It appears that they will respond to anything that is easy to handle. If it is a "difficult" situation, I found that they will not respond to the trouble ticket. Maybe they hope that the problem will "go away."
I had one ticket they requested I gather a bunch of information for (several screenshots, historical data, copies of statements, etc), ignored it for 3 weeks, then responded and said, "If this is still happening, please gather all that data again." Most of my tickets have at least gotten a preliminary response, but the "hard" ones are still sitting in limbo, some now for well over a month. Since the hard ones tend to be whenever there's an actual problem with IB, this is particularly frustrating. If you've got an actual problem that can't be solved by re-reading the manual, these should be escalated to a level 2 of tech support. I'm not sure IB has a level 2. Whenever I get them to admit a problem exists, they close the ticket and I never hear another thing about it.
Can you tell me what a trouble ticket is. I was frozen out of my account. Couldn't sign in on TWS so I called them and they told me to close my account. Its amazing what people will put up with for low brokerage fees.
I think you hit the nail on the head, there! My ticket was asking them why the difference in price on unbundled pricing orders that were executed in my account? I pasted my condensed audit trail, and voila! No response from IB. Sounds simple enough to me. I figure they either: 1) Don't know the answer 2) Made a mistake and won't admit it 3) Don't wish to break down unbundled pricing to make it more transparent 4) All of the above
I hate to pick on you, but there seems to be some confusion. You say, "sounds simple enough" yet you can't seem to figure it out yourself. Anyway, what I'd do is: 1. Attempt to figure out the unbundled pricing as best you can. 2. Reconcile it with the statement you received. 3. Find out EXACTLY where they went wrong. 4. Then present that EXACT finding. This gives them a basis and narrowed focus and demonstrates that you might know what you're talking about. Even if you didn't fully understand the unbundled pricing structure, at least they'd be able to figure out where YOU might have gone wrong and correct YOUR understand. That is of course, that it isn't their fault. As someone in the thread already explained, IB is MOST reluctant to address things that are contained in their comprehensive literature. Best wishes getting your problem solved.
I have a sinking suspicion that those with too many trouble tickets or who have a habit of filing trouble tickets will probably be ignored. The reasoning is perhaps IB literally wants this type of customer to just up and go away. I think IB, even with all their offerings, is best suited to the customer who keeps things simple. With such low commissions, the onus is on the customer to keep things as straight forward as possible. This is true everywhere. The customers with the least amount of special or non-standard needs tend to be the happiest. I've filed 4 trouble tickets in 2 years. 2 I cancelled because I figured things out. One was a serious issue that was resolved promptly. The other was a policy query. They've always been promptly and courteuosly addressed. That's not to say that there isn't rudeness and sloth. It's just that I haven't experienced any of it to date. The only thing I wish IB would double time is the revamp of their quote snapshot to include true high and low of the period being snapshot. It was Kiwi-trader's suggestion on the poll board and its in "progress." It's not 100% mission critical, but it's important to many of IB's clients. I'm not so worried about their charting which leaves much to be desired b/c I use 3rd party charting. Of course it would be nice to have it all in one package. With TWS 4.0 in the 800's, it's only a matter of time for TWS 5.0 to appear.
Only one month old trouble ticket and you are making a big deal out of it . Just think of the positive side. Patience is a virtue--often needed for trading. IB is just teaching it as a bonus.
It's my first trouble ticket in over 6 months, I rarely ever have to contact IB, but on the rare occasion that I do, I expect a prompt response. The answer is NOT in the literature, and cannot be deciphered through my statement. So, it's my fault that IB doesn't answer trouble tickets in a timely manner? I don't think so.