VanguardReviews 44

I took out money from Vanguard for the first time in my retirement. The money stayed with Vanguard, in a Cash Pl account. When it arrived, it was missing about $630. Later I received a message that showed the money has gone to state and federal withholding, even though the IRA already had paid taxes, and I owe no taxes. I questioned this again and again, until 2 weeks later, when Vanguard said it was being "looked into". Now it is Christmas and still no update. I know enough about bookkeeping to know that it can show what happened and who did it. Someone stole my money and Vanguard seems to be aiding this. Merry Christmas to everyone, except Vanguard.

Horrific service!
Like many others here, I would give Vanguard a negative review if possible.
I am the executor of my mothers estate and unfortunately she had an account with Vanguard. I have spent countless hours on hold and calling them back and just keep getting a run around. I have provided them all the appropriate documentation but they still will not release her funds.
I write this as I am once again on endless hold and I know when I finally do talk to someone, it still will not be resolved.
No other financial institution has given my any problems except for this amateur hour company.

Horrible worst customer service ever tried to look up information and learn how to withdraw and every rep I talked to said they were locked out or hung up on me. Never use this place. Every worker they got you can't understand then because there not English literate. Not even computer literate. I'm getting away from this place as fast as possible

Been with Vanguard for over 40 years and have started moving my assets over to another brokerage company. Please DONT invest using this organization UNLESS u want NO human contact. About 3 years ago, Vanguard began to insist that there mutual fund clients open brokerage accounts. I was forced to do so or face penalties for not transferring. After that, vanguard insisted that all its clients stop any form of paper statements. I declined thus Vanguard initiated a newly established paper fee on all my accounts. Still I stayed. In the last year Vanguard, advised me that I was contacting them, to discuss my account, via phone, at a unacceptable level. They wrote a very unprofessional letter stating if I didnt reduce my calls they would impose additional fees on my account. As a active trader, I needed someone to answer general questions on the purchases/sales that I was performing on a weekly if not daily basis. Against my better judgement, Significantly reduced my contact with the organization and keep my contacts to ask specific questions on how to manage there website. My questions were mostly thru email where a immediate response wasnt necessary. Have now recd 2 emails saying they would prefer phone calls to emails to address questions. The SEC and FINRA should look into Vanguards practices. An uneducated client is one who is prone to suffer more losses. Again, I urge ALL to stay away from this organization.

Always a very long waiting to talk to someone. Inaccurate information often received when talking to someone after long waiting. Incorrect data provided in 1099 forms. Took a long time (up to 7 days in my case) to settle mutual fund trades. Took a long time to get a reply to mails sent to their Message Center, some mails did not receive any reply at all.

I had a small amount of money remaining in one of my accounts after transferring my money from Vanguard to Schwab. For some reason Vanguard but a "restriction" on some money that for whatever reason was not transferred as requested. I talked with a Vanguard Rep who said he could not lift the restriction and that the only way that I could get MY MONEY was to have Schwab request another sweep or I had to write a letter to Vanguard asking that the money be transferred to my bank or request a check. I was told that lifting the restriction could not be done verbally over the phone. This obviously makes no sense at all. All of the identity verification that I had to do in talking with the Representative doesn't seem work when it comes to sending MY MONEY back to me. The third option should have been, yes sir, I will make the transfer to your bank of record immediately. I can see why I changed from Vanguard to Schwab. I have nothing but praise for Schwab and the personalized service that I have received.

This company caused me so much stress and hassle that it made me start crying. I have been trying to get a refund since May 30th. Customer service via email simply responds from a script. Chasing you throughout the day with phone calls while I'm at work, trying to get you to negotiate. I don't know anything about trading. I also didn't know where my money was going. I lied about no refunds allowed because I didn't exchange enough, then was forced to trade, lost half my money, only to have my original refund approved, but it was too late because now it wasn't the same amount. It was months of total fear and upset thinking it was the end until I got in touch with JURIS RESOLVE.com who helped me

Vanguard seems to be all legit but i can certify they are a scam company after dealing with them. They refused to pay my 401k, and anytime i call they always promise it will be resolved as they are working on it but for 2 months i got nothing. Thankfully i stumbled upon Affinity Intell on google and they were able to use their legal expertise to earn me a court settlement leading to the refund of all my money that was withheld in the vanguard account.

I passed all the security tests more than once, when I went to take the money out, vanguard recommended which stocks and bonds to sell. When I went to change it and put in what I wanted
To sell, they put a phone number up and said I need to call them! I tried to call the next day and I couldn`t

Even get into my account with these people!

Has the solid and best overall online service hands down! Have been using for years and never let me down when given the time! Would highly recommend and stand behind 11 years running!

I have been a Vanguard client for many years. I was rolling over one account from Vanguard to another broker. I called Vanguard to double check to make sure the order was in good standing. They said everything is in good order and the funds would be processed and the other broker should get funds in business 5-7 days. I called after 8 business days and the funds had not been sent. Vanguard made a mistake in not processing my order, and I lost money by my money sitting in a cash account. No one ever called me about this. I called back and spoke to management, no remedy for their mistake, and me losing money. They just lost a good long standing customer.

I wired money to Vanguard, they rejected my wire which fine. However, they charged me $50. This is not the problem, the problem is I have been calling for three days to figure out what the charge is for and all they could tell me is we will call you back once we find out! It has been over three days with four phone calls that each takes 30 minutes of my time and they never call me back or let me know why they charged me. Moreover, if I ask for manager, they refuse to give me one. I informed them that I will close my IRA, mutual funds and all of my accounts and wife's accounts if I don't get an answer and that did not help.
I just opened an account somewhere else and will start rolling my investments over very soon.

It is not the $50 that I am upset about, I just wanted to know why they took it. Is it a processing fee or what? It is the principal and the $50.

Stay away from this company - trust me

I have been with Vanguard for almost 20 years. My first advisor was excellent, but then he left Vanguard. Since then Vanguard has assigned me to two different advisors. Neither was able to perform the actions I requested or did not complete the actions fully. One blamed the previous advisor, who left a year ago, for leaving ~$300 left in an Admiral account. He didn't fix the problem, just blamed the person that was no longer there.

I requested my IRA beneficiary to be my trust. My advisor said I could not do that for tax reasons. It appears he was confusing a regular IRA with a Roth IRA. And it appears Vanguard left some of my IRA funds in D rated bonds. I don't want to use my money to prop up their poorly performing bonds. When I asked to change advisors because I didn't appreciate being mansplained to I was told "NO". Really? Vanguard can change my advisor without little notice, but I can't ask for a different advisor.

This is the first time in almost 20 years I've felt the need to change advisors. I DO NOT recommend using Vanguard advisor services. And I'm deciding whether or not to stay with Vanguard. It looks like Vanguard is getting greedy.

If I could give a zero I would. The rollover team is God awful, and it has been 4 months dealing with them to get a rollover taken care of. Avoid this company at all costs.

If it had zero stars... it took vanguard 4 days to cash an IRA transfer check, AND took vanguard 29 days to credit that same cash to my IRA account at Vanguard - go elsewhere

Responding to a prior Vanguard that expressed my Vanguard experience, review expresses exactly what I have experienced "over the last two years. Vanguard's website is no longer user friendly and their customer service has gone downhill also. Vanguard is no longer the financial institution that was founded by John Bogel!" My retirement funds ara all in Vanguard and at my age it would be problematic to switch to another financial institution. VOTTOM LINE: Vanguard must be user friendly with customer service by phone and on their website!

Vanguard is refusing to pay out my 401k funds that they've had for the past 22 years. I have called them several times but nobody will send me the form I need to have the money sent to a new account.

They sent me a letter with all of my information on it such as my address and plan number, but when I call and they ask for the information, they say it's incorrect. So now they won't send me the blank form.

Worst customer service! If you plan on retiring start a year in advance! I was charged a 20.00 overnight fee, and my distribution sat on someone's desk for two days!

I cannot give them 2 stars. I've been with them over 40 years, have a good chunk of my lifetime savings there, and it has always been great until the last couple of years. Customers were FORCED to make changes that were against their best interest, while getting much less service. Customer service messages (no email) are poorly answered with a lack of understanding customer needs and an unwillingness to solve a problem. Their forced messaging system is not a full up email service, so messages are saved a few days and then deleted. Furthermore, my replies to them show nowhere. (No history or thread of correspondence). I've taken to copying the page image and saving each and every one...what a pain! I write very specific and clear messages to get some simple accounting information that has always been provided until recently, and their answer doesn't even match the question! I gave a representative a flaming review, rewrote my communication simply but detailed, and got the same representative back, this time with an even shorter and less useful response. I'm not asking for anything weird...just some basic accounting information that ANY financial institution provides. WTH? My account is so messed up from this stupid "settlement account" they made me move my money into. I've even asked if there is any other way to leave part of the settlement account in place and let me have a nice working account back. --No, certainly not.
I will say no one has been rude, but they are definitely incompetent. Maybe high school students on a month-long internship? No, wait, a motivated student would make more effort.
Vanguard: If you are trying to make more money for yourselves, see how that goes when you've run off all your customers.
As soon as I do my research and find a suitable place, I will be moving my assets and closing the accounts.
The dates of my bad experience with the company is a range of about 2 years.