Vanguard Group Review

Lousy customer interface. Famous company but way behind the times when it comes to managing your own money there.

Due to an error on their part, I ended up homeless in Manila, Philippines for over a week until I had funds sent to me. I called Vanguard prior to me leaving the states and asked them if there was ANYTHING I needed to due to assure nothing would go wrong. They assured all was fine. Next thing, my account is frozen due to a tech error. When finally back home, I called Vanguard and there was ZERO empathy. Finally, I got a guy on the phone and he said, "NO this can be handled very easily. I will take care of it. You have to do nothing. The next day my account was unfrozen. Why would countless reps be so heavy handed that I was reduced to living on the streets in a foreign country due to not having access to my money and then with one phone call and one rep he correct the problem in two minutes!!!!!!!!! Amazing customer service.

Update 2: They now get 1 star instead of 2 after my sister discovered (and they confirmed) that they didn't even calculate the correct amount we were inheriting. Had she not caught it they'd be pocketing about $20,000. Don't do business here.

Update: They sent me the wrong form TWICE that I signed & returned. I only discovered this after calling yet again to find out why my account was finally opened but no money was in it. It will now take at least another 2 weeks and I was depending on the money for basic survival. I'm screwed. Great job, Vanguard, much appreciated.

I inherited an IRA with Vanguard from my Aunt and what should be a very simple process to transfer ownership has become a month long ordeal. After calling 5 times to begin with, and being told they still needed the death certificate which the attorney had already provided, I was told my identity couldn't be verified but was given no reason why. Because of this I couldn't sign anything online and had to print and mail my application. Now they're telling me they never received it when it was delivered by the post office a week ago. I was depending on this money to keep me from losing my home and thanks to Vanguard it's not going to happen. My sister received her half of the account 2 weeks ago. If I could afford the tax hit to move this money elsewhere I would. Also expect to be on hold for at least 15-25 min and to be transferred to different departments where you will hold for another 15-25 min everytime you call.

Great place to work with the best IT equipment and the brightest IT staff.

The customer services is so poor! Both Marsh and his supervisor Steven Civiller were trying to hold my funds hostage and even refuse to reset my online password.
I plan to move all my funds out of Vanguard to a safe place.

If you use a broker like a bank that doesn't pay interest this is good for you, otherwise if you want low fees and a website where you can access information about your holdings in REAL TIME , this is not for you!
With holdings equal to a 1/3 of the National debt you'd think they could upgrade the web app and website out of the 2005 "Web1.0" stages and join the rest of the world. Everybody does no fees now, and Yahoo has real time info for free, so why is it not here for you where you actually are a customer?
TD Ameritrade has a way to see everything about your position in one screen, No fees and they offer a free platform called Think or Swim for more serious traders!

I don't work for any brokerage, I'm just a guy with a few bucks who'd like to make some more, Vanguard helps you lose money by not having access to information..... Try another brokerage unless you just need a online Piggy Bank!