Sometimes they are friendly and human but there are some androids in there. Sadly in my experience whether they are friendly or not I seem to waste HOURS on the phone being moved around depts. being told or promised one thing and it never happening.
Two examples. (1) I transferred some funds from my personal bank account to IB and it went 'missing' Three weeks later, after IB continually blaming my bank they finally admitted the funds were in IBs holding account. No apology, nothing. I had spent hours on the phone and couldn't trade during this time. I know I am not the only person this has happened to.
(2) I am trying to set up a 2nd user on my account for some time but have given up for now. I even spoke to somebody in Chicago for 30mins (some of this time was security checks) who gave me a temp. password after spotting that a typo at their end had rendered the user name invalid. Does this temp password work. Of course not ! That would be too easy. I just can't be bothered to have to go through the whole thing again.
On a positive note TWS order execution and charges are great. BUT considering how much they make out of me on commissions would it be too much to ask for a bit more personal service?
Have they ever made a follow call for example? "Hello Mr X, just ringing to see if the issue we dealt with last week has been resolved satisfactorily and you are happy with our customer service because we value you as a customer."
The odd thing is that when I lived in the US I found customer service to be the prime concern for any service provider. Even Nat West bank have started to make customer courtesy calls!
So the answer to your question is; sometimes friendly but next to useless customer service.
I feel much better now!
