Merrill Lynch Reviews 

I have been trying to withdraw my lump sum from IRA for 5 months. I have waited in excess of 24 hours on hold cumulatively, sent one snail, 4 faxes and still have had no success.

Three months ago I requested the paper work that is required of me to withdraw the full amount of my pension from Merrill Lynch. I filled it out then sent it in by snail mail, which they said was the only way to do it. One month later i got a letter stating that they were missing papers that were needed so I filled everything out again and, again, sent the package in. THEN I got a letter stating that in the interim, the amount of my pension planned changed from $13,000+ down to a little over $10,000, and I would have to fill out the required paper work AGAIN and this time I could FAX it in. I faxed the paper work and waited three weeks, because now I was expecting my check in the mail.... they only pay out 401K's and pensions on the 1st of the month. On the day that they send out the checks, I got a letter stating that there was one place (next to my social security number) that wasn't dated, even though RIGHT BELOW IT was my signature AND IT WAS DATED!
I called for the twentieth time to talk to someone, explaining that the check is DESERATELY needed because of COVID and the rough economy and is there ANY way to be able to receive this by fax and cut me a check?! They said NO, checks are sent out late in the month and I will have to wait ANOTHER month to receive my check! ALL of my bills now are overdue and they still won't budge on their decision.
Two things... I have been in banking for over 17 years and KNOW that there is ALWAYS a way to override the system for the good of the customer. The other thing is that I was told by someone I talked to that he had never seen a pension go down in value. A 401K, sure, but not a pension. So I asked him if he could tell me why and he said he'd look into it and call me back. He never did.
I called again today to ask if they received my fax that I sent yesterday at 10 am (it is now 11am) and they said they still don't see it, and the department that receives FAX's has gotten around to checking or uploading it yet.
How long does it take to receive a fax?!!
When I called back because my call was dropped, they asked for personal information so they can identify me, like they always do. But NOW they asked for my hire date at the company that I worked at while building this pension, and since I didn't know it, they couldn't give me any information.... even though I JUST GOT DONE TALKING TO THEM!
Merrill Lynch has absolutely no heart for their customers and especially for those in times of need.

Unresponsive, excessive hold time. When I requested a service and spoke with 3 different people it still was not done correctly. Would not recommend and will never use again.

10000 Stars if I could.

Merrill Lynch/Bank of America are easily the top Broker-Dealer (ML) and top Banking Institution of any category (Credit Suisse, DBS, BNY Mellon, Goldman, MS and every other top-tier investment/retail/commercial bank be damned, as they absolutely PALE in comparison)

You can expect a reasonable 2-hour wait time on average every-time you want to get ahold of someone (assuming you make the wise choice of not entrusting them with WM-level liquidity - that is to say, the wait is super pleasant and I encourage everyone to experience it!).

Reminiscent of childhood, where you know you don't matter and that your opinions definitely don't matter, because you get completely ignored until a time at which it is convenient for not-you to be responded to. The contents of which response which make it abundantly clear that you were completely disregarded. Ah, childhood, how I miss it so dearly. Thank you for the flashbacks ML!

If you are a fan of arbitrary account locks that span full calendar months until you complain to FINRA/their regulatory overseers, then ML is definitely NOT the place for you.

They would never do that to you.

They would never conclude a review, have no activity occur in the 2-days before they re-lock you out after you submit another account closure form.

They would never then make you wait more weeks until you get a letter from them stating THEY are closing your accounts on their own cognizance and decision-making.

They would also NEVER ignore all the attempts to close your accounts and wire your balances out, and instead let you know on their account closure notice, that they had no idea how you wanted your money/assets back, and that they would be so generous as to wait another entire calendar month by default (you know, so you have sufficient time to make such a life-changing decision) before mailing you a balance check.

So thoughtful. I will forever speak of the praise and wonders of this financial institution. It is my American Dream to one day strive to eventuate into even the least refined facsimile of the morals and standards that they uphold. Dare to dream folks.

I could go on, but I'd be more likely to lose functionality of my appendages from development of and then immediate advanced progression of carpal tunnel - than would I be to detail the wonders of this magical FI.

Legal Disclaimer:
This is most definitely an entire work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Waiting for hours on hold to speak with a service associate now happens every time I call. I have called multiple times today and I have spent over 6 hours on hold. Unfortunately, I am not exaggerating. When calling you are told that htey "...are experiencing higher call volume than anticipated." I have heard each time I have called for over 2 years now. I don't know how ML expects thier customers to find this acceptable. If you are going to take a disbursement be prepared to spend an entire day on hold, calling over and over again and possibly never getting an answer!

Operating like an 80’s company, with typical american ineffective customer support.
We are in 2022 and you can only contact them by phone to an American number….sigh !
I belive the business model is to erode the customer accounts by charging fees, when you cannot get your money transferred out by electronic means.

Very very bad service, it's crazy that all the times I've to call the US at their international number which in theory is free, but practically I pay an international call.

In addition their Customer Service is really bad, thousand of questions and the line drops!

Why don't you have a Customer Service in UK? Or a mail service or something more practical?

I hope I will be able to close asap my account and forget this BAD company.

I'm happy with the company and the deal I got from the company. I wanted a good trading platform that did the basics, and this company has been the best so far. A friend recommended this company. Speaking with the service team helped me get exactly what I was looking for.

Great customer Service and investments are 100% safe.

My outgoing fax was received by them. They said they sent a fax back, but it was not received by my machine. (Yes it was on and receiving other faxes.) I needed to confirm that they used the correct number. I needed to troubleshoot what was wrong with THEIR system. When I called back later, I was on hold for 20 minutes, then had no more time to waste so had to hang up.

I tried again and was on hold again for 23 minutes. The endlessly repeating loop stopped. There was the sound/recording of a telephone ringing. Unfortunately, then call ended and I was cut off.

Banks have internal email systems to leave a question for them. Why don’t they have something similar? All I needed was follow up. The fax they allegedly sent was not received. This does not bode well for any more complex requests I would make of them as a financial service.

I look forward to closing my account and hope I can do that online.

I have an IRA with Merrill Lynch and it is the worst company for customer service. My distribution was not processed and I have been on hold for over 2 hours to speak with a "Financial Advisor". The message that was sent through their secure inbox gives absolutely NO information as to why my request did not go through, so I am left with no option except to hold endlessly for a live person. I will be transferring this account elsewhere. Save yourself the frustration and do not use Merrill Lynch.

I just transfered funds to ML thinging as they are owned by BoA I'd be in good hands. Not so, website is terrible, My investment lost $450. the first month and this was suppose to be conservitive investment in this market. I know this could be a bad quarter but this seems crazy, looking to get out, just not feeling good about them. Called Customer Service with questions and was On hold 25 and 27 minutes and never talking to anyone. Start a online chat which gets disconnected... My other investment company did not treat me like this, they answered in 3-8 minutes. I'm not one for making negative reviews or any reviews but I'm not feelling good about ML.

Unfortunately, I had no choice but to use them for my 401K if I went through my employer. Good luck getting help from customer service. Every time I call, I am on hold for 30+ minutes.

Terrible company. ML managed my stock options when I worked for a Fortune 500. Ive requested for the encashment of my stocks and its been months with no check arriving. Doing this during a pandemic is seriously unethical

Nightmare. Merrill Lynch close my retirement account forcefully against my will and caused losses in stocks, tax liabilities, and possible early withdraw fines.

The more people hate BoA , the more people dislike Merrill Lynch. People have no choice to join them even
they had to deal with the stupidity and arrogance of both customer services.
I felt ashamed to give them 2 stars !

Don't have a free phone number to call easily which is absolute crap.
Pretty sure you perhaps have to safety

ON 11/24/2020 9:30 am place a trade on merrill edge app, AAL short 2,000 shares at 14.31. a few minutes later i tried to place a buy to cover at 14.18 which would have resulted in a profit of 260.00. the app just spun and spun and trade was never placed. at the time I thought it was my connection. the stock price rose, i went in to place another trade short 2000 more shares at 14.31 at 9:47 am . now i have AAL short 4000 total shares at an average of 14.43. after this trade the whole site crashed completely, what i thought was my connection turned out to be a major system crash at merril lynch. not knowing how long this issue would take to correct i drove to work. at 11:13 am the stock was at 14.40 unable to login still i proceeded to call them. at the prompts it asked for my account number, i do not have this written down in my pocket and could not long in to retrieve as i normally would i selected the prompt to talk to someone, i was disconnected immediately , i called back 2 minutes later at 11:15 am and was disconnected again. finally after approximately 4 hours the site finally came back up.
on 11/25 i called to and finally was connected to someone, i explained what all had happened in detail, he stated he would open an investigation and get back to me, he went ahead and processed a buy to cover for the 4000 shares at 14.90 resulting in a loss of 1880.00, he called me back and said he could not find where i had tried to call. I told him i had it in my phone and could send proof of call, he directed me to the site and showed me where i could upload the proof, and i did.
Proof sent to merrill lynch
screenshot of call made at 11:13 am
screenshot of call made at 11:15 am
screenshot of my goggle history showing where i was looking at the outage over 20 searches
screen shot from Merrill lynch showing AAL ticker was trading at 14.40 at the time of my calls
screen shot from CNBC showing AAL ticker was trading at 14.40 at the time of my calls
on 11/30 the rep called me back and said the trade would stand and no assistance would be given. the reason is that the number i called 866-706-8321 was not the number to place trades. what? where did i get the number then? it walked me through the normal prompts as always, it is the number listed as customer service. he then asked me an outrageous question, did you call this number as an excuse? my answer ell hell no because was making 120 at the time of my call. after back and fourth i asked for a supervisor to reach out. Micahel Damdrosia reached out , i went back through the details again.
question where did you find the number you called? answer merrill lynch website i guess
why did you only call twice? answer- how many time should i have to call
why did you wait till next day to call again? answer i have a job, i called when i had time to call
blah blah blah, we cant help you. so Michael we agree your website was down half the day? his answer YES, we agree i tried to call you? his answer YES. but you can not help with issue that merill caused ? his answer NO.
So after being a Bank of America customer for over 20 years, a platinum honors customer, over 15 active accounts, numerous loans, multiple credit cards, all I get is rude customer service , baseless and nonsensical accusations, a trading platform that has crashed numerous time over 3 months. Bottom line this was not my issue, I did far more then i ever should have had to and i get zero assistance.

Steven Miller
Platinum Honors Member

Really bad website, so difficult to navigate. I spent way too much time trying to get my funds out of there and into a better place.

I have always enjoyed having Merrill Lynch for my investements. I've done will and my broker will help me with everything I need.
He has been in contact with me during this pandemic to see if I needed anything.
Thank you John Hoskins The Hoskins Group Lynchburg, Va.

I do not trust this company. I held shares with ML, then suddenly they just gave the shares away. They are lost and after many appeals to Merrill Lynch, they refuse to help me. If you want brokers who will go the extra mile, if you want men and women to have your back, if you want a firm that, when it makes a genuine mistake, owns up and makes it right - if you want these kinds of attributes in your broker, then go elsewhere. If all you want are automatons who just follow orders, and with a risk of losing your entire retirement fund - the enter here (but you were warned).