Is it me, or does IB's e-mail technical support treat everyone like an doofus?

Thanks Def.

I upgraded to 2002. Still have a problem.

Without going into great detail, when IB exported 2 simple transactions to my Quicken file, my acct balance from previous dates were changed!

Your guy Steve is looking into it.

Thanks again for replying.

-- Punter
 
Originally posted by Trader01

You have to learn to figure out things on your own. Why not put your export questions here or keep trying on your own?

I hate this whining.
More...

I'll tell you what happened to me today...and you can tell me how "keep trying on my own" would fix this.

Today, IB sent my BEST GTC order (to sell a call) to the PHLX. Well, the PHLX was not making a market in that option contract today. At 11am, my offer was better than the best National displayed offer. I tried to change the order to get it resubmitted...thinking maybe the system could cancel and resubmit to the AMEX.

The order froze pink, then the stock moved my way. I started a chat session with IB Help. The person did not even understand the basics about best offer, etc... They kept saying "we don't have your order, the exchange has it". I call, wait on hold for 10 mins (unusual to wait that long) then get trade help, they call the exchange and get it pulled. While it's getting pulled I re-enter a new order and preference AMEX and get filled.

No amount of my trying would fix this, I must deal with IB.

In my experience, there are 3 kinds of IB help.

Chat help - don't even bother. In 6-7 tries, never a truthful, responsible reply that was helpful.

Trade Problem Help - There are only a few people who work in this area and my experience is that they are actually very good. I would highly recommend George as well.

Technical Help - These guys are very good as well. I have dealt with them several times and always very good. I had a problem getting booted from TWS last week and they put me through a polling exercise from a command prompt. It turns out, my ISP had lost the bridge to the primary IB server in that part of the country...nice find...it was true.

I don't see how I could have figured that out on my own or "kept trying". Sorry for whining.
 
ktm,
not defending here but your order really must have been at the exchange. pure speculation: perhaps the specialist had the autoex system flagged on when it really wasn't, took the order but forgot about it. who knows. but once an exchange takes an order it can't be cancelled or modified until the exchange releases the original order.
 
I understand. I needed the order confirmed cancelled before I could place another. I tried to shortcut the system last week with a frozen pink order and it wound up executing 2 hours later leaving me with a naked call. I wanted the "chat help" person to contact the exchange to get it pulled - but they said there was "nothing they could do since IB no longer had the order." Once I called, George did this immediately.

When this happens, can I call the exchange myself? I hate to bother IB with it. IB has done it's part by electronically sending the cancellation request, but the exchange has not confirmed it. I would gladly do this if allowed.

Thanks Def
 
My experience with IB's online chat has been mixed. Even though they may treat you like a moron, on the whole I have found that if you are persistent, firm but polite, persistent, patient, persistent, clear with your facts, persistent, throw in the odd compliment (I appreciate your help etc), but above all persistent, then the operator will get the necessary additional help to resolve the issue.

spike
 
My experiences with the online chat have been abysmal. I have never, in all of my tries (and there have been many), found it even vaguely useful, only frustrating, and now don't even consider using it as a viable support option. They seem to be equipped to respond to only the most basic of questions, and sometimes not even those.

99
 
I've tried online support twice, when my orders got stuck (unable to cancel). Never again. Both times I spent over 20 minutes waiting for some sort of positive reply, but I just got "one moment please" or "this may take a little while" repeatedly. It's as if there were one person trying to handle dozens of queries simultaneously, like the chess pro playing 40 games at once who gives you a few seconds of attention every 10 minutes. At one point, while I was waiting, my buy limit order that I wanted to cancel went through as the ask crept down to it. I'm not blaming the support people - they probably go through hell trying to manage more problems than they can handle - but since, like others here, I've had good results with the live support people, maybe IB management should either put more people on online support or just shut it down.
 
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