Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

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tc101
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Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by tc101 »

We all know about the poor service at Vanguard. Long wait times and uneducated reps. I can live with that for now because I so rarely have to contact them.

How about actual errors, where they give you more or less money than they should in a transfer, exchange, dividend or anything else? I can not live with that. Are you seeing any actual money mistakes?
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dbr
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by dbr »

There was a thread here from someone who claimed that Vanguard was telling him they had no money for him on the grounds that he did not exist.

Well, maybe a bit garbled but you might find the thread somehow and see if there was an outcome. It was something about no one with that name being anywhere in their records or somesuch story.
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tc101
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by tc101 »

That's scary.
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livesoft
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by livesoft »

I'm not sure if this counts, but I have seen dividends paid twice by Vanguard to my non-Vanguard brokerage account where I hold Vanguard ETFs. When I asked my brokerage firm about this the response was quick both times: "Vanguard sent us the wrong information and when they corrected what they sent us, we corrected your account."
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furwut
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by furwut »

I just did a rollover from my 401k to IRAs and it wasn’t executed as directed. Called them and the rep had an attitude. I believe he recognized the transaction was botched but didn’t want to be the one to correct it. In the end it made little material difference so I decided to let it pass. But I sure hope my 1099s are in order next year!
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by eor »

When I rolled over my 401k to a a Vanguard IRA, they also deposited an additional amount that was not part of my rollover. So there were two transactions, one was my rollover and one was somebody else's I assume. I was checking daily looking for my rollover and called Vanguard as soon as I saw the additional deposit. They said they would check into it and get back to me. A day or two later they called back and thanked me for alerting them and removed the erroneous deposit. This was a few years ago.
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by mkc »

tc101 wrote: Wed Apr 14, 2021 10:56 am We all know about the poor service at Vanguard. Long wait times and uneducated reps. I can live with that for now because I so rarely have to contact them.

How about actual errors, where they give you more or less money than they should in a transfer, exchange, dividend or anything else? I can not live with that. Are you seeing any actual money mistakes?
How about this thread?

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=335665
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tc101
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by tc101 »

Read the other thread. That is awful.

I would transfer my Vanguard accounts to Schwab or Fido, except it would be a lot of trouble, and then maybe the company I transferred to would suddenly start having terrible service.
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by radiowave »

My DW had a monthly rollover check coming to her VG IRA. Last December I noticed a debit at our B&M bank which was linked to our VG taxable account. After some checking, I found the debit amount in my DW IRA?? We were able to get through on the phone and apparently the Nov check was mangled to the point where it could not be deposited so apparently someone in their back office linked our bank account to the IRA (unauthorized) and transferred the amount of the mangled check to the IRA. Wow. The CSR immediately unlinked the bank account and I asked she send the cash back to us. Well late Jan we still did not have any resolution and my wife spend two hours waiting on the phone to talk to someone and in the mean time VG lost the Dec rollover check.

I spent the month of Feb setting up new accounts at another brokerage and moving all VG accounts there. Lost all confidence in VG.
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tc101
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

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I spent the month of Feb setting up new accounts at another brokerage and moving all VG accounts there. Lost all confidence in VG.
What new brokerage did you use?
How much trouble was it to move all your VG accounts there?
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Gort
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by Gort »

tc101 wrote: Wed Apr 14, 2021 10:56 am We all know about the poor service at Vanguard. Long wait times and uneducated reps. I can live with that for now because I so rarely have to contact them.

How about actual errors, where they give you more or less money than they should in a transfer, exchange, dividend or anything else? I can not live with that. Are you seeing any actual money mistakes?
That hasn't been my experience. 20 years at Vanguard.
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tc101
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by tc101 »

That hasn't been my experience. 20 years at Vanguard.
I've been with them over 30 years. Service used to be much better but has really gone down in the past few years.
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mkc
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by mkc »

tc101 wrote: Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:49 pm
I spent the month of Feb setting up new accounts at another brokerage and moving all VG accounts there. Lost all confidence in VG.
What new brokerage did you use?
How much trouble was it to move all your VG accounts there?
I would imagine it's not much trouble to move *if* the funds can easily be transferred in kind, there aren't any Admiral-level fund investments, and the receiving brokerage doesn't charge significant transaction fees on VG funds.

We(I) struggle with this - we have not-insignificant unrealized cap gains in Wellington Admiral in taxable (long-held account) so that isn't terribly portable.
Last edited by mkc on Thu Apr 15, 2021 8:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
02nz
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by 02nz »

I documented my experience with a pretty egregious error by Vanguard here: viewtopic.php?t=261539
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Gort
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by Gort »

So....what are we supposed to do?
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Cheez-It Guy
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by Cheez-It Guy »

tc101 wrote: Wed Apr 14, 2021 4:58 pm Read the other thread. That is awful.

I would transfer my Vanguard accounts to Schwab or Fido, except it would be a lot of trouble, and then maybe the company I transferred to would suddenly start having terrible service.
Sure, move to Schwab, because they never make errors:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ty-account
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by Nowizard »

With huge companies the issue is what errors can you accept, not whether they will occur at times, just as exists with ourselves. Not ideal, and even more significant when involving our money. If a person needs or wants a significant degree of consultation, recommendations, etc., that is one reason for use of a financial analyst for those purposes and Vanguard for implementation.
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by Suntan1 »

My own experience :annoyed
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winski58
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by winski58 »

Vanguard transferred funds to my ALLY ROTH account on April 9. ALLY said transfer was rejected and funds were returned because of an incorrect account number. Verified that the account number is in fact correct after checking original Transfer Form. Called Vanguard and after waiting an hour, was told by the Rep.that they have not received the funds. ALLY stated that wire transfers are received in 1 day.
This is not my first issue with Vanguard.
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by grabiner »

I have had several problems, but they have been quickly corrected.

I converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, and state tax was withheld on the conversion, which I did not request. They redid the conversion a few days later with no withholding.

I donated 112 shares of an ETF to charity, and only 12 shares were transferred. I sent a secure message to Vanguard and the other 100 shares were donated two days later, and I sent a heads-up to the charity that the rest of my pledge would come soon. (Fortunately, the days were not December 31 and January 2, which would have pushed the deduction to the next year.)

I donated non-covered shares of an ETF using specific identification, as recorded on my form, and Vanguard updated my cost basis as if I were donating FIFO. This did not affect the deduction amount, but if the IRS ruled that I did not have adequate identification that I still held those shares, I would have had a lower cost basis if I sold the remainder.
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Re: Vanguard poor service vs actual errors

Post by sschoe2 »

So far I have had no issues.

I accept that companies make errors. As long as they acknowledge and fix them when notified I don't hold that against them. When they get arrogant and obstinate and refuse to do anything until you make a complaint to federal regulatory agencies like Bank of America then I refuse to do business with them.
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