First post to r/personalfinance, and I apologize for a bit of underlying rage that may come out below.
To start, I’ve done some research and it seems that both Vanguard and Fidelity have access to all the funds that I need, and I already have work retirement through Fidelity. I’ve stubbornly held on to additional accounts through Vanguard for three decades because of perceived best-in-class expense ratios, but I’m no longer sure this is the case.
The tipping point for me came yesterday, with an absolutely abysmal sequences of enraging Vanguard customer service calls. I needed assistance from a real person. Not only were the customer service agents hard to reach and nearly impossible to understand due to accents, but they actively steered me in what I now understand to be the wrong direction with a difficult custodial account issue. I’m beyond frustrated with them, and may rage quit and move all my accounts elsewhere. The customer service agents I spoke with have no clear view of customer-related processes, and lack any semblence of expertise in the products they support.
Are there any recovering former Vanguard customers that have found a new home? Is Fidelity or Schwab a better experience? FWIW, I’m generally invested in age-targeted mutual funds and other general index, large cap, S&P 500, tech, real estate, and bond funds that exist elsewhere. I don’t mind paying a slightly higher expense ratio to also gain decent customer service.
