After reading some of the reviews I felt the need to share my experience. I have been a customer of Vanguard for over 15 years and have never had a problem with their customer service, their willingness to answer questions or to help a customer. At one time I had accounts with several companies and over time have moved all but one account to Vanguard, and the only account that has no been moved is at a Broker where my mom has an account and it makes it easier to deal with her stuff. Once she passes that account too will be moved to Vanguard. read more

I called about a Vanguard account that holds multiple Admiral accounts. A representative took my call, was unable to answer the most simple questions about our account after I provided proper personal identification and verification. This was followed by a request for a supervisor, a 20 minute hold time and then a disconnect by Vanguard representative. This movie has played out before and speaks loudly to the poor customer service, management oversight, and training so pervasive in this once great company. read more

I recently had some money to invest and I chose Vanguard because they had several index funds to chose from. Then I opened an account and put my money in it, only to find that all of the index funds were closed to new investors. Hopefully Fidelity can help me out with an index fund. read more

Gave them a FedEx number to bill to for sending a check overnight and they sent it by mail 7-10 days.

In my experience Vanguard used to be a very reputable company and done business with them for years. But as others have said their customer service is now unacceptable. It is so poor my husband and I decided to move all of our investments. This has been no easy task! After numerous attempts over the past few months to talk to a real person and get action we are still trying to get our money transferred. read more

They recd my check dec 20th. They emailed me and I called the next day and agreed how to invest the proceeds. Two unmet promised dates my check would be cashed and invested have come and gone. Today. Jan 3rd. I will call for a third eta. I dissatisfied with vanguard's nonexecution read more

I agree with the prior comments. The customer service has gone way downhill. Whenever I call, it seems they are reading from a help file; they they seem distracted and don't listen. The, I am put on hold several times. I guess they have to ask someone for help. I have been given wrong information which has really messed things up for me. They are not even nice about it. I'm done. Moving my money asap. read more

I totally agree with all the one-star reviews. Vanguard is loaded with investors' $ because of the low fees Vanguard claims, but if you compare Vanguard funds with higher fee funds, Vanguard funds are not doing better. I have my share of bad experience with Vanguard: 1) If you mail a check to Vanguard and ask them to put it in a fund, V will pick a day the fund price is highest during that week, so you buy high, and if you write in a request to sell a fund, e.g., to meet a requirement, V will pick a day the fund price drops to the lowest during that week, so you sell low. This happened to me not just once or twice, but 3 times, and when I asked them about it, no comment was made. 2) Vanguard's people tend to talk down at their clients, esp. if they are in an advisory position. 3) Vanguard's customer service rep's make mistakes and blame on the client, unless you ask them to listen to the recording, then they will find they're in the wrong and make a correction. 4) Two V's dog funds: US Growth and Precious Metal and Mining: Years ago, these funds lost all my money and did not come back, but whey I looked at the return history, they showed all positives and pretty good looking numbers. How does that work? Right now the Precious Metal and Mining fund is still in the dumps whereas similar funds, though ETF's, like XME and PICK, have been making very nice returns. read more

I have been a customer of Vanguard for nearly 15 years and while their funds are outstanding, the customer service has deteriorated. Representatives lack basic knowledge and if your question, request or issue is out of their scope almost impossible to speak with a higher level representative. Also withdrawing money can be very challenging. Time to move on. read more

If I can give zero star, I would give zero star. Their customer service really sucks. They switched brokerage settled fund without formally notifying customers. I called customer service, they said they emailed me. This doesn't make any common sense. How can you rely email for such important change, then started to charging customer margin interests. This is very bad practice if not illegal. As a long term customer, I am considering switching to other company. read more

Unfortunately, Vanguard has grown beyond its capabilities. The reps are not trained properly and they consistently provide conflicting and incorrect information. The end result is that you, the customer, must do things over and over again-some of them time consuming--in order to get anything done. You can wait two - three weeks for an advisor appointment only to have them come to the phone without the information that they promised to prepare for the call. There must be a better company that handles ETFs in the same way. Once I find it, I will move my investments. read more

While I persist with vanguard because of the quality of their product, I have found their customer service to be atrocious. I set up an account for my wife and to put money into with no input from her. Later I tried to set up an automatic transfer from my business account into the Vanguard account. After setting it up nothing happened. So I contacted them and was told that my bank had not approved the transfer. My bank never got a request. I called Vanguard back and was told my wife had to approve the transfer. Keep in mind I was able to set up the account and put money into without input from my wife and I am just trying to put money into the account. I have now made five calls in addition to some emails to Vanguard and the transaction is still not approved. This has been going on for five months. Each interaction is very cordial and a small but crucial piece of information is added that was not provided previously. I would gladly pay a good deal not to be confronted with such incompetence. On the last call, I was told that the wait would be about four to six minutes but I could get a call back if I left my name and number. By the time I went through their "time saving" system of setting up and confirming the call back I had spent over six minutes. I am looking for other indexed funds. Lord have mercy, how do they stay in business? read more

I have them through my work. Customer service is awful. I was told by my HR that I had to call vanguard because there was something wrong and they couldn't contribute any of my funds until it was fixed. The first person I got on the phone acted like he rather be doing anything but take my call. I had to re verify my name and ID number about 5 different times. He was condescending in the way he spoke and by his voice it sounded as if he was extremely bored and not wanting to be there. He then said he had to transfer me to someone that works in the retirement department, I was transferred and was on hold for over 15 before the same guy got back on the phone and asked me yet again what my plan ID # is for my company. Finally transferred over to someone else who again had to re-verify and he stared to mix the ID numbers up and couldn't figure out how to spell my last name. The whole experience was awful and the only reason I am using them is because of the company I work for has our retirement through them. If this was just me I would not be using this company. read more

I am a buy and hold investor who has mostly mutual funds. I do very little individual stock trading so for day traders this review is not relevant. I have been a Vanguard customer for about 10 years and could not be happier. Wish I had one it sooner. I have multiple accounts for myself and my wife and sub accounts for my kids college educations. I have probably called about 25-30 times for customer assistance over the years and every single contact has been professional and informative. I have always received the correct information and any commitments for further action by Vanguard was taken. Keep in mind this is more of a do-it-yourself investment house so for those of you looking to have a rep call you weekly or monthly giving you advice or the latest hot stock tip, you will not find it with Vanguard. I had that kind of account with Merrill Lynch and found out that I was paying all kinds of fees and expenses adding to their profits but there not much performance in it for me. With Vanguard you have a wide range of low cost, good long term performing mutual funds available to you. If you want to trade stocks daily, I would look elsewhere. I became a self-driven investor and because of that Vanguard became my place. You just need to know that with Vanguard you will ultimately be responsible for the investments and performance of your portfolio. read more

Horrible customer service. I am experiencing a financial emergency. So, sadly, I had to withdrawal some of the money from my Vanguard Roth IRA. I try and add my bank account to my Vanguard account to do the withdrawal. It takes Vanguard three days to make a deposit into your checking/savings account, which you then verify. They then inform you it's in the "process of approval". What they don't say is this can take up to ten days...which in the digital age is inexcusable. So I call a CSR. He informs me I can do the withdrawal over the phone with him. Okay, so after explaining to him this is an emergency, he still says it will take "7-10" days for the check to arrive. The shares were sold and the money was taken from my account the following day. Five days now and no check. They are in Reading, PA and I'm in Louisville, KY...less than a ten hour drive. First Class USPS mailing (which they use) is "1-3" business days. There has got to be a better option. Even if they charged a fee for priority mail I would have paid it just to have it done with....or I would have paid a fee for an ACH transfer. On top of all that, immediately after adding my bank to the account they send me a message that there is a "hold" on certain account activities because of a new mailing address....my home mailing address. This address is the same online as it is on any of the dozens of statements they've sent me for 16 YEARS. Then following my withdrawal process and it being posted on my account as a transaction, there is a message saying that any phone or online trading is not available for 60 days due to some kind of "frequent trader" rules. Frequent trader? This is the first time I've ever performed any transaction other than send them money in the past. I hate to inform them there is going to be a written transaction in the coming days. I'm sending them a letter to take out the rest of the money and close the account. I'm so unhappy with this nonsense I'm willing to pay the penalty to do it. read more

I have had a Vanguard account for years, but when I semi-retired 2 years ago, I consolidated some Schwab, TRPrice, Meridian, and Wells Fargo accounts to Vanguard. I find their website works very well for me. I was overly diversified, and they didn't accept some of my mutual funds in transfer so I sold them and transferred the proceeds. There was effort on my part to open accounts, create trust accounts, and transfer assets, but I didn't feel it was more of a burden than expected. If you update limit orders after the market is closed, it may say you have insufficient funds (because the canceled limit order hasn't released those funds yet), but if you do it during business hours the computer updates instantly. I have an assigned representative and email communication works fine. If I call in and he's busy, they connect me to another representative who takes care of my issue, no problem. read more

Opened an account in the 1990s, when Vanguard was providing great customer service. The change in Vanguard over the years has been great for the company executives but horrible for customers. Customer service seems to no longer be a focus for Vanguard. In my experience, customer service hold times have exceeded 15 minutes, even before COVID. The company should not be providing Options Trading, as a paid service, if a basic options platform is not offered. Having to call the Options Desk to make a simple spread trade is a joke in 2020. Vanguard even charges high options fees compare to other brokers but offers less value instead of more. Do not offer a service, if it cannot be supported with current technology. Customer service once a proud measure, is now ignored. Vanguard rests on its' reputation from 30 years ago and now buys it good reviews, while long-time loyal customers receive horrible customer service. read more

Terrible customer service. Laid off in February; Vanguard has my last day at my employer wrong. Contacted my previous employer - yes, they gave the same date that I gave to their customer service team over the phone (just so that I could access my account).. Was told to call back when I had the correct code. No other way that they would access my account. Will never consciously do business with these people ever again if I have any say in it. read more

While using Vanguard's website I got locked out. Trying to get back on was a pain. Vanguard's policy requires asking hiring and termination dates even for people who have not worked for the company that set up the account for more than 20 years. Both Kimberly and Julia refused to do more than ask these two questions or escalate the issue to a manager. When a customer does not pass the security questions they will not try to help you solve your issue any other way or escalate your problem. They simply repeat their policy. read more

I had a Vanguard account for many years. One day they sent me a letter saying that because they could not confirm my mailing address, they had confiscated my account and turned it over to "the state". It took some work to get my money back. Don't have these guys safeguard your money. There's no reward for "counterparty risk" - you're ready to lose if your stocks go down, but you don't want your money to simply disappear because Vanguard chooses to make it so. read more

Vanguard has great products but horrible support. Customers are assigned one contact and regardless what the customer requests or who he/she requests to talk to, such as a supervisor or manager, that request goes to that one person. If that person does not take the requested action, as in my case over the past year when I have sent in three sets of forms and made numerous phone calls, nothing gets done. I have talked to several support individuals on the phone and requested help and a different representative but all my requests are referred to the same individual and nothing happens other than emails telling me to submit more forms though she admits that she could act on previous forms. The action I am requesting is handled by a phone call or single signature by most brokerage houses. I have tried several times to get management's attention without success, only to referred back to the same individual. Vanguard management is isolated from their representatives. They are a prime candidate to Undercover Boss! Hopefully this might help get someone's attention. read more

It has been more than two months since I started trying to get my 401k retirement plan distribution sent to my bank. All forms were completed (after wrong forms were initially sent) and returned 6/17. An email from Vanguard 6/19 confirmed receipt and detailed all banking information. Since that date not a single dollar has been deposited. Many calls to a difficult 800 number and infobot has resulted in nothing but bad information. I called again this morning and the associate could not help me. A promise that a supervisor would call as soon as possible has not materialized. If you are seeking a pleasant and quality experience, forget it. I only hope that someday they will release MY funds. As an aside, I hav another retirement plan with another well run organization that starts with a "P" and I started those withdrawls in January and had the money in my account in 7 days, No forms, no calls, no emails asking where the money was, just prompt service. read more

Anyone considering Vanguard Brokerage better have a lot of spare time to manage customer service representatives. It took almost three months to transfer funds from an outside management group to Vanguard. And they left one of the four funds in the outside management account until I discovered the error. Transfer of funds within Vanguard accounts is terrible (e.g. SIMPLE to Traditional IRA). Multiple calls with a different story each time. Long waits. Any hangups with transfers on their end is your responsibility to catch and clear up. They won't notify customers. Executing online trades within a brokerage account is fairly straighforward. read more

I have been a Vanguard Admiral customer for over 2 decades. The low cost service is offset by poor customer service and mediocre website. I only pay $2 per trade but I have no way of finding out the Ex-dividend dates or earning dates on the securities I am trading. I try to get that information on Fidelity or Yahoo Finance sites!! Vanguard is a great platform for index investing for the long haul, but not for trading securities. read more

BEWARE, something seems to be going wrong at Vanguard. I have had a SEP IRA since 2014. My employer's bank sends Vanguard a check every month to be deposited into my account. For some reason the January check went unprocessed for weeks. When I contacted Vanguard, they admitted they had the check but had not processed it. After clarifying to them is was from my employer and for my SEP IRA, I thought the issue was straightened out and the check would get deposited into my account. Two weeks later I called back because the check was still not deposited. They admitted that the action from our previous contact had been misrouted. They claimed the check did not have my account number or indicate that it was an employer contribution however I got a copy of the check and that is not true. Then they said their processing operation is backed up and will not be able to process the check for another 3 weeks. Think twice about opening an account at Vanguard! read more

I've had a Vanguard account for 20 years and I've never had a problem. Until, that is, I tried to do some things with them, both in my own account and that of my father, who recently died. Incorrect informaiton; inexplicable delays; and then I was cut off without notice from my father's account, which I'd managed for several years. Looking for alternatives! read more

I want to endorse a common theme in these reviews: Long-time clients who once adored Vanguard for both their funds and their customer service, describing recent experience with terrible customer service. I, too, have had several recent incidents that make me question the wisdom of letting them control any of my money. They have made a series of mistakes with my accounts, some so frightening that I contacted the Fraud Department. They have different departments handling employer-sponsored retirement plans and individual retirement plans, and they know nothing about the other. But their customers may have both, so having right and left hands not knowing what the other is doing is frustrating. They also keep adding "services" that are purported to help clients, but they are so narrow in their specialized knowledge, that their "help" ends up being useless at best, usually confusing, and potentially harmful. In recent weeks, I've spent at least 20 hours on the phone with different representatives, each time trying to correct mistakes made by the previous representative. Some of these phone calls have lasted well over an hour. At the very least, I expect competence for all the time I've invested. Vanguard, what happened to you? You used to be reliable. Now you're just a mess. read more

I have recently had a very telling experience with Vanguard, a company that has managed my retirement IRA accounts through working in two cities and with three different companies. When I recently switched payroll from one company to another and tried to have my pension plan converted to my Roth IRA at Vanguard, they *lost* my money without any explanation. Thankfully my former company had sent me notification that they were mailing a check to Vanguard for me as requested, or else I might not have been clued into the problem. Several weeks later when the money had not yet arrived at Vanguard, I called them to investigate. I was initially told that I was probably incorrect or that it was probably the fault of my prior company. After multiple phone calls and significant time invested by myself as the go-between, I finally convinced Vanguard that they had, in fact, both received the pension check and cashed it weeks beforehand. The check had my account number on it as well as other identifying information. Finally after around 6-8 hours of phone calls spread out over several weeks and much frustration, I was able to get Vanguard to put the money into my account. Unfortunately, the 'specialist' for Vanguard who served as my liaison failed to notify me that they had finally agreed to this (prior to the money actually showing up in my account), so there was a period where I was clueless about what was going on and had trouble getting ahold of anyone to find out. Then after they put the money into my account, I asked if I could receive some kind of compensation for the significant inconvenience of the experience (not necessarily monetary... I would have been happy to receive some cheaper brokerage trades). They rejected this notion out of hand, saying that they didn't want to 'buy their customers.' Well, honestly, they're not doing a very good job of 'buying their customers' with their poor customer service, so why not at least offer something else to them instead? I find it ludicrous that they would simply lose my pension money for a month and then treat the whole situation with such a flippant attitude. I can't bring myself to give them 1 star for their service even though a part of me wants to do so. I want to acknowledge that despite these discrete problems above they still have generally fulfilled their basic responsibilities correctly. Hence they will receive my 2-star rating, the first I've ever given on Yelp. read more

I've been an investor with Vanguard for 30 years and am about to ditch them. I have serious concerns with their communication and customer service. I've been suddenly locked out of access to accounts and was unable to speak to anyone with information about what was going on for over a week. It's really disconcerting to lose access to your life savings with no one able to talk to you. Promises to be called back were not kept. The website works well and there are plentiful investment options but if you can't trust in customer service, it may not be worth investing with Vanguard. It wasn't like this is the past. read more

can I give negative stars? Absolutely the worst customer service on the planet! I initiated a transfer. More than three months ago and they still haven't figured out how to transfer my funds from one institution to theirs. I have provided them the information THEY requested on multiple occasions and it has been one Foley after another. It's a wonder how they get any business at all when they are unable to execute simple tasks. They lose paper work and refuse to send you your own information citing privacy. Lol any excuse they can come up with to not sevice there customer is there motto. STAY AWAY. I'm sorry I ever decided to change financial institutions it's been nothing but headaches. read more

Very concerned about their current plans to outsource a large part of their IT dept overseas! And all the statements. They are already gearing up. What a bad idea to give shareholder sensitive financial information to the lowest bidder! PLEASE DON'T DO THIS! read more

In reading most of the negative reviews, I really just need to say "ditto". When my mother-in-law passed away, we began the process of closing the Vanguard account in order to pass along her legacy to her children. My husband spoke with Vanguard, collected all of the paperwork needed (some of which was at the county court house and needed to be notarized) sent everything via mail, and waited. Many weeks later he received a call saying that her death certificate was missing. Really? Who would try to settle this type of account without the death certificate? We know, without a doubt, that it was included in the packet, but we sent it again. A couple of weeks later Vanguard called to say they would be issuing a check. The next day they called back to say that they placed a stop payment on on the check because they had made a mistake and had to back-date the transaction. Oh, and by the way, that meant that the new check would be $1600 less than the original. When asked who was getting the extra money that was originally included in the first check, we were told, 'no one; no extra interest was earned'. So, the $1600 that was in the original amount somehow disappeared...or was never earned. Yet, Vanguard was originally going to send it to us. He spoke to account managers, supervisors, directors. Of course, we got nowhere and finally had to just cash the second check before they cancelled that one, too. If you haven't already aligned yourself with Vanguard, don't. If you have, give yourself plenty of time to settle the account when you're ready to close it. Be sure you have duplicates of all paper work so that when someone in the Vanguard offices loses one you're not running around replacing what you've already sent. Then, be prepared to be held up and possibly held back from some of the money owed to you. It truly felt as if Vanguard wanted to make a little extra money and pocket it. Is that what actually happened? We'll never know. read more

Yet again Vanguard Retirement Plans, like so many others, makes it difficult to get one's money out once it's been put in. I wanted to take a distribution to buy a newer car and had to jump through hoops to roll my plan over from an employer-sponsored plan (I don't work for them any longer) to a personal IRA. Okay, fair enough. I was mailed a large envelope in which were two forms for signature. One portion of one form was a designation of beneficiary which required a notarized signature from my spouse. Being pressed for time and highly unlikely to die soon (my wife also works and was not easily available to go to a notary) so I left that part blank and signed the rest of the forms and sent them in. Vanguard acknowledged receipt and communicated that it would take 1-2 business days to process. On the third day I contacted Vanguard by phone only to find out that processing was held up for lack of a notarized signature from my wife. Only at this point did Vanguard disclose that a notarized signature from by wife was needed for the rollover to be completed. (I haven't even tried to get the distribution yet). The kicker was how the phone agent dismissed my request for expedited service - sending out the forms by express mail. Note to Vanguard - would it kill you to put these forms online for easy download and for the convenience of your supplicants? Still waiting for service. Still no new(er) car. Money held hostage day 9. read more

Bar none, Vanguard customer service is the worst service I have ever experienced by any organization. Not just financial organizations, but any organization. My sister-in-law recently had a stroke so I have had to deal with Vanguard on her behalf. Every call to them has required 2 or 3 different agents. Every transfer to a different agent has a 10 to 15 minute hold time. So each call is good for 40 to 50 mins of hold time. To add insult to injury, when they don't do what they say they will do (2 occurrences for me) each follow-up call starts from the beginning and takes one or 2 transfers. Vanguard provides no way to shorten the process. BUYER BEWARE!! read more

Unbelievable service, not good. I had one Vanguard account willed to me. After a few weeks I moved it elsewhere because of the incredibly slow service. One delay after another. After a few years, hoping my memory was wrong, I again tried them because I was holding Vanguard mutual funds at another brokerage. It's cheaper to hold Vanguard Funds at the source. Unbelievable service again: Vanguard held the paperwork for the transfer for 2 weeks before sending it onward. The other brokerage responded within several days. You might think that would be the end of it. No. The funds are now in a never-never land at Vanguard and have been so for the last week. They could not tell me exactly why. Trading would be difficult, though possible, and take 3-5 days longer than usual. I'm still waiting to have complete control of my funds. This transfer process has taken near a month now. Even though it will cost me near a $1000 more each year to do business elsewhere, I think I've had enough. read more

I worked here for 4 months. I left after being discouraged by their licensing tests & receiving a better offer closer to home. I ended up being overpaid by their Payroll Department - I received a full paycheck as opposed to the partial I was owed. After arguing back & forth on different dates & amounts, we agreed on one & I have been paying it back. The process of paying it back & receiving an amended W-2 is even more mind boggling than a financial company not being able to keep their payroll straight. I am 1 of 5 people I know of being overpaid, 1 of which it happened to twice. They will make a mistake & then chase you down to correct it - With unclear, inconsistent & outdated instructions to do so. There are so many hands in so many pots - Big companies are not always better. Closely watch your money here - Whether you're investing it, or supposed to be receiving it every 2 weeks via paycheck. read more

A brilliant change in account structure has turned a 5 minute phone transaction into an hour long pain in the ass. When you do things that make the experience more arduous, not easier, for your clients--you get 1 star. read more

1. Cannot add beneficiaries to joint accounts. 2. Cannot journal funds between indiv. and joint accounts. 3. Truly terrible, uninformed customer service. 4. The absolute worst, most confusing and most glitch-ridden financial website I have ever encountered. 5. I admire Vanguard funds and ETFs, but will be withdrawing all funds from the Vanguard platform and only buy through other brokerages. 6. If their implementation is this bad, how can their site be secure? How can your funds be secure? read more

I have been with Vanguard for a long time. And until recently, I have been very satisfied. But when I had a problem a few months ago because they sent my tax forms late, I called and was so dissatisfied with the service that I received that I wrote to the Vanguard Executive Offices. I did not receive a response to my letter. Then, when I had another problem more recently and received incorrect information from a representative, I wrote to Vanguard again thinking that perhaps my first letter must have been lost. Again, I received no response to my letter. Based on my recent experiences, and IMHO, the service which used to be stellar is not terrible, and even worse, the company doesn't seem to care. read more

The twenty-somethings in Flagship customer service do not understand customer service. It appears that they really don't care about helping people. I spoke with Sean yesterday to try to verify basic information about IRA tax deduction rules. When I questioned what he told me, he responded by saying that he is very experienced in this area because he has been working at Vanguard for five and a half years. When I responded by indicating that I have been a lawyer for thirty plus years, he responded by asking me in a challenging way, 'but you're not a tax lawyer, are you?' Who needs this from people whose salaries are being paid by their use of your money? read more