Merrill Edge

Heartless and no regard for the deceased's wishes

My sister and I inherited an IRA from my cousin and were named beneficiaries. She passed away shortly after my cousin since she had been ill as well .Her portion was going to give her the chance for a decent funeral but Merrill Edge managed put our family through so much red tape in order to get a distribution. The proper distribution forms were filled out. The death certificate of my cousin and later of my sister--- and all the paperwork they asked for-- were faxed three time. Each time we made contact with their customer dis-service representatives, we get different people and have to start over as if it was the first time we talked to them. The last contact I had, they told me that I signed the distribution form for my portion in March and since it is now May,So I have to resend it because it is no longer valid, Had they sent the funds in March, my signature would still be valid. We ended up cremating my sister instead of having a proper funeral and burial because the funeral home will not go through with the service she wanted without a guarantee of payment, Today, Merrill Edge sent my sister distribution forms for her portion in spite of the fact that they had her death certificate, I am still waiting for my portion and who knows when I will receive it, I am hoping that I will still be alive and be able to enjoy the gift that my cousin left me, For those of you with IRA's , BEWARE!!, When you are gone, your loved ones will not get the treatment they deserve from Merrill Edge after they have used your money to make money for themselves, Is this Incompetence or is it planned to keep the money for their use for as long as possible??? Oh, also while all this paperwork has been flying around, the account has lost 2,000 in worth!!

Hcheizenberg

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an 800 number

Does it really matter if someone is apologizing for the inconvenience when you're calling back for the third time to get something done? I was with Q&R and it is sad to see what that company devolved into through the mergers. Nice people on phone, but incompetent. Take your business elsewhere. There are way too many options.

Advisor

Customer Service

platform and customer service sucks...

Merrill Edge platform sucks. They have lot of issues. The 'availalbe funds' shows amount that is not really availalbe for making a purchase. for example when you have $45894 available, and buy worth $34899 and sell worth $15678 on the same day, it is really difficult to follow what is going on with the balance! i hope they won't mess with my hard earned money. You need to keep track of balances to see if they don't mess up. you have to be really on top of it to figure out what this platform does. i hope they don't steal the money. ALthough i never buy stocks if i don't have money in my account, this 'available funds' or 'purchasing power' amount fooled me and i bought stocks for which i did not have money for because it showed me the wrong amount. But guess, what happened.. it put me under 'violation' for 90 days and didn't even send me an (automated) email that i need to deposit the remaining amount within so many days to cover for the balance. IT SUCKS BEYOND BELIEF. such an estemed(??) name has such a crappy platform. and don't ask about customer service--you get different answers every time you talk. The associates don't know what they are talking about.. likely becuase they keep leaving this place and everytime you call, you have a newbie on the line. ALl these bankers don't care about individual investors. Believe it or not, I still suck it up because it gives me 30 free trades per month because of $25K i have in BoA checking account. This is the only best option. ALthough i don't do day trading, i am short term holder and to meet my 'earning goals', 30 free trades help a lot (when you save 15 dollars for buying and selling). I will find someother platform eventhough it can cost me a little bit more in terms of 'paid trades', at least i will be in trading in 'peace' knowing that the money is there in the account!

Kzooguy

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no good

no good

Ufoorig

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Useless ... No Good ... No Customer Service at all !

I bank with Bank of America and have been happy with banking side - therefore, I went ahead and opened Merrill Edge accound. But I was very dis-appointed with the service

in the first month itself - rather i would say in less than 15 days. I would suggest that if you want to go - go with anybody else but with Merrill Edge for the following reasons per my experience with them -

1. Website is not customer friendly - rather it is very misleading - Do this - Click on "Trade" tab - then pick "Buy" and look at the right side of your account to see how much can you buy - it will Double your Account Balance and show that number that you can buy worth - which is not true and it is misleading to specially a new customer.

2. They do not have any tools to help you as compared to Etrade's Etrade Pro which gives you free CNBC TV on your computer and bunch of other tools - all you have to do is do atleast 10 trades monthly.

3. I could ot believe that one of the Manger/Supervisor of Merrill Edge made a Trade out of my account without my permission and did not even notify me that he had done that in error and will rectify it by reversing it - I had to call in to ask about it and then he admitted that he had made an error and took them one week's time to correct the error and all that time my account showed less money because of that trade.

4. When I called to complain about it - one of the supervisor got upset with me and talked very rudly to me and put me in a voilation status to get even and he was so mean to me.

Over all I would suggest you to go with anyone else but with Merrill Edge if you have to open a new account.

Happy Trading!

Usamanav

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Stay away!

If you have any sort of Trust, STAY AWAY from Merrill Edge. My Dad's trust accounts have migrated from Quick & Riley, to BofA, to Merrill Lynch, and finally to Merrill Edge over the years, and service has degraded each time.

After my father's death, we've been trying for 2 months to get the Trustee changed... and they still don't have it right. They are refusing to abide by the terms of the trust, and are just going with a default, which leaves someone in control of the account who is NO LONGER a trustee. I was told specifically that they aren't even allowed to read the trust, to see what the terms are!

We're been working with a Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor, to try and get the account moved to a standard ML brokerage account, and even he isn't able to get Merrill Edge to process things correctly. They keep telling him they need different forms, including a letter of resignation from someone who is no longer a trustee! He's frustrated also. So, if a ML employee can't deal with them, what can an investor expect?

Additionally, with the transition to Merrill Edge, there are now multiple types of cash accounts. Some earn interest, some don't. But to move cash from one to the other, you have to call them. I thought this was an on-line service.

Needless to say, once everything is settled, we will be running far away from anything involving BofA or Merrill Lynch. We'd be gone now, but we can't do a thing until they recognize the proper trustees.

Fredthe

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Merrill Edge-if you're a trader it will put you on the edge

... of commiting a suicide and/or urge to swear at customer service agent.

I've been a Banc of America customer for couple years (since 2006). Even though their platform was much worse than Scootrade's or TD's, I switched because the 30 free trades convinced me. However now with Merrill Edge is just simply a nightmare. Cash balances don't update for several days. So far they don't update at all. The execution of trades is horrible. Very slow, unstable, unreliable. To place an order it takes way too long (about 50 sec with 6Mb high speed internet connection). Website is very slow and not responsive. The website is very problematic, a lot of options which MOST traders don't need pop up. It's extremely illegible. Gains/Losses are hard to find. Once you find them the colors for loosing and winning positions are exactly the same which makes them very hard to read. In the era of color monitors it is just an outrage and unacceptable. Banc of America just DOWNGRADED all its LOW ASSETS customers and it looks like THEY DON'T CARE anymore. Try to call 1-800-926-1111 and press option 0 talk to the service agent! It's gonna be waste of time plus they all seem to have a negative attitude towards the customers. Just give me a break! Merrill is THE WORST ONLINE broker I've ever could imagined.

Stay away. Traders and investors - beware!!!

When you sell stocks short and later go long with the same security, their website WON'T SHOW IT! Actually the website shows you have ZERO SHARES (0)! When you try to cover your position it tells you to call customer service which takes on average 20-30 minutes. In the event of the flash crash your account could be wiped out.

I talked to one of the trading supervisors and she informed me that "not many customers go long and short in the same time" and therefore I CANNOT execute the trade online. She said she was aware of the problem but SHE HAD NO IDEA if it's gonna be resolved or not. My guess - NEVER! She offered me a broker assisted trade but ... I would rather stay away from their "specialists". Oh. She probably forgot to mention what would be the commision rate for that trade.

Please stay away from Merrill Edge. Maybe if all normal people (excluding those who like this godforsaken website) call them every day, send letters and talk to supervisors they would switch the website to the old one. Which wasn't perfect but it was much much better! Bottom line just go to any broker but NEVER to Merrill. Horrible customer service, impossible to swing trade website, impossible to cover your short position if you have any long position in the same stock. Just a nightmare. Maybe they just like the tradition of Halloween and enjoy tricking the clients?!

I think they can shove those 30 free trades. It's not worth it. I don't need a hassle, I don't need problems I just want to trade. And great and powerful Merrill Lynch (remember when they begged on their knees BoA to buy them out) does EVERYTHING to make the task impossible!

They should've been gone, just like Lehman and Bear Stearns. The world would've been much better and I could've traded like before with no hassle.

P.S. Forgot to mention how bad their telephone service is. Menu is simply horrible, quotation service even worse, many options don't work at all. Lack of wish list quotes (worked before with Banc of America).

If I could give them ZERO stars just like their zero commision rate I would!

Info for TD AMERITRADE and SCOTTRADE - please prepare to fight for my $75,000 account. I am ready to switch.

Antimerrill

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independently

nvest independently or invest with professional advice and guidance. Work with us in a way that works for you. Explore the two, distinct service options

Jakrem

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