I agree there is much room for its customer service to improve. One time I used real-time chat and chatted with one person. I asked a question. The staff misinterpreted and told me to ask somewhere else. I was trying to type to clarify it (not long, should be less than 1 minute or so), but it didn't wait for just 1 minute and booted me out of the room. I found it very rude. If he suspected I was not responding, it should at least post a message saying "here?" / "Do you have any other questions?" etc. This behaviour is not acceptable. Sometimes the staff go away for 15-30 mintues and I still wait patiently. Too bad! Sometimes I am addressing bugs/problems about IB/its platform to the staff. The staff act like self-centered and treated me like an idiot. For example, I told them the order didn't work or behaved strange under some conditions. They insisted that I was always wrong. They were always right. They simply refered me to the link. I told them I had read the link and the link had nothing to do with my question/problem. They still kept telling me to read the website without addressing my question directly. I don't mind if they don't know the answer. If they frankly tell me they know nothing/little about this issue, it is perfectly fine. Just be frank, but not beating about the bush or pretending to be a know-all and always tell others "you are wrong, wrong, wrong...". I'm not claiming I am always correct, but what they do is not only very irritating, but wasting both their and my time.
The trouble when dealing with *most* customer service people anywhere is that they are not highly skilled or paid and can only come up with standard answers. If you ask them something that's not in their manual or script they cannot help. A bit like dealing with a robot, no judgement at all and can't think outside the box. I have no experience with IB, but your post reminded me of when I call my bank's telephone banking service.
me too trader herry. i was trying to let the person know about a data glitch,i didn't expect instant fix,just trying to pass it along.got transferred twice,had to explain it again,then "talked" to like an ass,told faulty info.told the instrument i was looking at only trades at night.finally i quit.went to trouble ticket and was fixed.i do not look forward to chat.tech dept.seem alright,at least they arn't rude,but general and trade issues...? yikes.
I opened a ticket recently, never heard from them, then I got a quality of service questionairre in the email. i just told them the service rated a zero, no way I could rate it any other way. If they respond to the data base of feedback from those questionairres they might improve things, it is going to be a question of spend the money to improve customer service or spend it some other way. I am not sure I care about customer service, lower fees and better technology would be better probably,
Why are emails difficult to route? From my own personal experience, the new ticket system is a nightmare and does not work well at all.
Wussies When I was young we didn't have "customer service". If a broker made a mistake and it cost you money, you went to their office and shot them in the knee. If the mistake was a serious one that cost you significant money you shot both knees. If it was a BIG MISTAKE, you shot them two or three times in the head..They never did THAT again....that is why so many brokers used to walk with a limp. You folks don't know what adversity is, why I used to walk to the exchange through the snow, and hail, and sleet and ice storms. It was so cold that the hookers were frozen in place waving to into the darkness....things got so bad that I had to reach into their frozen tits and find their money stash so that I could have a couple of dollars for lunch..That is what gave me the idea to start a lunch wagon selling that famous desert treat known all over Chicago as "frozen tits"....I used to stand on the corner of Wacker and Madison yelling "frozen tits 3 for a dollar, get your frozen tits right here"..why thank you ma'am heres your change and your frozen tits....enjoy them...
LOL. Scotty the pretend trader is back. Its not my role here to help IB, just to label the idiots and help the humble. So now we have the pair on one page, dumber and dumbest. Never as old, as ugly or as useless as you, quarterwit. PS. To def, my apologies for dragging you back to the page again. I promise to stop baiting poor old scotty but I just couldn't resist when slimy showed up. PPS. Disclaimer. I don't work for IB. I'm not associated with them in any way other than as a very satisfied customer (who's experienced a number of other futures and stock brokers and recognizes quality (=IB) when he sees it). In fact, I should say that although individuals within IB might have the urge to occasionally say what I say, in general IB disclaims all knowledge of, and association with, me.