my 2 cents.
I had a similar problem once (with an institutional account).
I wanted to withdraw about $50k and something went wrong initially.
It was not clear whose mistake it was - but this really does not matter. The point is that after I submitted all the documentation that was needed for opening the account I still could not get my monies back - and that lasted for outrageous 3 months.
I worked for many years for a major Wall St firm in a senior position and problems with customers were always solved immediately (especially those involving money). From IB I did not feel any <i>pressure</i> to resolve the issue.
With IB, as long as all runs smoothly and in an automated manner then everything is ok. As soon as there is a problem or something out of ordinary and customer service steps in the nightmare (may) begin. That said the problems happen very rarely - I remember only about 2 more instances where support was clearly incompetent - in about 5 years (not bad!).
The bottom line is that IB still remains the best choice for majority of people. No brokerages are willing to compete on price/commission/product basis so there is no reason for IB to improve other things from cost-benefit perspective....
I had a similar problem once (with an institutional account).
I wanted to withdraw about $50k and something went wrong initially.
It was not clear whose mistake it was - but this really does not matter. The point is that after I submitted all the documentation that was needed for opening the account I still could not get my monies back - and that lasted for outrageous 3 months.
I worked for many years for a major Wall St firm in a senior position and problems with customers were always solved immediately (especially those involving money). From IB I did not feel any <i>pressure</i> to resolve the issue.
With IB, as long as all runs smoothly and in an automated manner then everything is ok. As soon as there is a problem or something out of ordinary and customer service steps in the nightmare (may) begin. That said the problems happen very rarely - I remember only about 2 more instances where support was clearly incompetent - in about 5 years (not bad!).
The bottom line is that IB still remains the best choice for majority of people. No brokerages are willing to compete on price/commission/product basis so there is no reason for IB to improve other things from cost-benefit perspective....