I have been a Vanguard customer for almost 10 years. I opened an account with them after getting glowing recommendations from a trusted friend many years ago. In the past 10 years there have been several instances when I needed to make some kind of a special transaction or do something special and I think there was never once a time when I could say that their support was great, but I was always forgiving to them, always thinking that it is a highly reputed company. But now I have come to seriously question if Vanguard is a company that deserves your money. Here are some things that come to mind:

• Security: This is how secure Vanguard is
  

• Irritation: Whenever you will call their 800 number, the automated system will prompt you to enter your SSN and then the agent will ask you to repeat it again. I have given them feedback about this many times but they refuse to do anything about it. This is how much they value your feedback.
• Substandard Experience: Whenever I have to buy stocks of a foreign company, their website will not let me do it and I have no choice but to make a phone call. Every time I make a phone call, the agent tells me that in future I will be able to purchase the shares of the same company  through the website and every time its a lie. I have to keep calling them.
• Recharacterization Experience I: Most recently (and this is the experience that has driven me to write this blog post) I wanted to recharacterize a IRA contribution. I called them on a Saturday during their business hours. No one picked up the phone and I kept waiting. I tried another time on same day and the same thing happened. How dishonest – looks like they don’t even take calls on a Saturday but advertise that they have support available on Saturday. I don’t remember the exact number I called at now but do remember I am not dreaming about this experience and that I had double-checked the times when I called to make sure they are available.
• Recharacterization Experience II: In part II of my experience, I submitted a recharacterization request to Vanguard. Since they are complete morons and cannot do anything right, they made two recharacterizations.
• Recharacterization Experience III: So now I had to call them about it (and waste my time and blood pressure). The agent admitted that one of the transactions was faulty and shouldn’t be there. He apologized and told me Vanguard would take care of it.
• Imagine my shock when I logged into my account a few weeks later to find out that the transaction is still sitting there and has not been reversed. Again I have to call them. Again I have to enter my SSN twice. Again I have to waste my time (and time is money). And am not sure if they will fix it this time.

I definitely feel that Vanguard is a highly overrated company now. I don’t have much experience with other financial institutions but maybe its time to try them out.