Losing faith in Vanguard

[Lsbcal]

Thanks Splitwdw.

I should have added in my post that I'm not all that familiar with Fidelity and they may well have comparable funds to VG's offerings. So perhaps the commission for VG funds is not a real obstacle for their customers.

I personally have found over the years that avoiding a relationship with reps is good for me. Then there is absolutely no social issue with my investing. I do want decent service and do want them to be respectful of me as I am of them. Should be strictly business.

 

[teejayevans]

I did a IRA to HSA rollover, put the money in the MM fund, sent them paperwork with correct amount, the person who did the transfer must have use transfer all because that amount matched amount I requested, unfortunately interest was deposited in between and the amount was too much. I called Optum, they said they couldn’t do anything, I’d have to submit a request to pull out the extra, I called Vanguard, they immediately got back to me, the did a stop on check and resubmitted it. I then updated Optum who really seem confused.
In the end, 2 weeks later it all got straightened out. They screwed up, but they also quickly resolved the situation. I dont use their financial advisor services, but I’m happy with their service.

 

[mickeyd]

I can not recall any VG action that I am unhappy with. I always initiate all of my account activity myself online, so I am not surprised by any account activity. On occasion, I have not been able to complete the transaction so I will call my Flagship rep to get it done properly.


I always check my account to assure that it went thru properly.

 

[splitwdw]

Thanks Splitwdw.

I should have added in my post that I'm not all that familiar with Fidelity and they may well have comparable funds to VG's offerings. So perhaps the commission for VG funds is not a real obstacle for their customers.

I personally have found over the years that avoiding a relationship with reps is good for me. Then there is absolutely no social issue with my investing. I do want decent service and do want them to be respectful of me as I am of them. Should be strictly business.

She knows I pick my own funds and stocks and rarely makes suggestions. When it comes to questions or handling transfer she right there. She knows I don't need much hand holding. When I transferred from Vanguard to Fidelity, she set up a conference call. All I had to do was say "Yep, I want to transfer my account from Vanguard" and there were a couple of other questions but it was so easy. My work 401k is with Fidelity but thought I should try Vanguard after hearing all the praise here. I had an old IRA that I rolled over to Vanguard. It took a while for the money to show up, even though it was a electronic transfer. It always took several days for a rep to get back to me by phone or email, sometimes they never got back to me. That's when I gave up. Like I said, the Fidelity office that I deal with has been great for me.

 

[Texas Proud]

Just curious, does Fidelity have different levels of service like Vanguard? If so, what are the amounts needed to get there?


I have an IRA brokerage account at Vanguard and they messed up my cost basis on an investment that switched from one ticker to another... it just is missing... also, the totals at the bottom does not match the individual holdings...

Sent them a message and got back a message that basically said 'it does not affect your taxes so the cost dept will not do anything'... Read their reply this weekend and sent back a nasty message they will get tomorrow... we will see how they handle this, but if they cannot even keep up with something this easy I wonder what else they might be missing.....


I guess another question is does Fidelity keep track of the invested amounts of your IRAs? And if there is a problem do they fix it?

 

[kgtest]

The mistake has been corrected .My correct RMD is safely in my money market . I am glad I spoke up and did not accept Vanguard's run around .

In my experience a couple of calls to the company usually gets the fix made. At the end of the day some IT db admin needs to make a simple update to a couple records in the database and your good.

Good reminder companies make mistakes. Even VG.

At least ae haven't had a data breach that we know of.

 

[teejayevans]

Sent them a message and got back a message that basically said 'it does not affect your taxes so the cost dept will not do anything'... Read their reply this weekend and sent back a nasty message they will get tomorrow... we will see how they handle this, but if they cannot even keep up with something this easy I wonder what else they might be missing.....


I guess another question is does Fidelity keep track of the invested amounts of your IRAs? And if there is a problem do they fix it?

Try calling them, and nasty messages won’t help you, try to be professional.

 

[freedomatlast]

Vanguard seems to have a high turnover rate among it's Flagship services representatives and training seems to be nonexistent. It's almost impossible to get a straight answer on anything, or the same answer to the same question by two different representatives.

 

[unclemick]

I have been with VG for 35 years, with never a problem.

For a laugh I posted my broken VG coffee mug on FB and they sent me a new one. Social media gotta love it.

Soooo - if I post 'pssst Wellesely' on FB ?

heh heh heh - I didn't know about their FB let alone a coffee mug. - 35 yrs! Just a rookie! Tongue in cheek.

 

[Texas Proud]

Try calling them, and nasty messages won’t help you, try to be professional.

This was the plan....

Yep, letter did not work... called them a bit ago but am waiting to get a call back from a manager...

 

[mickeyd]

Vanguard seems to have a high turnover rate among it's Flagship services representatives and training seems to be nonexistent. It's almost impossible to get a straight answer on anything, or the same answer to the same question by two different representatives.

I disagree with just about everything in that statement. I have had the same Flagship Rep for about 10 years.

 

[REWahoo]

I have had the same Flagship Rep for about 10 years.

I've been with Vanguard 12 years and am on my second Flagship Rep.

 

[redduck]

... I have had the same Flagship Rep for about 10 years.

I had my first Flagship rep. for about eight years. Good relationship with him. The next Flagship rep for about six months; the next one for about a week (or less). Never interacted with either one. Hope the current one (4-6 months so far) stays, he's been helpful.

 

[mathjak107]

i closed my account with vanguard . some of their policies have become very poor and my customer service experience with them was the worst .

i have been with fidelity over 30 years and they have 90% . vanguard had 10% and i gave that to chase instead since i got a private client account and all the perks just letting them baby sit my index fund .

i can only say good things about my fidelity experience and more recently , chase , vs i only have negative things to say about vanguard .

 

[foxfirev5]

Vanguard has always worked good for me as long as I didn't need to contact them. A lost rollover, a year to get inherited funds, wrong 1099's etc. I do like some of their funds and basically keep our Roth's there along with DW's rollover. I plan to keep it very simple w/ VG.
All the more complicated stuff is with Fido for various reasons. First, there is no cost differential with the investments I use. Secondly good customer service so far, and thirdly an office 45 min away in case I need some hand holding.

 

[mathjak107]

they were awful when i called them .

not only did i get passed around like a hot potato with no one saying i will get the right party and have them call you right back but they passed me to phones that were not even answered .

just for laughs i put the phone on speaker (actually 2 phones as i called in on another ) and 1 hour and 15 minutes later i was still left on hold with a please wait for the next available rep .

we worked around the issue in the mean time so i just hung up .

i have never made more than 1 call to fidelity , no matter who or what was involved . they run with the ball and see it through . vanguard was a joke in comparison .

vanguard deleted all our beneficiaries from our joint accounts . we never even knew . then they told us that we either need a trust ( they just happen to have a trust dept they are promoting ) or we can split the account up in to single accounts and add beneficiaries .

i said forget it and took our money elsewhere where no one else has made it so you can not add beneficiaries to a joint account in case of common death . which is a big possibility with all the traveling we do .

 

[MRG]

they were awful when i called them .

not only did i get passed around like a hot potato with no one saying i will get the right party and have them call you right back but they passed me to phones that were not even answered .

just for laughs i put the phone on speaker (actually 2 phones as i called in on another ) and 1 hour and 15 minutes later i was still left on hold with a please wait for the next available rep .

we worked around the issue in the mean time so i just hung up .

i have never made more than 1 call to fidelity , no matter who or what was involved . they run with the ball and see it through . vanguard was a joke in comparison .

vanguard deleted all our beneficiaries from our joint accounts . we never even knew . then they told us that we either need a trust ( they just happen to have a trust dept they are promoting ) or we can split the account up in to single accounts and add beneficiaries .

i said forget it and took our money elsewhere where no one else has made it so you can not add beneficiaries to a joint account in case of common death . which is a big possibility with all the traveling we do .

Hope nothing changes for you with Fidelity. It was like that with my first branch.

After moving and one I've been with 3 different client private client reps, the last was qualified to work at ed Jones. He lied left and right. Told me how terrible Fidelity's bond funds, and bond desk are. Need to go to a third party bond managers that he would have been compensated for.

I called the 800 number prior to Christmas asking for a manager to contact me. Still haven't heard a cricket. I guess I'm wound up enough after posting this to make one last phone call before calling Schwab.

We have 33% at Vanguard and they've been great to work with.

ETA: I just called Fidelity again, they claim the branch manager tried to contact me on Jan 2, 2018 on my phone. Unfortunately my phone didn't receive any calls January 2! Nor has anyone other than a Fidelity salesmen tried to contact me!

 

[mathjak107]

i really have no use for chase other than a local bank . i have little interface but the perks together with our chase sapphire reserve were to good to pass up .

 

[Texas Proud]

Hope nothing changes for you with Fidelity. It was like that with my first branch.

After moving and one I've been with 3 different client private client reps, the last was qualified to work at ed Jones. He lied left and right. Told me how terrible Fidelity's bond funds, and bond desk are. Need to go to a third party bond managers that he would have been compensated for.

I called the 800 number prior to Christmas asking for a manager to contact me. Still haven't heard a cricket. I guess I'm wound up enough after posting this to make one last phone call before calling Schwab.

We have 33% at Vanguard and they've been great to work with.

ETA: I just called Fidelity again, they claim the branch manager tried to contact me on Jan 2, 2018 on my phone. Unfortunately my phone didn't receive any calls January 2! Nor has anyone other than a Fidelity salesmen tried to contact me!

Just to let you know, someone can try to call you and it not show up on your phone.... I have looked at DWs phone where you can clearly see she called me and I will show her my phone where it clearly show I did not get a call...

 

[Milton]

Charles Schwab is [-]kiddy-corner[/-] kitty corner across from Fidelity.

Fixed.

 

[plsprius]

Been with Vanguard for decades. Never had any problem that I can recall...including with a regular account, 401K and IRA.

As always, YMMV...

 

[teejayevans]

Been with Vanguard for decades. Never had any problem that I can recall...including with a regular account, 401K and IRA.

As always, YMMV...

Ditto
The big problem I had with Fidelity is when I decided to transfer all to VG, they insisted they had to send it via a paper check to me, took 7 days, which I then had to forward to VG. That’s right, 21st century technology: paper check via pony express...both ways!

 

[aja8888]

Normally, VG has been helpful, but the topper was it took them a few weeks, several phone calls by me, and a few emails to have them figure out why I could no change my email address within my account.

 

[JoeWras]

Been Flagship for about 6 years. 2 flagship reps in that time. But just last week, I got thrown into the pool.

 

[bada bing]

If anyone is keeping a tally, you can add me to the list of people who dumped
Vanguard as a custodian. I still have a significant percentage of my stuff in
Vanguard ETFs held at Schwab (solo401k & taxable) and Fidelity (401K, Roth &
cb pension).

I don't have any Vanguard horror stories, just frustration with delays, un-informed
CSR's, lack of timely call backs and lack of flexible policies available at other
custodians. When I determined that Vanguard's solo401K plan did not allow
for roll ins of IRA money I went with Schwab and consolidated everything
away from VG. Couldn't be happier , YMMV

At both Schwab and Fido I am below $1M, but both assigned me my own rep
and both are very good. I get offers for free Turbotax (Fido) and have been to
a couple microbrew steakhouse meetups hosted by my Schwab guy. I've never
been "sold" anything from either or even offered investment product advice
(never asked), not in the slightest.

YMMV, just my individual experience.