Vanguard

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.

Updated from 2 stars:
The last rep I spoke with was an absolute crouton.

Every time I try and contact them it takes forever to speak to someone. This is after providing the same info multiple times to the IVR system (robot voice).
Once I do, it starts with just an operator who then has to transfer me, causing even more wait time. Been waiting to speak to someone right now for 2 hours. And this isn't the first time.

If you're going to lack in the customer service dept, at least make your app/website more modern and user-friendly.
It shouldn't take a bunch of digging to figure out how do something as simple as edit a 401k contribution... The 'search' field on the website does not help at all.
Whenever I try and log into the retirement section of the website, it again, asks for my login details, then shoots me back to the investor center section of the website. Somehow I was able to access it today and got my issue resolved on my end while still waiting for customer service.

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.

Back in 2020 I changed my Vanguard account to a managed account and I have been paying them for 2 years to do absolutely nothing. After scheduling a couple of meetings, and making it clear that I was not happy with the way they were handling my account, I receive a letter stating that they will no longer charge me for managing my account. Why were they charging me in the first place? Not only did they not make any changes to the investments, even though I was losing a significant amount of money month after month, but they were also charging me as well. Well enough was enough. I moved all of my money from Vanguard to a more customer focused firm 2 weeks ago and I'm glad I did. In one of the meetings, and after losing 20% of my account, I asked them how much money they were going to watch me lose before they made any changes to the account. They said they would not make changes because they felt my investments were exactly the way they should be. Really? I have been extremely dissatisfied with Vanguard. By the way, I have had another IRA with another firm side by side with Vanguard, and the other account has done much better in this bad market.

My father had the upmost trust in this company and now that he has passed on, I find that they are as helpful, honest and polite as he said they were. They are happy to do a bit of hand-holding with me, as I figure out how best to manage my affairs. I could not recommend them more highly!

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!

Been with them for 18 years. Every single year, when we compare, we are reminded it was the very best choice we ever made. We like to have "some" say in our investments, not leave it 100% to a stranger, and we like to have someone to "hold our hand", at a very competitive fee. Vanguard does all that for us. Over time, we move more and more of our investments to VGD. Excellent.

Vanguard is in my mind the very best financial services company for 90% of Americans. The reason is that it's not a for-profit company owned by random equity holders, it is instead owned by its customers--that is if you buy shares in a Vanguard Fund instead of the profits from managing your money going to some equity holder on the NYSE, the profits go back into reducing your fees. For that reason, Vanguard index funds, and all products for that matter (ETFs, brokerage, IRA, Roth IRA etc.) are really the best deal around.

Vanguard really pushes you to look for information on their unorganized and multiple websites, or suffer for calling them. There should be a contact email or text chat option on the website at least. I was calling about an employer sponsored 401k and the wait time is not bad. But the reps that picked up kept transferring me to the individual investor accounts department. The wait times are long for individual accounts (over 20 minutes on a good day). There's a lack of communication between departments and they didn't listen to what I was calling about, only for a reason to transfer me away. I've called the correct number and was transferred, waited an hour, only to be transferred back. I've had to call Vanguard at least 10 times this past year, and they don't seem to document any information given during the calls. They also made me wait 2-3 weeks for mail, only for it to be sent to the wrong address even though I confirmed the address multiple times. The level of incompetence is astounding especially for such sensitive matters as transferring upon death.

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

When my Mother died, I contacted 4 financial organizations to start the process of settling her estate. Vanguard was by far the WORST experience.
1. I called 3 times and got 3 different sets of instruction what to do.
2. One of the agents gave incorrect tax-related information. Checked with a CPA and Vanguard was 100% wrong. Could have cost us a lot.
3. Called to clarify the conflicting information I was given. Put on hold for 22 minutes. I hung up and a called back to leave a message to have them call me back. Never got a callback.
4. They put a 7-10 day hold on the account for no reason. I was already an authorized trustee and should have had uninterrupted access to the funds.
5. The other 3 financial institutions sent a simple form to fill out and send back. It took 1-7 days to take care of business with them. Vanguard required a notarized signature and a several-page form. They also - in error - sent other forms that were not required. It's been 4 weeks already of back-and-forth, and still the business is not completed.

Summary: Extremely poor customer service. And they don't care. By all means - deal with Vanguard if you are looking for a financial institution that freely dispenses high stress and wastes your time.

Vanguard has the lowest fees of any broker or money manager. It's the best way to manage your savings and retirement accounts.

It seems that they are intentionally making it harder for traders to check buy/sell history and open orders for individual stock or etf.

The lowest fees of any investment firm I'm aware of.