This review is to express our incredible frustration in dealing with Merrill Lynch. The reasons for this frustration are as follows:
It routinely takes 30 to 40 minutes, on hold, to get through to a representative, on any of the several phone number that we have been given.
The lack of responsiveness to our communications (phone, fax, or email) is unmatched by any other financial institution that we have ever dealt with.
We have constantly been given contradictory and / or untrue information by various representatives as to how to go about accomplishing our goals. An example of this is when we were told by a representative, on the phone, to speak with Sergio, at the Murietta office of Merrill, that he would be expecting us, and he would be able to help us fill out the appropriate documents. Upon arriving at the Merrill office, and introducing ourselves to Sergio, he informed us that he had no idea who we were or why we were there.
Of the myriad of phone numbers we have been given, none of them reaches the same department every time.
When we tried to close our deceased mother's account, what should have been a simple and straight forward process, took over four months to complete. Our impression is that the protocols to close out an account are intentionally convoluted in such a way as to discourage clients from extricating themselves from the "web" of Merrill Lynch.
It is also our impression that Merrill and Bank of America are too closely intertwined, resulting in an extremely poor level of customer service to Merrill clients
We realize that nothing we have said will change the way Merrill does business, so all we really can do is resolve to never do business with Merrill again, and to tell everyone we can, to do the same. read more
