Subject: Re: Buying Treasuries Via Vanguard

Obviously Vanguard has some quality ETFs and mutual funds and did a lot to bring down the expenses of funds. Other parts of Vanguard I never cared for and customer service is really bad. I'm someone who does most everything online and don't need hand holding so I rarely would call a broker but some things they don't always allow to be done online. In my case I hadn't had a Vanguard account in years. Previously I had a personal account but moved all of the money out of it a few years ago. And long ago a previous employer had a 401K plan there but that money was also transferred out a long time ago.

Anyhow my father had accounts there and my brother and I were 50/50 beneficiaries and I had a nightmare trying to get my share because they kept insisting on some security code I must have set up years ago. You would have thought they would have aged off the code since I closed out the accounts so long ago but they didn't. They sent me paperwork to get notified and fill out to remove the code which I did and got confirmation it was done except every time I called they refused to do anything w/o the code. After many frustrating calls, waiting for someone to pick up the line, etc. someone finally helped me but it was horrible. Every other company was much better.

I think most of Vanguard's business now is from people who opened accounts years ago and are too lazy to move them. I've found Fidelity, Schwab and TD Ameritrade (along with its acquisitions - Scottrade and ThinkOrSwim) to all be much better. I did have a ton of issues with InteractiveBrokers who seemed to make everything harder, even a change of address compared to everyone else.

YMMV
Rich