I was flabbergasted that they had been trying to be a broker dealer for 12 years when I got there. I worked at Schwab as an institutional equity trader for approx 15 years and couldn't believe the ineptitude at Vanguard. I, at one point was told by my manager, to tell customers to go to Fidelity if they needed any sort of hand holding with their so called "state of the art computerized account system". (doesn't work BTW). I was also told that if a customer called and said they were handicapped (and couldn't use the computerized system) I was to ask them what their handicap was. The company was on a quest to get rid of their older clients who weren't computer savvy. When I pointed out that the older clients probably had the most money with Vanguard, I was shut down and labelled a trouble maker. I had a customer call in to say that they had been trying to have a $1,000,000.00 check deposited to their account for OVER 1 YEAR. I looked it up and sure enough it was true. But no divisions talk to each other! I tried for 2 months to get someone/anyone to listen to me and no one would. I have SERIOUS reservations about Vanguard. I would like to point out that they are going to be hit with the PAYPAL/HONEY scandal that is about to hit the fan. They are one of the 5 top major shareholders of PAYPAL/HONEY and IMHO the class action suit could cause major problems for them since they have absolutely no idea what they are doing over there! Its a good thing they aren't public so no one really knows what is going on behind the scenes. I knew who the head of Schwab was and met him when he would walk around..I couldn't tell you who my bosses boss was at Vanguard...
