1 sFor the last month, I am having a very difficult time with Vanguard personnel, especially Customer Representatives (CR) and technical support. Most of the CR do not know anything and are clueless about solving any problems and the technical support for your account is very difficult. I have been waiting 3 weeks to solve a very simple problem on my account and I keep getting delays and excuses why it is not fixed. I am getting to think that Vanguard no longer cares about small investors and that large institutional investors come first. I have been an investor with Vanguard for approximately 14 years, I have never seen the service this poor with long hold times and lack of knowledge and very poor attitude among the CR's which is an understatement. It may be time to transfer my accounts to another financial institution if there is no immediate improvements. read more

Valuing Their Customers Is A Nonexistent Thought : I applied for a hardship loan which required me to fax supporting documents. A day after faxing (yes FAX the most antiquated form of communication next to Morse code) the documents, I get an email at 1030 pm stating there are "missing documents" and cannot process my request. I wait until the next day to call (as of course they close at normal business hours but tactfully send replies after business hours, which in essence holds up the process by another day). I was told to resend the documents, which I did. I was also told to send an additional document that was never mentioned on their website. A day later around 1030pm I receive an email stating the documents were not sufficient....the most ambiguous communication I've ever seen from a financial institution. My request was denied. The documents I provided, abided by all of their guidelines. After jumping through hoops and playing tag you're it with my money....I'm working to sue them as their unprofessional, inconsistent tactics have resulted in a waste of time for a financial issue that is very critical to my livelihood and health. read more

What used me an excellent company has greatly deteriorated in twelve months. Until this years experiences, I would have given them five stars. Their investment choices and low fees are still excellent. Their customer support used be a solid three or four stars. However customer support has tumbled in the last year to a zero. Three times in the last week I have tried to transfer funds into Vanguard and have been on the phone with very long hold times to make sure that I do my end correctly and that my pdf goes to the right department and is received and is tracked so that I know that Vanguard does its part in filing the fund transfer request. One would think this acquiring new client investment funds would be a priority for customer support. No it clearly is not. After a hold of over an hour and 10 minutes on my third attempt someone on their incoming funds line picked up my call. I had to leave and asked for a call back in two hours. No one called back. I am back on the phone for over an hour and 30 minutes and no one has picked up my call. The call line does not even tell you that you are in que and when your call can be expected to be picked up. I got through to a different department and asked for the complaint or escalation department. I was told a complaint department does not exist and no supervisor can get back to me for at least two business days. The deterioration in customer service is appalling. If they need to increase pay and numbers for their support staff please do it. No or extremely poor product support means a poor final product, especially on important items such as one's long term financial asset holdings. I do feel sorry for their customer support staff because they clearly are not getting the support from management that they deserve. If that is the case their support staff retention rate as probably moved sharply lower. read more

I really wish I could give Vanguard ZERO stars. But I can't. I switched over from Fidelity to Vanguard four years ago. I did so because of the lower management fees. Biggest mistake of my life. To start with, Vanguard required I sell my entire portfolio. I couldn't keep anything transferred over from Fidelity. I had many individual stocks as well as funds that were doing quite well. It didn't matter to them. Everything had to go and I had to buy all Vanguard funds. Needless to say that created a tax liability (of over $60,000!). That should have been the first red flag. Next, I had instructed them that I wanted no exposure to international funds. None. I had very bad luck in international funds, and I only started accumulating wealth when I rid myself of them. It didn't matter. I was told I was required to keep a minimum of 20% of my investments in international funds. Well, month after month, quarter after quarter, year after year, my international investments underperformed my domestic investments. After FOUR years, my domestic funds had outperformed my international funds cumulatively by more than 2 to 1. Incredible! I contacted my "advisor", Jessica. Jessica told me the same thing she had told me every other time. Diversity, diversity, diversity. It was their mantra. I am all for diversity. Diversify domestically. But not when it means 20% of my life savings is in a sector that continues to radically underperform the broader market. Jessica would hear none of it. Soon afterwards I got an e-mail from a higher up at Vanguard with the same diversity gobbledy-gook that Jessica had been spewing. Diversity, diversity, diversity uber alis!. By my calculations, Vanguard's diversity trumps all strategy cost me over $50,000. This was due to their insistence that I stay invested in their underperforming international funds. Vanguard's investment team's strategy is RIGID and INFLEXIBLE. They have an algorithm, and stick to it, regardless of the trends in the market. I gave them my funds for four years. Enough time to prove they were out for my (their client's) best interest. They failed miserably. I left them and I'm back with Fidelity. Much happier. Fidelity has no problems gearing my investments in line with my wishes of no international exposure. I am totally diversified in various sectors within the US market. Also, Fidelity is working with me to avoid the huge tax debt that I was burdened with by Vanguard by requiring I sell all of my holdings simply to have an all Vanguard funds portfolio. Best advice: Stay away from Vanguard. Stay far away! read more

Vanguard has great pricing but their customer service can be HORRIBLE. I've now waited over 1 hour on consecutive days without reaching a person who can help me confirm the trustee on an account. read more

They basically froze my account due to a system error on their end. When I called to resolved they kept pushing me off. Kept promising someone in "management" would call me back. NO one ever called me back. Awful service and awful representation. I would be skeptical about putting money with Vanguard. I think Fidelity is better across the board. read more

I have loved Vanguard as their steady client for over 2 decades, but no longer. Since its beloved founder Jack Bogle passed away only four months ago, Vanguard no longer follows its own mission statement... "to take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success." As everyone knows, Jack initiated the lowest fees that often enraged its competitors but attracted investors. Since Jack died, this is no longer the case. This week I received a letter from Vanguard that is full of untruths... such as "We've noticed that your balance has been below the $x requirement for some time." Although Vanguard's statement is untrue, Vanguard has now changed requirements for Select Services, including $2 trades, boosting the trade fee to $7, an increase of 250%, without informing their investors. What really enrages me is not the fee increase, but that Vanguard's letter (1) didn't tell the truth about my accounts and (2) never explained that fees would increase by 250%. I had to learn that by a phone inquiry with a representative. I've enjoyed a good ride with Vanguard, but this is no longer the same company that, BTW, is a nonprofit owned by Vanguard's mutual fund holders including me. I can no longer recommend new or old investors to entrust Vanguard to hold their assets. RIP Jack, and Vanguard. read more

I have a moderately large sum invested with Vanguard in a mutual fund and always received paper quarterly statements. Recently, Vanguard announced that they would be charging $20/year if I wanted to continue to receive paper statements by mail. I called in an attempt to get the fee waived as I am 86 years old and not very computer literate. After talking to three people and holding on the line for about 30 minutes, they refused to continue the paper statement unless I paid the $20 each year. In my opinion this is a rip off of their customers who want paper statements. read more

Customer service is abysmal. For a company that will be controlling your money and potentially your future, there's absolutely no support and trying to get into contact with a real person in customer service will have you waiting on the phone for hours and hours. read more

Read all the other one star reviews and there are plenty. For me they wouldn't take my check from fidelity and the only reason is our system is being updated but have no time table on completion. Then the issue only effected some people. When asked about a supervisor they told me it would be 24-48 hours. When I brought up no supervisor on duty I was then told they were in meetings. I called out my rep on it and she knew I caught the lie. Just overall poor service. 2 hours on the phone with no resolve. They couldn't find my account of almost 25 years! Then they told me they treat everyone the same and I called them out for their benefits for their million dollar club. If you don't have big money they don't care. Guarantee if I had a million plus invested i would of talked with a supervisor read more

I am shocked and puzzled by Vanguard phone customer service. First occasion was about 529 NYS savings plan and second occasion was on behalf business 401k. Both required basic transaction regarding online access. Both times it turned into hours to weeks long disaster. People on the other end are not trained to understand even basic functions. It felt like someone it playing a joke. Accept I couldn't get anyone on the phone who remotely aware about what the job was about. Strongly feel the SEC needs to review their practices. This gets on the way for us as a business to administer our benefits. read more

Had to call for a transaction. 20 minute wait on 2 separate occasions. All I needed was to transfer funds to a other person's Vanguard account. They so far are unable to do this. Voice recognition software is a joke. I am 50 minutes into this call and on hold .....again. Fidelity from here on out. read more

I joined Vanguard Personal Investment Group last year & got the App this year. I'm very satisfied with the phone specialists & they explain everything to me in a clear fashion. I'm definitely going to stick with Vanguard Group! Thank you for your expertise & I love the informational app. read more

As other reviewers have written, Vanguard Company's CUSTOMER SERVICE IS HORRIBLE. I waited three hours yesterday on hold to reach a human who could satisfy a simply request. No one answered. Have already waited one hour today with no answer. My personal advisor, Jennifer Perry, did answer an email I sent yesterday but only to refer me to another part of the Vanguard website where I was supplied with another dead-end number. I do not understand how an otherwise well-reputed investment firm can so utterly disregard their clients. Something is TERRIBLY WRONG. I don't want to withdraw my funds, about $880,000, from Vanguard but if customer service is so badly managed, I fear it forebodes there's something profoundly rotten in the company as a whole. read more

Attempted to change ownership of an IRA account. After dealing with 6 courteous representatives who did not help at all and 3 hours of phone time, still was not able to accomplish a thing. TERRIBLE customer no service!!!! Will NEVER have any dealings with this company. read more

Vanguard's customer service has really gone downhill. Long wait times, poorly functioning Interactive Voice Response system, calls transferred to several different teams. I used to be a big fan of their service, but no longer. read more

When you're a Vanguard Flagship investor for over 20 years, you don't expect to have to navigate a horrendous and dodgy phone system and never get through to a representative. Their customer service has degraded to such an extent that they are no longer the "value" provider that they once were. They have done away with their personal advisors and you can't get basic questions answered any longer. They are a profitable and well-respected company that's killing their own brand through this petty nonsense. read more

I would not invest 1 penny with this company. I called CS and spent over 2 hours on hold before anyone picked up the phone to put me back on hold. That is just bad, bad service read more

Horrible. Horrible. Had a small business 401K with them for many years. So now I wanted to close it and transfer it to another firm. Was on hold just short of 3 hours. I spoke to four people whom my call was transferred to and each was the wrong person. I will never keep money with them again, never. read more

Terrible Customer Service. Phone wait times of over 2 hours to talk to a rep to get information regarding a new fund they were transferring my savings over to read more

Proving that cheap comes out expensive, Vanguard "misprocessed" a rollover check for $50k, just long enough to miss the 2021 tax deadline for a Roth conversion. Spent an hour holding for the Onboard office in New Jersey to no avail. Worthless customer service. Moving my $$ to Fidelity ASAP. read more

The negative reviews are too kind. This company should not be in business. They have no customer service whatsoever. They have automatons. They can do nothing. They can say nothing of substance. They put you on hold. They claim you will get callback. Nothing they say is true. Nothing happens. Months elapse. They do not know what happened yesterday or last month. They should be shut down, shuttered and boarded up. read more

Over two weeks of trying to transfer simple cash out of Vanguard to Fidelity. Fidelity has repeatedly initiated the transfer (customary) and Vanguard keeps blocking the transaction .. in each instance with a new reason. On top of everything else, this account (trying to clear) was opened by me five years before I got married (1986). Afterward (1995), I named my wife as the beneficiary. Now Vanguard considers the account as a joint account. Joint??? Really??? Since when does a beneficiary become a co-owner of an account? There's a reason why I never built my portfolio with Vanguard thirty-three years ago. They were stinkpots then and are stinkpots (now) to the third power (cubed). That's 'stink(3)' for the math whizzes out there. So happy I built my portfolio with Fidelity. I've never liked Vanguard and they've certainly never given me a reason to change my mind. I'll be happy when I can finally get my account closed with these clowns. read more

Can I give less than 1 star??? ... suck suck sucky. on hold for 2 hours and 15 minutes. Something is wrong, seriously wrong!!! I have a Kaiser TSA III plan I want to make a withdrawl from and all I am getting is the runaround. I seriously do not understand. website says I need to submit a form but it does not say what form. Nor does it give any information other than I need to contact customer service. There is no way to email or fax or to get through to any human I have been trying for a week and half and put on 3 hour holds numerous times. Nobody has time for this. IT's MY MONEY AND I WANT IT NOW !!!!! read more

Do not invest with these people they will liquidate your assets quicker than you would ever imagine leave there with your head spinning and deny it all and act like they don't know what they're talkin about make sure you definitely screenshot everything you do with these people if you get involved with them because they will take you for everything you have read more

Customer service is horrid. The phone contacts put you through tons of information you can already see if you've made it to the help page on their website. It does not want to let you speak to an agent. Then when you finally figure out how to get the voice system to send you to an agent, the wait is over an hour. So then you opt for the call-back and I have yet to get a call back. They have my full retirement account but won't respond. Horrible, horrible, horrible. read more

I have been unable to get through to customer support for 3 days to get assistance with and account change. My most recent hold time was 1 hour and 25 minutes before I finally hung up in frustration. There is also no "leave a number and we will call you back when an agent is available" option...you just have to listen to the hold music. I am supposed to have Flagship Services. I hate to think about what the non-Flagship customers are experiencing. There is simply no way to get assistance (email, live chat, or phone) on a very important estate planning issues that I am trying to transact. I am now seeing if I can have all my assets in Vanguard transferred to Fidelity. read more

terrible customer service. randomly locked out of accounts, hours on the phone. apparently you don't have my email on file? but you've been sending me emails since day 1. I appreciate it's a low cost no frills service but if they can't do the basics it's no help read more

We've been with Vanguard for over 25 years and are in "Flagship." We now understand why John Bogle suggests that Vanguard investors "Stay the course." It's not investing advice; instead, it's practical advice in dealing with Vanguard's Customer Service. As repeatedly noted in other reviews, Vanguard Funds are great. However, you need to put your investments in and leave them alone, BECAUSE if you need to do anything and involve Customer Service, "You're up ........ creek without a paddle"-note the Vanguard nautical reference. We are not sure it's better if Customer Service returns calls with incorrect information, or fails to return messages (Theory:If you don't say anything, you avoid being incorrect). If our experience with Flagship service is terrible, we can not imagine the level of service in the "lower ranks." We are moving on. read more

If you really want to piss people off, screw with their money! Great job Vanguard. If there was a booby prize for crappy service, you should get it. If you have funds with Vanguard and never have to do anything to them, you're probably ok. But, you'll rue the day you have to roll anything over or ask for paperwork. It's like dealing with some Cold War Soviet bureaucracy. Not only is this company inefficient, it is rife with foot dragging desk jockeys who are rude and disempowered to make basic customer service decisions. After my divorce, my attorney submitted a QDRO for the rollover of some of our 401k into a separate account for me. I had planned to simply roll it over into an IRA with Vanguard since the 401K did well and hadn't heard any complaints about the company. The QDRO was submitted for pre-approval. That can take up to 60 days...well it did, every bit of it. Then once it was entered with the court and the judge signed off it was sent back to them for "final approval," which also takes...you guessed it 60 days! THEN after this is done, you are sent a letter telling it's all good to go and that after 30 days an account will be set up for you into which the funds will be rolled over. This can happen sooner, if you elect to send in waivers. Both my ex-husband and I did this. If you send in the waivers, it should only take 7-10 days to set up your account. Well, they lost the paperwork, despite the fact it was sent to their PO Box and delivery was confirmed. This isn't the first report of lost paperwork I've heard with them. Also, if this had been the only snag, I might have chalked it up to a minor glitch, but alas, that's not the case. Their people have been not only incompetent but rude. Having been in customer service myself, I know that this is usually a management issue. If Vanguard's higher ups gave a crap about providing better service, it would be reflected in the frontline people. Long story short, if I ever do see my money, I'm going to think long and hard about keeping it in a Vanguard account. read more

Really bad customer service reps. I called TWICE trying to get a form to move money into an existing Vanguard account. You'd think they'd want my money. NO, twice I was sent the incorrect form, and the second guy was only interested in my moving my 401K funds into an IRA. Both agents had extremely poor listening skills. I am a born and raised American speaker of English, so it wasn't as if I had some ghastly accent no one could understand. Sorry Vanguard, Fidelity managed to send me the correct form to move my $ from Vanguard to them. Corporate execs: you may want to look at how much your cheapskate policies of hiring bad customer service reps costs you in the long run. read more

Vanguard has cheap mutual funds. And transparent fees. All this is great. However, their technology sucks. There is no way to see how the individual mutual funds or stocks your own are actually performing. Isn't that the point of investing? Vanguard has the data, but they told me that they have no plans of investing in the systems to help the customer view the holdings' performances (and therefore make good decisions on investing). All you can view is the total amount (comprised of all your holding, together). I wish I had known that before I signed up...but I will be moving on....I can buy Vanguard funds, but using Scottstrade, ETrade, Schwab, etc.. read more

Another bad processing experience with Vanguard. I submitted the paperwork to make three separate donations of stock to three different colleges. In each case you complete a separate document providing transfer information. Vanguard confirmed they had received all three requests and that everything was in order. Weeks after submitting the forms to Vanguard, I was informed by one of the colleges that they had not received the stock. Upon inquiry with Vanguard I just learned that none of the three transfers have taken place. Reason: one of the three colleges provided an incorrect number to which the shares should be transferred. But why didn't Vanguard process the other two and let me know of the problem with the third? Of course my so-called "Flagship Representative" was not available. If he answers the phone one call in 20, I'm lucky. In complaining about the processing area, today I referenced my complaint back in July, 2016. It took months, once two of my sons turned 21, to convert their custodial account to their own names (as required by law). Reason for the delay: the request was submitted in March of the year and I was told that the processing area is overwhelmed by work related to the April 15 tax deadline. Hello? Isn't the tax deadline the same each year? Do retailers have to staff up for Christmas? Shouldn't Vanguard staff up for predictable peaks in activity? This is extremely poor management on the part of Vanguard, and they don't really seem to care. Today when I complained about the recent experience, I referenced the earlier problem converting custodial accounts to the beneficiary as required by law. I mentioned that in effect no trades could be done for nearly three months because as custodian I could no longer legally transfer the shares and my sons were not authorized to do so since we were waiting for the shares to be transferred to an account in their name. Fortunately we are "buy and hold" investors, but possibly there could be a reason that you needed to do a trade in that two-three month window. "We could probably have arranged for you to trade," she said. "Let me get this straight, and we are on a recorded line," I responded. "You would flout the law?" Uh... was the response, as she searched her database and couldn't get guidance about how she should answer such a question. I have been a "Flagship" client for 16 years. I established Vanguard custodian accounts for three sons when they were teenagers and have recommended Vanguard to other friends and relatives. Today any recommendation would be qualified. Try Schwab or Fidelity, both of which have become more price competitive with Vanguard, I might advise. They can't be worse than Vanguard in processing and back office operations. read more

I am new, just sent them my first money via check, two checks. It took a long time for the money to show up in my on-line account balance. I have had zero luck making my very first purchase in the brokerage account. Either with a Vanguard Fund or another fund. I sent them a message, and they replied for me to call. Why it is not open for trading, I don't know. I have lost a week of trading time. I looked at Scott Trade and might just go to them after reading the bad reviews on Vanguard. I should have read the reviews before opening my account, I think. I thought with Vanguard's size they would be great with customer service. Apparently that is not the case, and their reporting, I thought, would be stellar, but apparently they mess that up as well according to other reviews here. I hope low cost doesn't mean low service and overseas IT work. read more

Vanguard has the worst customer service I have ever seen! I had planned to move family assets of over $1 million, but with all the bad reviews, I thought I would just start with 1 of the accounts currently held at Schwab and see how the Trustee to Trustee transfer goes. Unfortunately, Vanguard really doesn't want my business. It took over 6 weeks to complete this task. I tried to set up an online account but I was blocked for whatever reason.... this meant snail mailing the documents................unbelievable. It took 4 reps and 6 hours to tell me this was the only way to get it done.................... My husband insisted on wanting to get into vanguard funds without paying fees. I have to tell you it is not worth it. find other free funds to invest it. Today, I finally got the account transferred and but still no access to the account. The website is a joke. I contacted my so called rep. 6 hours later I get an email to contact basic customer service. I spent 1 hour with customer service to finally have access. I was going to write the head of IT and the CEO to complain about the experience, and I will........but seriously...........Vanguard should fire the head of IT. But I think the problem is with the CEO and Board. They must all be computer illiterates. They probably think their website works, so why mess with it. Although I seriously hope they did not move design offshore. This sounds like the Obamacare website issues is going to pay a visit to Vanguard. If I have any more problems, the next call to customer service will be to get the account back in control of Schwab................ Schwab at least has a good website for trading and reviewing your account performance, etc. Schwab is incompetent when it comes to being a paid advisor. They try to put you in these high fee mutual funds, and then will bill you almost 1% fee for their services. Stick with ETF's if you try Schwab. read more

Vanguard has horrible customer service. Reason 1: For customers in the Pacific time zone, their customer service closes down at 6PM. For a company as large and rich as Vanguard, you'd think they could hire telesales operators to stay until midnight, like all the other financial services firms. Reason 2: No email interaction. From their web page, there is not email address to communicate for customer support. Vanguard must be a very old school company in a 21st century world. If they are this bad about customer service, how bad must they be at managing my money. Time to find a new 401K fund. read more

Horrible place I've been investing for almost 3 yrs.... trying to take the loan out almost a month later still waiting for it to finish processing. Shouldnt be this hard to get my own money . Ridiculous absolutely ridiculous... They either need to get some new software for their systems or they need to make a change in management or something cuz this should never be an issue. read more

After being a customer of 22 years with very sizable account balances, Vanguard dropped the ball big time. Was unable to reach a representative for 2 weeks due to "high call volume", abandoning my attempts after 30 minutes on hold. I've lost faith in the brokerage house and migrated all assets to a well-known competitor. VG's appeal had always been low fees and a large selection of index funds. They used to be the only player in that space; now, however, other firms are competitive. I've lost faith in Vanguard; the company's inability to managing its technical internal outages and offer good customer service has resulted in it hemorrhaging clients. read more

Wow! This company is absolutely awful! They made a huge mistake on my account this week. I spent two hours, yes two hours, on hold until I was able to speak to a live person. Then that person could not even solve the issues and told me I needed to call back tomorrow because the error correction department had closed during the two hours that I was on hold. Find a different company. These guys suck. read more

Vanguard is great, if you like low fees. And you like getting auditied by the IRS. First, they incorrectly reported my cost basis for a transaction. As in, they only reported my income and NONE of the cost basis. Second, they didn't send me the 1099-B I needed to avoid the audit... even though I called them 4 times with a month's advance notice. Now I'm being audited, and I will have to wait another two weeks before they can send me what I need. This isn't about customer service. This is about a total disregard for basic tax compliance. I will never invest with this company again. UPDATE: after posting on Facebook about how bad my customer experience was, Vanguard called me back and made it worse! Before, they were going to send me my 1099-B, just 2 weeks too late for the audit. NOW THEY ARE MAKING ME SEND A NOTARIZED LETTER REQUESTING THE DOCUMENTATION THEY SHOULD HAVE SENT ME ALREADY! read more