Sorry IB, your customer service is a joke

S

Shawn B.

This is my experience:

- I'm trying to sell some EFPs to gain interest on the first 10K, but when I try doing that the interface turns purple, a window saying "Logging in.." pops up, and nothing happens, the order does not appear anywhere

So, to contact the customer support I have 3 choices:

1- email: I tried sending an email to help@interactivebrokers.com (found on the website), and I received this response

"IB is no longer supporting email communications for most types of inquiries. Your email has been transferred to IB’s Client Inquiry Management System (CIMS). This system is accessible from inside Account Management by clicking the ‘Trouble Ticket’ icon. Please allow up to a day for the transferred inquiry to be processed into CIMS and to be visible on the interface. "


So, option 1 is not usable

2- Use IB's customer service chat.
This is a REAL JOKE, I logged in to "technical assistance", under "US Futures" (there's no chatroom specifically for EFPs, so futures was the closest one). I spoke with a guy who suggested logging out and then back in (doesn't work). When I said I'd already tried it, he tried to transfer me FROM TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO...*suspense*...TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE! saying that "this is not a US futures inquiry, next time tag your message correctly"
Thanks, but there's no way I can tag my message if there is no option to do so..
It was the 6th time I was using the chat, the other 5 times operators would just flat out transfer me to another room, back and forth, until the connection fucked up and I had to close the window and give up

Option 3- Tickets: I've tried opening tickets for 3 days with both IE and Firefox...the javascript to send tickets does not work. Today, miraculously, one ticket seemed to have gone through, but I feel pretty naive hoping it will solve my problems...

So my last resort is posting here hoping a PR guy will help me out, anyone?
 
If you read the various IB posts on ET, you'll see that this is not a new issue. Even most of the IB advocates concede that their customer service could be improved.

That's the issue w/ customer support, it's not an issue until you really need it...
 
I just started with IB and already my impression is that they are understaffed in CS.

i've been in contact via the various options available, incl this forum. It's very slow, making it obvious to me they don't have the staff.

as a noob to IB my issues have been s/w related. If they had a thorough help guide I wouldn't be calling on them. It describes stuff but doesn't tell you how to do much.

someone tell me how to route an order to the trading floor. the exchange portion of the ticket does not change. i've had that one out there for a week. :(
 
Quote from Shawn B.:

This is my experience:

- I'm trying to sell some EFPs to gain interest on the first 10K, but when I try doing that the interface turns purple, a window saying "Logging in.." pops up, and nothing happens, the order does not appear anywhere

So, to contact the customer support I have 3 choices:

1- email: I tried sending an email to help@interactivebrokers.com (found on the website), and I received this response

"IB is no longer supporting email communications for most types of inquiries. Your email has been transferred to IB’s Client Inquiry Management System (CIMS). This system is accessible from inside Account Management by clicking the ‘Trouble Ticket’ icon. Please allow up to a day for the transferred inquiry to be processed into CIMS and to be visible on the interface. "


So, option 1 is not usable

2- Use IB's customer service chat.
This is a REAL JOKE, I logged in to "technical assistance", under "US Futures" (there's no chatroom specifically for EFPs, so futures was the closest one). I spoke with a guy who suggested logging out and then back in (doesn't work). When I said I'd already tried it, he tried to transfer me FROM TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO...*suspense*...TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE! saying that "this is not a US futures inquiry, next time tag your message correctly"
Thanks, but there's no way I can tag my message if there is no option to do so..
It was the 6th time I was using the chat, the other 5 times operators would just flat out transfer me to another room, back and forth, until the connection fucked up and I had to close the window and give up

Option 3- Tickets: I've tried opening tickets for 3 days with both IE and Firefox...the javascript to send tickets does not work. Today, miraculously, one ticket seemed to have gone through, but I feel pretty naive hoping it will solve my problems...

So my last resort is posting here hoping a PR guy will help me out, anyone?
More...

1. IB has stated numerous times NOT to email them. Guess you missed that huh?

2. You picked "futures", when the problem seems to be connection related. There was no option for "connection"?

3. Can't help you here...never sent one.

But I guess you missed the one avenue I have used the few times I had any type of difficulty.....telephone them. Of course, if the "connection" problem is not IB related, then I don't know what they're supposed to tell you.

By the way, I can't recall the last time I had a connection difficulty.

OldTrader
 
Quote from sporky:

someone tell me how to route an order to the trading floor. the exchange portion of the ticket does not change. i've had that one out there for a week. :(
More...

When you add the symbol, did you look at the screen that comes up with various options like SMART, ARCA, ISLAND, NYSE, etc.? You add the ticker, hit OK, select stock, and a page called contract selection comes up with all the possibilities on it.

I don't know if that's in the users manual, but if you added any tickers it would have been staring you in the face. LOL.

OldTrader
 
Quote from OldTrader:

When you add the symbol, did you look at the screen that comes up with various options like SMART, ARCA, ISLAND, NYSE, etc.? You add the ticker, hit OK, select stock, and a page called contract selection comes up with all the possibilities on it.

I don't know if that's in the users manual, but if you added any tickers it would have been staring you in the face. LOL.

OldTrader
More...

for those with the right big picture understanding of things(like me), there is none better than ib. all is there, very clear. i have been with them for years, whatever i could not do on my own, all was solved very quickly with the chat.

you first must understand how they want things done, then play by their rules, not yours. when done like that, you will excel.
 
Quote from OldTrader:

I don't know if that's in the users manual, but if you added any tickers it would have been staring you in the face. LOL.

OldTrader
More...

haha...yeah I see those. when I add cocoa the nybot, one and nymex exchanges appear. I take nymex, I'm not subscribed to nybot.

So I guess you have to be subscribed to the nybot data in order to trade on the floor. If so, that's not cool.

I don't need the data I need the access.
 
I won't even comment on the idiotic comment above this post

Anyway, it turns out that after multiple chat sessions, I was able to speak with a nice CS employee who told me it's a problem with my version of Java (it apparently causes those strange bugs)
He sent me an email, I'll try reinstalling java and see if it works, then update you!
 
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