15th May 2026 One month past Tax date (15th April) Not sure why there are so many one star reviews. In my humble experience the Vanguard reps I have interacted with over the phone in the past have been really respectful and helpful. The stock market is a gamble no matter who you invest in. You are taking a chance and there are no guarantees. Read, study, authors and advisers Scott Galloway and Suze Orman are very helpful. At Vanguard you get to choose your companies, be they pharmaceuticals, like Ozempic, GLP stocks, or big tech, think Google, Microsoft, Uber, Tesla, or big box American products like Amazon, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nabisco, Mobil, Disney, often referred to as Blue Chip. You decide. Vanguard is considered a premier, client-owned investment manager. They're renowned for low-cost, long-term investing, offering a wide array of mutual funds, ETFs, and brokerage services. Popular options include the Vanguard 500 Index Fund and Total Stock Market Index Fund for retirement and/or short term. Again, you decide. Have a great day and Good luck! read more

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beware! as a novice investor, i invested with Vanguard thinking - hoping i'd be able to receive good customer service/support. lol..."forget about it"...lol. after a few calls to them for support, they told me i make too many calls so that they wouldn't accept calls from me. i only had a couple hundred thousand invested w them so apparently i was a "pion" not worthy to them. so, i closed my Vanguard accounts and went over to Fidelity investments. OMG so happy i did! read more

I have $7 million invested with Vanguard and was recently charged an 8-point spread on a bond -- costing me $1,600. Their goodwill gesture was a $60 free trade. When I tried to escalate, I couldn't reach a single person empowered to make a decision. For a firm collecting roughly $21,000/year in fees on my account, this level of customer service is unacceptable. Fidelity and Schwab are starting to look very attractive. Think twice before trusting Vanguard with serious money. read more

Like many others have said, the support is horrendous. Their chat is beyond useless and it is easily conceivable to mistake their answers for that of an AI bot. Their "specialists" will tell you incorrect information, waste your time and have you resubmit paperwork ad nauseum due to prior specialists not knowing the appropriate protocol or workflow. The cost cutting, outsourcing of qualified customer support will invariably result in people less willing to make the effort to invest with a firm who cares nothing for their patrons. read more

Worst experience in 40 years dealing with any financial services company. As an attorney and cpa, I've dealt with many Left-hand does not know what the right hand is doing at Vanguard. Blast emails are inconsistent and have nothing to do with representation made by the company over the phone. Front office and back office do not communicate. Doing simple transfer of assets is unbelievably complicated and fails terribly in comparison to Fidelity and others.Would never consider using Vanguard again, in spite of their so-called low cost.Customer service is horrible. read more

Worst fucking business ever! Employees hangs up in your face! Would not let me speak to a manager and my issue still isn't resolved! Taking all my money out! I would not recommend this business to anyone! They should be out of business! We'll be reporting to BBB! read more

You can tell a lot about a company, not by how well the business is run but how well they and their employees service the surrounding communities. How well the employees represent the company. I live in the same community of Vanguard and I have never seen such disregard and disrespect from their employees regarding traffic laws. Our street is considered a short cut for these employees to get to work. Each day I leave my home to go grocery shopping or doctor appointments. I do the speed limit and I stop at the stop signs. I get honked at and it's not a short honk but a long one. I know they are Vanguard people because of my local stops, I see them turn into Vanguard every single time. I have even had them drive around and pass me on a double white line, 25 mph street!! Mind you, I am NOT an old lady driver, they just drive fast down our street!!!They consistently disobey the traffic laws. My husband who walks or hikes for exercise, is fearful because of the speed and not stopping at stop signs or slowing down when they see a person walking! Many of the neighbors are feeling the same way. If you can't respect the neighborhood of Church Rd then go on the main streets of route 29. If Vanguard wants to be part of this community maybe they ought to show some respect and commit to sending emails to their employees reminding them on the aggressive driving on small roads. SHAMEFUL!! read more

Investors beware. I recently transferred 2 accounts from vanguard due to lack of trading functionality. I called before the transfer and reviewed their online instructions and they did not disclose a fee. They charged a $100 fee per account which drove my retirement account into a negative $100 cash balance at the new institution since all my funds were in holdings; they would not assist and said I would need to straighten it out with the new institution. Awful customer service, on top of the already limited functionality. Can't sell fractional shares, reinvest dividends, etc. Take your hard earned savings elsewhere. read more

Opening a traditional IRA with Vanguard turned out to be an extremely frustrating experience. I spent over 10 days trying to set up the account, but was blocked due to a legacy account from 25 years ago that had already been closed. There seems to be no efficient way to resolve this issue. Very disappointing for a company of this reputation. I ultimately opened an account with Fidelity, where the entire process was smooth and completed in under 30 minutes. read more

I call daily to find out the status of my new account application. They received my certified mail application on March 2, 2026 and they can't give me a status that for sure they received it or it is pending. I asked for Angela's manager and she would not give it to me. Customer Service is horrid and recommend going to Schwab. read more

This company did not honor their offer to reimburse me about $230 for money lost due to their inefficient system somehow deleting a request I made to withdraw my money from an investment account on 1/2. The manager I spoke with (A.F.) at first told told me she would work with her adjustments team to reimburse the money lost but then a week later told me that the system had been processing my request and it took so long (21 days) because I had accidentally made a request to unenroll from personal advisor services from my IRAs. I think she lied to me because I actually had to call back again on 1/22 and speak with C.W. again and N.C. to make another request to just pull my money out. It took over 3 weeks for them to initiate the withdrawal request. Why would I have to request it again unless it didn't actually go through the first time? I only even made that mistake because the women I spoke with on 1/2 (A.) told me I had to go to their website and she gave me the steps which I thought I was following correctly until she told me I made a mistake and now had to wait. I made an apt with an advisor for 1/5 and that woman (C.W.) told me she did not see a request to pull out my money but she did see the processing request to unenroll from personal advisor services from my IRAs. She told me I had to wait so I made another apt to speak with an advisor for 1/11 and that guy (J.G.) told me he DID see my processing request to withdraw my money and that I should get it in my bank either 1/12 or 1/16 and that he would call me as soon as it was processed. He never called me. It was a pain to even get a manager on the phone and I really had to put my foot down with the employee and beg him to make it happen. How can a multi trillion dollar company not even have managers available to talk?? Their new system takes over 5 business days to process some requests yet it deletes other requests and nobody there seems to care or even know what is going on! Once I request one change to one account requesting changes to other accounts will slow down or even stop the process of my original request. NONE of the people I spoke with (about 12) told me that if I changed my risk tolerance to more conservative that it would delete my request to withdraw funds. Why did none of them know? How could their system even do that anyway? I even had one employee tell me that he hated their new system. Frankly, it's horrifying, so much so that I chose to move my IRAs to Fidelity. I soon realized Fidelity's website and app are very user-friendly, unlike Vanguard. I also just got a statement in the mail from them. How considerate! My dad recommended Vanguard to me almost 20 years ago and if he knew what I had to go through with them this year he would be rolling in his grave. Things change and something that has changed for the worse is Vanguard. I had planned to be a life long customer but after being given so much misinformation by so many employees and seeing so many inconsistencies on their website (which I have screenshots of) I am so glad to be over them. I will add a funny screenshot to my review so you can see for yourself. It shows I made a ton of $ in 2024 even though I was actually down about $3500 at the time I took the screenshot... read more

Vanguard Group - The people who run Vanguard must be sadists. Their app said I was up over $200k when I was actually down about $3500. Smh - Investing Near Me - Malvern, Pennsylvania

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Horrible customer service. No one seems to know what they are doing. My father's name had to be removed from an account and they are transferring me to different representatives in different departments recommending different forms. This has been going on for weeks. It is impossible to speak with a supervisor and people are clueless. read more

Don't do it!!! What a POS company. Transferred entire portfolio OUT due to an outdated website & bad customer service. They charge a $100 transfer out fee....per account. I had $300 in fees to leave a horrible experience. They refused to refund anything. I said I'm posting this all over social media, the rep said "go ahead"....nice. read more

Vanguard Group - Transfer fee - Investing Near Me - Malvern, Pennsylvania

If I could give less than one star I would. The entire phone call was a disaster. Their call center, located in the Phillipines, was answered by the most unhelpful and rude person I have ever spoken with. After a 20 minute verification process, I was connected to Axcell, who was unhelpful, did not listen, talked over me, did not attempt to offer any solutions, and was completely rude the entire conversation. If that is the typical level of service this place offers, it was enough to make me reconsider where I have my money. They would not make the top 10 read more

Vanguard has been an absolute game-changer for me. No matter how much you invest or the approach you take, their system makes growing your money feel effortless-- it's not uncommon to see it double or even triple over time. The best part is how passive it is; you can truly relax and watch your investments work for you while you sleep, as the old saying goes. I do wish I had discovered Vanguard sooner, but I'm so glad I found it when I did. Highly recommend to anyone looking to grow their wealth with minimal stress. read more

What in the heck happened to Vanguard's customer service?! I have been with Vanguard for decades and in the past, whenever I called, I was always helped to satisfaction and treated with courtesy by helpful and knowledgeable agents. There has been a big change. The agents no longer know what they are doing and engage in gaslighting and rude behavior. I am a senior citizen and they spoke to me like I was a toddler. I guess they lowered the criteria for their customer service agents. I will be taking my money out of Vanguard after today. So disappointing! read more

Approximately two months ago I was appointed legal guardian for my two sisters who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease. After multiple phone calls to obviously foreign country based call centers I finally obtained information regarding the requirements to obtain access/control of my sisters' accounts. I completed all of the Vanguard Groups' forms and sent them along with the copies of the court orders to Vanguard. As of Dec. 15, 2025 no action has ben taken on the part of Vanguard. By comparison, Fidelity Investments and TIAA completed the access/control request within a month of first contact with them. I have spoken at length twice with representatives of the group within Vanguard who are assigned to facilitate such requests. They completely lack the knowledge and/or training or accomplish the request. The court order granting the guardianships stipulates that failure of an organization to provide timely access/control to the guardian could possibly face contempt of court proceedings against the institution. I would love to see the CEO of Vanguard Funds appearing before the Orpann's Court judge attempting to explains his compamies' failure to provide us access to my sisters' accounts. read more

Instead of them telling me I can't do a hardship they just kept telling me to turn in paperwork that they received 3 times. No one there knows what they're doing. Closed my acct going somewhere else read more

I wish I can give vanguard a lower score. It's been about 3 years since I've not been able to have access to my account. Vanguard said it was on the review 3 years ago for 45 days. It's 3 years now and I still have no access to my account they keep telling me they'll call me back within 72 hours and they never do. The person that froze my accounts refuse to reach out to me. Vanguard stole all the money I had in my accounts and I have not heard anything back from them since. Every time I call customer service they are only limited to give me limited information. This whole thing is a scam. You're better off putting your money in a bank account. #thehellwithvanguard read more

I would give it 0 stars but it's not an option on Yelp. Vanguard will not refund my $8,000 regardless of what I say. I've called 6-7 times and they have MY money and will not ACH it to my bank account. It's a 45 minute call every time I call them. read more

Very poor customer service. Vanguard has discontinued the ability to send secure emails. Instead an inadequate chat platform is provided, which breaks down every few minutes, with poorly qualified assistance. Wish I could transfer my funds to Fidelity or Schwab. Thinking of it. read more

Been doing business with Vanguard for decades, primarily as authorized agent for elderly parents. It was always easy to conduct business until the required transition of legacy accounts to brokerage accounts. The initial discussion was informative snd helpful. Everything after was tragically difficult. Accounts were locked for almost 4 months. Some agents refused to respect the well-established authorized agent status while others quickly verified it. Most agents tried to help but few could clearly identify what really needed to be done to satisfy the account discrepancy. Every time it was referred back to "the processor" and no direct communication to me from them. Everything interpreted by a call center person who often seemed as confused as me. Finally got an agent who could provide the proper form, clearly answer my questions, and only then were the accounts unlocked. Throughout the process it was nothing more than inconvenient and frustrating. Im not a happy Vanguard customer anymore. read more

it's the worst Company. I have been trying to add beneficiaries for a year to my work account with Van Guard. I still don't have any. I called over and over went on line and filled it out, that's not acceptable must be in letter, I mailed forms by mail they never got them. I emailed certified letter. There was hand writing wrong g on it. it was not accepted again. The help barely speaks English on the phone. it's a scam company to me. #vanguard read more

Because Vanguard is a behemoth with no accountability, your customer service agents refuse to help me and tell me to wait either until February 26th or March 18th to have my monies returned to me. I opened an account in December 2024. I have been promised via phone and chat that a supervisor with the ability to correct this situation will contact me within 24 hours. That did not happen. Please investigate why, oh why, you are refusing to return funds to me. I want nothing more than to be done with Vanguard. read more

I have been working for nearly two years to close this 401(k) plan, dedicating approximately 80 hours to the process. Despite my efforts, I missed a deadline--one that kept shifting--and as a result, the entire process was restarted. During this time, the funds have been completely frozen, preventing any transfers or reallocations. This has resulted not only in market losses but also in missed opportunities exceeding $100,000--a significant financial impact that could have been avoided had I been allowed to manage the funds properly. Additionally, former employees are still unable to access their money. Now, I am being told to start this process over yet again. Is this really the standard level of service provided to small businesses? I need immediate clarification on how we can resolve this efficiently--without further unnecessary delays or financial harm. Please provide a clear path forward to bring this matter to a resolution. read more

If you like waiting on hold, you're going to love Vanguard! I've been trying to close an account with Vanguard for three months now. Every time I call (after waiting on hold and getting transferred around for 30 minutes) I get a new reason as to why this can't be done and what has to happen for the account to be close. Three months and counting and they can't close an account. Apparently, sending someone there money and closing an account is too complicated for them. Poor John Bogle. They are ruining his legacy. read more

Will probably move my Vang assets over to Fidelity where I'm more respected. I had previously stated that Vang had great cust service. No longer would I say this. read more

I've beed a Vanguard customer for over 25 years. Their customer service has declined to a point where I moved all my accounts to Schwab. Schwab covered the $100 transfer fee Vanguard charged me for transferring each account. read more

Absolute worst customer call center. The call center is based in India. The representative are extremely unhelpful and will refuse to allow you access to information regarding your investments and funds. If ever you receive a notice that your old 401k that has been managed well in the past is now going to Vanguard, immediately move those funds to a reputable investment firm. Vanguard is absolutely clueless and do not appear to care about the amount of money that they are not allowing you access to for up to three weeks while they figure their act out. RUN!!! read more

This company is a joke. Ive been trying to get someone from there to send me an IRA adoption form for 26 days. They assigned my case to a a Anna Williams and we were told on June 16 we would get a call back within 4 days. 6 more calls later and still nothing. Mrs. Williams lack of concern and effort only prove that they have zero concern for their clients. read more

They are so ridicuous. Soemwhere along the way, theydecided no internet-based help (e.g. messages, emails, chat with customer service) would be made available to investors. Nothing inside their online maze leads anywhere as far as seeking help. They've decided they just want our money and to just stay away once they have it. So annoying, almost impossible to get access to my Roth funds to transfer into my bank account. Go to Fidelity or Schwab. Not even a contact option. read more

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Well, this is a review regarding the recent need to transition my account to the new platform. Their funds are great and generally speaking their website is also on par. However, if you happen to also be an IAR or Broker with an account with them and have to transition your account, this is where the frustration and inefficiency is at an all time WTF. You cannot transition to the new platform as an IAR or Broker on line if you have an account with them. So the 10 min's noted on the website and in letters I have been receiving, is just not on point... at all. First effort after going through the online transition attempt, provided me with a phone number I had to call since I am considered an Associated Person, it will direct you to the call number 800-523-8821. Ok, I called and a recorded voice let's me know that they are receiving an extraordinary large volume of calls. Yeah I get it. 1.5 hrs later, I just hung up. No other way for me to transition, even the old fashioned way with paper. I get it, I'm a fiduciary and broker and you guys need to run through the new RegBi rules passed recently.... blah blah blah. You need to find a better way to assist the sub-set group of Associated Persons requiring special treatment. I got brave today, since I got another letter telling me I need to transition. Back on the line, 25 mins in still on hold. The worst is getting a pre recorded message every minute, apologizing and letting me now a sales associate will be with me shortly. Every minute. So far, that is now 27 times I have heard this... most irritating, you think you are there... the music stops.. and then... recording. Great funds, good website... horrible human interaction. John Bogle must be rolling his grave... read more

Just tried again to ask Vanguard if they offer a fund that is 70% stocks, 30% bonds, or how I can adjust my stock to bond ratio in my 403(b). They refuse to answer, saying that I should have my personal advisor search their website to try to find one. What? All I want to know is if they offer such a fund or not. Yes or no. How could they not know this? Then they disconnected me. Very rude, not knowledgeable and impossible to deal with. Taking my money elsewhere. read more

OMG I'm going to have a stroke. I have been trying to get set up as an Agent for my mother's account due to her dementia. This has been a fubar of the utmost degree. NOBODY knows what they are doing. Different people, different answers. Most recent development? They have looked at a form and removed my mom's information but did not add mine because the form is wrong (that they told me how to fill out.) So now NOBODY CAN ACCESS MY MOTHERS FUNDS! She needs them to pay her Dementia Care fees in just a few more days but we cannot access her own money. I have never in my life had more poorly trained customer service agents. I have been on hold longer than my first marriage. My mom could do a better job than these morons and she shits herself. read more

The lowest rating the system will allow me to give. Horrible investment firm. They do not care about you; they just want your money. DO NOT INVEST your money with Vanguard - they screwed up my funds, made multiple errors, lied to me, tried to blame the IRS (which was untrue), gave me false information, were rude on multiple occasions, promised to send me paperwork and then never sent it, many times promised to call me back and did not, hung up on me multiple times, and in general have the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I've ever encountered in any business in any field. Recently, they made my life nearly unlivable before they admitted and rectified their mistake. I spent 80+ hours on the phone total, across every single business day for a full *6 weeks* talking with many, many different agents before they finally fixed it. They have extremely poor organization. I was passed from incompetent agent to incompetent agent, over & over, every day, sometimes spending *a full 8 hours a day on the phone with them* (I don't know about you, but I don't have an extra 8 hours in the day). Even the supervisors were essentially useless. They had mistakenly placed a hold on my account due to *their own mistakes* (which they eventually admitted, 6 weeks later, after my literally dozens & dozens of calls). I spent SO much time on the phone arguing with them that many parts of my everyday life had to be put on hold so I had time to deal with the Vanguard buffoons, and the entire mess caused me so much stress I had to go on medication. They said they couldn't tell *anything* specific about the "mystery hold", not even the number of the form/document. Then suddenly, one day, boom! They could. Stringing me along. Things like this happened ALL THE TIME: they'd give me some "info" one day, and then tell me the precise opposite a few days later. At one point they blamed the problem on Covid, if you can believe that. Also crazy-making: they also said on one call that I needed to call a specific person in the Philippines between the hours of 6pm and 3am, which is obviously bullpuckey, as their support number closes at 6pm. It was exhausting to try to carve a path through their stonewalling, and as soon as they FINALLY admitted their mistake, I immediately removed all monies from their clutches, even though I'd been investing with them for decades. STAY FAR, FAR AWAY, unless you enjoy weeks-long headaches. read more

Vanguard will do basic stuff but for anything else their very difficult to work with. In my case they refuse to acknowledge what they admit is a valid POA form and the firm has mechanism to kick it up to legal for review. The request gets denied before its even looked at. I've done this with other financial institutions without issue. The manager blamed on on Pennsylvania laws but when I asked which law, he balked. read more

DO NOT use Vanguard for your retirement savings. If the system would let me give them 0 stars, I would. Our company put our 401(k) funds here. My wife was leaving the company and had a plan, so she worked closely with Vanguard, she thought, to make sure she would have what she needed for her transition. Everything was fine until it came time to actually receive the money. She called 9/16 and they told her the money was being sent and it would be three days. On 9/18 she called back and they told her it was only two days and it would be one more day. On 9/19, no money arrived in her account. She called Vanguard and they said sometimes banks held onto large transactions for a few days and she should check with her bank. When they checked, there was a misunderstanding in which account it was to go to and the bank said no money had been sent. My wife spent hours on the phone with 12 different customer service agents and no one would tell her the truth about what happened, or offer any information at all. I can't even tell you all the nonsense that transpired during that day - it was too much. Agents refused to speak with her, they refused to pass her to a supervisor, it's horrible. In the end what happened was that when she set this up two months ago, she questioned everything. When they talked about transferring money to her bank account, she asked checking or savings. The agent said it didn't matter. Because of the way she was thinking through her plan, she thought savings would be better and set everything up for savings. When she checked with the bank on the day the money was supposed to come in, they looked at her checking account. When she went back to the bank, they looked at her savings account and found that the money had been sent, but had been rejected. I don't understand why, but it has to do with the way the money was transferred from Vanguard and that it was going into a savings account. Vanguard knows this is a problem, but still tells people it's ok to transfer it to a savings account. They refused to Fed Ex the money or do anything with it other than send it via USPS, even though they screwed it up. When she talked to the supervisor, she told my wife they couldn't change the account information. My wife said, no, but I can. She went online, changed the account information and called back, but the supervisor refused to talk to her. In other words, they can reattempt the payment, but the supervisor was refusing to do it. In fact, they initiated the check via USPS WITHOUT her approval so it's "in the mail", so to speak. This is among the worst "customer service" anywhere - and they're dealing with people's money! There should be a class action lawsuit for unethical practices. The only reason we can think why they would play these games is so they can squeeze every penny out of people's investments before they have to give it up! read more

I found out I have an old 401k. the company shut down, I have no way of accessing it. this company told me going into a location with my identification and Social Security card would not be sufficient enough to prove who I am. Terrible company I will be seeking a lawyer to pursue all options read more

Trying to do a hardship loan, right on cue!! Getting the run arounds,now! they have no problem drafting money out of my account,but when it's time to call them,all types of problems, I,m done ! Closing my account. read more

Inherited a Vanguard IRA when my mother passed away. I found out why I have my investments with another investment firm. The customer service and their portal are terrible. They make it extremely difficult to contact them or get information. They also make it difficult to liquidate funds. During the time period I have been trying to liquidate the account, the value has dropped 5%. i.e. their fund managers are not good either. I would not recommend this investment fund to anyone. read more