Problem: Download transactions from Merrill Lynch

[Good_Vibe]

Mark: We have a new account (April 2023) at Merrill Lynch. It contains assets from Cheryl's father (my father-in-law). We want to setup a Fund Manager account on our PC (similar to the ones we have been using for years at Schwab). The New Portfolio wizard prompts us for the user id and password (we are logged into said account). We are getting a General Error which prompts calling Merrill user assist number. Our account manager at Merrill is searching for a tech wizard inhouse to assist. They don't really seem to know much about FM. Can you help?
thanks, Phil Stephenson

[Good_Vibe]

By the way, we figured out how to edit/crop screen shots to get the one with the error message referenced in our original post. It is attached.

[Mark]

Hi Good_Vibe,

This was happening for a few days a couple of weeks ago also. See this forum thread:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6416

It took a few days, but Merrill eventually fixed whatever was not working. It was an issue on their end, and there wasn't anything we changed. I'd suggest giving it a few days, and see if it doesn't resolve again. If not, please let me know, and I can double check again if something needs to be updated on our end. You could also post in that other thread and see if anyone else is having problems again.

[Good_Vibe]

Mark: Not a very satisfying "resolution". Maybe a nudge from you might get Merrill's attention. Meanwhile, we stuck. Thanks

[Mark]

Unfortunately the only one who can resolve this is Merrill. I don’t have a contact at Merrill. Hearing complaints from their customers may increase the priority on a fix.

[Good_Vibe]

02/06/2024
Mark:
My apologies for the delay in following up the problem documented above (by Good_Vibe). Shared ALL of (Fund Manager and Good_Vibe) correspondence from January with our advisor who forwarded everything to Merrill's technical group. Unfortunately, the fantasy that the problem would self-heal has not materialized. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE contact Merrill. Since you have resolved problems with them in the past, you are bound to have some connection.
Meanwhile, I will do all I can through our financial representative at Merrill to seek resolution.
Sincerely, Good_Vibe

[Mark]

Hi Good_Vibe,

I get this same error when I attempt to retrieve with an invalid username/password. Is it possible that you don't have these entered correctly?

I've confirmed FM and Quicken are both accessing Merrill the same. One possible debug step is to try and access your Merrill account from Quicken, and see if that works or you get the same error as you're getting with FM. It is possible your Merrill account isn't enabled for OFX (Quicken/FM) access somehow, or possibly you have the wrong username/password.

We've never contacted anyone at Merrill, and don't have any special contact/relationship with them. I'm happy to talk to someone, and try to help, but getting to the right person within Merrill may be a challenge. It would be even harder for me, as I'm not a customer of theirs. If you or your advisor have a representative/contact from Merrill, I'd be happy to join in on a 3 way call, or you can ask them to call me (480-705-0129). It seems to be an account specific issue, so it would be best if you can also be on the call.

[Good_Vibe]

Hi Mark:
Wednesday 02/07/2024
Am double checking username/password with Merrill Lynch. This seem unlikely since at the time I attempt to download transactions, I am logged into that account at Merrill.

Will seek a contact for you at Merrill Lynch. Will need to go through our account adviser and it may take him some time to track down a contact.

Thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately We do not have Quicken on the computer we use to work with Merrill Lynch.

Thank you, Good_Vibe

[Good_Vibe]

04/02/202
Hi, Mark
We corresponded 01/17/2024 and again 02/06/2024 regarding a problem we are having attempting to download transactions from Merrill Lynch. After multiple “double checks” (per your suggestion), we know we are using the correct account and password and we are still not able to download transactions from Merrill.
Our consultant at Merrill forwarded multiple notes from you to Merrill’s “technical” experts. In two-a-half months, we have made NO progress. We have experimented with different browsers and a host of settings including your suggestion trying to download to Quicken (since they use the same software). Still, NO progress.
Perhaps the local Merrill “techs” might take this more seriously if they knew that Fund Manager has a lot of clients that use Fund Manager to download from Merrill. With that in mind, will you share the approximate number of Fund Manager users that successfully download from Merrill?
We respect the investment savvy of our consultant at Merrill and really don’t want to go somewhere else. But to stay with him, we must have access to the full investment picture through Fund Manager.

Look forward to hearing from you. Thanks, Good_Vibe

[Mark]

Hi Good_Vibe,

Sorry to hear this is still ongoing... What happened when you tried Quicken? Were you able to retrieve with Quicken, or did you get a similar error to what you're getting with Fund Manager?

We do not track usage in Fund Manager, so we have no way of knowing how many users are using a particular server. I know some are using it successfully just from my customer support correspondence, but I don't have the data to tell you how many.

[Good_Vibe]

Hi, Mark:
We got error messages similar to the Fund Manager failures: "General Error Your request cannot be completed at this time ....". Don't know where to turn now. Am discouraged that you don't appear to have any more tricks up your sleeve. Thanks for responding. Good_Vibe

[Mark]

Hi Good_Vibe,

Since you can reproduce this problem with Quicken, I would hope Merrill would help you debug the issue. The issue appears to be on Merrill's OFX server or your login credentials with that server. If you can get them to help resolve the issue using Quicken that will likely fix the issue for FM as well, as they both are using the same OFX server from Merrill.

[Good_Vibe]

Hi, Mark:
Will beg them to take another crack at this. Not hopeful.
Thanks for your help. Good_Vibe

[Good_Vibe]

04/26/2024
Hi, Mark:
First contacted you 01/17/2024 regarding a problem downloading transactions from Merrill Lynch. You suggested just waiting and maybe Merrill would magically fix the problem. We have corresponded several times since January. Well, Merrill finally found the magic. We tried many, many things but nothing worked. Back to the original configuration and magically download transactions now works. Seems like ninety days is a long time to wait to be able to access the details of our portfolio, but thank goodness, it now finally works!
Thanks, Good_Vibe

[Mark]

Hi Good_Vibe,

Excellent, thanks for sharing the results. Not sure what happened, but glad it finally got resolved.