Vanguard in ??? Monroe, Wisconsin, pop. 11,000, Swiss cheese capital of the world?

[nisiprius]

So, I received a transaction confirmation and the only address on it is "Vanguard, PO Box 3009, Monroe, WI, 53566-8309." This strikes me as really curious, because Monroe is a little town of 10,000, best known as the headquarters of Swiss Colony cheese. And various Google searches on things like "vanguard monroe wi" or "vanguard 53566" are coming up blank, and nothing obvious is showing when I poke around on Google Maps...

...wait...

A location marked "R. R. Donnelly?" Surely they are in Chicago? Maybe this building in Monroe is an R. R. Donnelly-owned printing factory that prints and mails statements and things for dozens of companies?

R. R. Donnelly isn't mentioned in the Wikipedia article on Monroe, nor on the town's website...

It is of no importance whatsoever, but if anyone knows the story I'd be curious to know more.

[Steve Reading]

So, I received a transaction confirmation and the only address on it is "Vanguard, PO Box 3009, Monroe, WI, 53566-8309." This strikes me as really curious, because Monroe is a little town of 10,000, best known as the headquarters of Swiss Colony cheese. And various Google searches on things like "vanguard monroe wi" or "vanguard 53566" are coming up blank, and nothing obvious is showing when I poke around on Google Maps...

...wait...

A location marked "R. R. Donnelly?" Surely they are in Chicago? Maybe this building in Monroe is a printing factory that prints and mails statements and things for dozens of companies?

R. R. Donnelly isn't mentioned in the Wikipedia article on Monroe, nor on the town's website...

It is of no importance whatsoever, but if anyone knows the story I'd be curious to know more.

Isn’t that just a P.O. Box?

[jebmke]

I had them stop emailing me stuff (except PW resets, if needed). I just go in and see the confirm online.

[Trapper]

Call up the Town of Monroe Superintendent or Mayor and ask him. The head of the town will know what is going on within his borders.
I did this once when Ithaca Gun Company had one of my shotguns in for a recall and the factory went into bankruptcy and closed.
Town official put me in touch with the correct factory representative to resolve.

[Makefile]

Handling mail returned by the post office does seem like a very logical thing to contract out.

[Nicolas]

Nice little town, I’ve been there several times. It’s only 19 minutes from the New Glarus Brewing Company (only sold in Wisconsin).

[MP123]

So, I received a transaction confirmation and the only address on it is "Vanguard, PO Box 3009, Monroe, WI, 53566-8309." This strikes me as really curious, because Monroe is a little town of 10,000, best known as the headquarters of Swiss Colony cheese. And various Google searches on things like "vanguard monroe wi" or "vanguard 53566" are coming up blank, and nothing obvious is showing when I poke around on Google Maps...

I note that Google search now leads to this thread! Spooky.

[LadyGeek]

I'm bumping this old 2020 thread because it did indeed show up in a Google search. I just received an email from Vanguard titled "VANGUARD FUNDS Important Information".

There was absolutely no helpful information, such as the name of the fund. Only that I should click on a link titled "Annual report". After confirming the link went to Vanguard, I found that it was the annual report for the Vanguard Target Retirement funds.

Under the document info is:

Job Number: ‌K24819‌

P.O. Box 3010 ‌|‌ ‌Monroe, WI 53566-8310 ‌|‌ ‌v‌a‌n‌g‌u‌a‌r‌d‌.‌c‌o‌m‌

Like nisiprius, I couldn't trace the address to anything which could identify Vanguard. Bear in mind that someone has to physically go to the post office to get the mail. Several financial advisory firms are near the post office, which is a scary thought. However, I don't think they're involved with the email.

A google search for "Vanguard Monroe WI" shows PO box 3009 used on Vanguard's financial statements. So, someone is using PO boxes 3009 and 3010 for Vanguard. My guess is a subcontractor in the local area. Or, the mail is forwarded to somewhere else.

The email return address is listed as id@proxyvote.com. That's not Vanguard. Tracing the header shows the source as proxyvote.com and the bounce address to ms-bounce.broadridge.com.

proxyvote.com is a service of Broadridge, an infrastructure provider. My guess is that Vanguard is subcontracting their statements and email services to this company.

In any case, the email template used to generate the report statements is low quality. In addition to not detailing the email content, I should never see a job number in an email. That's for production control. At the very least, they should be clear on the content and tell the customer what's in the email. "Fund information" simply doesn't cut it.

I remember prior emails which detailed the name of the fund and title of the report. Something has changed.

I suspect Broadridge is delivering their products as required. Vanguard simply didn't provide good requirements. Or, they never did any Quality Assurance follow-up to ensure that what's delivered is what the customer expects.

[nisiprius]

I thought I had identified Monroe, Wisconsin as the location of a big R. R. Donnelly plant. In fact their main address is 350 17th St, Monroe, WI 53566. They were and I assume still are one of those immense-yet-unknown parts of the economy. They are specialized printers. For the better part of the twentieth century they printed all of those huge phone books and yellow pages. And the Sears catalog. They used to handle the physical distribution of physical mailing pieces, but Vanguard changed providers, I think. There may have been more than one thread because I did find a big nondescript industrial building in Monroe in Google Maps Satellite view. But Vanguard changed their mailing operation to a different firm in Texas.

But whatever you're observing to me is another indication of general chaos. Not Vanguard losing direction in the sense of going the wrong way, but literally not being directed at all. My wild guess is that stuff that should be done is just not getting done, because some department was laid off or outsourced and the pointy-haired bosses actually not knowing the specific things the old department was doing.

Random synaptic firing: Sears intentionally formatted their catalog to be slightly smaller than Ward's, so that anybody who got both would semiconsciously put the Sears catalog on top of the Ward's catalog on the coffee table, covering it up.

[nisiprius]

Yeah, there's another thread: Vanguard will be moving their mail operations to El Paso

So who knows what exactly they are still doing in Monroe, in El Paso, in Pennsylvania, in Charlotte, in Scottsdale????

There may be a third thread, as I am sure someone found a Google Street View image of the headquarters of Swiss Post Solutions in El Paso.

[aciaitf]

Time to revive this old thread.

Today, we received a USPS Informed Delivery email that a tax document from Vanguard with an address: PO Box 3009, Monroe, Wisconsin will be delivered to the mailbox soon.

It's rather perplexing, especially in light of the fact that we opted for e-delivery years ago. In addition, we have already received all the electronic 1099 tax documents.

[Duckie]

Today, we received a USPS Informed Delivery email that a tax document from Vanguard with an address: PO Box 3009, Monroe, Wisconsin will be delivered to the mailbox soon.

Made me look. Monroe is the address on my e-delivered statements since I switched from the mutual fund side (which used the Valley Forge address) to the brokerage side in 2018. It is also the address on the cover letters that accompanied my e-delivered consolidated 1099 forms. My actual 1099 forms have had the El Paso address since 2020.

[water2357]

Thanks for reporting on this. I've gotten some unusual (not very descriptive) emails from Vanguard since signing up for e-delivery. I'm always very hesitant to click on any link in an email. It would be nice if Vanguard could better indicate when they are going to send emails that don't quite look like they are official Vanguard emails.

[celia]

It would be nice if Vanguard could better indicate when they are going to send emails that don't quite look like they are official Vanguard emails.

Really? The fake emails (from scammers) try to look like they are official documents.

As soon as a company says their future emails will look a little different, you know what will happen, don’t you? Scammers will flood your email box with tons of “official” documents that almost look like the real ones.

[Cheez-It Guy]

Random synaptic firing: Sears intentionally formatted their catalog to be slightly smaller than Ward's, so that anybody who got both would semiconsciously put the Sears catalog on top of the Ward's catalog on the coffee table, covering it up.

Very interesting, and smart, I suppose. That's certainly how I stack books on my coffee table.

[firebirdparts]

Sounds like Donnelly found a way to stay in business. Good for them.

My dad was a machinist and he became a maintenance mechanic in a book factory before I was born. They took on summer help and I worked there one time before my career started to take me into internships. What a fascinating place to work. I would do it again right now. I love books. We were printing time-life civil war series that summer on the press I worked on. I think I could still pick the CSS Shenandoah out of a lineup.

Printing mail but be much less satisfying, but it’s work.

[aciaitf]

Made me look. Monroe is the address on my e-delivered statements since I switched from the mutual fund side (which used the Valley Forge address) to the brokerage side in 2018. It is also the address on the cover letters that accompanied my e-delivered consolidated 1099 forms. My actual 1099 forms have had the El Paso address since 2020.

Thanks for chiming in. I can confirm it's due to the switch from Mutual Fund to Brokerage platform; hence, this Monroe, WI address.

[aciaitf]

I'm always very hesitant to click on any link in an email. It would be nice if Vanguard could better indicate when they are going to send emails that don't quite look like they are official Vanguard emails.

As a family member of someone in cyber security, our 2 cents on email notifications:

NEVER EVER click on the link embedded in the email just to be on the SAFE side, no matter how legit it looks.

[adestefan]

A long time ago I did some network support work for a bulk mailing printer that was one of the first to go fully digital. We upgraded their network from coax to twisted pair and transitioned them from Netware with IPX to TCP/IP as they expanded.

They integrated digital design, printing, and mailing all in house. A main source of revenue was negotiated bulk mailing rates with the USPS and skimming off of that. In the early 90s they made really, really good money doing contract work for a lot of major corporations.

[runninginvestor]

Thanks for reporting on this. I've gotten some unusual (not very descriptive) emails from Vanguard since signing up for e-delivery. I'm always very hesitant to click on any link in an email. It would be nice if Vanguard could better indicate when they are going to send emails that don't quite look like they are official Vanguard emails.

Just train yourself to never click on an email link. If you get an email saying you have a new notification/statement/etc just go to the website separately and check.

[Charles Joseph]

So, I received a transaction confirmation and the only address on it is "Vanguard, PO Box 3009, Monroe, WI, 53566-8309." This strikes me as really curious, because Monroe is a little town of 10,000, best known as the headquarters of Swiss Colony cheese.

Why are you poking holes in Vanguard's choice of PO Box locations? (Swiss Colony sells lots of stuff but is also known for their "Big Baby Swiss")

[water2357]

An email with a Vanguard Monroe WI P.O. Box US Mail address in the text, was sent from an email address ending in ,,,,@investordelivery.com,
does anyone know who or what owns this type of email address/domain, is it Vanguard? Or how is it tied to Vanguard? Is this some generic brokerage service for providing updates on a prospectus? Etc?

Prior to signing up for e-delivery it seemed like most, if not all, Vanguard emails came from .....@vanguard.com, or ....@....vanguard.com, not ....@investordelivery.com

Does Vanguard have a list anywhere of the email address/domains that they use to send legitimate emails?

[toddthebod]

An email with a Vanguard Monroe WI P.O. Box US Mail address in the text, was sent from an email address ending in ,,,,@investordelivery.com,
does anyone know who or what owns this type of email address/domain, is it Vanguard? Or how is it tied to Vanguard? Is this some generic brokerage service for providing updates on a prospectus? Etc?

Prior to signing up for e-delivery it seemed like most, if not all, Vanguard emails came from .....@vanguard.com, or ....@....vanguard.com, not ....@investordelivery.com

Does Vanguard have a list anywhere of the email address/domains that they use to send legitimate emails?

investordelivery.com is registered to Broadridge Financial Solutions who was mentioned by LadyGeek above. Interestingly, Broadridge is a publicly-traded company whose largest shareholders, in order, are Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, and Morgan Stanley.

[water2357]

Thanks, the other domain mentioned above was proxyvote.com. I wonder how may of these Broadridge email address/domains are being used for/by Vanguard? Many, if not most, banks and other businesses concerned about cybersecurity tell you up front what email addresses/domains they use for legitimate email communications.

[Monster99]

Nice little town, I’ve been there several times. It’s only 19 minutes from the New Glarus Brewing Company (only sold in Wisconsin).

Spotted Cow! Tasty!

[galawdawg]

Hmmmm. Vanguard, Wisconsin, Cheese.....

Perhaps there is some meat on the bones of my suspicion about the alter-ego of our favorite Vanguard fan....

Does = ?

[peppers]

^ The plot thickens.......

[biscuit5]

deleted

[rob]

They were and I assume still are one of those immense-yet-unknown parts of the economy. They are specialized printers.

A lot of financial companies I've worked at use this firm for high volume mailings. Not sure why they would not have a return address that is relevant to Vanguard and I don't know their locations.... but the company is far from unknown.

[daleddm]

Monroe WI is some sort of odd ground zero for half the bottom feeder catalogs on the planet and gosh knows what else - not surprised (but disappointed) to hear Vanguard has climbed on their bus (for printing somebody has suggested?)

I know this because my sister is in a nursing home with dementia and hasn't had access to banking in several years, but one of the garbage catalog companies nevertheless gave her an on-line catalog credit line, and then their sister company did the same and I had to fight with them and went through the Monroe addresses initially. I even called the city attorneys office there to try to understand why these companies use Monroe - never got an answer, but if you pay attention to the dregs of mail order catalogs (all with on-line shopping too, of course) virtually all will show a Monroe, WI return address.

[Cheez-It Guy]

^That was already mostly addressed in the first post. It's an R.R. Donnelley printing location. R.R. Donnelley is the world's largest commercial printer. They are printing what they are contracted to print, which can range from bottom-feeder catalogs to professional mailings for the world's largest financial firms. They mail from where they print. It doesn't really mean anything untoward is going on. They have the equipment and scale to print more efficiently than most anyone else. I've worked in some specialized areas, and a previous customer was a large supplier of print consumables to R.R. Donnelley (it was their largest customer).

Here:

https://www.rrd.com/locations/rrd-forms-monroe

RRD’s Monroe facility is a manufacturer of multi part continuous carbonless business forms, multi web bond/carbon, short run continuous, one-part continuous, and cut sheet/speedi set forms. Our coating operation provides a variety of pressure sensitive laminate and linerless products. We are also home to one of two Customer Service Centers specifically servicing the Northeast region of the U.S.

Location
RRD Forms - Monroe
350 17th Street
Monroe, WI 53566
United States
608.329.9284

So, mystery solved. Call them and ask to speak to Tim Buckley if you like. See if they page me.

[Cheez-It Guy]

Somewhat related:

I just generated some PDF letters and confirmations online at Vanguard Charitable, and the PDF generator points to

api.pivot.rrd.com

R.R. Donnelley again.