I have been a loyal vanguard investor for close to 40 years.... My interest in Vanguard was rooted in simple dollar cost averaging each month, mostly index fund investing and ability to use tools to self manage my accounts. I was disappointed to learn today that retirement tool i had used Financial Engines had been sunsetted and no longer supported by Vanguard. Let alone the hours i spent years ago to set up a link to the accounts over the last few months It took me countless hours on the phone to finally get a straight answer from a customer service rep, who tells me TODAY the only option would be to speak to an advisor who would provide for a fee service advice. Nowhere on the webpages is the information about discontinuing Financial engines available. I understand that my 2-3 million invested in Vanguard is a mere drop in the bucket, but i will tell you that T Rowe Price and Fidelity where much of my remaining assets are invested , continues to provide such services that includes aggregating investments from other fund companies and projected income and shortfall based on my needs Shame on Vanguard for discontinuing such services and now being way behind the competition in providing services needed for the little guys.. i will advise my children and kids to look elsewhere read more

I have been a "Flagship" client for over 20 years and had a good relationship with my assigned rep who subsequently has left the company. After temporarily moving funds between several banks my Flagship status was demoted to "Select" when my balance went under $1M. I needed to send a wire to a bank in FL in order to capture a time sensitive investment promotion but was told by the Select CSR that the request could only be made by snail mail which of course would defeat the expedience feature of the wire transfer! I decided to call the Flagship line and despite my demoted status the rep agreed to help me and took the wire info. The wire did not go through because Vanguard neglected to identify me as the recipient. I called Vanguard to have the wire resent only to be put on hold for 30mins and then got disconnected while waiting! I called back and again requested that the wire be resent. I was assured that it would go out the same day. To my astonishment the funds were still not received by the FL bank two days later. My Vanguard account however was debited back to the day of the first wire attempt so I had already lost 5 days of interest in addition to a possible lost investment opportunity. It took another 90 min phone call to Vanguard to discover that they typed in an incorrect acc# and even made an error with the routing #! What incredible incompetence from a professional financial institution that had all of this documented on a recorded line, admitted to their mistakes but refused to connect me to a manager when asked how I might recover the lost interest their mistakes had cost me. Poor customer service, long holds on your deposited funds, and linking outside accounts has convinced me that it is time to move on. read more

I put a stop limit order on a Vanguard ETF. The next morning the price was right between the stop price and limit price. It should have sold immediately. However, it didn't execute. Vanguard was just letting it... sit there and lose more money. Vanguard's system hadn't executed my order even after the market had been open for an hour and a half! I had to place another order right then, a market order. It cost me another $67!!! read more

Great funds but website is awful. I basically have to call them every-time I want to log in. Their security measures are archaic in addition to not being productive to customer service or security. read more

Trying to invest with Vanguard was an absolutely horrible experience. We placed 50K with them over two months ago and have struggled since then to get them to invest it. They have stalled and thrown up all kinds of roadblocks for nor reason that is apparent to us. We finally just gave up nd emanded our money back. Our earnings for 20% of the year in a bull market? 72 cents. They have a good rep, but I can't understand why. I hope this keeps others from making the same mistake we did. read more

After the initial verification of my bank account, everything was really fast. I rarely ask Customer Service for support. I am on this site because it has low fees / costs. read more

Wow! Vanguard's new and improved website is not anything like it was making it very confusing for customers. I called to complain and the guy I spoke with said that everyone is complaining. I asked if I could go back to the old version which, by the way was way more modern and he said that they DID have that feature but they took it away. Now, they want all customers to use this new unimproved website. I was told he would forward my complaints to senior management and I let him know I'd rather tell them myself. He told me Senior Management does not speak with customers which tells me everything I need to know. Perhaps if they bothered to ask customers what they wanted, they would get it right. No more Dow Jones ticker, no more Cost analysis, everything is in a different place. The fonts look like double bold fonts we all were told not to use in design/publishing business. People don't like double bold fonts, it takes away from the message. I could have designed the website better than the spreadsheet reader person who designed it!! read more

You will be told one thing one day then another thing the next day. They can't keep their answers straight when you ask a question do not invest with this company you will have problems left and right. This company can not be trusted. read more

I agree with the other reviews here. The service is terrible at Vanguard Group. It seems that the current employees have decided that since Mr. Bogle passed, they will have a free for all. It is very concerning now having money with this company. As other reviewers mention Fidelity is much more competitive than Vanguard now. Etrade also has better customer service. I only give this company one star because you cannot give them no stars. I am extremely disappointed that I have to begin writing reviews on Vanguard. I opened accounts at Vanguard Group because I thought "How bad can it be?" I am shocked to find out that in the four months since I opened accounts there, I have not been able to find or speak to one person that seems to have even minimal knowledge on the subject of investments. They have wasted hours and hours of my time on the phone and in email. After spending hours, days, weeks, months on the telephone, they say I need to call them again. After asking to have a manager contact me, someone emailed me--calling themselves a correspondence or communications manager-- letting me know that I was not making their employees feel good! I guess I am not making them feel good because of the shockingly horrible advice I received. Needless to say they are not communicating/corresponding effectively. If I had followed the advice of one person who was assigned to sell me funds, I would have lost almost $100,000 during the last three months. It is clear from the simple questions that I have asked, they are either not educated in the field or they just don't understand what is best for the individual customer. Needless to say, I will transfer most of the funds I have at Vanguard to either Fidelity or Etrade. The employees that I have spoken with at these companies, do have the minimum understanding of the field. I understand that I may have just been lucky to communicate with a few people who realized that their customer was on the phone. It is clear that some of those responsible for creating some of the funds at Vanguard are quite well informed but those dealing with the public are not either informed or minimally educated. The only Vanguard fund that I see that I may invest in--only leaving a small amount at the company--is not a fund recommended by Vanguard employees that I've spoken with. As I mention above, I hate having to write this review but more than this, I am extremely sorry that I took the time to transfer money from other accounts to Vanguard. I hope this review will help you from making the same mistake. read more

Have been a customer for a long time. Absolutely would not recommend any new clients consider this place for their financial needs. Really disappointing to see the level of deterioration in customer service and responsiveness. Multiple attempts to call to get support. Multiple whole times 30 mltiple abandon calls in frustration. read more

I would give them a ZERO but it's not offered. This is literally the WORST company with the WORST customer service on the planet. My wife received her statement today and over $30,000 was withdrawn without explanation. We have spent the day trying to talk to someone but have been jerked around and hung up on. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY and if you already have invested with them, MOVE IT! These are horrible people. Our attorney is going to contact the SEC regarding their behavior. read more

I have been with Vanguard a long time and have always thought they were a quality company, but they have definitely lost their way. Their wait times are insane and they string you from one department to the next until you find the right person. They even asked me for online feedback and I gave it in hopes of getting a call back to discuss the challenges over the past couple of years, but they dont seem to care. No call back, no response after I took the time to provide information. Their security has also gotten to the point of of one cog wheel to the next and yet it is still difficult to get anything accomplished. In parallel I had to complete a similar task with Fidelity and it was accomplished with ease. Vanguard took forever for the same exact issue. Good luck Vanguard, but there are plenty of other low cost investment companies out there. read more

horrible customer service! had to begin moving $$ away due to very poor customer service..and them loosing deposits. Spoke with several folks who were allegedly in customer service dept...they were of no help ( and they too were baffled as to the situation) trying to locate a six figure check mailed in to Vanguard in one of Vanguard's envelopes.. were 2 checks in the envelope... the small one was deposited but... the six figure check could not be found...was then told it was in processing... well that was wrong too! anyway,seems like many problems at Vanguard but loosing deposits and not being able to give some type of reasonable,written, explanation may be a clear sign that all is not well at Vanguard. ( I am writing this because I saw an article by another in the FPA Journal stating he had a similar problem...so, it may not be an isolated event Lets not forget the extensive wait time to get someone (live) in ,supposedly, in customer service. Lets not forget they kicked their variable annuity products out the door for Transamerica to handle. oh yea dropped 401-k to the curb along with a bunch of 401 K service employees.......... To note, I have not experienced such problems with Schwab not Fidelity hey, Bogle build it and this 3rd generation looks like it might be dismantling some of it!....and don't blame the pandemic! read more

We have had Vanguard for years and haven't had much need of customer service until my husband changed jobs and we needed a lot of help with quickly selling or donating stocks (some in certificate form) and transferring 401Ks. It was a condition of his employment that this be done quickly. We ran into trouble with a check being sent rather than a wire transfer, and the personal attention we got was very reassuring. I had to deal with two other major investment operations to sell stock, donate stock, or move 401Ks, and Vanguard provided far and away the best service. If anyone at Vanguard wants to know what caused me to write this review, it was the help I got from Matthew, a supervisor in the 401K transfer department on 6/21 at about 9 AM CST. I needed more help and Sherri R (she gave me her last name) at about 1 PM CST got the wire transfer team involved. I have been impressed by other help we got as well, especially with URGENT messages that I sent about selling and donating stock. I will say this as a reaction to the negative reviews I see here for Vanguard: I try to use messaging if at all possible for any sort of customer service just so what I need is in writing and there is a paper trail for what happened. read more

I Try to be understanding on long hold times. Was finally able to speak to representative CLAUDIA, with very poor customer service qualities. Did not help me at all, VERY RUDE, and she hung up on me. The call did not last even two minutes. After having been on hold for over 30 minutes.Very disappointed with my experience. read more

Been a Vanguard investor for decades, and have always been pleased with the low cost structure. But as my investments have grown, so has my need for help from time to time. But the customer service at Vanguard is spotty at best and often completely missing. I am Flagship Select, yet still have problems getting help with issues that require person to person assistance. Now that Fidelity has matched most of the low fee structure of Vanguard, I tend to recommend Fidelity to friends over Vanguard. But I still recommend Vanguard to those who absolutely want the lowest costs and can accept poor/inconsistent customer service. read more

Terrible customer service. Starting last August, I made A simple request to change the address on my wife's rollover account. I was told she needed to make the request herself. I explained that my wife had Alzheimer's disease and one was unable to do this. This started a chain of events which took three different forms required by Vanguard, Each requiring a notary to sign off on. I finally received confirmation that I was the authorized agent to complete transactions for incapacitated person, my wife. It should be noted that the form the first representative sent me was incorrect which caused the cascading chain of events which required more forms. Today I attempted to take the RMD from my wife's account for a charitable distribution and was unable to do so. After a Total of 15 minutes the representative told me I needed to complete a different form! This form requires a medallion signature to confirm my signature. I am filing a complaint with the FCC. I have been a Vanguard client for at least 25 years. Buyer beware!. read more

I've been very satisfied with Vanguard for 30 years. I experienced convoluted call routing and unacceptable wait times on two occasions at the end of 2020. It was bad , but I can understand how busy they must have been. I want to thank their excellent customer service representatives for their assistance over the years! read more

I've been with Vanguard for over 30 years. They started going downhill about 10 years ago, but the last year has been unforgivable. Use someone else. I'm in the process of moving funds out and that's a nightmare. You wont find worse. I'm flagship and waiting on hold for 30+ minutes. It's just awful. read more

Called late February to rollover my 401k from a previous employer from Vanguard to Fidelity (thank god I could finally do that) and Vanguard supposedly sent a check to Fidelity on 02/23. It is now a month later and Fidelity never for the check. Called Vanguard customer service just now and waited for over an hour to get someone on the phone. She proceeded to tell me that she couldn't help me because she doesn't handle employer accounts. Why did I get routed to her when I had already entered all of my account information???? I tell her that before she transfers me that I want to tell her exactly why I am calling so that I don't have to wait on the phone for another hour unnecessarily. I can tell she really doesn't give a crap and I'll probably be transferred to someone else who "can't help me". So she "transfers" me and about 30 minutes later the call just ends. I spent an hour and a half waiting for nothing and now I am back on the line which is telling me that my estimated wait time is another 40 minutes. That is what it said the first time I called and it took over an hour just to get someone. I'll be overjoyed once I have severed ties with them completely. read more

Wish it could be zero stars - closed a 401k using an in kind stock transfer. First, they had me open the wrong kind of account, but never told me that. Then, when I figured it out myself (much, much later), they made me open a different type of account and now two weeks later my shares are still stuck in purgatory where I can't access them. This has been a 4 month ordeal, with at least 10 hours on the phone over the last 2 weeks. Supervisors don't return calls or call when they say they will. I can't wait to get access to my shares so I can move them, move my Roth IRA and roll out my remaining former employer 401k to another retirement account provider. Done with Vanguard.... read more

Worst company I've ever dealt, this company has screwed up trying to roll my 401(k) from Fidelity to them which my employer uses Vanguard. Over and over I have been given the wrong information by their customer service employees and processing errors. I even had to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau against him. Do not use them, if you do you will probably regret it. read more

Horrible customer service all the way up the line. Lazy, good for nothing attitude that trickles down from upper management. I believe everyone gets a bonus.... the slower they move to get you your money the more they make. When they tell you the supervisor cant help, believe them, no one can help they are all incompetent. read more

This is a review of their personal advisor services (PAS). Prior to using the PAS I was a *devoted* Vanguard Roth IRA customer and helped many friends and colleagues set up accounts: the management costs are low; the interface, if not intuitive, is navigable, and they keep track of all the basics for you so you can set up Autopay and forget it. But my PAS experience was terrible: a provider drawing funds from the wrong account causing an overdraft - promises to make me whole, but never reimbursing the cost- setting up a different investment plan than what we agreed to on the phone, deleting my own Auto-pay setup for my Roth that had been working beautifully for decade+, without notifying me, leaving me with a gap in my investments. And then, when I finally got out, I got sent another bill for their services, and the accounts were set up in such a way that I could not move any funds/set up any auto pay etc. without starting over in terms of buying entirely new investment funds with minimum purchase amounts for each fund. -- If that sounds confusing, that's because it is, but it shouldn't be. Do not recommend for anything more than a basic Roth you self-manage. read more

I retired and wanted to consolidate all my retirement accounts with one company under the care of a personal advisor. I carefully researched all the major companies offering both personal and hybrid forms of retirement advisor options. Initially, I was very satisfied with the advice and support from the personal advisors I spoke with regarding transferring all my retirement accounts to Vanguard. That was about 2 years ago. Recently, I decided to transfer funds from an outside IRA annuity account that was not included in the original consolidation. I have been trying to complete this transfer for over 3 weeks. The primary cause of the delay in completing this process has been my inability to speak to staff at Vanguard's "onboarding" department. When I call the onboarding number a recorded message informs there is no one available to take my call and instructed to leave a message. If I get a call back it is not identified as a call from Vanguard. The voice mail left by Vanguard staff instructs me to call the same onboarding number and leave a message! The only way I can get through to onboarding is by scheduling a phone appointment with the personal advisor department. The personal advisor has to contact the onboarding staff while I am on the phone. The problem is, you have to wait a week to get a phone appointment with the personal advisor. I would not recommend Vanguard Personal Advisor Service at this point. They are low cost and I am satisfied with the plan and returns I have on the funds under Vanguard management. But, I have been frustratingly surprised by this experience! read more

Poor and unqualified customer service. Making multiple mistakes that waste my time and cause aggravation. Vanguard does have some great no-load/no-transaction-fee mutual funds, but so do Schwab and Fidelity. As a brokerage, Vanguard seems to have some poorly qualified people and they do not seem to care. I have had several problems with Vanguard and none ever with Fidelity or Schwab. My current problems have to do with a transfer of specific broker CDs from my IRA account to our joint account to thereby create a necessary IRA distribution. Fidelity and Schwab take such instructions orally on a recorded line, without requiring any paperwork. And, the securities are moved in a few minutes. Vanguard requires six pages of paperwork, and a medallion signature guarantee, which is not easy to get. I sent in the proper paperwork, and it was initially rejected. I called and was told that I had to have federal tax withheld and they therefore could not move the CDs intact. I pointed out that on their own Vanguard form, they offered no withholding, and I checked the box for no withholding. I also pointed out that under the IRS regulations, I am allowed to take distributions without withholding. After talking with a representative who had no clue, and after being held on the line for a long hold time, I was told that they would try to process the wrongly rejected request to transfer the two securities between the accounts. Then, even though I requested the full $15,000 value of the two positions moved, they only moved $200 worth of the two positions. Their form had no pre-printed decimal point and I wrote $10000 for one position and $5000 for the second position without any decimal points. I also checked "all" for moving/transferring both positions. I called up and reported this second error, and the agent agreed that they made a mistake. It has been several days and several long phone calls, and they have not fixed the problems. Vanguard screwed up badly and I have wasted precious time to get this straightened out, and it has not been fixed. What takes Fidelity and Schwab minutes to do, takes Vanguard agonizing days. In 20 years, I have never had problems with Schwab or Fidelity, but I have had several/multiple serious problems with Vanguard. I only have a Vanguard account because my Fidelity and Schwab accounts are at the SIPC insurance limit. I recommend Fidelity and Schwab and avoiding Vanguard whenever possible. Vanguard seems to have some incompetent people and the Vanguard management does not seem to care. I have asked several times for a Vanguard management person to call me, and no one has. This is arrogant disrespect. Steve McEvoy read more

I've been a Vanguard customer for about 30 years and am currently a "Flagship" customer, which means I should get good personal service. Whenever I call my "personal customer service rep", she has never answered the phone once. Back in October I called and wanted to recharacterize a ROTH conversion. It took 4 days of me calling back to Vanguard to make sure it was processed correctly. They would tell me everything was OK but when I called back the next day, there were mistakes they made. This went on for 4 days. The final straw was when I made an appointment to do a ROTH conversion from a former employer's plan. I made a 9:00 AM appointment with a Vanguard "Specialist". He didn't call me until about 4 PM and never apologized for missing the appointment. I then move the money into my Fidelity Roth account. Much better customer service at Fidelity than Vanguard the last couple of years. read more

Just tried to open an account with Vanguard. Filled out very detailed paperwork. Got a note that information was missing. Called the 800 number. Sat on hold for almost ten minutes. Opted to have someone call back, which they did. Put me on hold for another five minutes then came back on to say that I would need to sit on hold another 12 minutes before someone could help. Rethinking my decision now. If I can't get a human on the phone I think I might invest my money some place else. read more

Worst customer service department I've ever dealt with. I needed to take a loan from 401K for a down payment on a house. I just logged into my Vanguard account, and the home loan is completely gone. It used to say "Loan in process" when I logged in, now it's like someone just deleted the entire thing. It's not in my current loan folder, it's not in loan requests, it's not in closed loans, it's just plain gone. What the heck is going on with these people? I'm infuriated right now. Vanguard's customer service is a huge FAIL. They took 2 days to respond to my e-mail. Their response was "We have received your e-mail, please allow 2-3 days for a response." It took 2 days for them to acknowledge that they received my request just to tell me they need 2-3 more days to answer me. FAIL. I called them Tuesday trying to figure out where my money is. The lady I spoke to said she'd call me back shortly. It's Friday. She never called. FAIL. On Wednesday another rep told me my money would be transferred to my account by Friday. It's not there. FAIL. This is ridiculous. I made this loan request 10 days ago. I was told 1-2 days to process loan, 3-5 days for funds to be deposited to my account. I am supposed to be handing over a certified check for $17.000.00 today. That's not gonna happen. This whole process with Vanguard has been a huge exercise in futility. Worst service ever. I was lied to, ignored, blown off...and I still haven't received MY money!! read more

Wow, I cannot believe how they have changed. I have had an account of one sort or another with them for 35 years. Now, you cannot get a person on the phone. You cannot contact them by email. Their CEO, Bill McNabb, does not have an email listed. So you are totally out of luck if you need to contact them. They make a call center in India look good. I was calling to ask for checks (they never sent them to me) and see about transfering more funds there, but now I finally have an address to write them to close my account. This I will send certified return receipt because they obviously cannot be trusted to act in a responsible manner if they cannot even answer the phones. Beware of this place. addendum: I got through at 5 AM in th emorning!!! I asked if the checks for an old closed account still worked as so many of the numbers were the same. Could I write one? She said yes. Then no ,, Then she did not know. So she was going to send new checks (2 weeks) but then I though, Time to end a 35 year relationship. Feels strange but they sure have changed. So let's see if the confused phone rep.. actually did it right and I get my money backl read more

After my dad died, I tried to get information on the accounts and name changes. His "specially assigned" agent- who was experienced, was changed to a new one. DO NOT PLAN ON GETTING GOOD INFORMATION. I received sometimes 3 different stories from 3 different agents. Seldom did I receive a callback from my "assigned agent". It cost me thousands as a result. DO NOT EXPECT GOOD HELP FROM VANGUARD... FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF. read more

Vanguard has absolutely terrible customer service. First, they screwed up the numbers on my father-in-law's trust account.... And it's been 6 months and counting just trying to set that straight. My husband just got a call from another lame "customer service" person at van guard telling him the forms their own people had us fill out on behalf of my father-in-law (twice!) are incorrect. Different forms need to be filled out. These forms are complicated and need all sorts of official stamps. We have to drag my 91 year old father-in-law to the bank each time for his John Hancock. If you ask to speak with a manager, there apparently is none. If you ask to speak with the same person, that's not possible. I have never seen such terrible service and am beginning to wonder if they will ever let go of my father-in-law's investments. This is causing terrible stress for my father-in-law ... He's not eating and not sleeping well. I swear people blame the US government for being inefficient.... They've obviously never tried to work with Van Guard. We will NEVER invest or money with them.... And we can't wait to get my Father-in-laws money out of their incompetent clutches. If I could give them a negative star I would. read more

I give Vanguard Brokerage a Negative 10 stars....after a 30 year career working in the Fortune 1000, many firms, this is worst company I HAVE EVER seen. Their customer service is absolutely abysmal....10x worst than Sprint and Bank of America, at their absolute low points WHEN they were truly horrible.... (and they were the worst in their time). Avoid AT ALL COSTS....that is, unless you like to spend all your free time, for weeks on end, trying, unsuccessfully, to get Vanguard to correct THEIR MISTAKES. THEY ARE TERRIBLE !!!!! read more

The worst backend experience one can imagine. low cost = poor/slow service. I am getting out.

Worst customer service ever. I tried to perform a rollover, moving money from a different company into their accounts. Somewhere along the line, they lost my check, even though they cashed it. So far, I have been waiting 2 and a half months for the monies to appear in my account. Now customer service just told me that the check never existed. In my personal opinion, these guys are thieves. Run away. Invest with Security Benefit, American Century, anyone but Vanguard. read more

Vanguard truly has the worst customer services and web services I have experienced. Trying to do a roll over to Vanguard was as painful as pulling teeth. Two weeks after the request was delivered via certified mail, they told me my request was in the 'queue' to be even get looked at. When I called for a status, the customer rep told me a different process that I need to go through. 3 weeks later, I am still in the middle of no where. But the rollover checks had already been mailed to Vanguard from the sending company. When called, no one answered. Trying to find out how my investments are doing is a real chore. They have information here and there just not together. I need to create my own worksheet to keep track of things - very time consuming. Comparing the web experience and the customer services with Fidelity, Vanguard is a tired Dinosaur. Keeping the cost down by having unqualified/ill-trained service reps and out-dated online service are not a good excuses for carelessly handling people's life savings. I regret I started the roll over request. read more

Be careful if you transfer out of Vanguard, move to a cash position if you are a trader or you could be out of the market for 16 days like I was. 16 days to move 3 stocks to Scottrade and still my brokerage account/money market didn't transfer altho' it was frozen during the transfer and the website said couldn't access money as was in process of being transferred. Today when transfer complete and money still at Vanguard, I phoned and was told I had to move money separately and they would give no time frame. Patently absurd. Logged back in, transferred my 57K back to my bank, from whence in 3 days I can take a check to Scottrade and be back trading the next day. We all start with Vanguard due to their legendary mutuals but beyond that they are not the place to make money trading and they say so, To tie up one's ability to earn a living for 16 days as well as not transfer out as requested whilst freezing one's fund is worse that patently absurd, it should be criminal. read more

Super horrible experience with customer service and trying to log into my account.I switched back to an old cell phone, not realizing that Vanguard will only allow you to log into your account receiving a code with your phone on file. They don't give you an option to email or mail the code like all other companies I know. After being on hold for 30 minutes, I spent an hour (half of the time on hold) with a representative that was unsympathetic and did not try to come up with a solution other than I have to get a form notarized and sent it to reset security questions. She said if I had done voice confirmation ahead of time that would have worked but none of this was conveyed before I went back to my old number. Also, I tried to talk with a manager or security office, but was never allowed to move past the representative. For such a great company known for it's longterm value in investment, I'm very disappointed in the lack of customer service and inability to come up with a solution that doesn't involve a notary. read more

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. read more

Worst investing experience I have ever had. I needed them to process a change of address. It's been over a week and I am locked out of my account with no ability to buy/sell funds. I'll be continuing my business with Charles Schwabb, which is a MUCH better experience. You lost a client today, Vanguard. read more