Having recently dealt with some of the same customer service issues at both Vanguard and Fidelity, I can make these recommendations with confidence:
1) Keep your money at Vanguard.
2) If you’ve made the unfortunate mistake of keeping some of your money at Fidelity and you ever need customer service, and if your customer service representative turns out to be named Cameron Marcil, hang up immediately and try again.
I appreciate that you are frustrated. But using your internet presence to name and shame a specific individual is inappropriate.
Nick (#1): Why?
I’m more surprised that either (1) the customer service reps give out their full name at the beginning of a call (and you remembered it), or (2) that after what was presumably a contentious exchange, you asked for his first and last name and he gave it to you
If I may speak for Nick (as I agree with him) it’s petty and unproductive. You haven’t even given context to why this person deserves this sort of condemnation.
Steve Landsburg (#2):
By publicly listing his name, you are turning a customer service encounter that you found unpleasant and unhelpful into a permanent black mark on his internet record for future employers.
He may very well deserve this, or he may not. He may have had one bad day, or have been constrained by his employer in how helpful he could be. Like everyone, he deserves to have his professional behavior evaluated impartially, and in a fact-based manner.
In his professional capacity, he represents the company he works for. Your issue is with them, not him. If they have hired poorly, or failed to train, then it is they who have failed you.
Finally, my guess is that you haven’t worked in a customer-facing role ever, or for a long while. What that experience teaches is this: It’s generally a demoralizing job, in which you have to endlessly deal with angry, unhappy, vindictive customers. It’s not generally well-paid, and you are limited in your ability to help the people you work with by the shortcomings of the organization you work for.
You, on the other hand, work as a tenured professor of economics, one of the more rewarding jobs there is. You have a national platform and are a well-published author. Using that platform and position of relative privilege to punish customer service agents is ‘punching down’.
Bravo, Nick. Well done.
I have occasionally, like everyone else, sometimes received service that has been much less than ideal – but I don’t think identifying them publically is the right approach. The only exception that I think I could make is if they were fraudulent and it may be appropriate to out them to stop them from scamming other people.
AFarnbach (#7): Why is it appropriate to stop them from scamming other people but not appropriate to stop them from wasting other people’s time? I can think of plenty of situations in which I’d rather be sccammed than have my time wasted.
What Nick said. Just edit your post to take down the name. Your future self will thank you.
And I love Vanguard too.
I too had trouble with Fidelity. After I retired from Notre Dame, unrequested by me my ND account was switched from TIAA (100% stocks) to Fidelity 50% stocks. I check this exactly once/year. It took me time to get the allocation switched back and then months and months to get the account all back in TIAA.
Definitely agree with Nick. Delete this and your future self will thank you. Extremely petty and more self-humiliating than you seem to realize.
Hi Steve (#8) – While I understand your point regarding wasting time, most people under most *normal circumstances* wouldn’t deem it to be criminal or unethical at the same level as scamming.
AFarnbach (#12): True. But in most normal circumstances, when I’m deciding whether to warn someone about a hazard, I don’t consider it relevant whether the source of that hazard is criminal or unethical. I’m sure I’ve been known to say “You’re getting awfully close to the edge of that cliff” without being deterred by the fact that the cliff is not a criminal.
Lack of competition tends to correlate with bad customer service (e.g. comcast)
Vanguard and Fidelity are somewhat in between. I had good experience with both. Some people are stuck with these firms because of their 401Ks. Most firms don’t allow any choice and put in all sorts of restrictions on investments that favor the investment manager. These restriction made no sense to me. I don’t understand why companies are letting the money managers run the show.
And like as everyone said, you should remove the name. It’s not cool and makes you look bad.
It depends. The key point here is that the opposing side consists of two parties, the company and their representative. If the representative is only following orders, then your complaint is about the employer and he shouldn’t be named. If not, then you can name and shame him if you want, or you can complain to his employer. I think it’s better to complain to the employer first to allow them the chance to fix things. And if they don’t, then your complaint is back to being with them.
It’s like with war crimes. If the soldier was carrying out orders, he isn’t guilty of war crimes — the person who gave the order is. But if he goes beyond his orders, then he should be tried by his commander (court martial). Failing that, if he’s captured by the enemy, he could be tried by them.
I am currently listening to “American Default”, which recounts the story of when president Roosevelt abrogated gold clauses in all contracts an in relation to treasuries, and then devalued the dollar.
https://www.amazon.com/American-Default-Untold-Supreme-Battle/dp/B07F7MRPYH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535901396&sr=8-1&keywords=american+default
The US defaulted on its debt, much like Argentina did 75 years later. Yet virtually nobody remembers it. Highly fascinating.
If there’s a takeaway it’s that I learned Steve is a flesh and blood human being :-)
I’ve long admired the way Steve can take the emotion out any topic and facilitate a fruitful discussion among diverse parties. Like the late great Charles Krauthammer he is a master of both logic and the written word. So much so I sometimes wondered what ran through his veins and if anything could get under his skin.
Today I happily learned he IS human!
It would be useful to know more about what actually happened such that we loyal readers and fans might learn something.
For example too many financial planners forget they have a fiduciary responsibility to their client and simply see themselves as “used car salesmen” selling whatever product makes them the most money.
I sincerely hope it was nothing that nefarious?
In any case I anxiously await part 2 of this lesson plan.
To link this discussion into the general theme of economics, see the Washington Post article, “How do you know the economy is great? Customer service is terrible.“
“SL: I can think of plenty of situations in which I’d rather be scammed than have my time wasted.”
In other words, where the monetary cost of the scam is less than the
time cost of its avoidance.
Can you provide an example of such a situation?
#19 I would rather be scammed for a plastic ball point pen than stuck in a traffic jam for 4 hours, but these are unconnected. How about during a time share sales presentation I discover that part of the scam is to try to take peoples’ bic biros. I mourn the loss of the time more than the loss of the pen.
After I initially commented I appear to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments
are added- checkbox and now whenever a comment is
added I get 4 emails with the exact same comment.
Is there an easy method you are able to remove me from that
service? Cheers!
credit cards: this subscription option seems to have recently installed itself without asking me. I don’t quite understand how it works but will do my best to figure it out and tame it.