Merit Gold Complaints and Silver Scam? Financial Reviews
Merit Gold and Silver Review
Merit Financial otherwise known as Seacoast Inc., is currently under investigation for unlawful business practices. Customer reviews reveal the types of complaints, any positive testimonials and may show why they are accused of a scam or possibly fraud.
UPDATE: Although there are no proven scams involved with Merit, they are closing their business as of October 2014. They have enjoyed 28 years in operation and are no longer accepting orders. There is a pending government action against them currently as a consumer protection lawsuit has been filed by Santa Monica City Attorney’s office.
*Merit Gold review continued…(outdated, no longer viable)
This company has been around since the mid 1980’s according to the Business Consumer Alliance (BCA) so it has had its share of customers throughout the years. They currently hold ‘AA’ satus at the BCA. This helps us get a more accurate gauge as to what consumers really think about them as the internet community has captured most of what we will use to assess their worthiness.
When we began our unbiased search online it quickly became evident that there were a good amount of positive reviews and negative reviews out there. Now are all of these complaints justified? Well it depends what is important to you.
We would think that a company with the highest ratings and a low track record of logged complaints along with positive reviews is the combination that most are looking for when they’re about to invest a good amount of their savings.
When going through the complaints/comments on Merit Gold & Silver (Financial) you may notice that for every 10 negative reviews there are one or two positive remarks sprinkled in. But throughout all the posts on forums and consumer advocacy sites, overall there are many expressing that they are happy with their services.
Now let’s not forget they’ve been in business for a long time and they must have satisfied customers to be able to attract new clients as well as keeping them.
Another positive is that on the BCA site they have an ‘AA’, the second best rating and for every complaint that has been filed the company has issued a response which shows they are making an effort to make good on their promises. Most of the time, they have resolved the issues by either re-pricing previous orders or reaching some other amicable resolution.
TrustLink has over 600 positive reviews of satisfied customers.
Contradicting Ratings
Let’s start with the fact that they have a ‘D’ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB). This is odd given that the BCA lists them as a reputable businesses that has been around for decades. The site says the report is being updated however it has been like this for quite a long time.
Some seem to believe they have chosen to have their accreditation removed to avoid all of the complaints on display, this can be perhaps interpreted as a way of hiding their past performance.
Another associated company of theirs, Pure Gold, is also not rated or accredited by the BBB.
Now their sister agency, the BCA, (which I failed to mention above) has recorded a total of 63 complaints in the last three years. This is quite a lot and seems like management over at Merit needs to revisit some customer service training or figure out the problem because the complaints just seem to keep on coming.
We checked out the Complaints Board as well to see what we could uncover and even they had documented a number of complaints.
Summary
To be fair there are those that report having a good experience with Merit Gold and who are glad they have found them after being upset with other companies. This company does offer a lot of information on their website regarding IRA rollovers and gold investing in general. So not all was bad with this company and many may have continued to use their services without problems.
A high number of complaints should lead one to be more vigilant when deciding to give their business to any company. There are a lot of other companies with similar services, so it is in the customers’ best interest to shop around. After thoroughly researching this company it is apparent there are issues with their employees treating clients kindly and delivering the product that was ordered on time and at a specified price.
It also seems they are not fully looking out for their clients’ best interest with responses that leave the inexperienced not fully made aware of their decisions. Because you most likely will be investing a hefty amount into precious metals it would be wise to research this company further before trusting them with your business.
Before calling any precious metals dealers you should be aware of what fees are reasonable to be paying and what should be expected when opening a precious metals IRA.
Who Are We Recommending This Year?
We have found what we feel currently to be one of the best gold and silver companies for investing through an IRA or for rollovers and have done a full review of them here.
We welcome the opportunity for you to voice your concern or if you have your own take on Merit Financial then please go ahead and inform everybody here by commenting below.