On the Monday two weeks ago, I found that my account was switched to HK server from US server and I had not requested the server change. I contacted IB CS. The first IB CSR told me that my account had been in HK server and had not changed for over a year. I was shocked because I have been an IB client for almost four years and I was pretty sure that my account had been in US server. Then I contacted IB again. The 2nd CSR told me that truth. IB moved all Chinese residents' accounts to HK server without notifications. I really need my account stayed in US server because of a lot of reasons. I told him to change my account back to US server over the next weekend and please ask me in advanced if there is such kind of important change on my account. Last week, my account was moved back to US server successfully. And I thought it was over. But it was not. I just found that my account was switched to HK server again. Damn, it is gonna cost me another $500+ more in slippage and the possible damage caused by the server reset between 3PM and 4PM EST. There was one time that the reset lasted 33min, from 3:30PM to 4:03PM EST. Incredible, isn't it. IB, what happened to you?
I contacted IB CSR again today. From the 3rd CSR I got new infomation that the 2nd CSR didn't tell me. My account is forced to change to HK server over every weekend automaticly simply because I live in China now. This is ridiculous. I can accept that IB forced my account to move to HK server without nofication for the first time. I cannot tolerant that IB did it to my account for 2nd time after I told the 2nd IB CSR loud and clear that I want my account stay in US server and I don't want anyone to do this to my account again and the 2nd CSR said Sorry and it won't happen again clearly to me. So far today, the slippage from 20 stop orders cost me $558, the average slippage per trade in SEP and OCT when my account was in US server was $15. That means the HK server cost me 250 bucks today. Whoever in IB decided to force my account to HK server must have fun now.
That is a bit surprising as we have hard data (and many Chinese Client requests) showing the internet connection speed from China to the the US has much more latency and packet loss than the connection into HK. Data speed in particular has been reported to be much better and along with our internal statistics, we've rec'd a number of clients comments stating that as well. I thought a notification went out. Nevertheless, if you want to be on the US server, I'm sure we can accommodate once the mass swap has completed. If you don't hear back from me by Thurs (need to find out if the transfer is complete), PM me and I"ll let you know when to request the change.
Thank you for the reply, def. I have two accounts. I already have one of them in HK server. So I definately want another one in US server. I already asked the CS to change my server back to US again. Hopefully it won't be set back to HK the third time.
and don't forget to tell him that the HK servers have gone down 3 of the past 5 trading days- once for over an hour after HK closed. also tell him that, when this happens, the traders at IB will not be able to see your position or enter a trade (or so they'll claim). now that you're mentioning that you're doing some 'mass swap', perhaps this is the reason it keeps going down. iow... you guys know you're putting customers at risk by fucking with servers during the week, and could give 2 shits- not your $... to address in advance: kiwi, dave, wayne and all the other IB shills who run to EVERY ib thread to defend them like their mom was just called a whore (ummm... pretty obvious you have some sort of comm discount associated with your polishing IB's knob on EVERY FUCKING THREAD that says anything but praise for IB)... anyway, to you shameless shills- fuck off.
Sounds like the typical IB to me, CS is usually horrid with them. My account is LIQONLY for close to 2 weeks now, every time I contact them it's forwarded to someone else (calling every 2 days now with no resolve). Last time I heard they forwarded my problem to someone named "Lee" in clearing and that's the last I've heard of them. I was one of the "IB fanboys" before this happened, not anymore.
I'm not sure if you're referring to me within your diatribe above but I guess I can't publish factual info here without offending you. It that makes be a shill in your eyes - so be it. I can live with that. FYI, The server change had nothing to do with the downtime Friday night. We had an HA fail well after the HK close and the swap back from one HA to the other which is supposed to go smoothly didn't. That's being corrected with an upgrade to the HA. If you think we don't care about clients you are sorely mistaken. For the record, out of the masses of accounts moved to the HK server, only two have requested to be moved back to the US server. We've rec'd many more compliments pointing towards massive improvement in order routing and data speed. This isn't a surprise since our stats show delays by as much as 500 to 1000ms from many parts of China.
Thanks again, def, and the other IB reps who wade through the BS and bashing to give us info. We appreciate it! Good trading to all.