Customer Service Experience Vanguard vs. Schwab and Fido

[MRG]

Nobody here is switching to Robinhood?

No, but a bunch of ex-Robinhood traders are moving to Fidelity.

 

[albundyz]

Been a customer of Vanguard for 12 years. In the past year, I have noticed a decline in customer svc, too.
1. now, you have to search around the website for the Vanguard phone number to call.
2. On hold for 30 minutes ( the rep was very helpful)
3. Trying to transfer money from Ally Bank to Vanguard. I followed Vanguard's instructions perfectly, it's now been 27 days. still not complete. Why? partially because Vanguard sat on my documentation for at least 10 days.

 

[dixter]

I have had to call in to Fidelity two times in the last month... my impression is, they are working from home and answer the phone if they aren't too busy doing stuff at home... when you do get ahold of them and ask your question(s) they never have the answer and will put you on hold as they call who ever they get the answer from, then come back on the phone to relay the question... if you ask another question your on hold again... and if you need them to adjust one of your accounts they put you on hold and come back and say the " people in the home office " will take care of it, may take upto 5 business days.... and you get this strange feeling the " people in the home office " is more than likely off shore... perhaps India and my assigned support specialist is from India... does that tell you anything.... oh...and for some reason they report corporate bond valuation on " 3rd party pricing " and when you ask them who that 3rd party is... they don't know...so you better have a calculator at home and understand your true value of their bonds is what you can sell the bond back to them at any given time... and selling a bond back to them isn't that hard but you do need to pay attention cause you could sell 10 bonds at once but get different prices for several of the bonds... so again, you never know your true valuation until you sell and the money is in the account...

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I never really have a reason to call them. What kind of questions are people asking that they need to call in? I generally prefer to use secure message or chat.

I hate, Hate, HATE trying to talk to any kind of CSR on the phone, but today I was forced to call TDA. Long story short, I moved my brokerage account away from TDA but maintained an inherited IRA with them (for the time being). I got a notice that my brokerage account would be closed as soon as the funds were moved...and they did. The problem was that the IIRA was linked to the brokerage account/user ID and I could no longer log in. I tried 100 different ways to "recover" the account all to no avail...I HAD to call in.

Well, after being on hold for an hour and twenty minutes, I was able to finally talk to a CSR. She was state based (working from home and had to fess up when her dog started barking) and was able to help me (they had to create a whole new online account!) fairly quickly. I think it's pretty ridiculous that I wasn't able to recover the online account (or create a new one) without calling. I already had 2FA enabled as well as security questions, PIN and "secret word"...yet I had to call.

OH, and there was no "call back que"...I had to sit on the line. With that experience alone, I will probably move the IIRA over to FIDO as well. Hopefully I can do that without calling anyone.

 

[dixter]

I can assure you if you had that exact problem with FIDO you would need to call in there also.... I can buy/sell/withdraw/deposit without there help... other wise you got to call them for everything...Its not the calling thats the problem... the problem is they are more worried about whats going on at home, while working from home and they don't know any of the answers to your questions... one asked me for my question, I asked her back if she knew anything about corporate bonds... she said NO... I said put me on with someone with at least some knowledge... terrible these days... sometimes when talking with them they act like they are economic students working part time...

 

[OldShooter]

... Well, after being on hold for an hour and twenty minutes, I was able to finally talk to a CSR. She was state based (working from home and had to fess up when her dog started barking) and was able to help me (they had to create a whole new online account!) fairly quickly. I think it's pretty ridiculous that I wasn't able to recover the online account (or create a new one) without calling. I already had 2FA enabled as well as security questions, PIN and "secret word"...yet I had to call.

OH, and there was no "call back que"...I had to sit on the line. With that experience alone, I will probably move the IIRA over to FIDO as well. Hopefully I can do that without calling anyone.

Re Schwab and TDA, I would counsel patience over apoplexy.

The acquisition closed in early October. Since then I am sure it has been a planning and management nightmare to integrate front offices, back offices, account records, call centers, etc. Something like 11 millions TDA accounts, adding 30% to Schwab's total. Probably a few hundred pounds of paperwork for the SEC as well. Oh, and then there is this pandemic problem ... I have a mixture of awe and sympathy for the people trying to accomplish this.

 

[nwsteve]

I asked her back if she knew anything about corporate bonds... she said NO... I said put me on with someone with at least some knowledge... terrible these days... sometimes when talking with them they act like they are economic students working part time...

Save yourself a lot of time--unless it is really simple, no one at Fido will give you answers about bonds except their bond desk. Just ask for the bond desk at the get-go, even their auto answer service will connect you.

 

[OldShooter]

Save yourself a lot of time--unless it is really simple, no one at Fido will give you answers about bonds except their bond desk. Just ask for the bond desk at the get-go, even their auto answer service will connect you.

+1 True for the Schwab bond desk as well. At Schwab at least, the bond guys are not paid commissions so they can give you fiduciary-quality advice with no agency problem.

I have the direct phone number for a good guy there. I brokerchecked him and he has 17 years of experience in the business. Definitely not an economics students working part time.

 

[MRG]

I had reason to call Fidelity for help. I received a partial settlement for $9700 from Megacorp in a newly established Netbenifits account. The address was wrong and it wouldn't let me do anything. I got a netbenifits person, WFH with her dog disrupting the conversation, who changed my address but couldn't help me roll it out to Fidelity. She put me on hold for someone to help. I was interrupted and when you got back to holding I established a new account and set up the rollover myself.
Value add?

 

[JoeWras]

Today I go to log in and they added a "too many calls" bug to their web page.

Maybe they should solve the problem by hiring more CSRs? They had all that favorable publicity a few years ago and were not prepared for more volume?

 

[FIREarly]

Just had a one hour call with Schwab rep after he called me back. It said 15 minutes to call back but it was probably closed to 5 minutes. The rep was very helpful and knowledgeable about basic option trading. I was thinking about buying a put option on Gamestop (GME). This is not a safe move but, lets be real, GME was "crazy" how it flew up to +/-$400 and is a dying brick-and-mortar store. It's around $70 right now and will probably continue to drop to where it was +/-$10.

End result, didn't make any options buy because it is easier to continue the trend of S&P500 index, Tesla, and Microsoft stocks.

PS Tesla did not release FSD yet and it has a great chance of BUMPING its stock.

Sorry for switching swim lanes, the Schwab call was a very short wait and they called me back to avoid waiting on hold and listening to elevator music. The rep was very friendly and helpful.

 

[Car-Guy]

I've been with Schwab for almost 40 years now and have always felt their customer service is among the best "in any industry". I've had a few account executives over the years that I had personality clashes with but a quick call to their boss or the customer service hot line fixed that. (Switched AE's asap)

Here's a specific/recent example of why I think they have pretty good customer services:

The past few weeks I understand all the brokerage firms have been having technical problems with all the record high volumes. (System overloads) Schwab had their share too... For a couple of days, trades were delayed, especially in the mornings... I'm a pattern trader and I had a coupe of trades that were delayed for several minutes and I "estimated" those delays cost me about $500.. Not a lot lot of money but it's disturbing when you are making quick trades... Anyway, I sent an email to my AE explaining my dissatisfaction... He explained what was happening and acknowledged that was not an excuse and apologized on behalf of Schwab and told me he'd send my concerns "up the line". Apparently he did since his boss called me today apologizing again for their problems and credited my account for my "estimated" losses due to their system trade delay problems...

That's an example of pretty good customer service, IMO..

 

[nwsteve]

I've been with Schwab for almost 40 years now and have always felt their customer service is among the best "in any industry". I've had a few account executives over the years that I had personality clashes with but a quick call to their boss or the customer service hot line fixed that. (Switched AE's asap)

Here's a specific/recent example of why I think they have pretty good customer services:

The past few weeks I understand all the brokerage firms have been having technical problems with all the record high volumes. (System overloads) Schwab had their share too... For a couple of days, trades were delayed, especially in the mornings... I'm a pattern trader and I had a coupe of trades that were delayed for several minutes and I "estimated" those delays cost me about $500.. Not a lot lot of money but it's disturbing when you are making quick trades... Anyway, I sent an email to my AE explaining my dissatisfaction... He explained what was happening and acknowledged that was not an excuse and apologized on behalf of Schwab and told me he'd send my concerns "up the line". Apparently he did since his boss called me today apologizing again for their problems and credited my account for my "estimated" losses due to their system trade delay problems...

That's an example of pretty good customer service, IMO..

+1 Excellent example and standard to rate with for others
One sure bet, Vanguard would not have even refunded postage much less $500

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Re Schwab and TDA, I would counsel patience over apoplexy.

The acquisition closed in early October. Since then I am sure it has been a planning and management nightmare to integrate front offices, back offices, account records, call centers, etc. Something like 11 millions TDA accounts, adding 30% to Schwab's total. Probably a few hundred pounds of paperwork for the SEC as well. Oh, and then there is this pandemic problem ... I have a mixture of awe and sympathy for the people trying to accomplish this.

Perhaps, but the fact remains that there was no decent reason that I couldn't accomplish this online. Once I talked to the CSR, it was resolved in less than 2 minutes. And M&A in the brokerage world isn't new...COVID not withstanding, so I find that excuse...well, as a customer, I don't care. They want to be massive, then they need to figure it out.

 

[dixter]

Save yourself a lot of time--unless it is really simple, no one at Fido will give you answers about bonds except their bond desk. Just ask for the bond desk at the get-go, even their auto answer service will connect you.

ha..ha... I have done that too in the past... straight to the bond desk... they don't like you asking questions like why their positions haven't updated in months or why they still use 3rd party pricing for valuations... ever try to buy a bond from fidelity at the 3rd party price...how about selling a bond at 3rd party price.. the answer is NO.. because they won't allow it to happen, but they have no problem telling you that your account is worth so much based on that 3rd party price... the way it really works... you log on... you want to buy 10 bonds...you look at the depth of book.. there you will look at the Ask price.. but be careful because there in the depth of book it most likely will show several different ask prices and the mins to purchase at that price and how many they have to sell.. so you want to buy 10 bonds... but the ask price is over the 3rd party price and they only have 3 bonds to sell at the ask price and so you make that buy... so now you have to make another buy and so on and so on... it could take you 3 or more buy attempts... and you will never get your target price... so now you have the bonds in place... and its the same way if you want to sell the bonds later.. they may buy a couple bonds at a time and at the price they want to pay... and sooner or later you get all 10 bonds sold... its a bit of a pain...

 

[jazz4cash]

I have had to call in to Fidelity two times in the last month... my impression is, they are working from home and answer the phone if they aren't too busy doing stuff at home... when you do get ahold of them and ask your question(s) they never have the answer and will put you on hold as they call who ever they get the answer from, then come back on the phone to relay the question... if you ask another question your on hold again... and if you need them to adjust one of your accounts they put you on hold and come back and say the " people in the home office " will take care of it, may take upto 5 business days.... and you get this strange feeling the " people in the home office " is more than likely off shore... perhaps India and my assigned support specialist is from India... does that tell you anything.... oh...and for some reason they report corporate bond valuation on " 3rd party pricing " and when you ask them who that 3rd party is... they don't know...so you better have a calculator at home and understand your true value of their bonds is what you can sell the bond back to them at any given time... and selling a bond back to them isn't that hard but you do need to pay attention cause you could sell 10 bonds at once but get different prices for several of the bonds... so again, you never know your true valuation until you sell and the money is in the account...

That’s very very different from my experience. I like to do everything on my own but the two 401k’s I have there usually require me to call in a few times per year. Lately it’s a call back when it’s my turn. Although they are definitely working from home in some cases I never got an impression I was interrupting their daytime tv drama watching. I make a point of chatting these folks up and they are usually in Boston or Cincinnati, definitely not India. I sure hope my experience won’t deteriorate to what you are reporting. I don’t think I’d put up with that. We do have brand new brick and mortar nearby but of course it is not open right now.