Fidelity Investments was supposed to disburse my pension funds 10 months ago...Still waiting...Filed a complaint with SEC. Corporations should avoid Fidelity at all costs.

On April l5, 2010 I mailed via US Mail an IRA contribution to Fidelity Investments for the 2009 tax year. The deposit slip and check both indicated the IRA contribution was to be used for the 2009 tax year. Fidelity received the IRA contribution on 4/20/2010 and ignoring the letter' postmark, the tax year designation on the check and Fidelity deposit form and deposited the IRA contribution for the the 2010 tax year because it arrived one day after their arbitrary receipt cutoff (4/19/2010). As a result I have needed to file an Amended return with both the federal government and the state.

My complaint is as follows:

(1)Fidelity failed to disclose in any of their written or online literature that an arbitrary cutoff date of 4/19/2010 was in effect. If I had know this was the case I would have electronically transferred the funds or sent the contribution registered mail where I could have provided proof of postmark.

(2)Fidelity deposited the IRA contribution clearly designated for the 2009 tax year into the 2010 tax year. They did so without notifying me of the issue. If I had not been carefully reviewing my accounts for unrelated issues, I might not have caught the issue until the following tax year or at a minimum would have caught it later. Further, I am unable to withdraw the 2010 IRA contribution without fund redemption fees, since the money is already invested in funds with 90 day redemption fees.

In summary, the Fidelity cutoff date is arbitrary and harsh with respect to US Mail. Further they have not fairly disclosed the existence of the cutoff date, nor did they act properly in depositing the account for the 2010 tax year when they were specifically asked to deposit it for 2009. Finally, they admitted that while the postmark date is controlling with respect to a 2009 contribution (must be postmarked by 4/15/2009), they deliberately fail to check the actual postmark date.


The above practices are egregious and place burdens on everyday tax payers and in my case, in addition to an amended return, will result in IRS penalty fees.

I spoke with Jusin Catal regarding rolling my Fidelity funds into a 457(b) and asked if there would be any account closing fees for either of my funds. Justin stated that if a $50 close fee applied, notification of that fee would appear on my sell screen when I sold the shares via their website.
When I performed my close sells online, no notification appeared onscreen, leading me to believe that no close fees applied.
When my transaction notification came through on the next business day, a $50 close fee was listed for one of the funds.
When I spoke to a rep named Chase about the matter, he said that although the rep misinformed me, the fee could not be recovered because it was already deducted.
I will never do business with Fidelity again, as this was the second situation in which I have been misinformed by one of their phone reps that caused me irreversible fees that I was told I would not encounter.
The first situation was in regards to the ability to contact them collect during my extended time outside of the country. That also was incorrect information that caused me about $72 in low fund balance fees.

Fidelity reneges on it's Bond trades by mysteriously removing the trade after it already fills. From what I noticed twice when this happened both times (May 28, 2009 and June 23, 2009) they seemed to find cheaper shares to replace my sold ones with thus sending me the bonds back into my account and taking my trade and money away (stealing money out of my account as well as stealing my trade).

the trade went through on many forms of Their site, it was filed in the History or transactions, the Balance changed to support the trasnaction, Positions showed the shares gone that were sold, Third Party transactions showed the transaction took place, and orders showed filled with date time and transaction number. Over 30 minutes later it was wiped out without notification or justification or legality to do so. It is illegal to change a trade let alone claim to guarantee trades and not fulfill that guarantee nor make right of such acts being caught red handed.

To rub salt into the wound the supervisors of the Fixed income desk are the ones who handle the complaints even though that is a conflict of interest this is how Fidelity handles such issues.

If you have such issues with Fidelity trading like this or missing dividends and interest payments like I had twice before also, then contact the SEC web site and fill out their complaint form.

In the case of the missing dividend they posted but then vanished like this bond trade, in essence literally taking money out of my account and only placing it back after you notice and complain. How many people don't notice nor complain and how many Fidelity reps are allowed to continue to rip people off because their process of dealing with customer issues is geared towards the thief being allowed to give the client the run around avoiding investigation

I have been with a few different brokerage companies over the years…my recent experiences with Fidelity Investments takes top honors for the worst brokerage house. Worst. Brokerage. Ever. They miss on every level.

Fidelity has one thing going for it…it’s too big to fail, so one can feel comfortable parking money there. It’s not a good brokerage house with with to do any market trading…in fact, it’s one of the worst. In brief: every single transaction you make has to be checked…they constantly make mathematical errors. Every transfer in and out of your core account has to be checked…every single stock purchase has to be checked…every commission charged has to be checked. And then it’s hours on the phone getting it corrected…then it has to be checked to make sure it’s corrected…then it’s more phone when it’s not. Their website consistenly has technical issues…charts don’t work…and quotes are often corrupt. Today their quotes were consistenly off by more than 100 points on the Dow…I don’t want quotes…advertised as real-time…that are actually five minutes ago. And one doesn’t know that these quotes that are advertised as real-time are delayed five minutes unless you are comparing to something else that is accurate. If the market is busy…particularly in the first half hour of the trading day…you can be locked out of your account. When you complain to Fidelity…you are advised to use the back up system…something they call “FAST”…a phone ordering platform. That would be great…except when you are locked out of your account on their website…you are also locked out of your account on the phone system…so much for Fidelity’s solution.

Their order routing system is inconsistent. I have had stocks trade right through my order price with no trigger. Trading the market is hard work…when the market closes…I want to relax…I don’t want to spend hours poring over my account and it’s transactions…every little detail checked…and then spend hours on the phone getting it straightened out.

I am an active trader…I have an account worth a little under a million…that qualifies me for something called a “Premium Service Account”…I have suggested to them that they change the name to a “No Service Account” because that’s what you get…no service. Oh, they are so polite on the phone…so profuse in their apologies…but nothing changes. One week I spoke to six different service reps from the Premium Service department and got six different answers to a question…the reason I had to speak with six different reps was because every time I acted on their instructions…it was inaccurate information and triggered a problem with my account…so call again…be given more inaccurate information…act again…and trigger another problem…no one at Fidelity has any accountability…no one takes ownership of a problem…it’s always “too bad, it’s your problem, Sir”…put more diplomatically. I started making all my communications with Fidelity through their internal email program…so I would have all this inaccurate information on record…to no avail…they are not, in their opinion, responsible for any inaccurate information dispensed by their service reps…good one.

I have, in the last three months, since all this market volatility started, sustained some large losses in my portfolio or missed some fantastic opportunities…all because of Fidelity’s incompetence…I WILL move my account…it’s not an easy thing to do…particularly now…it takes me out of the game for several weeks while the transfer takes effect…but it has to be done…I will not allow them to destroy my portfolio any more than they already have. I suggest that anyone who is looking for a brokerage house…BEWARE…once you lose your money…it’s too late…and Fidelity WILL HELP YOU LOSE YOUR MONEY.