Ib Customer Service Sucks

Optrader....I agree with you. IB will never have the level of customer service that Merrill does. That doesn't mean they should have crummy customer service though.

 

Last time I called IBs costumer service was about 3 months ago and there was a wait. After the wait they gave me a rep to deal with and he was more than helpful and gave me a personal extension for dealing with my problem. This rep gave me a call back very quickly and did more then he had to. I traded as a prop trader for a while and at most other firms they have a lot more problems then IB. One of the firms I was at I had a 12k share position that was going against me and they didn't care if I could get out or not even though I was loosing there money. IB is as good as it gets if you go to other firms you will wish you were back with IB.

 

IN DEFENSE OF IB: I agree . the customer service sucks. but they have the most stable futures trading platform out there. I have tried others but the trading platform performs 99% and the other 1% hurts less than the commission savings I get

 

larrybf: “…they (IB) have the most stable futures trading platform out there.”

Definitely not been my experience.

TWS had far more freezes and outages than J-Trader during the recent trial I ran. IB’s versions in the last year have been a bit more stable than their predecessors but I don’t find that they equal or surpass J-Trader in any category other than “ease of use”. Of course, “ease of use” is important so I can understand why some traders would not care to sit through the adjustment period.

trade555: “If costumer service is bad just smoke some drugs then it seems less important.”

I tried that but I had to keep hangin' up the phone. I’m tellin’ ya those guys knew I was stoned.

 

Well thats the way the game is played and at least you had some fun thats what its all about. If you take it to seriously you'll get a heart attack at age 30.

 

A ounce of prevention is equal to a pound of cure. In trading a joint of weed is equal to a triple bypass. That's pretty funny.

 

Been with IB 2 years and while my CS encounters have been horrific (mostly stuck orders), I will say in the past 6 months TWS reliability has dramatically improved. Knock on wood!!!

 

TallPaul, after further review, I agree back to the extent "customer service" involves merely picking up the phone or otherwise responding to an inquiry. Really no excuse for failing to give customers some sort of a reply.

 

I've been satisfied with IB customer service so far. For example, when I reported that they needed to increase the threshold for IRA contributions this year - they made the change promptly. When I've dealt with online customer service on several occassions - I was also satisfied. No complaints from me.

IB is also constantly making improvements and has been very receptive to suggestions made by customers. This was not my experience with other brokers.

 

We could probably spare others the names of those brokers, too. I know one, for instance, that has been stating online options 'were coming soon' for months now. It was only recently that I learned this will not materialize until sometime in Q3 and their commissions are a heck of a lot higher than IB.