Open Letter to Interactive Brokers

Quote from gohstrader:

Just do what I and countless others have done and leave these lame asses.
Since switching to another broker I no longer have any of the headaches IB imposed on me on a daily basis. People are leaving them in hoardes and IMO IB are/is going to be even more reluctant to fix any costly issues because if they do it, it costs them MONEY. Who wants to spend money when you are selling (maybe)? The down side is if they don't fix it, who in their right mind would buy them out? And if they are bought out and the new owner(s) has to correct the problems to keep the ship from bleeding, guess where that cost is going to land? You got it --on the customer----YOU!

Trading is hard enough without all the added, uneccessary ills piled on by someone who is supposed to be offering a service
that they charge for. I call it ADE (automobile dealership economics) which is this-if you can't fix my car then I gotta bring it somewhere else and I'm never coming back.
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You said that people are leaving IB in "hoardes". How do you know? Do you have access to IB's internal customer statistics? Does IB publish changes in the number of its customers? Do you personally know "hoardes" of traders who left IB?

Or could it be that you really have no idea whether your statement was true, and that you just fabricated it, because you enjoy trolling? Can you show us any evidence that your statement was not a fabrication?

If your facts are untrue or fabricated, could it also be that your advice that people should leave IB is also bad advice?

I think it is bad advice. I think it would be better to stay with IB, and to work with them to help them understand what changes are needed so that they can continue to be better than their competitors and continue to improve.

If you want to help make things better, then vote for suggestion #2185 in IB's new features poll. See http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90282.
 
You can always go back when they finally clean up their problems. Nothing to feel sorry at all. And there is nothing wrong to have another backup.
 
Quote from crazy_trader:

You can always go back when they finally clean up their problems. Nothing to feel sorry at all. And there is nothing wrong to have another backup.
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Exactly, no reason to take on risk
 
Boy do I smell urine. Can't you guys knock it off for one day??? :D :D

If you are having the disconnection problems send me a PM and I'll give you the address of the IB rep who contacted me. Having a log file of the issue is a definite first step towards getting them to fix it....

SSB
 
Quote from FullyArticulate:

I have tickets open since January where the CSR answering does not *read* the ticket, and continues to send me canned replies that have nothing to do with the actual problem.
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Yes, I have had this a lot too. I've had to respond with a reply to please read my post and answer my questions.

IMHO, IB generally offer good service but something is messed up with their frontline customer service and they would do well to address this issue. Eventually people get pissed off with it enough and they leave.

Having said that. Companies like TRAD do not care about customer retention and instead focus on acquisition. Maybe IB has similar model, although I certainly hope not.

Best regards,
MK
 
Quote from gohstrader:

People are leaving them in hoardes
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Heh.

IB is sitting at record client numbers, market share and client assets. I don't clear the firm, but they're a model of efficiency and sound-management.
 
Look guys, based on my experience with them and their API (also roundly criticized I might add !), it's obvious they are simply short-handed in both technical support and customer service departments.
So they're just following the rest of American business today with this "shareholder value" theme....keeping costs low as possible, making sure the company's value is maximized, all the while trying not to lose any business. I wouldn't want to be an employee working there...I can't imagine the stress and long hours.
 
Quote from syswizard:

Look guys, based on my experience with them and their API (also roundly criticized I might add !), it's obvious they are simply short-handed in both technical support and customer service departments.
So they're just following the rest of American business today with this "shareholder value" theme....keeping costs low as possible, making sure the company's value is maximized, all the while trying not to lose any business. I wouldn't want to be an employee working there...I can't imagine the stress and long hours.
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This is a good post...

One reason to view any IB IPO as risky and overvalued...
Is their ** Cultural Unsuitability **...
For any serious Enterprise.

In my experience...
A small firm with a 7 figure account doing 500 trades/day...
Is treated exactly the same as a dead-in-the-water $10,000 account.

In my experience...
There is ZERO difference between the "Institutional Services Desk"...
And the general support number.

It only matters if you get a "good person" that actually cares...
There are no actual standards...
Like returning a PROMISED phone call or responding after they make you send in a log file...
Knowing full well all along exactly what the problem is at their end.

This would never fly in the Enterprise Space.
If IB treated Morgan Stanley traders the way they treat me...
They would be facing lawsuits and poisonous press.

Firms like Thomson Financial that service Wall Street traders...
Have multiple redundancies in their systems...
And maintain virtually 100% uptime.

The kind of joke that was the recent TWS upgrades...
With hours of connectivity downtime...
Would cause a mass exodus of serious players from Thomson to Reuters or whatever...
SO IT JUST CANNOT HAPPEN.
 
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