I've been an Interactive Brokers customer for 7+ years. TWS is a powerful piece of software, but it has its share of issues. Being a software engineer who's done QA, I did my part in submitting high quality bug reports whenever I spotted a reproducible issue. I'd include reproduction steps, screenshots, system configuration etc. However, in these 7+ years, I honestly don't EVER recall the IB Message Center specialist, EVER acknowledging that yep, that's a bug, we're on it. No. Every single time I got a variation of that's how it's supposed to work that doesn't work, do this [subpar workaround] instead that doesn't work, go file a feature suggestion [on our IB Poll, which is full of 5+ year-old issues] Just admit there's a bug in your software, dammit. Engineers are humans too.
I've gotten some small things fixed but typically they never get back to the client - so it'll just be a guess whether if ever it will get fixed. The workarounds suggested are also typically very poor, such as "you can do it manually like this instead of the web or API" which is unrealistic in 2016. They can afford this attitude though as they don't have much competition.
One time i reported a bug with their api. Basically it wouldnt let me send orders to some products. I reported it and talked with their programmer over the phone and months later i got an email saying it got fixed. Never verified as it became irrelavant at that point. But ultimately they did fix it although it was too late for my purposes.
I think this is true with all software, not specific to IB. What i was told one time by a software developer, how can we predict all what if's...we can only fix after it occurs. which made sense to me, but for a standard function, there should be in my opinion responsibility on the software to make sure it works.
There is an absolute and total disconnect between IB's software developers and the rest of the company. I'm 99% certain that there is no process in place for "customer service" representatives to report bugs to their developers, and if there is they certainly don't use it. Their modus operandi is that the customer is always an idiot, it's always user error, and if you're condescending they'll eventually go away. Which I did, go away from them that is. As someone who runs a software company this attitude is just incomprehensible to me as well.
I had a conversation with the helpdesk where I pointed out that orders in continuous futures didn't appear on the chart anymore after restart, even if they were GTC... but were still active. She said she would send out a report... so I guess she did. I think it's what you're used to. I'm used to have bugs not fixed... so any improvement is good. If you're used to full documentation and timeline to completion etc like OP probably is used to... then I can understand the lack of communication is annoying..
My favorite is "have you tried replacing your settings file?" In seven years, my settings file has never been corrupted. Meanwhile, I've reported > 20 bugs with mountains of evidence. Even the most tiny bugs have taken 5-10 phone calls and 3-6 months to get fixed. It's amazing.
It's all about weighing the entire package. IB's offerings and price structure are good enough to offset their shitty customer service for most people. Nothing amazing about that.
So because there are problems and no very good alternatives (for intl.), we shouldn't complain? This is a call for IB to improve this part of their business.