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EXTREMELY late TRP tax documents just arrived, 21st March.
Confirms the wisdom of my decision to leave that firm. This is disgraceful. I had previously received a very incomplete form which informed me that anything else would get to me by 15th March. (Whatever happened to the 31st JANUARY deadline??? Ork? ) I immediately called tax preparer. She was just about to e-file the 1040. I caught her just in time. TRP is an abomination these days. Outrageous.
TRP’s retail client interface has been a wreck for many years now. Guess I’m fortunate in that Fidelity had everything I needed ready to download sometime in January.
I was recently notified by USPS Informed Delivery that a letter from TRP will be delivered. When I did not receive the said letter, I contacted TRP which said in writing that no letter or document was sent from TRP and that USPS must be making up non-existent letters. Two days later my neighbor brought over the TRP letter.
I have marked electronic for all correspondence from TRP but they keep sending stuff, including Quarterly statements, by USPS.
If not for the free M* premium membership, I would move my holdings out of TRP.
I would trust USPS over TRP for service reliability.
I was recently notified by USPS Informed Delivery that a letter from TRP will be delivered. ... I did not receive the said letter... Two days later my neighbor brought over the TRP letter. ... I would trust USPS over TRP for service reliability.
Let me see if I've got this right. USPS failed to deliver a letter to you. If not for the good graces of a neighbor, you never would have known what happened to the letter, let alone recovered it. And you are willing to place any measure of trust in the USPS?
I've watched the USPS lose certified letters that I've sent; leave bags of mail destined for various addresses in the middle of our lobby for hours (as though we were some sort of substation); lose packages that it claimed it delivered to me.
Whatever happened to the 31st JANUARY deadline???
Until this year [2009], the deadline for sending Form 1099-B, Proceeds From Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions, was Jan. 31, the same as for Form W-2 and other information reporting forms. Congress extended the deadline to Feb. 15 in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which also will require brokers to report the cost basis of securities sold, effective in phases starting in 2011.
Until an institution has the information for an entire account, it will hold off on sending what would be an incomplete combined 1099. For various reasons, some funds are unable to provide complete information quickly and routinely request extensions. For example, in the past PRSVX has distributed some unrecaptured 1250 gains (box 2b). I suspect that it is because of the possibility of these distributions that TRP delays this fund's tax mailings.
This year, Fidelity delayed sending me a combined 1099 because it was waiting on information from a money market fund, more specifically a Fidelity MMF!
I request that you quote my entire post which is a single thought and let readers decide if my assessment that “I would trust USPS over TRP for service reliability” is off base / not useful . Please do not edit my posts you quote or present your version of my post.
I shared my experience for the sole reason of being helpull. I am sorry that you found my post not useful. I am not interested in debates or to assert why someone else is wrong or why I am right.
Based on my experience, I would trust USPS over several American companies, including TRP, for customer service.
Assuming your intent is to share your experience, you are free to do so without using my posts as a prop.
Based on my experience, I would trust USPS over several American companies, including TRP, for customer service.
The sum total of your experience with USPS expressed in this thread is that the USPS failed to deliver a letter that you were expecting. Perhaps you have had other, more positive experiences with USPS. But relying solely upon the information you conveyed, one is left wondering why you would accord USPS any trust whatsoever. That is independent of whether you would accord any measure of trust to other American companies.
Perhaps you were trying to say that in spite of a bad experience with USPS, you would still accord it more trust than you would other companies. But then explain why. What is it about USPS that makes it so trustworthy in your mind, so much so that you're willing to look past its transgressions?
It's in large part because of these transgressions (examples of which I have given) that I try to do as much as I can without relying upon USPS.
Two other examples for good measure: USPS is spectacularly bad in holding mail. Submit a request online and they'll say they miss it because either they don't print it out, or when they do it is on white paper that they don't see - unlike the yellow(?) physical cards that they have told me to submit instead. And whatever mail they hold, they deliver at the end of the hold period - sometimes. Other times I have to go pick it up.
When the USPS lost its lease (literally) on its local facility, it built a new one. But it failed to notice that the new facility was outside the zipcode. So it had to lease more space within the zipcode and uses the newer facility for delivery but not customer service. The USPS doesn't even know where its zipcodes are!
I'm not surprised to hear this about USPS. Sadly, it's become just plain bad. Deliberately. Louis DeJoy was appointed by Orange Felon, with a mission to destroy it. Much progress has been made. Lately, after being supremely shamed by a Congressional committee, he's announced his intention to move on. Is he dead yet? Is Orange Corpulence dead yet?
I've had to mail a bunch of 'sensitive' documents around the country recently. I setup an account with pirateship.com and am using UPS envelopes to send them. For $10 I can overnight to NYC. For $20 I can 2-day something to the west coast. (It'd be $50 going to their store or Staples)
Based on their own track record of deteriorating service in recent years, I don't trust USPS anymore for anything important.
I left TRP for the reason cited earlier by @BaluBalu. I’’d shut down a P.O. box used over the years for secure mailings and had switched my settings at TRP to “paperless.” But for months they continued to mail out account statements and other documents addressed to my home - all the while assuring me they weren’t doing it. Our carrier sometimes drops off mail in the wrong party’s box. Most of my neighbors are decent (and would have forwarded the envelopes to me), but one isn’t. I really don’t care to have my investments open to unknown others or the public.
So after months of calling and berating TRP to no avail (and goosing my BP), I moved it all to Fidelity. Couldn’t be happier. Unexpectedly, I’m dollars ahead for the move as well - now that I have so many new investment options beyond TRP’s OEFs at the time. The final insult arrived when the first paper check TRP mailed out to Fido on my behalf “bounced”. Funny today - but caused a lot of aggravation at the time! Landed me a 90-day trading suspension!
Fidelity is top-notch. None better to deal with IMHO.
Comments
hmm. what happens to trp funds in a vanguard brokerage tax form sent in feb?
Think we will transfer our remaining funds to Fidelity this year. We got our tax return done a week ago with no issues.
I have marked electronic for all correspondence from TRP but they keep sending stuff, including Quarterly statements, by USPS.
If not for the free M* premium membership, I would move my holdings out of TRP.
I would trust USPS over TRP for service reliability.
I've watched the USPS lose certified letters that I've sent; leave bags of mail destined for various addresses in the middle of our lobby for hours (as though we were some sort of substation); lose packages that it claimed it delivered to me.
Whatever happened to the 31st JANUARY deadline??? https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2009/feb/late1099bmailings/
More generally, IRS deadlines (unless the financial institution requests an extension) are here:
https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1099gi#en_US_2025_publink1000287056
Until an institution has the information for an entire account, it will hold off on sending what would be an incomplete combined 1099. For various reasons, some funds are unable to provide complete information quickly and routinely request extensions. For example, in the past PRSVX has distributed some unrecaptured 1250 gains (box 2b). I suspect that it is because of the possibility of these distributions that TRP delays this fund's tax mailings.
Here's TRP's complete mailing schedule (for investments held directly in mutual fund accounts)
https://www.troweprice.com/personal-investing/resources/planning/tax/preparation/tax-mailing-schedule.html
This year, Fidelity delayed sending me a combined 1099 because it was waiting on information from a money market fund, more specifically a Fidelity MMF!
I request that you quote my entire post which is a single thought and let readers decide if my assessment that “I would trust USPS over TRP for service reliability” is off base / not useful . Please do not edit my posts you quote or present your version of my post.
I shared my experience for the sole reason of being helpull. I am sorry that you found my post not useful. I am not interested in debates or to assert why someone else is wrong or why I am right.
Based on my experience, I would trust USPS over several American companies, including TRP, for customer service.
Assuming your intent is to share your experience, you are free to do so without using my posts as a prop.
My last post in this thread.
Enjoy the forum.
The sum total of your experience with USPS expressed in this thread is that the USPS failed to deliver a letter that you were expecting. Perhaps you have had other, more positive experiences with USPS. But relying solely upon the information you conveyed, one is left wondering why you would accord USPS any trust whatsoever. That is independent of whether you would accord any measure of trust to other American companies.
Perhaps you were trying to say that in spite of a bad experience with USPS, you would still accord it more trust than you would other companies. But then explain why. What is it about USPS that makes it so trustworthy in your mind, so much so that you're willing to look past its transgressions?
It's in large part because of these transgressions (examples of which I have given) that I try to do as much as I can without relying upon USPS.
Two other examples for good measure: USPS is spectacularly bad in holding mail. Submit a request online and they'll say they miss it because either they don't print it out, or when they do it is on white paper that they don't see - unlike the yellow(?) physical cards that they have told me to submit instead. And whatever mail they hold, they deliver at the end of the hold period - sometimes. Other times I have to go pick it up.
When the USPS lost its lease (literally) on its local facility, it built a new one. But it failed to notice that the new facility was outside the zipcode. So it had to lease more space within the zipcode and uses the newer facility for delivery but not customer service. The USPS doesn't even know where its zipcodes are!
TRP still blows, too.
Based on their own track record of deteriorating service in recent years, I don't trust USPS anymore for anything important.
So after months of calling and berating TRP to no avail (and goosing my BP), I moved it all to Fidelity. Couldn’t be happier. Unexpectedly, I’m dollars ahead for the move as well - now that I have so many new investment options beyond TRP’s OEFs at the time. The final insult arrived when the first paper check TRP mailed out to Fido on my behalf “bounced”. Funny today - but caused a lot of aggravation at the time! Landed me a 90-day trading suspension!
Fidelity is top-notch. None better to deal with IMHO.
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/63581/fidelity-schwab-block-orders-of-blackrock-and-texas-capital-etfs
I agree that Fidelity is top-notch. Though nobody is perfect.