Q. I don’t understand how a system update can wipe out all of my financial accounts and my existence at Fidelity without any meaningful explanation or apology. This experience was and is one of the worst of my life.
— Marta Gruntmane, Eagle, Colorado.
No one thinks about how much trust we place in the invisible infrastructure that continually tracks and documents our financial accounts until one day something goes completely wrong.
For Ms. Gruntmane, a 35-year-old medical assistant, that moment came on the Friday morning before Easter as she prepared to take her daughter to school. Fidelity Investments sent messages alerting her that her phone number and email address had been removed from her profile – and encouraging her to contact Fidelity if she had not done so.
Alarmed, she quickly logged in, “only to find that all of my accounts were gone and my balance showed zero dollars.”
It appeared that Fidelity had erased all traces of her long-standing financial relationship with the company, wiping out the tens of thousands of dollars she had held in three accounts, including the Roth retirement account that her father had set up for her when she was 16 – and which she had contributed to regularly ever since. Her online bank statements and tax records were also missing, so she couldn’t immediately find any of her account numbers, she said.
Now completely panicked, she called Fidelity on the way to her clinic; It told her she had no accounts there.
“Are you sure you shouldn’t call Schwab?” Ms. Gruntmane recalled a statement from a representative that referenced Charles Schwab. “Are you sure it’s ours?”
Even if their account was closed or deleted, they could usually see it, employees told her. They also refused to connect her with the fraud department, Ms. Gruntmane recalled, for the same reason: If there was no lead on her accounts, how could there be fraud?
“If you’re just treated like you’re kind of crazy,” Ms. Gruntmane said, “that doesn’t feel very good.”
After a call that lasted more than an hour and included many departmental transfers and hold times, a Fidelity representative gave her two options: send a “letter of instruction” in the mail detailing what was going on, or drive two and a half hours to the nearest branch in Denver with her ID.
Ms Gruntmane felt she had no choice and was forced to cancel her 20 or so patients for the day. After a quick stop at home to pick up her PC, ID card and other documents, she got back in her car and drove off. “It just felt like a psychological thriller,” she said.
While driving through Vail, she called her mother, who suggested she try contacting Fidelity’s fraud department again. She stopped and eventually reached a representative who was more helpful. He also couldn’t immediately find evidence of her accounts, but she had found an account number to share with him. After a second hour-long call, he promised the investigation would continue but said it was most likely a system-related issue.
A little later that morning, a back office specialist called her and confirmed that her predicament was indeed a system issue and told Fidelity to find a solution within 24 hours. He gave her the department’s direct phone number and told her to call if the problem wasn’t resolved by Monday.
That wasn’t it. The holiday weekend slowed the process, but ultimately it took about six days for their accounts to be revived and their balance restored.
When she called Monday, she got more clues about what went wrong: Because her account was originally opened with a taxpayer identification number (she was a permanent resident at the time), there was a system error when she recently opened a Roth IRA for her daughter using her own Social Security number. Although she said she used her Social Security number at Fidelity for years, it appears her profile and accounts were not properly merged and updated. A work profile created by a previous employer more than a decade ago using your social security number can also lead to complicated issues. (She said she never activated or used it.)
“What is most concerning is not just the technical issue itself, but also the complete breakdown in communications and security measures,” said Ms. Gruntmane, who noticed that her budgeting app was still showing her balance in the days when she tried to make her accounts available again. “Customer service had no visibility into the issue and was unable to appropriately escalate it.”
Fidelity said it could not provide details about Ms. Gruntmane’s experience due to privacy and account security concerns. The company declined to say how often these types of snafus occur or why customer representatives had no insight into this issue.
The company told Ms. Gruntmane that her money was not going anywhere; It simply wasn’t visible to them on the mobile app or website. “There was no warning that I would not be able to access my accounts for five days,” she added. “If I had to use that money, it would be completely inaccessible.”
From now on, she said, she will keep the physical receipts of her accounts and balances in a safe place. Her story reminds us that we should all adopt this habit.