Has anyone signed up for the newest type of Merrill Lynch telephone shop? You phone a call center and tell them you have at least $750K (you pick the dollar figure but it has to be at least this much) and you choose a scenario as to why you need to talk about your finances. By using $750 or more, it triggers the call center to send a referral to a Financial Advisor. It tells you in the directions that you do not give info like social security number, names of companies you work with, etc. And this should be a 15 minute shop. Well.....5 days later, 4 phone calls, and 8 emails - I still have not gotten a call back from the financial advisor. Here is the kicker: the call center WILL NOT send your request/referral to a financial advisor without your social security number. Last night I finally got a message from call center employee to call my local ML office. This is not what the instructions in the shop say. Sent an email to the Scheduling company for the MSC to find out what to do. If I don't follow all the directions, I don't get paid....and if I don't talk to the financial advisor I don't get paid. And what makes it worse is that this is my first shop for this company, so I don't want to give it back and say forget it - I have already lost money on this shop and I have only gotten to answer one question as to my date and time of call to call center.

I am posting to give all of you a heads up - they write it out like it's an easy, breezy shop. And it should be. I am wondering if ML call center has started a new policy of call center employees have to get SS# before sending it to a financial advisor and they are testing it by using this type of shop. This way - they don't have to pay for any of the shops and they find out what they want to know. I have worked with the the scheduling company and never had a problem with them - they have always been ethical and upfront; but I have never done a ML shop that requires a phone call with this high $$$ amount that you have to have available right now to invest. I have also never had a bank or investment/financial company ask for a SS# just to get information about their company/business model/procedures, etc.

Any advice or has anyone else done this shop. These shops were just posted this week.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2017 04:39PM by FrostyBubbles.

I had absolutely no problems doing this job though it took talking to 3 people. Maybe 4 times on the phone. No SS and no personal information besides phone and name.

The weird part for me is that I can't tell what state the job is in, if it is in edit, accepted, etc. I entered all required responses.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2017 02:11AM by dulcew.

I am guessing they have more than one call center. They do have to ask for the city and state you live in to know which office to refer your call to. I think the guy I spoke with wants to keep my "account" in his division (ML has two divisions) which is why he wants my social and will not send it to the local office. He did send me an email with the address and phone number of the local ML office for me to call on Monday. Yippee

Glad to hear you had no problems. That is great. Maybe I just got the bad luck of the draw. I will make the call on Monday to the local office and if they demand social, I will give the shop back. Not interested in having my credit hit for a mystery shop for something I do not want. I am close to retirement and like where my investments are - I get much better service. LOL

Is this the one that has 3 different scenarios? I've done Scenario 1 (up to $500K in assets) several times and haven't had a problem. Hope they pay more for Scenario 3 than the other scenarios, or it totally would not be worth it. Thanks for the heads up!

This is a different one. You phone into a call center and give info that you have over 750K to invest now plus you have all your other "stuff" like IRA's, 401K's, if you have paid off your house (what it is worth), etc. So it comes to millions. And you have to take the time to figure all this out before the call because the questions will be asked more than one time. But it is suppose to prompt the person who answers the phone to refer you to someone who has knowledge and experience in dealing with that amount of money. I got an email to call the local office - but that is not part of the shop instructions. So I sent a message to the company to find out how I proceed. Don't want to spend more time than I already have if I can't do it as per the instructions and then not get paid. Makes me wonder what is up with ML

I think they are checking to make sure that their FAs are dotting their i's and crossing their t's.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2017 02:14AM by dulcew.

That is what I thought the purpose of the shop was - that would make sense. However, I now wonder if the issue/purpose of the shop is to make sure the call center folks are getting all the information upfront so that they can run credit checks (hence the demand of the social security number) to verify addresses (so they can do google earth to see your home), see where you worked and title, credit limits on loans, mortgages, cars, credit cards, etc. I am now wondering if the FA's were getting too many referrals that were individuals that did not meet the qualifications and should have been referred to someone that did not have the educations, skills, experience, etc. to analyze and make recommendations for many millions of dollars in total personal wealth. Hard to tell the reason behind it all sometimes

I've performed two of these shops with that specific scenario successfully. Each one had one call to the call center, one call with message from the Financial Advisor then one call back to the FA. The second time the system recognized my cell phone number so I had to make up a story as to why I had it (new number). The FA first was tentative then said they are sometimes mystery shopped and he had to be certain I was not one. I've found being a bit personal in part of the conversation alleviates the suspicion.

It is interesting to note that they are asking for SSN. I would be tempted to borrow a friend's phone to call, present the scenario and see if I am asked. I would hate to be in your position of trying to perform the shop.

Thank you - and I am so very happy for you that you were able to perform them successfully. I just am so surprised that they are demanding my social just to get information about their company - basic finance. I have not heard back from my scheduler, so I will call again today - but to the local office and then I am done. This has taken up a lot of time that I know I will not be paid for - as of yet, I have not been able to do the shop as per the instructions. I refuse to give out my social for any mystery shop - not worth the hits on ones credit report.

Best of luck to you and thanks for your input.

Glad I read this thread. I just got an email about this scenario. So, if all goes well, the shop entails 3 phone calls and possibly a tap dance if the FA gets suspicious. But if things go wrong, it takes several days to straighten out. Nah. I'll pass. For the extra $3 it's not worth it.

After dealing with this on my calendar everyday for 8 days, and 3 calls to the call center and about 8 emails to call center folks and the MSC....I finally called call center guy once more and he said he would not make a referral to the FA without my social security number. I completed the evaluation/survey indicating that I never got a call back from an FA after 8 days and 3 calls. I felt bad turning the shop report in like that because it was scheduled through one of my fave scheduling companies. But it was going no where and I was tired of dealing with it. I gave them plenty of chances. If someone gets a good chewing on their backside - oh well.

Glad you saw this too. Not worth the money at all