Merrill Lynch Customer Service Complaints - page 3

Very poor, slow, non-existent customer service. Ridiculous fees and I'm still waiting on my check!

My son was killed in a car accident his body was in the grill of the truck I had to have him cremated immediately Maryland said I couldn't get any money out I had to wait till 10 days I couldn't because his body was destroyed so I had to borrow money and they won't give me my money that I have in this raggedy piss poor company, find somewhere else to put your money because they act like it's theirs, the customer service was horrible I was even called a rude b**** by Matthew, after my son was killed and not even recognizable but you know that's Merrill Lynch horrible company

This company is the 401K Company for my job. I was very uncomfortable with Bank of America being the parent company. I priority mailed in a rollover for $31,000 I kept checking to see if it posted 6 days later I called and asked why it hadn't posted? They said the check was sent back because of a distribution form. The top part of the rollover check. They never sent me an email saying that the check would be returned? I had moved their WEB site wouldn't let me change my address, but yet you can change your beneficiary? To find info on a roll over you have to dig for it on their WEB site
One of the most common transactions? Just strange. Very bad I really concerned about my retirement now.

Run away

This is the worst POS brokerage company in the world! I am forced to use them by my employer, Walmart.

In trying to withdraw 401K funds per new Covid-19 rules, they screwed up my funds which had been requested to be EFT'd directly to my bank account. Instead, they issued a paper check which would not arrive for up to 10 business days, then the local bank would most certainly put a 20 business day hold on the check due to the very large amount! RIDICULOUS!

I called immediately and was assured that it was their error and that they would stop payment the check and issue the EFT instead. I confirmed 10 times, that this would go smoothly and would require nothing on my part to do so. The agent assured me repeatedly that this was correct. He lied.

Two days later, on a Friday at 3:30 in the afternoon, another agent called, a Spanish speaker that barely spoke English by the way, and he informed me that I would now be required to submit an Affidavit of Non-Receipt for the check which I never requested in the first place, and did not have. The agent was going to email me the form. When I asked if I could email it back, he stated no, they had to have the original NOTARIZED document! WTH?!?

So, like a lunatic, on late Friday afternoon, I was forced to race back from being out of town 125 miles, to my home to print out the form, then to call one of my banks to find a Notary that was there and willing to certify my document, and then at 5:30pm, race to the bank, to be serviced in their parking lot, to get this document notarized!

Then I had to race over to the UPS store to overnight mail the document at a cost of $39 for something that was not my fault in the first place!

Fast forward to Monday afternoon. I verified that the overnight letter had been received at 9:15am at Merrill Lynch to their specified department and I tried to call to verify receipt and that it was being acted upon.

Now, I had specifically asked for the agent's phone number from the agent who sent me this form in the first place. Again, he lied! The phone number did not work, and there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY WHATSOEVER to enter an extension in the Merrill Lynch POS phone answering computer system! After searching the internet, and trying about half a dozen phone numbers to no avail, I finally got a person on the phone who's only answer was "I don't know", but after placing me on hold twice for over 10 minutes, he came back to tell me that he couldn't reach the original agent. Then, magically, he said he could and put me on hold again. 10 minutes later, he came back to tell me that he couldn't get the original agent again.

I informed him that this was beyond unprofessional. I also told him that I had received an email response from Merrill Lynch, because I had tried to email the original agent at the return email address showing on the email with the Affidavit. The return email stated this ridiculous BS answer,

"Thank you for your Merrill Lynch inquiry. Due to security restrictions, we cannot accept account specific inquiries via email. If you have any further questions regarding the status of your account, then please contact the Merrill Lynch Participant Service Center by using the telephone number listed on your quarterly statement."

This new agent then told me that he was going to email the original agent and have him call me today.

I'M SURE THIS IS YET ANOTHER LIE! We will see.

Nevertheless, anybody who reads this can see what a collection of buffoons and incompetents this company is. Naturally, it's a Bank of America subsidiary now and B of A sucks eggs for sure. I would never bank with them for any reason.

So, unless you absolutely have to, I WOULD NEVER EVER USE MERILL LYNCH for anything. THEY STINK!

Last August I rolled over a small 401k account I had with Merrill Lynch to an IRA I have with another company. Now eight months later I receive a statement from Merrill Lynch showing I have a balance of 11 cents. Called multiple times before I could get through to a customer service rep. He could not really explain how I suddenly have a balance on an account that has been closed since last August. He suggested we roll the balance over to my IRA again. I told him just to leave it alone. Merrill Lynch will spend many times that amount just mailing me statements. How do these guys stay in business?

I opened Roth IRA at the end of the February. They closed the account without notifying me in a two weeks. Also, they charged federal tax and servicing fee despite there wasn't any service. Is it even legal to withhold taxes and other fees from the account they voluntarily closed with no reason? I called numerous times, no one could give me reasonable explanation on what happened. Customer service people are incompetent and rude. I was never cheated like that before by no financial institution. I feel like i live in some third world country where crooked thief can do anything with people who trusted him with the money. What a shame!

I tried to transfer money from my checking account to brokerage so I can trade. However, first they blocked my account, telling to call to update my information. Then my wife had to call. They said it will complete within 24 hours. 24 hours later, I tried to access my account, it's still blocked. I called many many times, and all they said is it will be done. It's been a few days now, I still can't access my account. They dont allow me to access my own money. Worst customer service ever.

merril edge is one of the worst company dealing with stock market trade for customers. today corona virus messed up stock market. i got some marjin calls i sold lot of stock and i told them it is a dangerous time give me some consideration the market will come back few days, if we sell all the stock then the market come back we dont get any benifits , i thought they going to help me i have this account for 15 years. but they messed up my whole a/c by selling so many stocks. i just want to let the customers know how this people deal with customers. i have charles swab abd ameritrade i have marjin call , they told me they give me some time to recovers the market. it is for last 2 weeks. merriledge wait 3 days to sell the stock. they dont give any time after 3 days. Please understand these people are very bad, just looking for thier money only, not our money. please never use thier a/c also putting money in to bank of america also dont get any intrest. they charge 25% for our credit card, but for 25000 we deposit we dont get 10 dollar for the whole year. think about that. thnaks

I tried to get help with my husbands IRA rollover account from another company. I had POA documents and I wanted to transfer the IRA account to Merrill Lynch. For months I got the run around from one of their Vice President Advisors. The staff was extremely rude and it was hard to get through to the advisor. I ended up going to another financial institution.

Totally incompetent and not trained to perform a single task of closing the retirement account. It's been 6 weeks since I had tried to liquidate my retirement account, more than a dozen calls, one visit to my local Bank of America/ Merrill Lynch Branch and still no check. Every time I talk to a different "specialist" I get a different answer. They already collected their commission to close the account but I still have not received my money. Their practice should be investigated.

very bad financial firm. they refused to transfer my money out, as I wanted to close out my account.

I am the executor of my deceased brother's estate. He had a retirement account with Merrill Edge, with four designated beneficiaries. An attorney faxed them the necessary documents (an Affidavit of Domicile) confirming his death and my position. In order to receive the payment to beneficiary, each was required to complete a Beneficiary Distribution form, but in order to receive that form, they were required to have telephone contact with a Merrill Edge representative, supposedly to verify their identity. However, this was not the real purpose; the real purpose of the calls was to pitch opening a Merrill account with the distribution. Certainly any real need for identity verification would have simply required a notarized signature. One of the beneficiaries has some age and health related problems with memory and unable to successfully complete the phone call. Meanwhile, all beneficiaries were unable to claim payment. Every one of my calls (now at least six calls) to Merrill to resolve this has resulted in me speaking with someone new and different every time, and required a three hour car trip to assist this person in completing the form...only to discover a phone call was still necessary to "verify". Again, this provides no verification, a notarized signature would accomplish that, but I am stuck still trying to arrange this phone call from three hours away, a call that is extremely stressful, and extremely difficult to understand, to this beneficiary. To place this stress upon grieving relatives just to make that additional sales call is a horrible tactic, but certainly has enlightened me to Merrill's way of doing business. I would advise one to invest their money at the nearest casino than to place a dime in the hands of Merrill Edge.

Merrill Lynch closed my husband's retirement account with Walmart on April 23, 2019 when we contacted them about a rollover. Since that time they said they sent the check to our bank and another with taxes that had been held out in error. Miraculously neither of those checks sent on different dates ever arrived. Six phone calls later and one with a promise to overnight the checks and nothing. The last operator said he would do his best to get them sent but not overnight because the amount of the check didn't warrant it.

Merrill Lynch has been using $313,000.00 of our money for three months and refuse to give it to us.

Merrill has prevented me from using funds in my IRA account to purchase stocks within Merrill Edge. I sold some stocks and tried to purchase more the next day. After purchasing just one stock, my account was locked because I had not waited 2 days between trades (something they don't tell you is against their rules). Further, they imposed a 90-day lockout penalty since I had "violated their rules" with the next day trade. They said if I would deposit $3800 more in my account, they would consider lifting the 90-day penalty. In effect, they are making money off my account for 90 days and I get nothing, tantamount to account hostage piracy.
Please be warned that Merrill Edge is not a safe place for your IRA or investments, since they will come up with some scheme to cheat you out of your returns.

Merrill Lynch has effectively stolen my account worth millions of dollars. They refuse to respond to fraud complaints. It's as simple as looking at the documentation in the account to determine that the activity on the account isn't supported. However, they refuse to acknowledge the existence of the account without a court order. I was lied to for over two weeks and told that having a police officer present would be enough to initiate an investigation. Now, branch managers are refusing to cooperate with law enforcement and holding my bank account hostage. This is criminal and just plain immoral. As soon as this is cleared up I plan to take my money elsewhere, I encourage all BoA and Merrill Lynch customers to do likewise.

wanted to roll out my 401k.... after 11 years of employment, they still had me not vested. fixed it. then they didn't agree with my hire date (of 11 years prior). fixed it. then rolled out.... checked balance the next day, to my surprise, not zero! they claim a dividend came in after I rolled the account and to get the money, I have to pay another transaction fee. Yes, they suck.

The most incompetent, unorganized company I have ever dealt with. It has taken me almost 3 months to draw MY retirement funds out of Merrill Lynch...talked to 4 different people, told me I would have it by October 1st, then November 1st, and now not until the end of November. Now my attorney will be sending a letter to them and demanding the check be cut no later than November 21st or I wind up in their office to collect it.

Negative 5K. New company auto-enrolled me in ML plan w/o a by-your-leave, which is in my book Identity Fraud and Theft. Called ML to cancel, male rep named Christian refused to cancel my illegally obtained account because I wouldn't listen to his script about how wonderful an account with them was. REFUSED. Can't find corporate contact info; this company needs to find a legally tenable model of obtaining business and had better train their people to CANCEL ACCOUNTS UPON REQUEST PERIOD.

Beware - Merrrill Edge Charges Exit Fee

After having my account at Merrill Edge for eleven years, I moved it to another brokerage. They charged me an exit fee of $49.95. This is unusual at a brokerage. Be aware of the fee before you open an account. They will charge you to close it.

Your customer service is the worst I have ever seen in my life. the people that work there are completely incompetent and are probably mentally handicapped and do not have the brains or intellectual capacity to do their jobs. Please fire everyone there and hire new and competent intelligent people who know how to do their jobs. This company is a total and complete disgrace you should all be ashamed of yourselves and the lives that you live.

You have a financial advisory group in Melville, NY whose license should be revoked. The Sheer/Provenz group managed my account while at UBS several years ago. They not only sold me bogus securities, they churned my account and caused the loss of all of my tax relief when they skipped over to Morgan Stanley. To make matters worse, they abandoned any possible opportunities of making this right. I can only assume they ran into trouble at MS and had to find a home at Merrill Lynch. Frankly, being a lifelong B of A customer and Merrill stock plan participant, I would have expected more.

My experience with them makes me wonder what kind of vetting ML does when recruiting their advisors.

They have cheated my son and I will continue to pursue complaints against merrill lynch and merrill edge until they return the charges that they lied about. As an accountant, I know Merrill Lynch used to be a good name, now their
customer service lies and lies and charges even when they say no charge.
Merrill you can't survive doing business like this.

Steer far clear of Merrill Lynch! 99% of their customer "service" representatives are incompetent and have no clue - and they couldn't care less.

Below a commenter says that Merrill claims "they could no longer have overseas holders of accounts". This is lying BS on their part. They sure can have overseas holders (just ask the SEC), but they just don't want to.

I have been trying to open a trust account for two weeks. After completing the paper work to deposit over $300,000 they now must go thru an approval process. YUK