I don't even bother trying to call. As good as they are for some things they are awful to deal with when this happens. Get a back up broker, or if you are playing with little capital find a different one you can get ahold of when all goes wrong. Yes there are now plenty you can find that are real close and even better than IB for commissions and provide someone to help when all goes bad.
It's so rare that a backup broker just isn't worth the hassle. At least to me. We'll see how long it takes them to get back up.
And I thought it was just me. I had one of those "option trading" experiences at exactly the time when IB went down. You know, where you see 50 lots offered at 0.35, send in a limit to buy ten for 0.35, and about one minute after your order goes live, the quote is updated to 0.35 x 0.40 without you getting a fill, of course, and then a few minutes after that, if the market reverses, you get your fill. Well, my fill occured at exactly the time when IB went down. I guess it was just a coincidence after all. Or was it me whose 10 options brought down HAL?
lol Hey...also....anybody have any problems with IB around 12:30am est? I was going to check on some overnights and I can't seem to login.... does anyone know if there was another crash?