Charles Schwab

My wife and I tried to transfer our brokerage account to Schwab, hoping to find good service at the famous discount brokerage. Unfortunately, we found the service, at least in Berkeley, was not good. After an initial meeting, the broker who was assigned to us disappeared, no longer returning phone calls or helping with the transfer in any way. We were pawned off on the office manager, who while stolid and presumably competent, was not customer friendly. Little things annoyed – like waiting 20 minutes after a set appointment time for the office manager to finish a prior appointment. In more full-​service settings, someone would advise you of the wait, ask if they could get you some water, perhaps even apologize. Not at Schwab. You are on your own. You get the feeling they think you are lucky they are «helping» you. For me, the straw that broke the camel’s back was when I had to go in to have one last transfer paper notarized. No, the reception person told me, the office manager was not available. No, no one else could help. «Could I look at your papers?» Ok, I said. He looked at them and said, would you like me to look up your account number? I said, no, I would go to my bank to get the papers notarized. That I did. At Mechanics Bank, the branch manager greeted me by name, got up from behind his desk, shook my hand, and immediately dropped whatever he was doing and notarized the paper – even though it had nothing to do with his bank’s business! That’s service! Yay, for Mechanics, and boo for Schwab.