Author Topic: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?  (Read 2259 times)

coppertop

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 458
Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« on: June 18, 2021, 08:04:24 AM »
I have been invested through Vanguard for about 20 years.  I have both taxable and IRA accounts, and when I retired, I moved my 401(k) funds into Vanguard, as well as my husband's.  I have been telling people for years how great they are - and I had extensive experience with them, since I was an estates and trusts paralegal for eleven years.  A relative had a terrible time with Vanguard recently when she was trying to settle her mother's estate.  I thought she was mistaken at first, until I began to experience difficulty with them myself. In particular today, a CSR was so rude to me that I was shocked.  I am so disappointed in Vanguard that I am seriously considering moving my funds elsewhere. Has anyone else experienced difficulty with Vanguard? 

TheGibberingPotato

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 106
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2021, 09:49:11 AM »
I have been invested through Vanguard for about 20 years.  I have both taxable and IRA accounts, and when I retired, I moved my 401(k) funds into Vanguard, as well as my husband's.  I have been telling people for years how great they are - and I had extensive experience with them, since I was an estates and trusts paralegal for eleven years.  A relative had a terrible time with Vanguard recently when she was trying to settle her mother's estate.  I thought she was mistaken at first, until I began to experience difficulty with them myself. In particular today, a CSR was so rude to me that I was shocked.  I am so disappointed in Vanguard that I am seriously considering moving my funds elsewhere. Has anyone else experienced difficulty with Vanguard?

In my experience, Vanguard's customer service is mediocre.  They can help with basic things, but wont know more advanced strategies like what is discussed here.  And therefore, I'm not surprised that they wouldn't be great for settling an estate.

I have been exceedingly impressed with Fidelity's customer service.  They are extremely knowledgeable, at least for 401k issues.  Given that they compete head-to-head with Vanguard's mutual funds, I think many people will or already have jumped over to them... it is probably Vanguard's biggest threat.

Sibley

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7428
  • Location: Northwest Indiana
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2021, 10:53:55 AM »
I would say that at least recently Vanguard's customer service is down. I had to call them to figure out something and never got through to them. They dropped the call after 15min on hold, then I called back and sat on hold for an hour before I gave up. I sent them a rather scathing (but still polite) message and got the canned response I expected.

I still like their ownership structure. I will withhold judgement for now, as it's possible they're struggling with what COVID WFH did to that entire department. I'll be having to deal with them quite a bit more over the next couple years due to my dad's retirement. We'll see how they do.

theolympians

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 240
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2021, 12:35:31 PM »
When I moved to vanguard I sort of expected canned assistance. If you want more, you will likely have to pay for it the once or twice a year you might need assistance. I had an account with EJ, and the advisor was very responsive, and the company killed trees with mail from them. At the end of the day I didn't  want to pay for someone to just be nice to me and complete a few key strokes for me.

Vanguard might be a little more self-serve, but in the end that is what I wanted and accept the downside.

SunsetRN

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #4 on: June 24, 2021, 01:48:18 PM »
I agree there has been a decline with customer service at Vanguard. I transferred all my accounts over to fidelity and have no regrets. Their customer service is 24/7 and top notch. Their app and web page run circles around vanguards. Fidelity asset transfer tracker is easy to use while setting up a transfer.

Some key things to consider prior to transferring assets over:

I exited all vanguard mutual funds in my IRA's and bought their ETF equivalent prior to transferring. This is because you can hold vanguard ETF's in fidelity with no fees, unlike the mutual funds version of the same asset.

In my taxable account I only hold VTI so that rollover was simple as I didn't occur any tax consequences.

You can have the best of both worlds and not settle for poor customer service.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2021, 01:50:12 PM by SunsetRN »

FIPurpose

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2061
  • Location: ME
    • FI With Purpose
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2021, 02:01:19 PM »
Their customer assistance is down, however, they have also continued to lower their mutual fund fees, lowered their trading fees, and their website has improved immensely over the past 5 years or so. So it's unfortunate that their customer service has gone downhill, but other parts of their service have improved. :)

englishteacheralex

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3890
  • Age: 44
  • Location: Honolulu, HI
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2022, 10:26:51 PM »
Sorry to necropost, but we're trying to open a new Roth IRA account with Vanguard AND start a taxable account with them, and my husband is done even trying. The website doesn't work, he's called them and not been able to get through, and today they said they couldn't open an account for us because we live in Hawaii and Hawaii isn't part of America. This is literally what the customer service rep said.

My husband is ready to jump ship to Fidelity. Are we missing something? Is Fidelity a way worse deal?

PDXTabs

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5160
  • Age: 40
  • Location: Vancouver, WA, USA
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2022, 10:33:10 PM »
Sorry to necropost, but we're trying to open a new Roth IRA account with Vanguard AND start a taxable account with them, and my husband is done even trying. The website doesn't work, he's called them and not been able to get through, and today they said they couldn't open an account for us because we live in Hawaii and Hawaii isn't part of America. This is literally what the customer service rep said.

My husband is ready to jump ship to Fidelity. Are we missing something? Is Fidelity a way worse deal?

I have a 401k with Fidelity, an IRA with Vanguard, and a taxable brokerage with Schwab that I opened recently. So far I'm very happy with Schwab which I chose in part because of all of these Vanguard horror stories.

less4success

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 188
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #8 on: August 09, 2022, 10:39:15 PM »
Sorry to necropost, but we're trying to open a new Roth IRA account with Vanguard AND start a taxable account with them, and my husband is done even trying. The website doesn't work, he's called them and not been able to get through, and today they said they couldn't open an account for us because we live in Hawaii and Hawaii isn't part of America. This is literally what the customer service rep said.

My husband is ready to jump ship to Fidelity. Are we missing something? Is Fidelity a way worse deal?

If you're comfortable with ETFs, then Fidelity and Schwab are both good. If you prefer mutual funds, I'd consider giving Vanguard one more shot or just skip straight to Fidelity. I don't have any experience with Schwab's mutual fund selection--it's possible it's on par with Fidelity.

I have a 401k with Fidelity, an IRA with Vanguard, and a taxable brokerage with Schwab that I opened recently. So far I'm very happy with Schwab which I chose in part because of all of these Vanguard horror stories.

Out of curiosity, why did you decide to open yet another account for your taxable brokerage instead of just using Fidelity?

PDXTabs

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5160
  • Age: 40
  • Location: Vancouver, WA, USA
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2022, 10:45:12 PM »
I have a 401k with Fidelity, an IRA with Vanguard, and a taxable brokerage with Schwab that I opened recently. So far I'm very happy with Schwab which I chose in part because of all of these Vanguard horror stories.

Out of curiosity, why did you decide to open yet another account for your taxable brokerage instead of just using Fidelity?

There's actually a whole thread about that here. Some of my situation is unique but between the Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard UI+features I'm the most happy with Schwab, and I write that as someone that has had a Fidelity account for the last 15 years. 

nalor511

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 219
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #10 on: August 10, 2022, 12:12:49 AM »
I have a 401k with Fidelity, an IRA with Vanguard, and a taxable brokerage with Schwab that I opened recently. So far I'm very happy with Schwab which I chose in part because of all of these Vanguard horror stories.

Out of curiosity, why did you decide to open yet another account for your taxable brokerage instead of just using Fidelity?

There's actually a whole thread about that here. Some of my situation is unique but between the Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard UI+features I'm the most happy with Schwab, and I write that as someone that has had a Fidelity account for the last 15 years.

I dislike that Schwab doesn't let you do many things in their mobile app (e.g turn drip on and off, plenty of other things) that fidelity does. Schwab also refuses to enable fractional ETF trading and requires you to use their proprietary sp500 slices.  I dislike that fidelity won't let you use limited margin in an IRA without also labeling you a pattern day Trader (cancelling out the features of limited margin)

MustacheAndaHalf

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6633
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #11 on: August 11, 2022, 10:22:55 AM »
Sorry to necropost, but we're trying to open a new Roth IRA account with Vanguard AND start a taxable account with them, and my husband is done even trying. The website doesn't work, he's called them and not been able to get through, and today they said they couldn't open an account for us because we live in Hawaii and Hawaii isn't part of America. This is literally what the customer service rep said.

My husband is ready to jump ship to Fidelity. Are we missing something? Is Fidelity a way worse deal?
I'd go with a Schwab International account for foreign investors like you in the state of Hawaii.  :)  If you plan to travel or especially retire overseas, Schwab seems to support that better.  But otherwise Fidelity is also a good choice.

Years ago, Vanguard pushed for lower expense ratios.  Now Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, and various ETFs all offer similar expense ratios for similar products.  Fidelity and Schwab actually started charging $0/trade for stocks before Vanguard did!  And you could argue that Fidelity is trying to be on the cutting edge with "Fidelity Zero" funds with 0.00% expense ratios.

Do you already have an IRA with Schwab or Fidelity?  Then I'd stick with that.

I have never used Schwab's mobile app, so I'm not familiar with that.  But whenever I call Schwab's customer service, they answer quickly.  It was a refreshing experience switching from Vanguard (after 20+ years) to Schwab this year.

jinga nation

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2696
  • Age: 247
  • Location: 'Murica's Dong
Re: Vanguard - Decline in Customer Service?
« Reply #12 on: August 19, 2022, 08:13:37 AM »
I had a Vanguard experience yesterday. Prior to the call, a wire transfer to my brokerage account got rejected; funds were coming from sale of old home. I was told I had filled out wire instructions incorrectly.

Made a call to Vanguard, took the option of a call back. Received a call within 5 minutes. Talked to an agent, he gave me the info. However, some of the fields in the wire instructions made him second-guess. He asked if I could hold while he checked with another team that deals with larger value wires routinely. Within a minute, he was back on the line, and asked if I would accept the option to talk to more knowledgeable folks.

The 2nd agent patiently worked with me to fill out required fields. Even though I had Vanguard's official wire instructions for my account from their website, I was incorrectly assuming "account name". He corrected the wire instructions fields without a visual. The entire call, with both agents, took under 10 minutes, with me taking my time to triple-check. (FWIW, the 2nd attempt of wiring funds went through.) This was at 4pm ET.

It is extremely rare for me to call Vanguard, but when I do, the service has been excellent. (The previous call I made to them was in Nov 2021 to organize a wire transfer for purchase of a new home; agent set it up in under 10 minutes.)