How do you perceive your investment advisor and customer service??

[Lynnie]

....with the most recent and current market?

Just curious because this is so relationship driven. I had one advisor calling me early last year with great advice - none others, though.

One advisor wouldn't even return phone calls last October. What do you do? Change advisors? Move your accounts? Probably a swift, yet normal attrition occurring right now.

Again, just curious~~~~~~~~


Ripped Embarq and American Express a new one yesterday and just received incredibly outstanding service today at Best Buy.....they are still standing and intent on customer service right now. I do believe going the extra mile for a customer/client will speak mountains and those are the ones who will survive in a much stronger capacity through this mess.

Just my $0.03 - inflation, doncha know.

 

[TooFarTampa]

I agree with customer service -- it's going to make or break a lot of folks. And I am definitely trying to target my spending to help keep my favorite businesses afloat.

As for the investment advisors, I have to post what happened last week (since you asked ... ). My IRA has been with a certain brokerage that received bailout money and uses a bull in its ads. :roll: We had an advisor who moved to Morgan Stanley. I wasn't sure whether it was worth moving with the advisor and thought it might be time to switch it to Vanguard, where I would have more immediate control and fewer expenses.

I let it sit for a couple of months. Then last week I get a notice that the brokerage had taken fully 1/4 of my account, which was in a money market fund, and bought me a fixed income fund! I found the guy who "inherited" my account and he admitted that no, he had never talked to me, no, he doesn't know my needs and no, he did not have my permission to do anything with my account, but he did anyway.

Unbelievable ... obviously he was trying to illegally make a buck and just hoped that I wouldn't notice. He is a young punk who graduated from college in 2004, and after ripping HIM a new one I totally ratted him out in a scathing letter to the branch manager. I hope he was fired but probably not. There are desperate people out there! Caveat investor!!

 

[Miss Kitty]

I give Mr. K little input about investing, some, but not a lot....mostly because I don't know much about no stocks....stockings, yes. I did tell him to buy gold.

But, our ML (this was a newer account) guy called Mr. K a couple of months ago and told him...SELL SELL...the market is going down to 5,000. I was astounded!

TFT...YIKES!

 

[Lynnie]

I agree with customer service -- it's going to make or break a lot of folks. And I am definitely trying to target my spending to help keep my favorite businesses afloat.

As for the investment advisors, I have to post what happened last week (since you asked ... ). My IRA has been with a certain brokerage that received bailout money and uses a bull in its ads. :roll: We had an advisor who moved to Morgan Stanley. I wasn't sure whether it was worth moving with the advisor and thought it might be time to switch it to Vanguard, where I would have more immediate control and fewer expenses.

I let it sit for a couple of months. Then last week I get a notice that the brokerage had taken fully 1/4 of my account, which was in a money market fund, and bought me a fixed income fund! I found the guy who "inherited" my account and he admitted that no, he had never talked to me, no, he doesn't know my needs and no, he did not have my permission to do anything with my account, but he did anyway.

Unbelievable ... obviously he was trying to illegally make a buck and just hoped that I wouldn't notice. He is a young punk who graduated from college in 2004, and after ripping HIM a new one I totally ratted him out in a scathing letter to the branch manager. I hope he was fired but probably not. There are desperate people out there! Caveat investor!!

Unethical? Yes. Fraud? Not if you have signed the paperwork for them to trade in your accounts - not sure about the money market account, though.

But, ratting him out - priceless.

American Express does this thing: if you carry a balance even for as little as 30 days, they charge you 'residual interest.' Yep, that's what they called it. I paid the account off and sure enough I get a bill for pennies, but nonetheless, I just paid it to zero. Girl tells me it was the interest accrued on the avg. daily balance! WT~~~~ I need to speak with a supervisor. Am told this 'residual interest' can be charged for up to 60 days and we agreed to it if we didn't dispute when they sent the notices out. I told supervisor that I smell a class action suit with the way they are treating people right now. She credited it back and told me if other finance charges appear on my account, they will credit that as well.

Embarq just has their own set of issues. I am crazy right now spending this kind of time on the phone with service providers - 1 hr. with Embarq yesterday to result in terminating my service.....they have strange charges that suddenly appear on your bill. :shock:

 

[Camellia]

wow

 

[TooFarTampa]

Unethical? Yes. Fraud? Not if you have signed the paperwork for them to trade in your accounts - not sure about the money market account, though.

I'm pretty sure it was illegal. Unless every account with a broker is a "discretionary" account -- because I know I would never have allowed a broker that kind of freedom. My previous broker always was a stickler about having us sign things and not using email to ask him to buy or sell something on our behalf.

Another clue was that the punk was falling all over himself to apologize. :roll: In the end, they reversed the trade and Vanguard is now in the process of getting my money -- but it sure was an eye opener!

American Express does this thing: if you carry a balance even for as little as 30 days, they charge you 'residual interest.' Yep, that's what they called it. I paid the account off and sure enough I get a bill for pennies, but nonetheless, I just paid it to zero. Girl tells me it was the interest accrued on the avg. daily balance! WT~~~~ I need to speak with a supervisor. Am told this 'residual interest' can be charged for up to 60 days and we agreed to it if we didn't dispute when they sent the notices out. I told supervisor that I smell a class action suit with the way they are treating people right now. She credited it back and told me if other finance charges appear on my account, they will credit that as well.

Amex is in big trouble and not doing themselves any favors by upping their fees. They should want their good customers to be loyal. Duh!

 

[scooterbug44]

I am quite happy with my broker, my bank, and the majority of companies I do business with. Guess how many of the businesses I like are small companies where I am on a first name basis with the people I am doing business with and how many I dislike are big companies that I haven't found an alternate for yet?

I refuse to put up with the crap mega-corporations like to dish out and have consistently chosen to go with the people/companies who provide me with good service - not the ones who are necessarily the cheapest. Treat me poorly and nickel and dime me on fees and I WILL take my business elsewhere.

TFT - I smell a rat - nobody does anything with my money without my EXPRESS instructions and a paper trail - they can (and do) make recommendations and suggest things, but I HAVE TO GIVE THE OK. Some new guy deciding to invest 1/4 of your money - his arse is in trouble.

 

[Linda]

I give Mr. K little input about investing, some, but not a lot....mostly because I don't know much about no stocks....stockings, yes. I did tell him to buy gold.

But, our ML (this was a newer account) guy called Mr. K a couple of months ago and told him...SELL SELL...the market is going down to 5,000. I was astounded!

TFT...YIKES!

I told my husband about a month ago that I thought we should buy gold. As usual he did not listen to me ;-) We have not sold any stocks nor have we been buying. At this point we will just tough it out and wait for our bail out.

 

[30A Skunkape]

....with the most recent and current market?

Just curious because this is so relationship driven. I had one advisor calling me early last year with great advice - none others, though.

One advisor wouldn't even return phone calls last October. What do you do? Change advisors? Move your accounts? Probably a swift, yet normal attrition occurring right now.

Again, just curious~~~~~~~~


Ripped Embarq and American Express a new one yesterday and just received incredibly outstanding service today at Best Buy.....they are still standing and intent on customer service right now. I do believe going the extra mile for a customer/client will speak mountains and those are the ones who will survive in a much stronger capacity through this mess.

Just my $0.03 - inflation, doncha know.

I love my advisor.

 

[EmbarqJoey]

Unethical? Yes. Fraud? Not if you have signed the paperwork for them to trade in your accounts - not sure about the money market account, though.

But, ratting him out - priceless.

American Express does this thing: if you carry a balance even for as little as 30 days, they charge you 'residual interest.' Yep, that's what they called it. I paid the account off and sure enough I get a bill for pennies, but nonetheless, I just paid it to zero. Girl tells me it was the interest accrued on the avg. daily balance! WT~~~~ I need to speak with a supervisor. Am told this 'residual interest' can be charged for up to 60 days and we agreed to it if we didn't dispute when they sent the notices out. I told supervisor that I smell a class action suit with the way they are treating people right now. She credited it back and told me if other finance charges appear on my account, they will credit that as well.

Embarq just has their own set of issues. I am crazy right now spending this kind of time on the phone with service providers - 1 hr. with Embarq yesterday to result in terminating my service.....they have strange charges that suddenly appear on your bill. :shock:

Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with Embarq. Can I help? Might be too late, but I would be more than happy to investigate whatever issues you are having/had. If you need to verify my identity, check out my Twitter page, Twitter / EMBARQ_Joey.

Thanks,

Joey H.
Embarq Customer Outreach
reachout@embarq.com