Complain about a product or service

Merrill-Lynch

Lindsay of Fayetteville, AR November 17, 2009

Unethical Behavior: My husband and I recently put in an offer on a foreclosed home to Single Source Property Solutions FHHL- Merrill Lynch. Another offer came in a day later so we increased our offer. A week later the bank counter offered to both us and the other party. We accepted their offer and returned our information within a few hours. The other couple did not. The bank did not sign their own counter offer.

Three business days later two more offers came in and now they are saying that we have to put in a new higher offer. This is not right and they should not be allowed to get away with stringing people along especially since we did everything correctly and within their two day window. This is the house of our dreams and it is being snatched away because of the banks unethical behavior.

Their counter offer to us clearly communicated the intent to enter into a legal agreement within a two day window. They strung us along for three business days and then asked for more money. We stand to loose this home now, even though we played by their rules. This behavior is clearly unethical and our laws should catch up with these unfair practices against fellow Americans.

WENDY of morehead , KY November 15, 2009

I called to see if I could withdraw funds on hardship so that I would not loose my home and get evicted. I also wanted to draw out enough to pay bills ahead so that I would not have to worry about being homeless. They told me that I needed to prove one out of some many reasons to be able to do so. So I did and then when I called they told me I could only Draw out enough to pay my lot rent to keep from getting evicted. Had I been told that I had to have documentation for every bill Including my mortgage, I would have, before pay 20.00 to send just the one I had. If thats not enough stress on me as is, Im worring about all of this while pregnant, and not able to work. If that is not hardship enough then I don't what is. Can you imagine being pregnant and unable to work due to complacations with the pregnancy and not being able to meet your bills. All the while This money that I'm tring to get is money that I payed in! Its not like Im trying to get their money.

Dawn of Davison, MI August 19, 2009

My husband had a 401K account with Merrill Lynch with under 200,000 in it. He died April 1, 2007 and the beneficiary form designation was 25% each to his three children from his first marriage and 25% to me. Although I never signed a beneficiary from relinquishing my rights as a beneficiary as stated in Item 4 on the beneficiary form. He filled out 1 form leaving everything to the three children (who are all adults in their 40's) and they sent it back to him.

The next week he sent in a form designating the 25% for each beneficiary. Still did not have my signature and I knew nothing about the account. Therefore the children were given 75% of the account and I was only given 25%. WARNING to all Merrill Lynch customers ...... especially women.... make sure you know WHO the beneficiary desginations are from your husband's account. Merrill Lynch will distribute proceeds even if the forms are not properly filled out.

Shelby of Hilton Head, SC July 23, 2009

We(my partner and I) opened a Merrill Lynch account in May 2008 with ms peacock with 300,000.00 in November of 08 we had to move back to hilton Head SC and during that time there was little or no communictation from this firm. As we were getting moved in, approx. Feburary or March of 09 we started getting returned checks from all our credit card companies although we have statements saying that we had over 75,000.00 in our account at that time. then this whole thing began to snowball, each time we tried to pay our checks with merrill lych they all got returned. We are now up to over 85 checks that Merrill Lynch has bounced on us and they are taking no responsility for this whole fiasco. We have bank charges from Merrill Lynch, we have late fee charges from the credit card companies and bank charges.

At this time they owe us over 5,000.00 in bounced check fees. at one point in a months time our account went down by 30,000.00 and we have no idea where that money went. We now have no credit cards at all that we can use. We have spent over 20 years building up our credit and have never missed a payment or written a bad check in our entire lives. Our last statement said that we had 27,000.00 in our account and we are trying to wire transfer money to our bank accout but we have bounced checks so many times with our bank from ML that they hold our wire transfers for days before they will trust it to come through. Right now we will have to file for bankrupcy to get through this

Stein of Brownsburg, IN July 16, 2009

My wife recently lost her job and we have medical & dental bills that need to be paid. We are being sent to collections for these past due bills. We recently applied for a hardship withdrawal attaching about 30 pages of medical bills and dental bill records to prove that we owe this money. We asked for about 7,000 (which our on-line account says we are eligilbe for at least 7100) and they only approved us for 258.00. We are now in the process of being sued by some of these companies. Merrill Lynch said my paperwork wasn't up to date and that they could't approve our hardship. I can't believe they won't approve our hardship withdrawal....this is my money and they are with holding it from me and I am definately in hardship right now. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated!

William of Foley, AL June 3, 2009

I have been a client of Merrill Lynch for close to 15 years, had two different broker, and got poor performance out of both of them. The first broker recommended both Fannie Mae(govt. backed home loans) and Sallie Mae(govt. backed student loans) "because they were SAFE, QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES". The first broker was let go because of poor customer performance and I became the "victim" of the second broker. She told me to keep both institutional investments "because they were govt. safe" even though I later found out that an inside memo to their brokers had changed their recommendation from "buy to "sell" and she did nothing. I finally sold both of them for losses of over 25,000 on each. Like most all brokers, they are interested only in selling under the conditions where they make the maximum commissions rather than looking out for their clients.

Todd of iowa city, IA May 16, 2009

My grandparents set up 3 different mutual funds for me with an initial investment of 25K. I decided that during spring of 2009 it was a good time to try and buy some stocks so I took the 15K that was the value of the mutual funds at the time and called the financial advisors name on the paperwork. I had used ameritrade before and got 500 free trades when I had deposited 2k into that and even after those were up the fees were only 9.99 per trade. I thought to myself with no experience using a broker that it can't be that much more to use someone like Merrill Lynch. So I came up with a portfolio of 8 stocks with different weight on each of them. I asked my advisor on the phone "What are your fees?" He responded "Well they differ, obviously with AAPL (the one I bought the most of) it will be a little more, but I will obviously give you a discount." I didn't question him any further which was a mistake on my end. The fees I got in the mail totaled over 530 dollars for the 8 stocks and that is not including the 5.35 processing fees for each one. I wasn't happy to see that and questioned why he would withhold information from me that if I knew it, I would switch to ameritrade immediately. It is in my honest opinion he took advantage and did NOT have my best interests in mind, but his! THEN I sold the stocks 3 weeks later just to take profits off the table and switch to ameritrade. I then look and see on the trade confirmations that I was charged even more money for stocks which by the way I chose on my own, he never gave me any advice and I'm the one who told him the exact portfolio, he just wrote it down and did it. He didn't give me one financial piece of advice.

This bothers me because Merrill Lynch took over 1100 dollars from me when I could have gotten 100 free trades on scottrade or any other site. I am just really not happy with the fact he wasn't up front with me and beat around the bush when I asked him about fees. I also want to see if he really "discounted" me like he said he would which taking 1100 off of 15K from your client whose interest you are supposed to have, it doesn't seem like a discount to me, it seems like I was taken advantage of. I lost over 1,100 dollars in fees not explained to me! I knew it might be slightly more but not 1000 more than about what I expected to pay.

Lynne of Franklinville, NJ March 12, 2009

Lynne of Franklinville NJ (03/12/09)
I have been a client of A. Capri for the last 5 years. A. and I have discussed my retirement, my sons future, and my basic needs, we also discussed how my money was presently invested, which included an annuity from Sun Life. Anthony was referred to me from a fellow co worker, he came to my home, I thought he had my best interest and future at heart. I never gave A. a retirement date, as I don't know myself. When I got the 1099 in the mail for 6528.75, I was in total shock. I couldn't understand what it was for. When I found out it was from the sale of my Sun Life Annuity I was furious and confussed. Why would A. swell my annuity knowing I would have to claim the growth and pay a 10 percent penalty, I am not 59 1/2.

This annuity was sold in January 2008, a number of funds were bought with the money. To my amazement I now have to claims 863.84 in dividends, he put me in a personal account not in a retirement account, why I just don't know. I called A. he couldn't remember, he said he would get back to me but has not. I am a widow, this was my late husbands retirement money, If he would have left it when I turned 59 1/2 I could have taken money out with no penalty. I call his supervisor J. M Caruso, and asked to see the forms I had to sign, I have yet to see them or she has not called me back.

I have asked Merrill Lynch to pay the 10% penalty of 863.64, this annuity should never have been sold. I could have managed my money better. I am very upset and would like some answers. I would appreciate anything you can do, you put your life saving with a so called professional and put our faith in that person. Thank you for all your help and anything you can do.

I received a 1099 for 6528.75 which I had to add to my total income and pay a 10% penalty fee of 863.84 also added to my salary, and that put me in another tax bracket and had to also pay income tax.

Mike of Tempe, AZ March 9, 2009

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