Complain about Interactive Brokers (IB)

I have traded futures for the last 10 years. I have used every broker under the sun. I opened an IB account a few months back for stocks and miscellaneous trading in Asia etc. IB is a solid broker. No one is perfect. But for the low cost data and everything else. They are very good. I am sure there are some legitimate complaints against IB. Anytime you have a large successful company there will be challenges. But IB takes things very seriously. Any challenge I have had with them was met with answers immediately. They are more than responsive on these boards and when customers ask for something they listen.

I have found over the years that some folks would complain even if Jesus was their broker.
 
Since this guy is obviously from "out of town" he may not be aware of the caution that brokers and financial institutions must implement since the terrible acts of 9/11. I'm not sure if this has been brought to his attention in this thread.
 
7thdim,

I found IB to take a longer time to open an account than most. But I had an account there before 911.

I followed the procedures and did not fund before I got my account number...which in fact took longer than most. (I needed an account number for bookkeeping reasons, I needed to write that number on my check. If I remember correctly I do not think IB issues those numbers immediately...maybe they do now)

Then I sent a personal check as I live in the USA and was allowed to do that. But like most brokers they restricted withdrawal for 10 BUSINESS or BANKING days, but they DID let me trade before the ten days, which some brokers do not.

Overall, I would say IB may be known to have inferior Client Service and yes I agree that when I opened my account they were slower than most.

There might be an explanation (s) as to why they accepted your funds and cashed and placed them in a slush account.

1) They wanted to do the processing and the clearing concurrently. Why hold one process while waiting for another process?

2) They have two different departments that do not talk to each other and they have established routines to process incoming mail.

3) They did not want to inconvenience you in returning a money order or cashiers check that you had to pay a fee for simply for you to have to pay another fee to re-issue it..

4) By returning your money and continuing the application process would have slowed things down and may of been redundant, which I am sure that you would have complained about also to the global audience.

One quick issue. Trading is not YOUR or your clients right. It is a firms RIGHT to REFUSE to do business with you. It is legally considered reasonable to take several weeks to return your money, even if they have refused to do business with you. So tread lightly, or shorten your life, with the struggle of the inevitable upcoming frustrations that life will present to you. By the way may I ask which Firm your client has his back up account with, which is an IB requirement?

Also one more thing. Do you think IB will violate you or your clients "rights of privacy" by discussing with you publicly here on ET, details about your account from you application? You really need to get a clue. You think that by pulling out all the stops and posting here on ET, will get their attention and they will drop everything for you. I have had clients like you...and guess what....I show them the door if they do not want to pay me double.

I agree, we as traders need to stick together and help one another. I feel bad for your client, that he did NOT seek the experience of a trained professional to rely upon. Surely, your present actions of posting publically is surley not in HIS best interests.


Michael B.
 
Sergey,
I'm from IB but not in the accounts dept. I'll take a quick stab at why there is a delay.

The onus on the broker to know their client. With the Patriot act and numerous other regulations - primarily money laundering - the broker must have confidence that the person or firm opening the account is indeed who they state they were.

It sounds to me that you are from Russia. If you supplied a russian identification document we need to find someone who can translate the document for us. This unfortunately takes additional time and thus the delay. It is as simple as that.

Def
 
Quote from BSAM:

Relax for a while 7th. I've got a strong suspicion that someone from IB will show up on this thread before the day is finished. They have probably just been too busy laughing their asses off to respond so far.

Or.....Could it be that IB has left the planet with ALL OUR MONIES?????????:D :p :D :p :D :p :D :p :D
More...

For sure, the guys at IB are looking at his photo ID and having a good laugh. And I bet they are instant messaging each other telling to be on the lookout for this guy's phone calls LOL
 
I'm sure the punch line is going to be posted shortly,
"We must move the 32 million dollars into the account, which you will receive 15%, as my uncle has passed in a car accident being the minister of purchasing."
I'm sure you guys have seen the e-mails.
 
Quote from def:

It sounds to me that you are from Russia. If you supplied a russian
identification document we need to find someone who can translate
the document for us. This unfortunately takes additional time and
thus the delay. It is as simple as that.
More...
I think this explains the delay.
 
Could you explain why did you accept the funds first from your first client, before all the works is done ? It is quite understandable about -with the Patriot act and numerous other regulations- and we as new investors in U.S must respect this slowness. However this issue little bit different. First IB is not the first broker that we opened a account. I dont want to mentioned the other brokers name on the here, but the other brokers on the industry never let us with this kind of uncertainity. We dont worry about our 5 K proleteriat account - as someones smiles us - , we just need to be quite sure why IB firstly gently accept our funds without any difficulty and then turned into non-responsive mode with big uncertainity as "We dont know when will your account is ready". We already have two e-mails from IB regarding everything is OK for starting your trades at the start of this week. I already forwarded these e-mails on these thread, if you want see it again, let me know ,I can PM you.

So ... could you explain, why IB gently accepts our funds with ultra-high speed, and once the received funds from us, why turned quickly in a non-responsive turtle mode (worst is with big uncertainity --- dont know when will the translation finish) ?

One final say --- We carefully watch all this threads and other reviews on IB and all seems to sign one thing : IB is number 1 on the industry.

So ... give us a chance to turning into unhappy to happy and see yourself how the referral can be made. We can send to IB at least 1,000 new clients for the next 6 months as the others recall us as a spammer. No we dont. We just know where is the big potential in internet. We have experience on information technologies, never lost too many times for reaching targeted audience on the financial communities (we are commanding daily 10 million visitors all around the world all is related to financials)
We are not advertising our companies as someone may be recall again. Even did not mentioned our website URL. Just trying to make a first connection with the number 1 in order to make them more happy.

Best wishes,
Sergey Averbach

P.S One final word: The money (5K) transferred not from abroad it transferred from another broker's bank account (Bank of America) which the broker operates on New Jersey. They never let us in such long procedures and we also continue to trade with them with happiness. If you want to know the full references on this respected broker let me know, we can PM you. SO this can be create another bad things in the surface. IB received this new problematic client's funds from another U.S based brokers bank account. Of course this broker was apply same kind of proof of address, photo identification etc procedures. But never let it into big uncertainity just like this. So current IB delay looks very suspicious. They accepted a funds from a new client from another broker (U.S NJ) bank account. Once the received funds, applied to new client a slowy procedure with big uncertainity.



Quote from def:

Sergey,
I'm from IB but not in the accounts dept. I'll take a quick stab at why there is a delay.

The onus on the broker to know their client. With the Patriot act and numerous other regulations - primarily money laundering - the broker must have confidence that the person or firm opening the account is indeed who they state they were.

It sounds to me that you are from Russia. If you supplied a russian identification document we need to find someone who can translate the document for us. This unfortunately takes additional time and thus the delay. It is as simple as that.

Def
More...
 
Yes, this explains the delay. But unable to explain to other things.
Look at the previous reply from 7thdim what the other things are.

Quote from Xenia:

I think this explains the delay.
More...
 
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