Merrill Lynch Reviews 146

HORRIBLE!!! Ask 9 questions with robot to Identify you then ask 6 questions to verify you AGAIN.20 minutes on hold to tell me they did NOT send a check they promised was in the mail 21 days ago. Which is why I am closing my account.

Broker made mistakes every time I requested a distribution from my IRA, either sending too little or too much. Calls to customer service were endless, most of the time I was passed on to 2 or 3 people. Once I was told to call an office that had already closed for the day. Lost 1/4 of my dad’s investments in 6 months. Don’t trust them with your money.

I’ve been with other brokerages, and I have to say, Merrill Lynch is one of the worst I have ever conducted business with. My decision to transfer my accounts over to Merrill Lynch was being a Bank of America customer and wanted everything under one platform. I have only had this accounts open for 7-8 months and it’s been one nightmare after another trying to transfer money from one institution over to Merrill. In addition, I have never seen so many advisers who cannot assist you, or return phone calls, reply back to emails, simple customer service skills, and good luck speaking to a manager. Even when you provide poor surveys and comments on the Merrill website, a manager will not speak with you. Which explains the reps…seeing managers set the tone for the office.
I believe the real problem here is 3 items:
1) this back office processing department which all transactions go through. This is the most irresponsible department. I don’t even think they could wash dishes if they were asked to.
2) an old Bank Of America system (Edge),
3) Poor leadership.

Also, when you cash/trade stocks, it takes the 4 days to settle in your account(s).
My husband clearly was the smarter one. He had me move my accounts over to Merrill (he was skeptical of Merrill). After watching the circus he is happy he stayed with Fidelity.

Tried to send my check twice. Wrong street and no unit number TWICE!!!
Can’t even talk to a person to fix it.

I was trying to book a hotel in St Tropez for August holiday and my CMA debit Visa card was declined. Phoned up Merrill 6 times in the course of 2 hours and NOBODY could help me???? Reduced me to tears and lost room. Merrill is from HELL Taking my money elsewhere

Merrill Lynch cannot get its algorithms correct. If you buy or sell a stock during the day they cannot recalculate your unit cost. They also fumbled a split penny stock for me costing me $70,000. They also advertise 24/7 customer service but what they have is people answering 24 hours a day to tell a person that you can't get a hold of anyone until 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. only between those hours that's not 24-hour customer service that's bull

They have the worst customer service I have ever experienced. It's not that the reps who answer the phone aren't good---they're actually great. They're polite and try to be helpful and seem to know what they're talking about when you speak to them. But there is absolutely no follow through from the people who are supposed to take care of your account. And their answer to any problem is that you should just keep calling back and hand-holding them to make sure they're doing their job. So you end up talking to nice telephone person after nice telephone person who can't DO anything except send messages to the people who can get things done. But there is no follow-through or accountability as far as the invisible people you can't talk to who are responsible for taking care of your account. I had equally frustrating issues when I used their parent company Bank of America. I will never bank with either company again.

The branch in Manhattan Beach, CA is the worst. I went in for some investment options and the VP acted disinterested as if she has better things to do. VP is more like a CLERK there pushing papers, this is what I observed during my experience . Alsonot knowledgable about investments!! Wasted my time. I will pull my money out of Merrill and invest it at Goldman. Further noone picks up the phone at Merrill. I hope they get investigated for their unprofesiionalism and get replaced by incompetent staff. ZERO rating for Manhattan Beach, CA branch!!!

Horrible customer service when you try to call them. People at the actual physical branches are nothing short of helpful, but it's the higher ups on the phone whom I can't deal with. I banked with Bank of America for over a decade and made the mistake of trusting Merrill with my IRA money. When I decided to change banks, Merrill reps on the phone gave me nothing but trouble. I was trying to roll over my funds to my IRA accounts with my new bank. Runarounds and excuses for 6 months before I finally threw in the towel and told them to just withdraw the funds and make the check in my name. Just got the check today. It's finally over, and I'm never banking with Bank of America or Merrill ever again, and I make sure to warn others as well before they make the same mistake.

Edit: April 3rd 2023
I went to the bank today to deposit said check from Merrill, only to learn that I will get taxed on it because I can't do 2 rollovers in 12 months, but if I wait 60 days for deposit, I will still not be in the alloted time frame. Which means I will still get taxed either way. STAY FAR FAR AWAY from Merrill. They are nothing but money hungry crooks who will spite you for not wanting to invest with them anymore. I'm already having other unrelated problems in my life and for a company that checks off all the boxes for being so tolerant and accepting, they sure do have a way of wreaking havoc on someone's mental state. Thanks Merrill...

If I could give minus 5 I would.
Dealt with by a very rude and obnoxious lady Sara Hasan who works in higher management within the organisation.
She was very unhelpful and would not listen to reason!!
I have also made a complaint to bank directly but have no faith it will be resolved.

My father had a retirement account with these guys (terrible mistake on his part). After his passing I contacted merrill with all the probate and estate documents to release funds to the appropriate people. It has taken nearly 2 years of wrestling with them to get these funds. Today they contacted me explaining they sent the wrong forms and we have to restart the whole process. These guys are a joke and if you want to save your love ones a giant headache, DO NOT BANK WITH THEM!!! It blows my mind that these guys know how to ties their own shoes, let alone manage your money.

Merrill Lynch investments office fails to respond. What are my rights as being an investor with Merrill Lynch?

It seems this brokerage firm, Merrill Lynch of Toms River NJ , Hopper Ave office, only wants an account if you only actively trade! I am a senior with fixed income investments. My question is: Do I have the right to take my account where I choose? My ML brokers recently left the merrill Lynch to go to Morgan Stanley. My account was in NY and I thought it best to bring it to a local office. I live in Toms river NJ. I am set in my investments, only trade several times a year and dont want to actively trade. I do buy and sell several times a year and need some assistance. So far for two weeks now, I have contacted this office four times, and not received a return phone call, after promises of the same! I assume they don't want my account since, I am not an active trader, and the brokers in this office, wont make enough money in commissions from my account. First, this is disrespectful and rude, and very unprofessional. At this point , since they cant even return my call, do I want them handling my money? I am a senior and feel I have rights do do business where I please. I feeI am being discriminated against! do I have legal rights as a consumer? I will proceed with filing a complaint.

Worst investing company that you can ever deal with and very poor communications and never send anything in writing
My wife borrowed 30k from her 401k plan to renovate our home, it is supposed to be deducted on weekly basis from her payroll over a period of 5 years

Last year, my wife did not work many hours and they told my wife that in order not to be taxed on the remaining amounts, she needs to send the short payments in the amount of $ 1793.82 and they requested a cashier check, my wife sent 2000 dollar, they rejected it, and they said it needs to be the exact amount and not over payment
My wife then went back to the bank and got another cashier check for the exact amount of $ 1793.82 and talked to someone else and they assured her that they received the checks and we won’t be taxed

They also rejected the exact amount again and now we are told that we must pay the full amount

Honestly no one knows in their staff what the hell is going on, there is no supervisor to be found

All companies maybe the same but this one tops them

My advise is not to deal with these incompetent company and save yourself the headache

I have been trying to help my mother-in-law get her account into her trust-I live 5 hours away. I can't begin to tell you how frustrating the whole experience has been. Because she has an advisor at some 800 number they state that she can't do anything in the local branch. The advisor is never available when called. She is in her 80s, does not have internet access and she needs someone to sit with her and help guide her in filling out the forms. They tell us this isn't an option for her because she has an advisor. They sent her a bunch of forms to complete and she is overwhelmed. So ridiculous!
I personally deal with Charles Schwab and they are always very helpful and I can go in a local branch if I need any help.
Run, do not walk, from this company. They need to close up shop until they can get their customer service act together.

I have been banking with Bank of America for many years, so when I decided to roll over my 401k, I signed up with Merrill Lynch (owned by BOA). That was a mistake, and I will never use this company again. 1) Impossible to reach. You will be put on hold for 1hr or longer each time you call. 2) They pay your cash position the worst possible rate. I had my account with them for 3 years. Due to a surgery, I did not check the account balance for a while. I have a IRA with Fidelity which pays normal market interest for cash positions, I have 3 times more funds in Merrill, and in 3 years time, they only paid $8 for my funds, which means Merrill scammed about $4,000 in interest alone. 3) I decided to get all my funds transferred to fidelity. I filed the first request, it took Merrill 20 days to tell me they declined the transfer, so I filed another request. This time, they charged me $49.95 to transfer my funds to fidelity, which I was not made aware when I signed up for the account. I was told because I am a platinum honor client with BOA, they will waive many fees, but that is not case. 4) Merrill has one of the worst investment selection around. Their IRA does not allow reverse ETFs or options. You basically can only buy, usually at the worst prices possible, without any risk management tools to protect your investments. I will NEVER used Merrill again, worst investment experience.

I have a pension plan with Merrill Lynch and I'm trying to get them to take additional federal tax deduction out.this is impossible with these people.sent in about six w forms they just keep sending them back with yellow marker I fill in or change what they ask to no avail.i call up because they won't let you in the building where they work in Pennington NJ and actually talk to someone and I ask tell me what's wrong with the form I sent in your looking right at it on your screen .no luck gave up on these people wouldn't recommend them to anyone

Horrendous customer service via phone. Hang ups and crazy extended wait times. F-ing suck!

Terrible experience. Would avoid this a company if you can. I have lost money due to their utter incompetence. Would strongly suggest finding an alternative. Not worth the stress.

Absolutely terrible and unprofessional. Trying to transfer my dad's IRA after passing, passed around to no fewer than 13 people. Today, I got hung up on twice, called back, and used the option of a callback (they never did), and now someone answered and took my information and put me on hold. THIRTY MINUTES she still hasn't come back. They also told me to transfer the IRA I would need to open an Inherited IRA. It specifically asked me for my name (MUST) AS IT APPEARS on my social security card. This was my birth name. Which I did without having another line to include my married name (which is also the beneficiary name). Then they tell me it doesn't match. Still on hold - rep NEVER came back and weeks without resolve.