IB Customer Service is Poor

There are two major costs (in my old world) of going for one customer service model vs the other:

business direct: needs more knowledgible staff, faster talking, more direct, less warm and cuddly as individuals

retail warm: spend more time on the getting to know u and ur problems, typically front end isn't smart enough to deal with the hard problems.

So you have time issues and a capability issue. Warm cuddlers frustrate business people who want it fixed NOW and by someone COMPETENT not some fake airline customerservice chair and heart warmer :)
 
I've been an IB customer for years, and I can confirm that the quality of customer service has improved dramatically during that time (so also has the quality of market data, platform stability, and order execution).

One of the fundamental principles, underlying all of my trading and trading strategy development, is that I want to minimize my trading costs. This means that I want a broker like IB, who is tailored to deal with customers are knowledgeable and independent and don't need to have their hands held or their egos stroked. I don't want to pay higher commissions so that my broker can educate inexperienced traders to lower their uninformed and unreasonable expectations as to how brokers and markets should perform. I want what IBj calls a "self-help" broker, because this is the way to minimize my transaction costs.

Sometimes, I have had problems with the aspects of IB customer service which are important to me, and for which I do intend to pay; for example, when IB software bugs or other design errors interfere with order execution, or when IB documentation misinforms me about something, and then I must deal with a CS person who mishandles the technical issue. Sometimes, the customer service response has been inadequate in these areas. The reason I stay with IB is that these difficulties are outweighed by the positives which IB brings to the table, in comparison to its competitors. It should also be remembered that IB is continually working to improve the aforesaid weaknesses, and has made dramatic progress in doing so, and I have every reason to believe IBj's claims that they continue their work of always trying to improve.

I would also like to express my opinion that IB's difficulties, in the CS area, are not due to some fundamental flaw in IB as a company. I think that they are due to the fact that IB offers something unique, highly complex, and constantly evolving. No standard industry business model exists, from which IB can copy its customer service playbook. It is inherent in the nature of what IB provides, that it will inevitably face greater challenges in the area of customer service, than will almost any other type of industry. We cannot hold IB's customer service to the same standards we would apply to an airline stewardess, a bank teller, or a credit card company representative. We need to cut IB extra slack, based on the different nature of what it provides.
 
Quote from fishman:

solving your issues with that kind of attitude. If you want someone to "WORK FOR YOU", then sign up with a full service broker on call 24 hours per day (and get dinged $100/trade).
If you're not happy, then exercise your right as a consumer and take your business elsewhere. :eek:

...and don't bother with a response to this string, Ms Grumpy.
More...

sorry but it's not my job to call back and report problems to IB...i don't work for their IT department - i hope you have an affiliation to IB, else...
 
Quote from IBj:

[*]Suggestion: don't send email. Aside from the fact that it is being desupported in a few weeks, it is the lowest priority for us. Use the web ticket system.
IBJ
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I am sorry to hear that Interactivebrokers has decided against emails. I've mentioned before from my own personal experience that the new ticket system does not work well. I certainly understand the rest of your points, but no email for problems is not a good idea. I'll list some reasons why:

1) Email allows the customer to explain things without being limited to a specific amount of characters (unless IB chooses to filter its incoming email to X amt of characters or bytes). Many things can be concise, but sometimes things need much explanation.
2) Email allows customers to attach a picture that helps IB understand the problem better. I see no such feature in the ticket chat.
3) Email is easier to use for the customer
a. easier to save a copy
b., easier to keep track of since it's there with the rest of your email, you don't have to go to another place like a web address
c. it's more reliable than a ticket system.
d. you are not confined to typing in a small box
e. etc., etc.
 
Quote from IBj:

Customer Service is the environment for which the expression "you can't please all the people all the time" was probably coined. IB's customer service is NOT perfect. But it's imperfection is not related to the fact that we don't spend time and $$ on it. Consider the following:
  • the quantity of data each CSR must know is HUGE. We are not running a Sears appliance support where there may be 20 questions covering 99% of the inquiries. No other broker anywhere has the diversity we offer and must support. Our website, which has as much info as we can get out, itself only covers a fraction of the inquiries we get on a daily basis. Imagine you had to know everything about: 6 asset classes, 57 different exchanges in 14 countries, thousands of different products, 25+ order types, risk management, margin rules, SMA, all our account types, security issues, liquidation systems and practices, market data issues, all the functionality of the TWS, etc. And I haven't even touched on the banking items like ACATS, ATON, ACH, etc or the thousands of variations on trade problems. The fact is not all of our CSRs are equally expert on all topics. We are still working on our inquiry routing systems which will optimize the pairing of the topic with the CSR who is both available and most knowledgeable on that topic.
  • Traders want answers NOW, not in 15 minutes. sometimes a CSR who is 90% confident of his answer will give it because the delay to get that certainty up to 99.9% is unsatisfying to our clients. We try to give the best answers as fast as possible but how long are you willing to wait to get a more perfect one?
  • Inquiry volume is not smooth. When something goes wrong, 10'000 people call all at the same time and 9900 of them will be upset because they have to wait. Then it will be quiet and we get to the answers in seconds. Suggestion: if the issue is not urgent, time your call to midday (1100-1400) in the time zone of the market you are trading, or IB desk you are calling.
  • Suggestion: don't send email. Aside from the fact that it is being desupported in a few weeks, it is the lowest priority for us. Use the web ticket system. I hear some complaints in this thread about these 'disappearing'. Look on the 'Inactive' tab. Try logging in to acct mgmt again. If there really is a problem, PM me because so far we have never seen a case of true disappearance. BTW, the web ticket system is the only system we are investing effort in.
  • We have suggestions on how to contact us for various topics. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/contact/bestService.php
  • Courtesy: Used to be a big problem. I think it has improved dramatically. People here agree, others don't. Let's not mix up being direct with being courteous. I have set the policy for CS to talk straight, directly and to the point. Answer the question and try to make yourself available for other clients. We get clients who want to meander through the service interaction like a Sunday walk, pleasant but without direction or purpose. IB does not support this, sorry. But let's be clear: I have zero tolerance for rudeness; efficiency and rudeness are not related.
  • Feedback: at the end of every Web ticket or chat interaction, clients are given the opportunity to rate the service experience. We are sending emails asking clients to rate specific recent service experiences. DO IT! Whether it was great, middling, or poor, tell us. That is the best way to improve things. Griping here on E-T will change little. Rating us from an emotional position is also not so useful. If it took too long but the answer was appropriate, make sure to distinguish what was good and bad. Rate us, good and bad. Then come back to this thread in 1-2 months here and see the reaction.
I am in charge of Client Operations for IB. Our entire business model is self-help, targeted to people who know are independent in both their trading and their support needs as much as possible:
* go first to our website for answers (the search is easy to use)
* check your own understanding of issues. Make sure you have all the facts and are prepared to be accurate with them and specific.
* THEN call/write us.

LASTLY, We are open to suggestions. If you have ideas or suggestions about our service channels (web-ticket, chat, or phone), you can email me via E-T or even add them to the IB suggestion system on our web site.
AND RATE US via the feedback systems.

IBJ
More...
 
Quote from cscott:

I am sorry to hear that Interactivebrokers has decided against emails. I've mentioned before from my own personal experience that the new ticket system does not work well. I certainly understand the rest of your points, but no email for problems is not a good idea. I'll list some reasons why:

1) Email allows the customer to explain things without being limited to a specific amount of characters (unless IB chooses to filter its incoming email to X amt of characters or bytes). Many things can be concise, but sometimes things need much explanation.
2) Email allows customers to attach a picture that helps IB understand the problem better. I see no such feature in the ticket chat.
3) Email is easier to use for the customer
a. easier to save a copy
b., easier to keep track of since it's there with the rest of your email, you don't have to go to another place like a web address
c. it's more reliable than a ticket system.
d. you are not confined to typing in a small box
e. etc., etc.
More...
 
Quote from cscott:

More...

Why don't you give it a break. Just about all organizations that are too large to fit in a telephone box use some sort of ticket system. Whether the end user creates the ticket or staff create the ticket is neither here nor there. This also applies to free open source software as well.

Without a ticket system you end up without assignment of reponsibilities and no metrics of how customer and software support is performing. I can tell you from personal experience of working as a third level tech support manager in past days that as organizations or projects grow this sort of accountability is essential. If you want something to complain about, complain about tickets not being resolved in timely manner - not the system. Or make suggestions to improve it - IB seem to be remarkably open to suggestions.

If you want a more informal mechanism for discussion of issues there is the IB forums and also this and other forums for traders or software developers using the TWS API.
 
Quote from IBj:

Customer Service is the environment for which the expression "you can't please all the people all the time" was probably coined. IB's customer service is NOT perfect. But it's imperfection is not related to the fact that we don't spend time and $$ on it. Consider the following:
  • the quantity of data each CSR must know is HUGE. We are not running a Sears appliance support where there may be 20 questions covering 99% of the inquiries. No other broker anywhere has the diversity we offer and must support. Our website, which has as much info as we can get out, itself only covers a fraction of the inquiries we get on a daily basis. Imagine you had to know everything about: 6 asset classes, 57 different exchanges in 14 countries, thousands of different products, 25+ order types, risk management, margin rules, SMA, all our account types, security issues, liquidation systems and practices, market data issues, all the functionality of the TWS, etc. And I haven't even touched on the banking items like ACATS, ATON, ACH, etc or the thousands of variations on trade problems. The fact is not all of our CSRs are equally expert on all topics. We are still working on our inquiry routing systems which will optimize the pairing of the topic with the CSR who is both available and most knowledgeable on that topic.
  • Traders want answers NOW, not in 15 minutes. sometimes a CSR who is 90% confident of his answer will give it because the delay to get that certainty up to 99.9% is unsatisfying to our clients. We try to give the best answers as fast as possible but how long are you willing to wait to get a more perfect one?
  • Inquiry volume is not smooth. When something goes wrong, 10'000 people call all at the same time and 9900 of them will be upset because they have to wait. Then it will be quiet and we get to the answers in seconds. Suggestion: if the issue is not urgent, time your call to midday (1100-1400) in the time zone of the market you are trading, or IB desk you are calling.
  • Suggestion: don't send email. Aside from the fact that it is being desupported in a few weeks, it is the lowest priority for us. Use the web ticket system. I hear some complaints in this thread about these 'disappearing'. Look on the 'Inactive' tab. Try logging in to acct mgmt again. If there really is a problem, PM me because so far we have never seen a case of true disappearance. BTW, the web ticket system is the only system we are investing effort in.
  • We have suggestions on how to contact us for various topics. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/contact/bestService.php
  • Courtesy: Used to be a big problem. I think it has improved dramatically. People here agree, others don't. Let's not mix up being direct with being courteous. I have set the policy for CS to talk straight, directly and to the point. Answer the question and try to make yourself available for other clients. We get clients who want to meander through the service interaction like a Sunday walk, pleasant but without direction or purpose. IB does not support this, sorry. But let's be clear: I have zero tolerance for rudeness; efficiency and rudeness are not related.
  • Feedback: at the end of every Web ticket or chat interaction, clients are given the opportunity to rate the service experience. We are sending emails asking clients to rate specific recent service experiences. DO IT! Whether it was great, middling, or poor, tell us. That is the best way to improve things. Griping here on E-T will change little. Rating us from an emotional position is also not so useful. If it took too long but the answer was appropriate, make sure to distinguish what was good and bad. Rate us, good and bad. Then come back to this thread in 1-2 months here and see the reaction.
I am in charge of Client Operations for IB. Our entire business model is self-help, targeted to people who know are independent in both their trading and their support needs as much as possible:
* go first to our website for answers (the search is easy to use)
* check your own understanding of issues. Make sure you have all the facts and are prepared to be accurate with them and specific.
* THEN call/write us.

LASTLY, We are open to suggestions. If you have ideas or suggestions about our service channels (web-ticket, chat, or phone), you can email me via E-T or even add them to the IB suggestion system on our web site.
AND RATE US via the feedback systems.

IBJ
More...

Just so the only recent post of importance doesnt get lost in the noise. Thanks for the info IBJ.
 
Quote from cscott:

I am sorry to hear that Interactivebrokers has decided against emails. I've mentioned before from my own personal experience that the new ticket system does not work well. I certainly understand the rest of your points, but no email for problems is not a good idea. I'll list some reasons why:

1) Email allows the customer to explain things without being limited to a specific amount of characters (unless IB chooses to filter its incoming email to X amt of characters or bytes). Many things can be concise, but sometimes things need much explanation.
2) Email allows customers to attach a picture that helps IB understand the problem better. I see no such feature in the ticket chat.
3) Email is easier to use for the customer
a. easier to save a copy
b., easier to keep track of since it's there with the rest of your email, you don't have to go to another place like a web address
c. it's more reliable than a ticket system.
d. you are not confined to typing in a small box
e. etc., etc.
More...

Cscott, you obviously have not used the ticket system lately.

In regards to your above post:

1. wrong, you aren't limited to a certain amount of characters.

2. wrong again, the ticket system allows you to attach files

3. not sure about you but I type on the same keyboard for both the ticket system and the email system. granted you have to log into your acct mgmt to access the ticket system but it does provide a SECURE method of transmitting and storing information.

a. wrong again, all tickets are saved and you can review them by clicking on them. there is even a box that says "print" should you care to save a hard copy.

b. easier to keep track of for who? I certainly prefer when I call my bank, broker, credit card co, etc. that they can quickly review previous correspondence. the ticket system enables that functionality. the ticket system offers a vast improvement for IB CS to communicate amongst each other and for reps to quickly review current issues/queries from clients. regardless, I'll still state you are wrong as you can review all your tickets in the same place and also click on the setting to be notified via mail.

c. completely false

cscott, most clients do not fire off numerous email queries every day. In fact, most active clients have little need to contact IB CS on a regular basis. Looking at the big picture, we're confident most of our clients will find the ticket system a step in the right direction to providing better service. In any event, I urge you to please do a bit of homework on your side before posting or sending questions to customer service. In the end, that will benefit us all.
 
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