You said that people are leaving IB in "hoardes". How do you know? Do you have access to IB's internal customer statistics? Does IB publish changes in the number of its customers? Do you personally know "hoardes" of traders who left IB? Or could it be that you really have no idea whether your statement was true, and that you just fabricated it, because you enjoy trolling? Can you show us any evidence that your statement was not a fabrication? If your facts are untrue or fabricated, could it also be that your advice that people should leave IB is also bad advice? I think it is bad advice. I think it would be better to stay with IB, and to work with them to help them understand what changes are needed so that they can continue to be better than their competitors and continue to improve. If you want to help make things better, then vote for suggestion #2185 in IB's new features poll. See http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90282.
You can always go back when they finally clean up their problems. Nothing to feel sorry at all. And there is nothing wrong to have another backup.
Boy do I smell urine. Can't you guys knock it off for one day??? If you are having the disconnection problems send me a PM and I'll give you the address of the IB rep who contacted me. Having a log file of the issue is a definite first step towards getting them to fix it.... SSB
Yes, I have had this a lot too. I've had to respond with a reply to please read my post and answer my questions. IMHO, IB generally offer good service but something is messed up with their frontline customer service and they would do well to address this issue. Eventually people get pissed off with it enough and they leave. Having said that. Companies like TRAD do not care about customer retention and instead focus on acquisition. Maybe IB has similar model, although I certainly hope not. Best regards, MK
Heh. IB is sitting at record client numbers, market share and client assets. I don't clear the firm, but they're a model of efficiency and sound-management.
Look guys, based on my experience with them and their API (also roundly criticized I might add !), it's obvious they are simply short-handed in both technical support and customer service departments. So they're just following the rest of American business today with this "shareholder value" theme....keeping costs low as possible, making sure the company's value is maximized, all the while trying not to lose any business. I wouldn't want to be an employee working there...I can't imagine the stress and long hours.
This is a good post... One reason to view any IB IPO as risky and overvalued... Is their ** Cultural Unsuitability **... For any serious Enterprise. In my experience... A small firm with a 7 figure account doing 500 trades/day... Is treated exactly the same as a dead-in-the-water $10,000 account. In my experience... There is ZERO difference between the "Institutional Services Desk"... And the general support number. It only matters if you get a "good person" that actually cares... There are no actual standards... Like returning a PROMISED phone call or responding after they make you send in a log file... Knowing full well all along exactly what the problem is at their end. This would never fly in the Enterprise Space. If IB treated Morgan Stanley traders the way they treat me... They would be facing lawsuits and poisonous press. Firms like Thomson Financial that service Wall Street traders... Have multiple redundancies in their systems... And maintain virtually 100% uptime. The kind of joke that was the recent TWS upgrades... With hours of connectivity downtime... Would cause a mass exodus of serious players from Thomson to Reuters or whatever... SO IT JUST CANNOT HAPPEN.