IB Customer Service is Poor
- Thread starter stockgirl
- Start date
Fine, but I find it interesting, insulting, and telling that an IB employee would quote me instead of quoting the colorful, compulsive, and obscene kiwi_trader, the one who started all of this distraction in the first place. Better still, why did you feel the need to quote anyone at all. I think what you just did was unprofessional.
I'm afraid you are not correct.
Like other IB reps, you may simply not realise how exactly the ticket system works.
The ticket system would be great if the policy is to keep our tickets at least for a while (like at least a month), or the ticket sytem is simply not credible.
Recently I have written suggestions/bugs/problems each by each. Suddenly one of the tickets disappeared on one day. That's the ominous sign. After that day, my tickets kept disappearing one after one until only one is left.
Originally I supposed it must be a bug. Someone promised to look into the issue. However it turned out to be another guy who got the responses.
Here's the official reply from mattm:
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That's the only ticket left.
This suggests IB reps will forcefully close your tickets at their discretion and without any prior notice or warning. After closing they will simly delete them out of the system, so you have no chance to re-open or read them back.
I don't think it is commonly knwon among IB reps. Otherwise the first guy who take in charge of my inquiry would know the answer.
This may justify why cscott and a few posters regard the ticket system as inefficient or "doesn't work". At least IB staff cannot arbitrarily delete all correspondences in your mailbox.
Here's the summary about the ticket system:
(1) If I observe/find quite a few bugs in TWS (eg: booktrader, charttrader), but the bugs are not related to each other, should I submit all bugs as one big ticket? I'm afraid the answer is yes. Personally I don't think it is going to be communication-efficient. It is hard to follow when someone submitting over several ten bugs in one ticket , isn't it? It is going to be more than twenty pages (I file a detailed bug report. That's why it has such a length) and a lot of attachments (images, documents etc.) No one is going to read such a lengthy bug report.
(2) How long will an inactive ticket be kept? It seems to be less than a few days in my experience. Don't you think it is too short? It doesn't give you enough time to review the closed ticket
(3) not to say most tickets, if not closed by you, will be deleted straight away, without being placed in the inactive ticket panel at all. Thus you should backup your inquiries or tickets before IB deleted yours.
(4) If I submit bugs and suggestions which are not to IB liking or IB couldn't answer, IB may simply delete them without prior notice. They will not explain why. That's my experience: I got a few tickets which have been assigned to several reps. The tickets are deleted after a week or so without hearing any reply (The only type of reply is "we have read your ticket. A response will be made shortly").
(5) As far as I know, it appears if you have more than 9 open tickets, you will be regarded as abusing the ticket system. Odd enough, instead of reducing the no. of tickets to 9, IB would take further actions to kill all your open tickets. Why? I don't get it.
Sorry to say, but I do feel the rules and procedures of the ticket system is a bit unreasonable. On one hand, IB promotes the use of ticket system. On the other hand, all these rules make the ticket system less efficient and less credible way to communicate with IB reps.
I will insert comments in blue
Much has changed in the Web ticket interface over the last 2-3 months. If you have not used it recently, your experiences and opinions may be outdated. As with every aspect of IB's business model, we release systems, constantly work on them and improve them, and we listen to constuctive commentary. That is as true with service technology as with the brokerage system technology.
IBJ
Last comment:
Much has changed in the Web ticket interface over the last 2-3 months. If you have not used it recently, your experiences and opinions may be outdated. As with every aspect of IB's business model, we release systems, constantly work on them and improve them, and we listen to constuctive commentary. That is as true with service technology as with the brokerage system technology.
IBJ
Might have something to do with the level of constructive criticism and contribution Kiwi has offered versus...
OR it could have been a random event.
Anyway, we're all guilty. It's not as if anyone looked at IBJ's post with you quoted in it and said, "Schwooo! Glad I'm not that guy." I read it an said, "yep. True. Guilty as charged. But at least I know IBJ was mildly entertained by some of it."
IBj,
Sometimes a CS rep mishandles an issue, and refuses to allow it to be escalated to higher authority. Sometimes problems just don't get addressed through the system. Sometimes the trouble ticket system itself seems to malfunction. These situations require some sort of backup communications channel outside of the trouble ticket system. You have posted that in such situations, people can send private messages to you via EliteTrader.
Have you considered that people might not be willing or able to communicate through such a channel? Many IB customers don't read ET or have an ET membership, so that they won't have any way to proceed or to communicate in such situations, and will instead come up flat against a brick wall, without even knowing that the ET option exists. Others may have access to ET, but not want to use it for account management purposes, because of concerns over privacy and security. Did you know that ET moderators have unlimited and unrestricted access to read all private messages sent over ET? I'm not faulting ET, and I think that your participation in the public ET forums is a wonderful thing that should definitely continue, but I think that ET's private message system should not be used in order to address issues with individual customer accounts.
I think that you need to give further thought to what happens when the trouble ticket system fails, due to machine problems or to human error, and then some sort of backup system is needed. EliteTrader PM is not, in my view, an adequate backup system.
Sometimes a CS rep mishandles an issue, and refuses to allow it to be escalated to higher authority. Sometimes problems just don't get addressed through the system. Sometimes the trouble ticket system itself seems to malfunction. These situations require some sort of backup communications channel outside of the trouble ticket system. You have posted that in such situations, people can send private messages to you via EliteTrader.
Have you considered that people might not be willing or able to communicate through such a channel? Many IB customers don't read ET or have an ET membership, so that they won't have any way to proceed or to communicate in such situations, and will instead come up flat against a brick wall, without even knowing that the ET option exists. Others may have access to ET, but not want to use it for account management purposes, because of concerns over privacy and security. Did you know that ET moderators have unlimited and unrestricted access to read all private messages sent over ET? I'm not faulting ET, and I think that your participation in the public ET forums is a wonderful thing that should definitely continue, but I think that ET's private message system should not be used in order to address issues with individual customer accounts.
I think that you need to give further thought to what happens when the trouble ticket system fails, due to machine problems or to human error, and then some sort of backup system is needed. EliteTrader PM is not, in my view, an adequate backup system.
It would be great if you could place your reply outside the quote next time. It is because the system will cut off the whole quoted messages when I press the "quote" button to reply your message. Thank you!
Here's my reply.
It is okay to keep inactive/closed tickets for 30 days at least.
However it is not alright for open tickets. Sometimes open tickets are not answered for more than 30 days. The open ticket should only be closed after it is resolved. It is silly to delete it simply because the time is up.
If your IB rep thinks the user may have abandoned the ticket, they should issue a PCLS first (in lieu of deleting the ticket instantly). If the user doesn't respond without 7 days, the ticket will be closed and placed in the "inactive" tab first (but not trashing it instantly), or the "re-open" option is rather pointless.
But it shouldn't apply when there is no meaningful response. Responses like "we will get back to you soon" are not really answers and shouldn't be closed even if I do not reply. What do you expect me to reply for these kinds of responses?
I couldn't see them even in the "inactive" tab, no matter how many times I login. I have tried in different computers. I have cleared cookies and temporary Internet files. This should prove the case.
If memory serves, the open tickets are just between 1 to 2 week old.
Let's say the ticket was assigned to def. He promised to look into the issue. However it turned out to be IBj who answered my inquiry.
Do you get it now?
Here's my reply.
Sorry, I don't realize that.
Does it apply to all types of tickets?
It is okay to keep inactive/closed tickets for 30 days at least.
However it is not alright for open tickets. Sometimes open tickets are not answered for more than 30 days. The open ticket should only be closed after it is resolved. It is silly to delete it simply because the time is up.
If your IB rep thinks the user may have abandoned the ticket, they should issue a PCLS first (in lieu of deleting the ticket instantly). If the user doesn't respond without 7 days, the ticket will be closed and placed in the "inactive" tab first (but not trashing it instantly), or the "re-open" option is rather pointless.
But it shouldn't apply when there is no meaningful response. Responses like "we will get back to you soon" are not really answers and shouldn't be closed even if I do not reply. What do you expect me to reply for these kinds of responses?
No. They are simply deleted.
I couldn't see them even in the "inactive" tab, no matter how many times I login. I have tried in different computers. I have cleared cookies and temporary Internet files. This should prove the case.
If memory serves, the open tickets are just between 1 to 2 week old.
Sorry for the confusion.
Let's say the ticket was assigned to def. He promised to look into the issue. However it turned out to be IBj who answered my inquiry.
Do you get it now?
No, it is incorrect.
As said by mattm, they may forcefully close clients' tickets at their discretion without allowing the ability to re-open them. When it is deleted, it is not viewable in the "inactive" tab. The tickets are simply gone.
Please re-read the following official reply from mattm:
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The web ticket system is provided as a service to our customers. Should this service be abused or should the number of submitted tickets cause inefficiencies in the customer support group, these tickets may be forcefully closed without allowing the ability to re-open them.
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Yes, this is reasonable. However it would not be the case when IB forcefully deletes the ticket.
It is because your staff still promotes such kind of workflow.
Let's talk about my case. When I deal with bug tracking and reporting system, it is normal to contain one bug per issue. I do so by sending one bug per ticket. Also when I have questions, say, there are 3 questions. The first one is about hotkeys. The second one is particularly for booktrader. The third one is sending and modifying orders. Instead of lumping all questions together as a ticket, I send each question per ticket.
Nevertheless I am accused of abusing the ticket system and ask me to lump the questions and bugs together as one ticket. I do so by closing other tickets and re-send them by replying them in the first ticket.
What's the best way to report possible bugs?
Should I send via poll system or ticket system?
I ask this question because your staff, mattm, seems to suggest me to file bug report in poll system.
I have filed a bug report. Then mattm replied me as follows:
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This setting cannot currently be adjusted in the TWS.
One of the advantages of being an IB customer is that we listen to our professional customers as we continue our never ending quest to lead the industry with the most advanced trading technology. In order to systematize your requests we are adding a new permanent feature poll that allows you to suggest new TWS enhancements and to have other customers vote on the enhancements. We will do our best to prioritize those requests with the most number of votes. To nominate requests and to vote, visit our new TWS Voters Poll page, to learn how to sign up for a Voter ID and password in order to add your voice to our programming queue.
www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/poll/poll.php?ib_entity=llc
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I don't understand why he calls it "setting", but he copied this reply for a bug report. What does it imply? Should a bug go to the poll system? I'm confused.
After all, I would suggest a bug tracking and reporting system like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ (the software is called bugzilla http://www.bugzilla.org/ ).
Reasons:
- I found many bugs in TWS. It would be crazy to lump all bugs together as one ticket.
- other people can view the bugs
- Reduce bug duplication: when people see the bug, they would not sending the same bug over and over again
- search the bugs
- easy to keep track on the bugs
Only 9(?) tickets can be displayed. You can issue more tickets, but the older ticket will be pumped out of the system. What's more, I am accused of abusing the ticket system because I sent too many tickets (as I have about 9 tickets opened at one time).
Please see the following official reply from mattm:
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Should this service be abused or should the number of submitted tickets cause inefficiencies in the customer support group, these tickets may be forcefully closed without allowing the ability to re-open them.
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This incident happened in less than a month.
I have PM you, so you can follow up the issue.
Thanks for your help in advance.