Quote from Hurricane:
I also have never tried calling to make a trade. If you have your own systems problem, you can probably get through in a reasonable amount of time. If it's IB's problem (rare), I expect you can forget it.
Check out the reviews of IB elsewhere on this site. The only complaint I have (and is fairly common) is that support is lacking. I always get a response to E-mails but it takes a few days. Also, I find that if you aren't very specific with your question/issue in only a few words, you risk getting a canned response that is off target. For example, I recently sent them a note telling them that I had not received credit for a dividend. Their response, "You have to own the shares on the record date to get the dividend." Well, I know that and triple checked everything before sending them the first note. In my response, I was very specific about everything and they then handled it.