I will never do business with Fidelity again. My name is Dash and this is Mind Over Finance.
So Fidelity, one of the top 10 largest asset management companies in the world, that Fidelity,
closed my brokerage account on a customer service call without giving me a reason. So
instead of me flying into a rage, instead of me being angry for the rest of the day,
I decided to make this video. Admittedly, I'm a TD Ameritrade user. I'm very happy with
that brokerage, never had a problem and I've been using them for years, but I decided to
test out another brokerage just to see what it was like. And I made the mistake of signing
up with Fidelity. I want to say I opened my Fidelity account two or three weeks ago, and
I ran into issues because I'm an American citizen living abroad. So I live here in Tokyo,
here in Japan.
During the initial setup, I ran into problems with Fidelity's verification process. So they
want you to do verification via text or via a phone call and being that I have a Japanese
cell phone number, and I'm not physically sitting at a US phone number, that caused
a problem for me, but I called customer service about it. And we tried to do something to
work it out. And I think they wanted me to do a mail verification, and I thought that
was going to take a bit too long. So I decided to do a work around, and my work around was
to use my parents' address, which I put into my account details. And I called a relative
to do the phone verification and everything worked out fine. I was able to open my account
successfully. And this verification was only an issue when I was trying to connect my bank,
which I was also able to do successfully using Fidelity's system, but earlier today, things
got a little bit weird.
I was trying to log into my fidelity account today, just to double check that the money
from my bank account, my US bank account mind you, had gone from my bank account successfully
to my Fidelity account. It's a pretty new brokerage account. And I made the mistake
of putting in the wrong username three times to try to log in. My password was right, but
my username was wrong. On the fourth attempt, I realized what I had done wrong. And I put
in the correct username and password. And then I saw this message on my screen. Which
is fine because I know my bank would probably do something similar. So I had to call Fidelity
directly. It started off as your regular run-of-the-mill customer service call. The customer service
rep was polite, asked me a ton of security questions and I answered them all correctly.
She even set me up on Fidelity's voice recognition system to make it easier and more convenient
the next time I call Fidelity, which isn't going to happen.
So when she puts me on hold to do her little administrative thing, I think everything's
fine. When the customer service rep comes back after like a five minute wait, without
warning, this call takes a 180 degree turn.
Mr. Ash, are you still there?
Yep. I'm still here.
Unfortunately, this account is now closed and you won't be able to re-open it.
What the (beep). Can you tell me why?
They don't give a reason, but yeah, this account is closed and you won't be able to be re-open
it.
And at that point, I know she was just following a script she had been given because she kept
repeating the same thing over and over again. Like a robot. So I asked to speak to her manager
and after about a six or seven minute wait, I got a chance to. And you know that line
you always hear with bank and brokerage phone systems?
Calls may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance purposes.
Well, after this customer service call went south, I decided to record it too.
Hi, Donald. Are you still there?
I'm still here.
Wonderful. I have on the line. He's going to be able to assist you and answer your questions
today, okay?
Thank you.
Thank you, have a wonderful day.
You too. How are you?
Good. Good. What can I do for you?
I'm trying to find out why my account just got closed. I opened it, I answered my security
questions and for some reason the rep comes back and tells me now that my account for
Fidelity will be closed and won't be able to be reopened. And I'm not understanding
why. I thought I had just as much right to have an investment account as anyone else.
Right. Right. Part of the agreement that you agree to when you open up an account, is that
we reserve the right to close an account at any time. So I think they've taken it upon
themselves to close this account because of not being able to service your account any
longer. They don't really give a reason why, sometimes they don't.
And for Fidelity, it's not possible for me to open another account then?
Yeah, no, not in this case. No.
And there is no reason given for that as well?
Once they terminate a relationship, that means no more new accounts [crosstalk 00:05:27]
a reason why they closed this account now.
And who is they? Can I ask who is they? I really don't understand this. This is very
interesting to me because I've opened investment accounts with TD Ameritrade and I even linked
my bank account information to my Fidelity account. And I don't understand, E-Trade as
well, no problem opening an account there. This is the only brokerage that is giving
me this kind of issue and then no explanation, which is really odd to me.
Frequently they don't give an explanation. It could be our risk group, the service group.
[inaudible 00:06:10] really.
Is there anybody to talk to in the risk group?
No, I don't have anybody to get you to.
Wow. So, that's it. So nothing, no extra information offered, no nothing. That's just it.
I don't have any more information to give you [inaudible 00:00:06:34].
Okay. Wow. That's a little bit shocking to be honest, man. I really don't get that. If
I did everything right, I don't understand why my account will be closed.
And I don't know what happened there.
Okay. Well, let me ask this. What happens with my bank account information, et cetera.
What happens with that in Fidelity, since I did enter my bank account information and
all that stuff, what happens next? What happens with all of that?
Yeah, it'll be disabled.
Wow. This has not been a very good experience to be honest. Gosh.
Yeah.
Okay. Well, I guess that's all I have. I'll just take my business elsewhere. I don't have
to fight for it. It's fine.
All right. Mr. Ash.
All right. You have a great one. Thank you so much. This was terrible.
Thank you. All right.
And what do you notice about that conversation? Well, besides the fact that the supervisor
didn't seem to care very much about me as a customer, which is fine, it was vague as
hell. There was no real reason given about why my account was terminated. And to be really
honest with you, it took everything in my power to keep a level head, to keep from cussing
this supervisor out because I didn't like his attitude. And maybe it's just me, but
I felt like he was just kind of like, "Whatever." And I didn't put any names in this video because
I'm not a vindictive person. I don't want anybody to get fired from their jobs, especially
with all that's happening right now. These people probably have families to support.
And maybe they're just doing what they're told, but that does not in any way, shape
or form, excuse the one star, F level customer service that I received at Fidelity today.
I was just trying to get off of the phone with that guy. But after the call, I realized,
Oh yeah, I deposited $65 into that Fidelity account, and they made no mention of what
happens with the money. So I had to call them back.
... Account, but I don't mind taking my business elsewhere, but I need to get my money back.
It's just $65, but it's just principle. I'm not going to pay for a service that won't
even accept me, which is weird.
Okay. All right. Let me put you on a brief hold for just one moment.
Thank you very much.
So just to confirm, what did you want to do with the funds? How did you want them to be
sent to you?
Just send it back to my bank account. I guess just A-C-H, same way I put them in. That's
fine.
Okay. Let me put you on brief hold for just one moment.
Okay.
Thank you so much for holding for me.
No problem.
So, I looked into this and it looks like the funds have to be held in the account for 10
business days. And then you can call back for next steps. But at this point it's only
been eight business days, so you would have to call back on Monday.
Wait, so, okay. This is... Really? So I have to wait for 10 business days to get my money
back from an account- Oh my goodness. This is... Are you serious? This [crosstalk 00:09:54]
and I have to call you guys back in 10 business days to get my money back for account that
you guys closed. And I'm really trying to keep my calm here. I'm not trying to cause
a problem. I know you're a customer service representative, and I'm just trying to be
even tempered, but this just doesn't make, none of this makes any sense to me. I've never
had this happen with an investment account, of any other brokerage. Fidelity is the only
one that has ever done anything like this and I just signed up. So, I have to wait 10
business days, then call you back to figure out what to do with the money that I put in.
Is that correct?
Yeah. You can call back after 10 business days for the next steps, as far as the funds
in the account.
This is insane. I'm so glad it was just $65. What if it had been a thousand or something
like that? How? Really? Oh my goodness. Okay. You know what? That's just fine. I really
do appreciate it. This has been an awful experience and I just need to let you know, or somebody
else know that. Please don't do this to anybody else. Think about your policies. If you're
going to do this to somebody, because it could have been more money. I'm fine. It's fine.
But guys, think about your customers. It doesn't make any sense. Okay. You know what, thank
you so much for your time. I really do appreciate it.
You're welcome. Have a good rest of the day.
You too. Thank you so much. This entire situation made absolutely no sense to me and I was floored
at how bad the customer service was at Fidelity. And I don't know, maybe it was a bad customer
service day, but you can't have customer service days this bad. And I get it, brokerages have
risk assessment teams and security measures, but when those security measures keep you
from listening to customer on the other end of the phone, that's a problem. I wasn't doing
anything fraudulent. I wasn't trying to game the system. I don't have a reason to and yeah,
I live abroad, so what? I have never had a problem opening a brokerage account from here
with any other brokerage. And if Fidelity had told me, "We can't open a brokerage account
for you because you live overseas," that would have sufficed. And I probably wouldn't have
made this video, but they didn't do that. They kind of made me feel like a criminal
for no reason.
I didn't understand what was happening on the call. And I still don't understand it
now. And I just decided to worry about the brokerages that are going to treat me like
a real person, not a criminal, not a script, a person. And I hope someone sees this video
and shares the hell out of it. I hope Fidelity sees it. My story may be an isolated case,
but it is still my real experience. And this right here, this experience with Fidelity
has left a rancid taste in my mouth. I give Fidelity an F and I will never do business
with them again.
Well, that's done. That's the video for today, guys. Thank you so much for watching. If you
found today's video useful, please click that like button. And if you want to see more of
my videos, please subscribe and hit the notification bell so you can find out when I post new ones.
And if you know someone who's thinking about using Fidelity, please share this video with
them and it's not to get them to change their minds about Fidelity, but it's to make sure
that they can make a fully informed choice. And I want to hear from you, are you a Fidelity
user? Did you have a good experience with them? A bad one? Let me know in the comments
because I know everyone is not going to have the same experience that I just had today.
I'll catch you in the next one guys. Peace.