I downloaded the app to buy shares. It is the weekend. The markets are closed, so I can't buy shares. Delete app, 1* rating, false advertising.
There is always fine print. The challenge is that the fine print here is really complicated. In extreme situations there are rules to consider.
I can easilly believe that people genuinely downloaded and signed up in the expectation of buy GameStop/Bitcoin/tulips or whatever this weeks craze is. When they find it doesn’t work (because the backend didn’t scale or because the app maker decided not to sell tulips) they’re are genuinely annoyed.
This isn’t people downloading the app just to rate it 1*, based in the hype it’s quite possible these reviews are all genuine customers.
People aren't stupid and 100K plus people making a complaint can't be seen as a mere "users are stupid" scenario.
This condescent of people who use our products will catch up with us someday and I hope it does. People arent half-wits and we might have to acceot the absurd possibility that we a wrong and crap.
There are two issues to your comment:
1. Trading (including risk management) is really complicated. It isn't something that you can pick up in 30 seconds after downloading an app. This exact scenario (where broker stops taking orders on a stock likely due to internal risk limits) is a great example of an unusual scenario that has to be risk managed. This isn't some nose-upturned view but a fact.
2. Many of the comments here are made in good faith but it is pure speculation. 500K reviews were apparently posted and automatically removed. In any usual day we'd assume this was the usual spam. Again there's speculation about why there were removed. My point here is that there needs to be time to actually find out what happened.
From: https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/28/22255031/robinhood-gamest...
Quote: As a brokerage firm, we have many financial requirements, including SEC net capital obligations and clearinghouse deposits. Some of these requirements fluctuate based on volatility in the markets and can be substantial in the current environment,” the post argues. “To be clear, this was a risk-management decision, and was not made on the direction of the market makers we route to.”