While Vanguard is widely known and applauded for its low cost funds, I rarely hear anyone proclaiming excellence for their administrative and customer service. I certainly have rarely experienced much above mediocre and occasionally just plain inept.
The latest experience just reinforces how mediocre they support their client interface. I called yesterday to determine how to see the specifics of the lots on a mutual fund I wanted to trim back on for adjusting my asset allocation. To do that I wanted to know what my capital gains costs would be for various levels of sales. First call, the rep could not really tell me how to find the lots only there were two categories Covered and Not Covered shares--referring to those positions which Vanguard has to report to IRS actual cost for each share. Needing more info than that, I asked to find out how could sell a specific lot. The entire concept of selling a specific lot was obviously not something she was familiar. Finally she said she would need me to talk to someone else. She put me on a hold, and left. After 5 minutes, I assumed she or the system decided no answer was easier. Even though she knew who had called, no effort to reconnect was made.
I did my own research on the transaction history to find my lots and then sold the number of shares desired. However, if you have not previously elected a cost preference--ave. cost, spec ID, or FIFO, you get a serious of dialogue boxes that pop-up demanding you choose one. No problem, oh wait, Vanguard claims they have no lot info prior to the period when the IRS requires them to report. This is patently untrue, since their transaction history file has every activity back at least 10 years.
All that tells me is they did not want to do the programming to make the data available directly to their client when doing a transaction.
When I completed the sell order, I got a dialogue box pop up that says to have the proper lot assigned to the sale I MUST call them before close of market 24 hours later. The story gets even "better" here.
So, I call and tell the rep I want to assign a lot to the sale made yesterday.
I provide him the specifics of the lot (got it from their transaction data)but again the Vanguard rep fumbles the ball, and finally says he needs to connect me to a person in a dept that handles that matter. He puts me on Hold but does come back this time after 3-4 minutes on silent hold (not sure why V is now using, but you have no idea if you are still connected or not). He repeats again for the recorded line what I previously told him and indicates he's done. I asked how do I know if the proper lot was assigned, and he reluctantly tells me that someone will send me a written confirmation in about a week.
Seriously, I could have done the same transaction on my Fidelity account in less than a minute, directly without ANY follow-up call. Fidelity provides for any position all the lots at any time with a click on the position's action column where you can create a buy/sell order, ask for research, see lot, and change cost choice.
NO rep required.
There is another thread where a new client is struggling with the Vanguard UI, and this experience provides further perspective of just how shallow V's website really is.
Vanguard as a provider is fine for holding low cost funds but those who are looking for more options, with easier access, I would encourage you look at Fido, Schwab, TR Price--all offer you more. Now that I can get a broad selection of V's best indexes as ETF's there is even less reason to deal with their mediocre client interface.
Just sayin!!
NWsteve
The latest experience just reinforces how mediocre they support their client interface. I called yesterday to determine how to see the specifics of the lots on a mutual fund I wanted to trim back on for adjusting my asset allocation. To do that I wanted to know what my capital gains costs would be for various levels of sales. First call, the rep could not really tell me how to find the lots only there were two categories Covered and Not Covered shares--referring to those positions which Vanguard has to report to IRS actual cost for each share. Needing more info than that, I asked to find out how could sell a specific lot. The entire concept of selling a specific lot was obviously not something she was familiar. Finally she said she would need me to talk to someone else. She put me on a hold, and left. After 5 minutes, I assumed she or the system decided no answer was easier. Even though she knew who had called, no effort to reconnect was made.
I did my own research on the transaction history to find my lots and then sold the number of shares desired. However, if you have not previously elected a cost preference--ave. cost, spec ID, or FIFO, you get a serious of dialogue boxes that pop-up demanding you choose one. No problem, oh wait, Vanguard claims they have no lot info prior to the period when the IRS requires them to report. This is patently untrue, since their transaction history file has every activity back at least 10 years.
All that tells me is they did not want to do the programming to make the data available directly to their client when doing a transaction.
When I completed the sell order, I got a dialogue box pop up that says to have the proper lot assigned to the sale I MUST call them before close of market 24 hours later. The story gets even "better" here.
So, I call and tell the rep I want to assign a lot to the sale made yesterday.
I provide him the specifics of the lot (got it from their transaction data)but again the Vanguard rep fumbles the ball, and finally says he needs to connect me to a person in a dept that handles that matter. He puts me on Hold but does come back this time after 3-4 minutes on silent hold (not sure why V is now using, but you have no idea if you are still connected or not). He repeats again for the recorded line what I previously told him and indicates he's done. I asked how do I know if the proper lot was assigned, and he reluctantly tells me that someone will send me a written confirmation in about a week.
Seriously, I could have done the same transaction on my Fidelity account in less than a minute, directly without ANY follow-up call. Fidelity provides for any position all the lots at any time with a click on the position's action column where you can create a buy/sell order, ask for research, see lot, and change cost choice.
NO rep required.
There is another thread where a new client is struggling with the Vanguard UI, and this experience provides further perspective of just how shallow V's website really is.
Vanguard as a provider is fine for holding low cost funds but those who are looking for more options, with easier access, I would encourage you look at Fido, Schwab, TR Price--all offer you more. Now that I can get a broad selection of V's best indexes as ETF's there is even less reason to deal with their mediocre client interface.
Just sayin!!
NWsteve
