Missing money at IB

[zdreg]

Quote from vulture:

I am a big fan of IB, but let me make a point here. When I first started with them in 1998, they had almost no help desk, problems with their trading platform and other assorted issues that were a royal pain. Of course, they also were the first to offer good commissions on emini products at a time that most other brokers were trying to rape their clients with the same commission schedule as the pit traded index products.

Over the years, they have improved their attitude, but every so often I see this arrogance re-emerge. In general, there is just an insular type of attitude towards assisting clients. Def, in general, has been outstanding, but I think this latest episode is pretty despicable. As you say, AAA, this should provide an opportunity for IB to re-affirm its security safeguards, not to go on the defensive and say "hey we are bolting". If thats IB's attitude then so be it. If its not IB's attitude, then they sure as heck ought to do a better job of monitoring how and what their employees say on public forums. No flippant comments should be allowed in matters this serious.

def and ibsoft are not public relations people. you cannot expect them to have the expertise to say that this matter is under investigation and till we know all the facts we will not comment.

no flippant remarks in my opinion were made by IB. you should be grateful that they were opened up to tell you how they feel about the relationship between IB and ET threads.

unfortunately this thread brought out
the usual whiners and crybabies


as to quality of customer service it certainly deserves a thread of its own as this subject is constantly being raised. there is also a thread for IB
improvements and some suggestions for customer service improvement can be posted there.

 

[IBsoft]

shneed,

Our records reflect that on July 27, 2005 we sent you a notification by e-mail (to the e-mail address you have been using) and by first class mail (to your home address) regarding the activity you raised in this forum. For reasons of confidentiality, we will not go into further details about this in this forum, but we are sending you a response to the matter you have raised by email, and we will also discuss it with you via telephone.

IBsoft

 

[NKNY]

Quote from IBsoft:

Maybe a good short term "strategy", but unlikely to work in the long run. For one, posters like that get quickly ignored by us and over time by the forum itself. More importantly, because of this (threads and posts intended to exercise pressure), we've been considering scaling back our participation or even abandoning the forum altogether.

No disrespect intended, but to me, you come across as arrogant and retaliatory... You kind of remind me of the soup Nazi....I can see it already....Someone starts a thread to complain and then you reply...."NO HELP FOR YOU" !!!.....

 

[SethArb]

moderator ... at some point it will be time to end this thread ... maybe soon

have a nice weekend everyone

 

[def]

to all complaining about IBsofts response. I can easily commiserate with him. Take a look at this thread. It has a title which can be taken the wrong way by someone who just sees the title. Furthermore, there is a valid reason for the removal of funds and as mentioned a letter was sent via post and email to the client. The email was dated July 27th. There are times that personal information can not be provided to every CS rep and this is one such case. FWIW, this thread did not help in any shape or form in providing the information other than my initial request for the poster to contact the help desk via chat. While they said the CS chat wasn't helpful, I know that after the chat the CS rep looked for further details and when they couldn't provide the exact cause, escalated the request to management in the states who promptly followed up during the US working hour shift.

So the end result is that you have two senior representatives of the company (IBSoft and myself) spending time writing on a thread which should never have been started. The contact to the CS would have been enough.


with that said, I'll request that the moderator close this thread. The money is not missing and the title doesn't serve anyone's best interest.

 

[NKNY]

Quote from ktm:

That's missing both points.

First, IB has no obligation to be here. Posting here is NOT customer support, it is often appeasing someone who is upset in the middle of the night because of a perceived problem. Sure, these guys go out of their way to solve many problems and we are all the better for it but this is far from their real jobs and responsibility at IB.

Second, the issue is not his alleged missing funds. It is that he creates the thread, posts the headline and makes the allegation that something is awry with IB. If he posts on the 27th page of this thread a single sentence that says it was a misunderstanding/technical error and the money is present, how many of the thousands who viewed the headline are going to drill down and read that? IB is here defending their corporate reputation, when in reality it should not have been called into question.

Now I have never really had a problem with IB and only have good things to say about them. I do however have a problem with people who attempt or belive that posting problems on an open public forum is damaging to the reputation of the firm. People understand that no firm is perfect and all have problems and encounter growing pains along the way. The thing that differentiates companies is the way they handle problems that inevitably arise. This is the area where IB can damage it's reputation.

If Ib wants to defend their corporate reputation then a speedy resolution should be priority instead of retaliatory and threatening posts such as IB softs post. I for one was shocked at his arrogant tone. To ask or expect that no one post a problem because it will hurt IB's reputation is asinine. This is a public forum where traders come together to exchange ideas and information with other traders. Yes, IB has no obligation to be here and we are actually very lucky to have them here helping traders. But lets not forget the other side of this token, Ib is also very lucky to have this opportunity to listen and interact with customers on such a level. If someone posts a problem or a question people see it, yes.... But they also see Ib respond and that is the best form of advertisement as far as I'm concerned. I'm actually surprised that we don't see more brokers in these forums.

Nick

 

[zdreg]

Quote from SethArb:

moderator ... at some point it will be time to end this thread ... maybe soon

have a nice weekend everyone

what's the rush? let the end game play itself out. if not everybody will figure that an advertiser pressured the moderator or baron to end the thread.
remember rko radio and speed trader where ET caved in.
let's see shneed explain himself.

 

[Quah]

Quote from def:


the money is not missing and the title doesn't serve anyone's best interest.

....and the original poster is no where to be found and doesn't bother to come back and say his "problem" wasn't really a problem.

Exactly my problem with these types of threads.

 

[shneed]

Sorry I did not respond earlier on this thread, was away from a computer all day.

First, my question was not directed to anyone from IB, I was only asking if any Elite member had a similar problem with IB. The reason I posted here was due to responses that I got from IB chat support. The first person I spoke with told me to check my bank account, maybe the money is there and I didn't know about it. The second person told me that it was not a withdrawal but an adjustment made by IB, but could or would not tell me what for. I wonder if any one with similar circumstances would not try to find out if anyone else had similar problems.

In the end this is what happened, in 1997 after winning some money in Atlantic City one weekend (and loosing it the next), the casino send a tax form to the IRS, and the IRS decided that I owe them about $6000. They decided to withdraw part of that money from my IB account. As far as IBsoft saying that they've send me mail and e-mail regarding this matter, I never got either, if I did, I would have tried to take the money out and dispute the charges with IRS, but that's another matter.

I really have no problems with IB one way or another. I don't use them anymore. The amount of money is negligible. Just wanted to find out if anyone had similar problems with IB.


shneed

 

[Holmes]

Quote from shneed:

Sorry I did not respond earlier on this thread, was away from a computer all day.

First, my question was not directed to anyone from IB, I was only asking if any Elite member had a similar problem with IB. The reason I posted here was due to responses that I got from IB chat support. The first person I spoke with told me to check my bank account, maybe the money is there and I didn't know about it. The second person told me that it was not a withdrawal but an adjustment made by IB, but could or would not tell me what for. I wonder if any one with similar circumstances would not try to find out if anyone else had similar problems.

In the end this is what happened, in 1997 after winning some money in Atlantic City one weekend (and loosing it the next), the casino send a tax form to the IRS, and the IRS decided that I owe them about $6000. They decided to withdraw part of that money from my IB account. As far as IBsoft saying that they've send me mail and e-mail regarding this matter, I never got either, if I did, I would have tried to take the money out and dispute the charges with IRS, but that's another matter.

I really have no problems with IB one way or another. I don't use them anymore. The amount of money is negligible. Just wanted to find out if anyone had similar problems with IB.


shneed

shneed

In my honest opinion you owe an apology to IB because you did not follow the correct procedures to have this resolved.

If push comes to shove then you should be extreemly glad that no-one is taking you up for implying that there may be something wrong at IB.

It is my experience that there is almost always a logical explanation when something unexpected happens. In this regard I also want to tell the following story to all the whiners and people who think that posting on a public message board in this case is warranted:

There is a knock on your door, you open the door and the person standing there gives you a slap in the face. The person then carries on: "Now that I have got your attention I like to sell you this".

You really think you would buy from that person? You slam the door shut in their face.

So the same applies here. As my old man used to say: "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

May I suggest that the next time that you THINK there is something wrong to give the other party the time to investigate. If no clear answer is given by their first line of contact then you escalate the issue to their management (even to the extent of going through some legal channels).

And I am sure that it gets resolved before you ever need to post something on a public message board and open yourself up for accusations of slander etc.

Let peace return to ET and perhaps the OP can ask the moderator to remove this thread in lets say a weeks time (so we all can see the resolution) after posting an apology.

Sherlock