Vanguard review: Bad service 38

Vanguard, "the people's mutual fund firm" has made it astonishingly difficult to roll over IRA funds from another institution into Vanguard. That their standard IRA rollover forms stipulate a "guaranteed signature" at the end (but which isn't really required, as I discovered after I called a Vanguard rep several weeks ago), was just the beginning of the roadblocks. The absolute worst is that, on receipt of my rollover funds, Vanguard co-mingled them with non-IRA funds in an already-existing Vanguard money market account, even though my intent in the filled-out rollover forms and a cover letter was clear--open a new account. IRA/non-IRA funds should NEVER be co-mingled! The result could be a 10% penalty levied by the IRS on the full amount rolled over. A Vanguard rep implied today that if I'd also filled out and submitted a Vanguard "IRA Kit, " this would not have happened. (In my numerous discussions with Vanguard reps in the previous weeks, I had never been told this.) To make things worse, I have just received a "message" from Vanguard that this very serious infraction will be resolved "by December 22"!

I had a 401K with Vanguard that I had forgotten about and it had about $4000 in it. It dropped to about $500 dollars when the market dropped a year ago. I let the money sit there waiting to see if it would come back. I just received a check from vanguard for $50. I received a statement and the 401K had gone up to about $780. They charged $722.64 in other transactions cost, ie administrative costs and took out $12.00 in taxes. They closed the account themselves, I did not ask for this account to be closed. I think there is a real problem here, especially if they are doing this on a wide scale. Is anyone else out there having this problem?

Vanguard really sucks. They mishandle your money and they make the mistakes, and they expect you to pay for their mistakes.

If you think rolling an IRA into Vanguard is tough, just wait if you try to roll it out to another company. And WAIT is what you'll do. Right after I started the rollout, I tired to log in and Vanguard said I missed the password. I knew I didn't but, what the heck, I'll just do it again. It rejected me again. Then I asked my wife to watch me and to be sure I was doing it perfectly (By the way, I log in once a day). It was rejected, and she said I did it perfectly. Then I got a notice that I'd have to re-enroll, which meant just that. Twenty minutes of filling in the forms, and I was allowed to own my assets again. But here's the kicker: because I'd re-enrolled I couldn't trade or move the assets for several days. I started this whole process 10 days ago and the ETFs did transfer two days ago. The Funds have a possible April 18 transfer date placed on them by Vanguard, and they disppeared from my online Vanguard portfolio two days ago. My money is somewhere in the ether and I'm sure it will reappear...right? Today is April 7, 2011.

I'm astonished by all these bad service complaints. The first one especially because it was a breeze to rollover my ING IRA account to a Vanguard IRA. Moreover, their customer service has been really helpful and I've been a customer with them for over 4 years. Even during the market collapse, investing in their mutual funds saved me from taking a huge hit from my own bad investments in certain stocks. So I'm sorry that others have had such a poor experience but my experience with Vanguard has been great.

Vanguard does SUCK. Their employees steal money out of customers accounts. Their is a rep named Corey Turolis that STEALS money out of peoples bank accounts and Vanguard Accounts. Don't invest with this company. Also his brother Mark Turolis is nothing but a ### IT, and PROUD of it.

Agree 100% I will not deal with such a crappy company who mishandles peoples investiments and retirement money. How can a compay allow people to screw up peoples accounts including hacking into customers private accounts. I did have quite a bit of money missing out of my Retirement account and Vanguard had no answer for me whats so ever. They said sorry for any inconvience which is a complete excuse for allowing dumb ### at Vanguard to handle my money in the first place. To this day I have quite a bit of money that was deposited in to Vanguard and they can not count for it or tell anyone where the money went to and in fact if that employee is secretly taking money out of customers accounts they need to stop him before its too late. I will withdraw all my money at once and expect an answer on why they allow such people to act in a way thats going to cost people their retirement or worse yet go out of business because of some dumb ### they allow to work there. Managment was advised and they wont do anything about this. My advise for everyone else who has their funds with Vanguard take your money and RUN with it before someone else does.

I completely agree with all of these upset customers. I was a long time customer for over 25 years with Vanguard and they mishandled my money and all of my investments that I had with them. They have ###s that work there as call takers, in which these so called call takers have no clue on what they are doing. Also they are located in PA, so that will tell you a whole lot of what kind of people they hire, in which they are not the smartest people in the world. I did withdrawal the rest of my money and I still have thousands of dollars still missing and no one at the company can give me a straight forward answer on where my money is or went to. Where are my deposits? Where is my money Vanguard? Is it true that you have thieves working there? I hope they go out of business really soon. So it must be true that Vanguard does mishandle their customers money and funds. I never get any answers form anyone besides excuses. Best advise is for EVERYONE to WITHDRAWL their MONEY OUT OF VANGUARD so no more MONEY GO MISSING!

i.ve tried for four months to get vanguard to send my i.r.a. to my bank for there i.r.a.acc. which pay, s more. and all i get is one lie after another. time to complain to the s.e.a. these people are heartless and crooked.

I made a stupid move on my part and decided to open an account with Vanguard, but the amount of money was more than I should have started with. Now, I cannot access the account, and I am at there mercy, until they decide they want to call me back and actually help me out. for anyone considering doing busines with Vanguard, all I have to say is this; DO NOT CONSIDER INVESTING WITH THIS COMPANY, there's something wrong with Vanguard, probably just corrupt like most other financial institutions in this country.

30 years no problems.
1/2/2013 I had requested small transfer out. Vanguard transferred (10x) all money out. 1/3- They said they would Stop Payment on check.
1/8/2013 checks cashed (it was busy time of year- hard to get Stop payments done !)
1/18 I was told they are handling correctly. ?
2/1 Legal got request for letter of Indemnity- it takes 4 weeks (or 6 weeks)
I sent letter to CEO- took over a week to get reply.
March 1 - No letter yet.

Vangaurd started taking money from my check 3 months after I shut my account down after several frustrating phone calls with several people at vangaurd every one told me something different I finally got a refund but was shocked the next day at work I was wrote up for harassing vangaurd. They called my employer and complained about my harassing phone calls

Agree, Vanguard are one of the worst financial companies I have had the misfortune to deal with. I am trying to rollover my 401k with a former employer to my current employers 401K. Closed the account and they sent the balance to my new employers 401K.
For almost 2 weeks I have been waiting for a 'Favorable IRS letter' before my current HR dept will put the funds into my current 401K.
Every time I call and go through a menu maze and eventually get to speak to somebody I am told it will be ready tomorrow.
If you have a choice avoid vanguard at all costs.

For many years Vanguard gave very good service. In the last couple of years it has changed dramatically.
In Feb 2014 I received a Vanguard brokerage 1099 showing the cost basis and sale price of all the stocks I sold in 2013. I checked their numbers and for 4 stocks the cost basis was wrong compared to my records. I went on their website, looked at my transaction histories and verified that my records had the correct cost basis. I reported this to my rep there 2-3 weeks ago. He did not admit the error, but reported the problem to their tax department. Many phone calls later they have been unable to resolve the errors confirmed by their own website. Meanwhile I can't file my tax return because of the incorrect 1099.
You get a feeling they have been strangled by their own success and are unable or unwilling to solve problems in a reasonable amount of time, or even at all.
Vanguard offers many great mutual funds and etf's, and their low expense ratios are commendable. If you don't need any help from them, they are fine. If something goes wrong though, good luck getting it fixed.

Vanguard sucks because the people who are running the retail group. Some 20 year old girl told me she is the manager. Are you kidding me? They don't care to hire people with real finance knowledge. Only people they hire are young. As long as you are in early 20s, you are in.

Vanguard is making everything hard, I never know this company make everything hard, I m in hardship withdraw . The document need to notary, no fax need to be send to them. After that you have to wait 1-3 business days, so on after that processor you have to wait 1-3 days for you check, so far total you wait is about 10 business days. Other company I know of is take only 4 days for everything . Because they make everything easy and fast processor . And the amount you request is different from paperwork is ejection, I send two paperwork one amount was 600$ past due bill which have notrtly sign . But other have 1250$ but no notrtly sign, but is come with same person that I owe, vanguard call me they want a company letter head, Is not company is private . If I send new paperwork it will take me other 10 more days again, now they put eviction I need to move out by 16th which I have couple more days. Nothing was done, this is 5 business day, .

The customer service is horrible! I have been locked out of my on-line account access. The customer service keeps saying they will call me back, then I find out they keep calling on a DISCONNECTED number, which I have given them the new number NUMEROUS times! They never ask for my account number to verify it's me they are talking to.
I finally wrote to the CEO, Mr. William McNabb, but have not heard anything back as of yet. Next thing I guess I will have to get my lawyer involved and close my account, HOWEVER LONG THAT WILL TAKE! These people, for working for such a reputable company, are SO FRUSTRATING to deal with!

My husband recently lost his job, he called Vanguard to close out his account. We received one check with no problem. 2 days later we receive paperwork for us to sign, one was a 30 day waiver, and the other was for me to sign to declaring that this was not part of a divorce. Husband and I sign and notarize the paperwork and send back. Today we find out that, we still have to wait the 60-90 days for his check. This is inexcusable. I have had to do this from my former job, once they had receive the notice that I was no longer with the company, I had my investment in less than a week. 60-90 is not acceptable. We are now going to lose our house and car because of this crap. What is the point of a 30 day freaking waiver, to receive money when in fact it is utter bs. DO NOT INVEST WITH VANGUARD

Www.vanguard.com

This company provides horrible customer service. I made a sell transaction on 9/11 online and this company failed to delete a bank account. I called to have the transaction sent to the proper bank account linked already. I spoke with several rude, obnoxious, unprofessional so- called customer service reps that put me on hold and kept calling me sir although I'm a female. I rece

I've been with Vanguard for over a decade after experience with two other investment firms. One (Schwab) was OK. The other gave very poor advice, obviously padding their sales commissions without regard for my interests. Vanguard has been superior by far. I've always been impressed with their customer service and integrity. I go through a heavily scripted chain of command to execute anything the least bit out of the ordinary, but have always been able to get through it as long as I exercised patience and cooperation. Based on my experience, I don't think you can get their professionalism elsewhere at anything near their very low costs.

ANYONE WHO HAS ISSUES WITH VANGUARD MUST FILL OUT AN SEC COMPLAINT FORM ONLINE. ITS EASY TO DO. UNTIL THESE PEOPLE ARE HELD TO ACCOUNT BY SEC, THEY WILL CONTINUE TO CRAP ON PEOPLE WHO PAY THEIR SALARIES.
GO TO SEC.GOV On the right side, underneath the gavel, it says: SUBMIT A TIP OR COMPLAINT. THEN JUST FOLLOW THE PROMPTS TO FILL OUT 5 SECTIONS ASKING FOR YOUR INFO. USE 'other' category if you don't see you reason listed.
it takes a half hour or so. it's worth it since SEC is the legal entity policing Vanguard who has a history of screwing with people. I found Vanguard IP addresses connecting to my network trying to foil my attempts to send the SEC complaint. I took screen shots of the firewall and sent those too. These people MUST be brought under control! The person who was written up at their job for complaining should definately notify SEC about this.
VANGUARD IS BEING SUED BY FEDS FOR ILLEGAL ACTS AND THEFT OF TAXES WITHHELD BUT NOT PAID TO US TREASURY. IF THEY HAVE NO ISSUE SCREWING THE FEDS, THEYLL NOT THINK TWICE ABOUT SCREWING DEPOSITORS.
FILE A COMPLAINT IF YOU LOOSE MONEY OR INTERNET ACCESS TO YOUR FUNDS! it's a crime!

I have been on the phone with Vanguard for 45 minutes, as I try to find out why my roll-over has not been completed yet. I definitely agree with Marshall. Vanguard is a company that gives you the run around, especially when you are rolling your money out of their domain. The two gentlemen I spoke with, a retirement specialist and a Sr retirement specialist, tried to tell me that my rollover paperwork did not have the address where my money was to be rolled over. I disputed this vehemently, since the paperwork sent to them is the industry standard and it sounded like an outright lie. I even got the other company on the line with Vanguard and the stuttering began. I have given Vanguard until tomorrow to get this issue resolved. This is an IRA, and there is absolutely no excuse for the unscrupulous behavior and incompetence that I experience today. They just do not want to let go of the money. I will definitely be filing a complaint with the SEC.

Vanguard has repeatedly held up money in a cash money market account that was designated to pay off margin debt. This, despite the fact that the cash was already in Vanguard (not a transfer from another bank - which they always hold for a week saying "the bank might reverse the transfer within 7 days)".

I have been in essence locked out of my accounts for ten days and counting. A notice that says "Unavailable at this time, please try again later. I took this as a technical problem and have been running around in circles with tech. support. I now see this could be g a freeze or a lock on my account without any heads-up via email, fax. or phone.

Valuable tiime had been wasted doing the tech. support dance. Now I have to wait for the Memorial Holiday to be over to find out
whether it is a technical or administrative problem. It is only an IRA account that won't be with them when the dust settles.

By the way, I have lived overseas for five years and never had a problem like this. At one point the tech support suggested maybe my country of residence was blocking me, but I then asked, "then why can I access all other areas of the website, but not my own account?" There as a long pause at the other end and crickets could be heard inside his head.

I also had a lot of trouble with Vanguard re a rollover transfer out to another firm. Vanguard is not nearly as hard when you are transferring money in (as they then get your money to invest). Vanguard has terrible customer service. I suggest every one file a complaints with the new federal consumer protection bureau, and transfer your assets to Fidelity or some competent firm.

It appears Vanguard will do ANYTHING! to keep your money. My mother has had an account with Vanguard for about 30+ years, never withdrawing money or changing the types of investments she had. Due to her advanced age, she named me as her POA to handle her financial affairs. Although we have all of the necessary legal documents prepared to accomplish this, various Vanguard reps have given me different info as to what we need to do to set this up on Vanguard's records. I have jumped through every hoop they have thrown at me, and still they refuse to release her funds. At her age, her investments should be in less aggressive funds, however, Vanguard has now frozen her accounts and will not allow either her or myself to change anything without a court order (costing thousands of dollars). I have been requesting (and getting incorrect responses from various Vanguard employees) to have the funds moved to less aggressive funds for more than a month with no success. Due to the recent declines in the market, Mom has lost quite a bit of her retirement savings thanks to Vanguard's refusal to allow her to change how her funds are invested. I STRONGLY advise that no one invests with Vanguard if you'd like to maintain control over your own accounts. Based on all of the info on the internet, it appears this is a common problem among investors when dealing with Vanguard.

I am presently going through hell with Vanguard, I have been a customre for over 25 years and am trying to ad Brokerage services to my wifes ROTH IRA for 5 days not to no avail We wait for at least 20 minutes each day to get through only to be told the person we are speaking to is not a high enough level to do it or that it has been sent to someone who can do it but it NEVER gets done. Vanguard has turned from a once great Brikerag house to a Lame ### second rate institution, I will be moving all money away from Vanguard shortly

I am really disappointed to read some of these comments about Vanguard. I lost 10% of my 401K through Voya's management services in August 2015. I have listened to my husband talk to Vanguard on the phone with positive results. An initial direct contact was made to me after my preliminary call to transfer my 401K to Vanguard. Voya charges $75 per account to transfer money, plus another 15% for smaller accounts.
Since beginning my investments with Vanguard, any phone contacts have been just that. Someone always calls back two weeks later or so, to ask what transaction I had requested and to which accounts. My 2014 employee contribution was not put into a Roth account and it did not seem like anyone at the institution knows how to correct it.
I think the whole financial organization of employee investment fees need to be investigated. Most investors are unable to track their funds and fees nor does there not seem to be any organization that is monitoring for fraud. Employees depend on this money for their future lifestyle. Vanguard and other institutions record their phone calls without any improvements in service.

Vanguard management fabricates ways to get rid of employees over the age of 40 or anyone who doesn't drink their Kool-Aid. This leaves customers in the lurch with kids out of college who have no working or customer service experience. Vanguard reduces its fund costs on the backs of its employees. Bill McNabb is over 50; maybe he should go too. Vanguard is a master of lies and routinely discriminates against race and faith. They are devious and gloat over a once-well deserved reputation. Vanguard is sinking fast. Visit glassdoor.com for a peek at recent employee reviews. Philly.com also has multiple investigative articles on the firm that are worth reading. Vanguard touts low-cost funds; THEY are LOW in general. Integrity is worse than "low"; it is non-existent.

I had taken most of my RMD back in July but still needed to take the remainder before December 31.On December 29 I called Vanguard and requested the remainder of my RMD to be sent to the IRS, in other words 100% to the IRS.

I was shocked when I received a paper check that indicated 10% had gone to the IRS and 90% to me despite that my account is set up so that all money sent to me is electronically deposited in one of my checking accounts and aside from the fact that my order was that 100% was to be sent to the IRS. Then on top of that "mistake" on December 31st shares totalling the identical amount were again withdrawn from my account. After talking to a couple of know-nothings I was finally transferred to someone who could allegedly fix the mistake; however, I would have to cash the first paper check from the 29th and send it to the IRS myself necessitating some annoying trips to my bank and the post office. As for the funds that were superfluously withdrawn from my account on the 31st, the 10% that was sent to the IRS could not be withdrawn supposedly because of IRS regulations, so my tax preparer will have to do two tax filings which will offset one another. Since the work he does is not free, having him do two tax filings will cost me something.

Since Vanguard made the error, the 90% overpayment of my RMD will be returned to my account, but alas not to the funds it was taken out of because of the restricted trading rule that says you cannot repurchase a fund you have sold for at least 90 days.

When I asked how this egregious error could have happened, I was told that at the end of the year Vanguard hires a lot of temporary employees to handle the volume of calls they receive and the one that helped me on the 29th didn't turn off the automatic RMD distribution when he took my call. I've certainly lost my faith in Vanguard and will be exploring moving my funds to another company in the near future.

Advice is to file as many complaints with FINRA and the SEC as possible. While this will not do a lot until they get enough complaints it does require them to respond. As the largest asset manager they feel they don't have to make changes, which is why you get VERY poorly paid people on the phone. Also email CEO, bill_mcnabb@vanguard.com or william_mcnabb@vanguard.com, you can also email reps using the same format. Make sure you place all complaints in writing and to make sure they know it is a complaint state that it is a complaint. Complaints in writing require a written response.

The very simple response is Vanguard does not have a clue. Their people are not only untrained and they will lie when they make a mistake. I have been trying to move 2 inherited IRA's since the beginning of February and nothing has been done yet. They screw it up and they blame the other company. After a conference call it comes out that the paperwork hasn't even left VG yet and all the problems and mistakes were by VG. No worth the savings.

So far I have requested 25 security codes to log in and have not received one. Their system sucks

Please release the security lock on SSU [protected]

Wanted access to my account with my vanguard app. Was having trouble. Called Vanguard on the phone. Got person in the Philippines that I couldn’t understand and who couldn’t resolve my problem.