Vanguard is a good investment company, but their customer service agents need some one on one training. I have called their 8 times regarding an inherited IRA and I received 8 different answers, none of which is correct. The agents are rude, with no knowledge regarding the company and their Plan rules. You are placed on hold for long periods of time, and they tell you there is no Supervisor available to take your call. When you are investing your money, you need and want answers that's reliable. One agent states "take the money out and if you roll it over to another company IRS will give you the taxes back, that was taken out. When do IRS give anything back to anyone. I don't recommend the headache. read more

Horrible service. On the phone for over an hour waiting for service rep. They do not have any email or chat to contact them like all modern websites have. They make you call them and wait forever. There are far better firms you can choose instead of Vanguard. read more

Be careful - it seems that my money is now held hostage with Vanguard. I'm trying to move over my IRA to another institution, I've been working on this for a week and all the progress is only...backwards. Here's what you can expect: 1. I log in, select the account, and browse left and right for buttons that read "transfer". Nothing. Finally I decide to call. 2. I call, suffer through the robots endless pitch about their commitment to respect etc. Finally I talk to someone. They say there's no way to move the money from Vanguard side, instead I should call the target institution to do it. I decide to do that. 3. I log in to the target institution, easily find my way, submit the transfer request. This week I get their notification that the transfer got rejected. That I should first sell my assets from Vanguard and then try again. 4. So I log in to Vanguard, find the "sell" button, select "all", click "submit" and.... "error" - this operation cannot be completed, please call us. 5. So I call, the robot asks for my SSN, and then says that my paperwork is in and I should wait. But I want to speak to someone. Try to work around the robot, finally I'm in the queue for a human operator - wait time is 20-30 minutes. I give up for the day. 6. Next day, call again, finally I get connected to a human (Mike Miller), who says "let me put you on hold for a brief few minutes"....~7 minutes pass before he's back, asking for another brief few minutes on hold...~7 minutes pass. After 20+ minutes on the line, Mike says my assets are frozen and they're working to unfreeze them 7. I ask for obvious details about the freeze, like "why is it frozen", and "who froze it" and he says that he cannot share than on a recorded line. Instead I should wait for their call. All this for a routine operation, regarding my hard earned money - instead of executing it automatically from the website, they'll exhaust your patience endlessly. Also you see, they're recording the calls, but their so called policies don't allow them to speak on recorded lines. Well, we can only guess why that is. It's like - no cops, or you don't get your money. wow! This is what Vanguard is about. You think you've got your money? Good luck counting them. read more

This company gets worse and worse every time I interact with them, they have invested zero dollars into their personal, processes, or technologies. This investor is leaving. Cheers to this complacent company. read more

After 4 decades with Vanguard, I finally moved all my funds to Fidelity. I've been with Fidelity for 1 week and the experience is exceptional - what I always had imagined I deserved at Vanguard. The website is state-of-the-art, the customer service is all on-shore with reps who have English as their primary language, and I have a designated team assigned to me. I've talked to multiple folks at Fidelity who connected with me unsolicitedly and shared their direct contact info, and welcomed me to Fidelity. In closing - after moving quite a bit of money away from Vanguard after 40 years, not a soul reached out to ask WHY! That pretty much says it all. read more

Vanguard is horrible. They are useless. They do not allow buying of OTC stocks. Fidelity and Schwab allow OTC stocks and are great. I just started closing out my Vanguard account. Please do not open a Vanguard account. If you have one already close it out. Switch to Fidelity or Schwab. They are a million times better. Feel free to contact me at ricknagra@me.com for more crap that Vanguard pulls. I could go on and on. Rick. read more

0 stars if I could. The absolute worst customer service experience I've ever experienced. DO NOT PUT YOUR MONEY WITH VANGUARD. EVER. As a direct beneficiary looking to make a claim on my inherited 401k, they consistently just ask for your info and offer a "callback" within 3-4 days, and never call back. When asking for a supervisor who knows wtf they're doing, I was told oh I need to wait 24 hrs for a supervisor to call me back. When I finally agreed to this, the rep made another excuse "oh supervisors only call out to account holders". Now they're asking for my late fathers surviving spouse to call in and wait another 3-4 days. For what? I AM A DIRECT BENEFICIARY YOU GOOFBALLS. just send me the damn form I need to make a claim you clowns. The reps you get on the phone are just professional call back offerer's? They get nothing done, no training, no knowledge, nothing they can do. All I have to say is these mfkers are lucky it's sitting in money market and not equity funds or id be exhausting legal avenues for malpractice. The most incompetent client services I've ever experienced. Bar none. read more

On 12/29/22 I withdraw my RMD $5,608 for the year 2022. I still did not receive my 2022 Form 1099-R. The response from Vanguard was 'Our records indicate that your Vanguard account had less than $10 of tax-reportable investment activity during the 2022 tax year. Tax statements are not issued for amounts less than $10.' The RMD must not be reported? What is going on at Vanguard? May I rely on their service? read more

Terrible to deal with. I got locked out of my account and called customer support for tech help. There was absolutely nothing this TECH based brokerage company could do to assist. They literally had to snail mail a form to complete and snail MAIL back to them to reset my account. It is utterly ridiculous that they couldn't even email a form to me or direct me to one on their website. Not to mention they don't have tech assistance. Needless to say I will be moving my account to a company that is professional, capable and not operating in the dark ages! The time it's taking to do such a small task instills a complete lack of trust in Vanguard. read more

Times have changed. And they certainly changed for Vanguard. Getting a representative who is knowledgeable on their service line is near impossible. Calling back and asking the same question will guarantee you will get a different answer. Their mobile app upgrade took off the ability to do mobile check deposit. But tell that to the people who work there. They insist it's still on there. And then I get a representative telling me it must be your type of account. There's so many glitches with their computer system that when I call the 800 number sometimes the security questions don't take even the correct answers. In this day and age, there's no reason to keep your money where customer service is severely lacking. read more

Vanguard made a simple transaction almost impossible...anyone ever put money into a grandchild's education fund? Pretty painless? I attempted to put some money as a gift into one of my granddaughters Roth IRA account....recent college grad smart move....called customer service and asked how to do it....followed instructions sent in the check and two weeks later got the check back with a form letter that was useless...instructions didn't work...called customer service again and was told I didn't include the right form with my check....sent me instructions on how to get the form utilizing my Vanguard account....those instructions didn't work....before terminating the call I asked for a hard copy of the required form and now await that form via snail mail and will try again to put money into her account....strikes me as odd that a large company like this wouldn't design seamless processes for gathering up money, a task that would seem to be an important one for the business of managing money. read more

So I get it vanguard has low fees but you'd think they'd have a modicum of customer service ethic (for everyone along with those who have supported them for over 30 years). But alas they put you through 25 minutes on hold and 3 persons to find out they can't help me transfer an inherited IRA. Glad your keeping staff employed... I guess read more

Over the last month, I have multiple times tried to log in to my accounts only to get a message that says, "we are having technical difficulties." I have been with Vanguard for over 20 years. I am considering moving my accounts to one with a better run website. read more

An edited (due to YELP space) complaint letter i sent direct to the CEO: Although my father passed away on September 8, 2021, my sister and I did not begin the transition process on his accounts until late January 2022. By early March 2022, three (3) out of the four (4) firms my dad had relationships with had handled the transition services requests presented to them. As of the date of this letter - almost 120 days later and approaching five (5) months - Vanguard is the only investment services firm where we still struggle to get competent support, assistance and closure to the transition services process. With Vanguard, my sister and I have each spent at a minimum of 12 hours on hold, (sometimes up to 90 minutes at a time), spoken to over a dozen representatives, received cryptic e message communications through the Vanguard Secure Message Center, received contradicting Customer Service instructions as to what had to be done/processed - and yes, even correspondence/confirmation that something had been completed - which we found out to be untrue with a Vanguard Customer Representative claiming 'I honestly don't know why you received that email as this has not been completed'. Further, a check book ordered on April 5, 2022 during one step of the transition services process has gone missing. A written letter from Vanguard referenced that the checkbook was mailed on April 5, 2022, but nothing has been delivered. Keep in mind, this checkbook was to replace one on an account my father had set up years ago with my sister as co-signer. When we notified Vanguard of dad's death - Vanguard closed check writing on this account. The problem with this was that Vanguard did not tell my sister - who was a co-account holder! We found out the check writing option was disabled when a $2,000 check written (for expenses related to dad's death) was returned and we incurred an overdraft fee of $45. To date - we are still waiting for that fee to be reimbursed to us for Vanguard's 'oversight'. No one we have spoken to seems to know how to get that accomplished. In the interim, all expenses - including funeral related items - were paid out of pocket by us aswe had no checkbook or access to funds. A few weeks back a representative sensed I was about to break down in tears (I was indeed on the verge of doing so after loudly voicing my frustrations with Vanguard) and requested a second checkbook be Federal Express'ed to my home. I received that checkbook, but the one mailed on April 5, 2022 is still missing. Similarly, I have an email from the Vanguard representative claiming he was certain I should have it by May 4, 2022 (today is May 16, 2022). To date, no one at Vanguard has been able to cancel this missing checkbook nor has anyone been able to obtain a tracking number to determine where they are! Even if we could find competent customer service to locate a tracking number and cancel the checks - my fear is the representative would in error cancel the second check book which was Federal Express'ed to my home - and we would be back to square one. This is how incompetently the transition services for the death of a family member has been handled by Vanguard. Finally, after just short of breaking down on the phone, two representatives stated they would take over as point persons for shepherding the accounts to completion and I was to speak with no one else in the process. One took control of transitioning dad's regular accounts (TM) and one took over the missing checkbook, the $45 fee credit and the IRA related accounts (CL). As of last Friday, the regular accounts via TM appear to have been transitioned (I am still reconciling them so I can't state that with full confidence) and the IRA/checkbook/overdraft fee point of contact (CL) - who told me to speak with no one else - has gone Missing in Action. Mr. L and I were scheduled to talk last week. However, a combination of six (6) calls, emails and secure messages to him have gone unreturned in any way - by anyone at Vanguard. Unlike Fidelity - a firm with a considerably smaller amount of assets under management - Vanguard does not assign one body or point person to handle all aspects of a family's transition process after a loved one has passed. VVanguard has multiple bodies in multiple groups handling different parts of the transition services - who you are lucky to get on the phone the day you call. If you do happen to have an actual body on the phone, youyou can only hope they know what they are doing. I can't tell you how many times in the past four (4) months and counting I have been told by a Vanguard representative (sic): Sorry, you have to contact this group for one thing, another group for something else and a third group for the last remaining item. With a Vanguard hold queue upwards of 90 minutes (one call logged in at 2 hours and 26 minutes including 90 minutes on hold), how can someone get a solution - during their OWN workday! read more

Been dealing with Vanguard issues for years now and cannot wait to move my money away from them even though they make it insanely painful to do so. This is my third attempt to roll over my 401k from them. Tonight sat on hold for nearly an hour and a half just for the person to finally answer the phone and tell me its after hours so they cant help me. In addition they absolutely refused to let me talk to a manager or call me in the AM with the information I needed to close this out again. Non-apologetic, instead talk about how they're overwhelmed with volume. If you're that overwhelmed Im happy to remove my money from under your care. read more

Vanguard customer service is a misnomer. It is the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Starting with the phone tree - it is not helpful, not intuitive, time consuming, tough to get a human being. When you do get a human, you're in the wrong dept and multiple transfers are required. Most reps answering the phone are inexperienced and/or rude. It takes too many phone calls to get someone who can actually help. I have to set aside 2 hours to get a question answered. The on-line experience is abismal; front end is completely undeveloped; I honestly don't think they want my money, and they don't appear to respect that this is my life savings. Pros: low-fee investment vehicles. Cons: immature trading platform, worst customer service ever. Looking to move my $$ back to Fidelity. read more

Better than most brokers. Their fees are among the lowest of any for-profit investment company. Most brokers will try to sell you scammy services that won't help you in any way, but Vanguard doesn't seem to do that. Their technology's no good. A lot of things have to be done by mail. Once I couldn't log in for weeks because their system was broken and wasn't sending out two-factor auth codes, and I had to mail them a form to get it fixed. read more

As I write this, I must state that I have been waiting for 2 hours, 3 min and 50 seconds to be able to speak to somebody on the phone. That is how long I have been waiting. No more words needed. Still waiting read more

$50 fee for distribution, all they do is put a check in regular mail, 11 to 14 day delivery (hopefully) Telephone calls minimum 45 minute wait, usually higher. Not impressed, not happy, closing my account, you should consider the same. read more

What happened, Vanguard? Are you still in business? Do you still have my money? Login page doesn't function. There is no chat function. No email. No way to report the error. THEY"RE not reporting any errors on their webpage. And they don't seem to be answering the phone either. The computerized system keeps saying the wait is 31-41 minutes long - I've already been on hold almost that long. How can help still be 31-41 minutes away? Also - I DON'T WANT YOUR STUPID APP. read more

I have previously sent in my concerns to the SEC via the online form but am happy to retell my concern and frustration; Horrible customer service. They eliminated personal advisors, prevent reps from speaking on the phone, and jerk you around by waiting days to respond to emails which say they will get back to you but they never do. Since September 30, October 1, 4 & 5th. At the beginning of the year I had 4 set meetings scheduled quarterly reviews of the investment adjustments Vanguard's Advisory team administers and get a preview of the upcoming quarter. In each case the advisor fumbles through and has to date been able to give me a clear picture of where my money goes and why. At Vanguard, they don't seem to have an efficient mechanism to identify and fix the problem. No point person. Recent example, On September 30th at 10:30am EST Advisor Johnathan Lynn calls from Vanguard and quote " I have here I'm supposed to call you..? " He never read the notes that would've told him to prepare... he showed zero interest in providing me with ANY review of my investments. When I recited the point of the call... he remained silent. I truly believe he was intoxicated. For the ensuing 4 hours I got transferred from advisor to advisor. and none of them know what they are doing. Each puts you on hold, averaging 45 minutes per call - which may explain why everyone else has to wait to speak with someone. They are doing their "research" to answer your question, and then give you an answer that makes no sense. I then asked to reschedule with a Crystal Henderson on the phone. Aggressively reminding me they are busy and will try to reschedule another meeting... I paid for a service they do not produce. Call back the next day - same routine: cannot get anyone on the phone, someone calls you back and has no clue how to help you, does "research" and then comes up with a new nonsensical reason why I can't speak to a supervisor to remedy this issue...Then enter the Thug from Vanguard Javier Herrera. Claiming he's a supervisor he disregards my concerns and tells me no one can talk to me...! He called me back to tell me no one can go over my account thorough a service I paid for... I asked to speak to his supervisor, he refused to honor my request bc " he's going to give you the same answer"... The balls on that guy to back up his own lie! I called back 2 hours later and left a message to speak with the Advisory Team supervisor's supervisor...trying to get up the chain of command. The next day Javier calls questioning my motives and demanding to know what I'm going to ask his Super???... His audacity and belligerence drove me to just hang up and make another call to cancel my service agreement and receive a refund for the 4th quarter. I have yet to get any Vanguard supervisor to call... an official communication my requests has been granted. The Vanguard employees have the intelligence of rocks, and that is being kind. Did they finish high school, let alone elementary school? It would even be far better to outsource these initial calls to Pakistan or Uzbekistan than deal with these morons. Repeated calls and repeated statements verifying the same information over and over again, then long hold times. At the initial call, one has to resort to being belligerent to gain contact with someone who is not an idiot. In addition, there is no place on the Vanguard website to register a customer complaint: Crystal Henderson needs to go back to working at McDonalds. Javier Herrera, what organized crime family did this guy come from, condescending, self-entitled bully who intimidates the client into submission or in my case to just hang up the phone! I have requested a refund for the advisory fee and a cancellation effective immediately. NO officer from Vanguard has been willing to comply with my repeated requests. read more

Can I give negative number of starts? I am trying to access my account statement so I can move my money out of Vanguard after so much frustration of being held long on customer service call and never got actually helped. now I read on their website "This information is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience. You'll need to try again later." You are damn right Vanguard, I will NEED to try again later to get all my money out. read more

I have been a Vanguard customer for 20+ years. In recent years, I have tolerated Vanguard's intolerably poor telephone customer service and relied to the maximum extent possible on the website. Now, I find that the Vanguard website is inaccessible--non-functional. Today, I spent two hours on hold listening to off-putting hold music. Finally, I gave up in despair without talking to anyone. I concluded that Vanguard has deep seated organizational problems. In this instance, you seem to get what you pay for. Vanguard is cheap and the quality of their customer support reflects that fact. Because of inertia alone, I'm reluctant to change, but today was the straw that literally broke the camel's back. In the future, I plan to move all my accounts to another provider. I can only imagine the problems, trials and tribulations that will entail. read more

Just ordered checks to access my accounts and received one book of checks, no check register, no cover. Vanguard unwilling to provide any solution. When combined with poor, slow customer service (which has recently been outsourced to Philippines) would suggest using a different financial company. read more

I waited on line for over 2 hours today to talk to a representative. Then she hung up. If Vanguard is doing so well, why don't they hire caring representative. I shall close my account with them. Signed, Carol read more

I just pulled all of my funds out after 3 years of declining customer service. After bringing in their "Efficiency Experts," they now have a quasi government feel and zero customer service. They make a lot of mistakes with zero apologies. Good riddance Vanguard. read more

Such a shame. Used to be a good company. Been a customer for more than 30 years. The company just introduced a fee of $400/year if I want to get printed financial reports. My wife will be charged $350/year for reports on her accounts. We have a total of more than 4m with vanguard. We're old and we trust paper reports more than electronic ones. We are planning to move our money to fidelity. So sad. John B would be ashamed. read more

This is the worst. they say they are investor owned, but this is a big sham, they will keep you on hold for ever, and they have recently hired many incompetent people , who don't know what they are doing, or may be untrained , they will look for every excuse to transfer you to some one else. They may be cheap, but you exactly get what you are paid for. Time is money, and waiting for more 70 minutes every time you call , is exhaustive. I will rather pay a few cents more and get a better brokerage service. read more

"Enhanced" webpage!!! The response from Vanguard in my account messages: "Vanguard is committed to evolving the website experience through enhancing the look and feel of the Vanguard.com webpages." The questions remain the same. What the reason was to "enhance" the compact user-friendly easy to understand webpage? Who requested such "enhancement" and why? Who has priority in such decisions, we, the investors, or those who are paid with our money? This is the real reason to switch to another investment company. read more

Vanguard has been very good in the past. They now will not give even million dollar clients any financial advice, you are FORCED to sign up with their advisor service - they won't even let you pay for single consultation advice. This is a PROBLEMATIC change for Vanguard. read more

My recent experience was terrible. I wrote a large check on my money market account, had ample funds to cover but it was refused by Vanguard because i hadn't written a check in a long time. So, they just canceled the option without informing me. I asked for an exception and was told they don't make exceptions. I was stuck with a returned check fee for my vendor. I asked to be put in touch with the CEO office ( Mr Buckley} and was told he was never available to investors like me. I asked for his office not him personally but the same response.. They don't seem to want customer feedback read more

I am on a second call trying to sign in with all correct info, security questions and it still wont allow me to see anything. I have switched windows, refreshed and NOTHING. I am not on a call where I have been on the phone for over 1 hour and nothing has been solved. If they are as big and great as they say they are in would not hurt investing some money into quality tech services where you dont have to wait 1 hour to get a "possible answer". Everything up until now the person sounds lost, the tech people are MIA and their pages dont function. Oh, and this is the 3rd call where I was on hold for over 25 minutes. read more

Vanguard Group - Long wait, still waiting. No help. This is the 3rd time. - Investing Near Me - Malvern, Pennsylvania

I have been a Vanguard Brokerage customer for many years. Their customer service has been terrible. I recently waited over 40 minutes to talk to customer service before hanging up in disgust. I feel my time is as valuable as theirs and when investing with a broker they have to answer the phone in a reasonable about of time. This last time was enough for me. I'm done. I'm transferring my account to Fidelity where I've also had an account for years and never had this terrible service. I refuse to do business with a company that provides such bad service. read more

It is torture to try to reach the correct person on the telephone. the auto-responses are needlessly prolonged and complex, and then more or often than not one is sent to a person without knowledge sufficient to resolve the issue, however minor. in short, do not use Vanguard read more

Waited over an hour on hold to speak to someone in customer service I've been with Vanguard for over 30 years. Never had a reason to call them, but now im getting ready to retire. I never knew it was this difficult to get through to Customer service. I'm still on hold while I'm writing this. I may move my money to a different company if it's always gonna be line this. read more

What crap service?!!! I have been a customer of Vanguard for 15 years and in the last 5 years, the customer service has deteriorated to zero. The customer service folks are no longer knowledgeable like they were before, they give incorrect information about your account. It is impossible to reach a manager. I called 15 times about an issue with a piece of paperwork they had requested, and after all those calls and sending in the paperwork 3 times, they still tell me that the form is incorrect. Now, these forms are 40 pages long, and written by a mofo attorney, so no normal person can read the forms. The customer service reps can't explain anything and has no idea how to fill out this crazy form! I had left a message for one of the managers, no response, then called back 2 days later, left another message, no response. Then I tried to talk to a different manager in the service department, and I specifically said to not call me between 1-2:30pm because I was busy in a meeting, guess what? he calls at 1:30pm. Are people just f* idiotic? If a manager at Vanguard can't even get the time correct and is NOT listening for a simple item, that just means the ENTIRE company is NOT listening to the customers. The ongoing joke between my friends and I is that Vanguard is a dinosaur company catering to the super old folks. At the time this review is written, they are still using snail mail for most communications and electronic delivery is NOT available. Oh and all paperwork has to be mailed in or faxed. Who the f* still use fax machines? AND they have lost tons of $ for me in the last 4 years as well! This company will eventually die out because it can't keep up and adapt to the new era! BEWARE! read more

Every single transaction is guaranteed to be a nightmare. Low fees -low service . Scary as hell in every way . The best is after they make a mess of the simplest trades - they ask you to double down . It's like Las Vegas with mutual funds . Sadly for me this is an employer plan . Every year I request the opportunity to open the field up and offer more choices - never going to happen. But here is a ringing endorsement, middle and upper management use a different company. Just the grunts like me have to hold this bag o crap. read more

Made an investment in approximately 2015. Have had hard time trying to get into my account online. Asked them for paper statements told sure of course and then none sent. Haven't even been able to monitor my own account; they are hands off and you never get to a good advisor for advice ever. Recently told had to take RMD still can't get in to my account. Called customer service since no clear advisor for my account put on hold for 30 min. then told customer rep (after proof of id) that I could not get in to my account. She said she cancelled password and gave me a temp one to get in and change password, did what she said with her on line and still could not get in and then with her on line tried again did it right but no dice couldn't access my own account. She then said she had to pass me off to another rep called the R&D dept. after 30 min again had to hang up. At my wits end with their horrible customer service and face penalties if I don't take RMD. Vanguard is a joke if you want or need service suggest you go elsewhere and pay the fees I am that is if I can cancel my account with this group if I can even get a rep who can do it or get me in to my account. If they don't how to navigate and help me with my account online pretty poor. read more

Terrible website and terrible customer support. I called them for a retirement plan rollover. I was transferred between different departments at least 3 times, each time I had to go through all the security questions, and at the end they asked to call another number, which was the number I was calling! I had this experience not one, not twice, but multiple times. read more

Initially, I stayed with Vanguard because of their low-cost Mutual Funds. As I gained more experience with investing, and going to brokerage companies that do NOT charge any fees, I became more disillusioned with Vanguard. There was ONE particular problem that - to me - symbolized how little they listen to their customers. After year-end, we get the 1099s, with a few (arithmetic) columns that we need to report to IRS. However, these columns were never added so that the totals showed! And many times, there could be multiple pages! So, I had to add up all the columns with their multiple pages. I suggested to Vanguard that they give the totals, be it each page, or one total at the very end. I mean, HOW HARD CAN THIS BE???? Of course, got the usual "Thank you for your suggestion... blah blah blah." For about 7 years, I made this suggestion, without any changes. At that point, combined with other irritations, such as with Admiral shares, I decided I didn't need to do the summaries any more. I never had any problems with other financial companies, and not sure WHY it was "so difficult" for Vanguard to do it, unless they really don't care what would make it easier for customers - which seems to be the case. read more