I needed to call Vanguard today to understand why a dividend from Costco was not reinvested (after years of auto-reinvestment of dividends). Their 'auto-attendant' was VERY unhelpful. Despite saying 'agent' over and over, it forced me to make choices between irrelevant options, and a couple of times dropped my call, requiring me to call back in and start again.
They are already inferior to both Schwab and Fidelity in regards to hours of availability, but this was yet another negative. I don't think they were this bad a few years ago.
Oh, and the answer to my question? When the value of a stock (in this case, 'Costo (COST))' goes above a certain threshold, they no longer automatically re-invest dividends. I asked if this was a government requirement, he said no, just company policy. Can I change it, so that my dividends WILL get auto-reinvested, he said no. Why do you have this policy? No good answer. Very disappointing.