet one more entity in my search for the disappearing stocks.

The six documents are: (1) a deposit slip issued from the DTC describing Trustmark as the participant, (2) the letter of indemnity, (3) A resolution from Trustmark containing the name of 67 officers and agents of the bank – basically stating that Trustmark has the right to transfer stock, (4) a copy of the stock certificate, (5) a blank, unsigned stock transfer form titled, “Entergy Corporation", and (6) a mostly illegible DTC document – Shipment Control List – defining Mellon as the transfer agent and Trustmark as the participant receiving the stocks.

My initial reaction is that I must rescind my tongue-lashing of DTC for its antiquated documents and redirect it toward the Trustmark National Bank. Secondarily, the resolution[(3) above] is inherently a part of the letter of indemnity. Why would Mellon avoid sending me the complete document for an entire year? Again, either the financial community has something to hide, or employs extremely incompetent individuals – or perhaps both.

My off-and-on mission to recapture my shares of stock has now spanned more than one year. Happy Birthday, lost stock.

A poster at Ming the Mechanic gave me the idea to contact the investor services dept. at the issuing company, Entergy. I launched a couple of emails on Sunday and received a reply on Monday informing me that my inquiry was being forwarded to a specific individual at Mellon. Gary from Mellon called me and described the role Cede & Co. (DTC) plays in the transfer of stock from one broker to another. I listened intently, and then asked about the cancellation of my stock and the related letter of indemnity. “Oh, so I see you have previously researched this", Gary stated. “Uh-huh, beginning on Dec. 10, 2003″, sez me. He indicated he would be out of the office for a few days, but would assign someone to research and let me know the source of the cancellation of the stock.

After a delay of a bit more than 5-to-10 business days, I contacted Mellon again today. Keisha informs me that Mellon can provide me no additional assistance in the matter, even though Mr. Hargress indicated otherwise on April 28. I corrected her statement: Mellon chooses not to assist me via its refusal to contact Cede & Co. on my behalf. It’s been 211 days since I began this little investigation and I grow weary. I shall begin preparing my complaint to the S.E.C. Stay tuned.

Putting my worst foot forward, I began by trying Ethan’s phone; voicemail. Due to my telecom experience, I detect it is a Avaya/Lucent PBX, enter codes to skip the voicemail, and ring his phone continuously for five minutes. He’s avoiding me like the plague. Finally, I succumbed to pounding the zero key.

Eden greeted me, extracted my personal info from me, and asked me how she could help me. I asked her to put me on hold and review the records, because I would go beserk if had to explain this situation one more time. She returned with new, but utterly useless information: the CUSIP number for the stock had changed from 29364F10 to 29364G10. Uh-huh. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? I explained to her that I make construction products, and this is all Greek to me.

Her explanation was that the broker that sold the stock to me sold me 29364F10 stock, and this was changed to 29364G10 stock, and that I need to contact that broker and have them fix it. YIKES! I irritatedly explained to her that my on my first call to Mellon on Dec. 10, 2003, I fully informed the Mellon representative that the stock was transferred to me from the unclaimed property division of a state treasury.

Ms. Worth asked me, “Which state?", to which I replied, “You tell me … it should be in your records – you do keep records of transactions, no?” After reading a bit more on her CRT (or maybe it was a flat panel … I didn’t ask), she correctly responded, “Mississippi.” She spoke in circles, repeated the error….letter of indemnity phrase a half-dozen times, then told me I needed to contact the treasury of the State of Mississippi and ask them about this. After she provided the phone number to me, I asked her EMPHATICALLY, “What is it that I am to ask them? Walk me through it, because I’m not a financial wizard, just a customer.”

It was getting quiet on her end, and it struck me that she had just admitted that it was an errant transaction that had granted me the shares in October, 2000, so I made my move: “If, in fact, the letter of indemnity was written to correct a previous error, what was the previous errant transaction? And who initiated the letter of indemnity that removed the shares from my name and put them in the name of Cede & Co.?”

It became obvious to me that the resolution was not in sight as Eden repeated….error…letter of indemnity. I asked to speak to her supervisor, and after 5 minutes on hold, I am greeted by a Mr. Hargress. “How may I help you?” That made my blood boil, but I cautiously confirmed that Eden had updated him on the situation. I informed Mr. Hargress that I had done everything asked of me since Dec. 10, 2003, but yet we still have no resolution to the matter. He stated he would do the research and call me in 5 to 10 business days.

Sidebar: Did I mention that a beeping sound occurred every 10 seconds or so behind the voice of Mr. Hargress? And his voice was very garbled and erratic. I asked him if he were on a cell phone. I asked him if there was something wrong with his phone …. “Bad connection", he said. Mr. Mellon[head], you weren’t recording our conversation without my knowledge, were you?

Oh boy! Another 5 to 10 days … after an unmet promise to call me in 24 to 48 hours! “OK, sir, I’ll bite; what is it that you will provide to me in 5 to 10 business days?", to which he replied, “the status of the account, sir.” I told him that it was not clear to me what he would learn from his research …. it had been researched and we still had no resolution. I told Mr. Hargress (ok, I was yelling) “what I need to know is who initiated the letter of indemnity that removed the shares from my name?” He answered that he would call me in 5 to 10 business days with the info.

“OK, we’ve been working on this since Dec. 10, so bear with me Mr. Hargress; please tell me what information you will provide to me when you call me back in 5 to 10 business days.” He said the sooner he got off the phone, the sooner he could begin the research. I assured him that I understood, but had been asking the same questions since Dec. 10 and no one seemed to hear my voice, because the answers had not been conveyed to me.

He then verbalized to me that he would conduct the research and inform me who initiated the letter of indemnity. I asked him if there were any actions that I needed to take, per Eden’s suggestion that I call the State of Mississippi to inquire of the transactions. He replied no and we parted.

You’d think I was having fun, huh? Mellon Investors refuses to talk to DTC; DTC refuses to talk to me. Mellon Investors has substantially refused to talk to me via the circuitous route I’ve taken with them thus far. I almost apologize for using the real names of the individuals involved, for they are probably being used by their superiors. When I hold 12 shares of stock in certificate form in my hand, I’ll obscure the personal references.

Three weeks have passed since my last call to Mellon, so, let’s let the fingers do the walking one more time. I called Elisa …. outta town, but left me another name, Ethan. After a 5-minute recap of everything that’s happened in the last four months, he said he would call me back in 24 to 48 hours.

I live in Kentucky, but I won’t bet on this horse!

Having waited for a response from DTC for over a month, I made a phone call the the manager of customer service as found on the website. Mr. Sicuranza was firm, but polite in informing me that he cannot deal with individuals – only client brokers and agents. When I told him my only broker (Mellon) had abandoned me and suggested I contact his organization, he wanted to know my contact at Mellon. Ha! Contact? I had dozens of them, none of which was able to help me and all pointed to the DTC for resolution.

He suggested I fax the letter of indemnity to him, to which I quickly agreed and bounced out of my chair for the fax machine. Of course, his fax machine was inoperative. When I returned to my desk, I retrieved a voicemail message from Mr. Sicuranza:

I need to have your contact at Mellon call me. I know you had 40 names, but if they’ve got an issue with something we did or something we submitted to them, I’m going to have to deal with them. Have them call me and I’ll have the research done. Mellon and I speak the same jargon.”

Since I’d only reached dead ends at Mellon, I returned Mr. Sicuranza’s call to inquire why he couldn’t deal with me. He told me his code of ethics and bylaws prevented him from talking to me. “I can’t have a lot of people spend a lot of time on this – it’s a call from an individual” was what he told me. “What recourse do I have?” I enquired of him, and received the typical Wall Street answer -> “Hire an attorney".

I laughed in his ear at the notion of hiring a $10,000 lawyer for $700 worth of stock. We parted harmoniously, though I knew nothing more than I did on January 16.

I certainly wonder how those bylaws and code of ethics read …. and the remark about he and Mellon speaking the same language …. sounds like CYA to me. So, being a glutton for punishment, I made a call to my last contact at Mellon, Elisa Roberts, and left her a voicemail with my name, SSN, home phone, work phone, and address and granted her authority to view my records. Per Mr. Sicuranza’s request, I asked her to call him.