Vanguard

The account "buy or sell" webpage won't accept the ticker for preferred shares. I spent several hours talking to no less that 6 different customer service reps who couldn't even tell the correct ticker or how to trade shares. Every other brokerage makes trading preferred shares an easy task, but Vanguard makes it impossible. And what's worse is that their customer service staff doesn't even know how their own website works.

Problem Number 1 - Vanguard said I already had an account and took a week to get that sorted out. I had to submit a W9 tax form to them. Problem Number 2 - It took a week for my money to transfer from my bank to Vanguard. Problem Number 3 - I set up a withdrawal of funds from my Vanguard account to my bank account during the SVB collapse. There is no way to stop the withdrawal. I called them to see if they could cancel my withdrawal and was reassured that it would not take effect. They were wrong. Problem Number 4 - When speaking with the Personal Advisor, it was clear that he was just treating me like the other 50 customers that he spoke with that day. No personal touch at all. Problem Number 5 - The website and app are extremely outdated and nonintuitive. Problem Number 6 - The website and app both have a 20 minute delay for stock quotes. Who can operate like this?

If you are want to transfer money into Vanguard, you need to read this review. My sister and I inherited some IRA money from my mother who passed away at the end of 2022. My sister opened 2 inherited IRA account at Vanguard. One for traditional IRA and the other for Roth. My sister initiated the transfer early Jan and received traditional IRA money on 1/17/2023 at Vanguard. However Roth portion of the inherited IRA took a long time. On 2/21/2023, we called TIAA (where mom kept her IRA) to inquire about the transfer and the representative told us the check was sent on 1/6/2023 and he also gave us the check number and the amount. We then called Vanguard. However the representative at Vanguard told us she could not locate the check. She then called TIAA and we were told TIAA will do some research on this check and get back to us.

I can't overstate how disorganized and lackluster our experience was as we tried to do a very simply task, open a personal investors account and transfer our investments in from other financial institutions. We wasted 6 months with Vanguard before we called it quits. We ended up working with 3 different Vanguard "Investment Reps" since each time they either stopped responding to emails, provided inaccurate information, or made significant errors that caused us to restart the process. When we called, the customer service reps would tell us the same thing, clearly reading off the screen and unable to provide actual help beyond their templated message. We left voicemails with Managers asking for follow on the poor service their reps were providing. We never heard from the managers, we would just get a call from a new Rep but ran into the same problems.

I have been shopping for a new portfolio company and advisor. Called Vanguard due to good reviews. The guy would not talk with me. Since I was inquiring for my mother in law he would not talk to me. WTH. I have talked to two other companies and they were nothing but professional. The guy made me open account in my name just to ask Him the costs etc of their company. He was supposed to call us at 9am today. Since he insisted that my mother in law be present we drove to her place and waited an hour. NO CALL. He just called me 3 1/2 hours later totally unprofessional. I made another appointment with him. I have decided to go with someone else. I will tell everyone I see who is looking for a portfolio company NOT TO GO WITH VANGUARD.

BEWARE OF INVESTING WITH VANGUARD. On each of the following, Vanguard replaced my proposed investments with another generating little or no interest. With each I complained and asked to speak with a manager. Despite having very significant investments, Vanguard refused. Do not trust them with your money!

Vanguard does not allow an added beneficiary to a joint account. For example, Dad and Mom have a joint account with right of survivorship. They do not allow you to add a beneficiary for when both mom and dad are dead. Why is this bad. You could end up with assets in probate whereas with a beneficiary it would pass to the beneficiary on death without going through probate. Vanguard is taking away your choice. All the banks, and other brokerage firms, Fidelity and Schwab allow a beneficiary in this situation. Don't get caught.... Don't go with Vanguard

My father had the upmost trust in this company and now that he has passed on, I find that they are as helpful, honest and polite as he said they were. They are happy to do a bit of hand-holding with me, as I figure out how best to manage my affairs. I could not recommend them more highly!!!

Mutual funds IRA with Vanguard my entire working life, 4+ decades. Unable to access my account online for 2 years. Supposed to send a code they don't. They're only available by phone weekdays. They need to upgrade their website at the very least.

I have been a client for 17 years. Client service has deteriorated! Their customer reps that I have spoken with recently have experiences of one year or less. That is ok except when the information given is wrong and affects your year-end tax consequences. With 4 trading days remaining in 2022, I was informed that I had until the last day to make a trade and still meet the RMD for the year. Wrong! As it takes 2 days for the funds to settle, I really had 2 days remaining. To correct their admitted misinformation, I now await their "shortfall letter" that HOPEFULLY will satisfy the IRS and avoid its penalty for not meeting the RMD. In addition, written messages left on one's account site are ignored and never responded to. There is no way that one can speak to a supervisor much less any officers of the firm. I would not recommend Vanguard to anyone!