I have had a brokerage a/c, 401k, IRA & Roth with Fidelity Investments over 10 yrs. I have found them always extremely helpful, well informed. Also, unlike some companies which ONLY recommend their products, Fidelity has recommended some stock mutual funds that were not a Fidelity product. I am not charged anything for their holding my brokerage a/c (perhaps smaller accounts, there may be a fee). They are open 24 hrs. a day when I can call. I have never felt hurried as with some companies.

Treats its highly educated employees like dirt ... and Fidelity doesn't even have the excuse of needing to respond to quarterly pressure from shareholders, since they are not publicly owned. The only people company managers have to report to are the Johnson family, particularly Ned and his daughter Abigail, who are the 35th and 16th richest Americans, respectively. Fidelity engages in such dubious scams as keeping 24 cattle on a Texas ranch so as to obtain an agricultural exemption that reduces their state tax bill by 99.78%, while also buying front-page newswriters for the Boston Globe to promote their latest free-checking accounts, but Fidelity's most outrageous corporate policy is its treatment of its employees. My wife used to work there, and left before the really crazy stuff began to happen: at that time, her boss and dozens of other workers were told that they needed to relocate from Boston to some place in North Carolina, in order to keep their jobs. So, at the beginning of this summer, all these people picked up spouses and kids and moved down south. Guess where they are now? In North Carolina ... but unemployed. Fidelity had the bright idea of moving these dozens (perhaps even hundreds) of employees out of Boston, then laying them off a couple of months after getting there. Nice guys, huh? I know that financial services is a tough business now--Charles Schwab has for example moved people from San Francisco to Phoenix, but they haven't gotten laid off, and at least it's Phoenix and not some podunk ex-company town that their employees are stuck in ... Crappy company all around.

They are the worst company in America. They are a terrible, terrible organization. I hope that the entire company goes under. I will smile if this happens. RIP Fidelity.

I am a long (over 10 years) Fidelity customer (because of my employer 401K). If one looks critically beyond the superficial nice facade, the lack of substance and competency is apparent. Fidelity is well behind most of its competitors in almost any area that impact customers success. Especially disheartening is that this bad situation continues to deteriorate. There are ample examples in all areas of investing or trading. I suggest to any new customer to check carefully any selected services Fidelity offers BEFORE committing any funds. Specifically, new customers should compare Fidelity offerings and services against many available alternatives that, in my opinion, are much better.

Illustration in one area:
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&thr eadid=88495&perpage=6&highlight=fidelity%20active%2 0trader%20pro&pagenumber=3

I was not referring to opening an account. I'm talking about a well established customer who is bringing in NEW money. This is not a third-party check from some fly-by-night person or firm. I'm referring to a cashier's check from Bank of America! Why go to the trouble to get a cashier's check if Fidelity will not honor it on demand? Just about any bank in this country would do so. More to come. TheTruth

Software for my retirement Fidelity account is the worst I have ever seen. It is so user unfriendly that you have to click many times and wait for many pages to load before you can see what you want to see; for example, your investment transaction. On top of that, if you want to go back to certain places, you do not have a link to do that, you have to back track each page. The worst ever!
The Fidelity funds managers that manage my funds are no better than a monkey throwing darts. They charge fees but do not perform - worst that the S&P performance. They charge us all kinds of hidden fees that you may not know of - included in the 1.2% yearly management fee. For what? For bringing the value of my investments down? In addition, the retirement service personals do not seem to understand even their own funds like the spartan funds. If they know, they must have played dumb so that you won't be interested in funds managed by other brokerage.
You may ask why don't I switch to another more product brokerage. The answer is that my work place does not offer much alternatives -- i.e I am stuck. You can find better brokerage somewhere else.

After charging inflated fees and under performing its peers across the board, they charged me $50.00 to liquidate my account so I can take my business elsewhere. They don't even pretend to care about your business. Don't expect much attention if you have less than $500,000. I've been much happier with that other big fund company that starts with a "V". They have more choices, lower fees, and much more helpful. I hope this helps you if you are on the fence about what company to trust with your retirement.

Fidelity Sold my stock I had owned for years. service fees ate up value of stock.
no notice except statements.
I had enough cash in other accout to cove extra fees overun.
Dropping Fidelity.
was a loyal customer for over 20 years.

As a brokerage, mutual fund company and 401K provider, Fidelity has a great array of products and service is very good accross the board. Additionally, their brand is very important to them and you will naver catch them in those embarrassing conflict of interest situations that the other big financial service companies have been caught up in. So as a customer, you could say that I am very pleased with Fidelity. The PROBLEM is that I workf for Fidelity. I hate it so much. Very aggressive - most political corporation that I have ever worked for. Different business units won't work with one another (will pretend to ... but really don't). Constant walking on eggshells ... my senior management swears at and berates his customers ... not appropriate behavior for an Executive VP. I can't wait until the ecomomy improves so I can leave this sole sucking company .... I hat it so much!!!

Fidelity Investments seems to have that "Good, but not Brilliant" feel that often goes with huge organizations. I've been a customer there for about 9 years and I can't really think of anything outstanding-- good OR bad-- that has happened during those years. Any time I've gone to an actual Fidelity office, the people have been friendly enough. The web site (which has gone through much "tweaking" over the years) is perfectly serviceable, although they could use a little usability work. Fees are certainly "in the ballpark," compared to competitors. On account of their size, they have a VAST array of in-house financial services and products to offer, in addition to just straight discount brokerage services. I like the fact that this makes them almost a "financial supermarket." On the other hand, you also get that "I'm just a number" feeling. But... they give me what I need, and I have no inclination to go elsewhere-- so that's probably how they got so successful!

GENE GENE HAD A MACHINE JOE JOE MADE IT GO FRANK FRANK TURNED THE CRANK HIS MOTHER CAME OUT AND GAVE HIM A SPANK AND THREW HIM OVER THE SANDBANK

I like Fidelity. Good service, good features. I'm not that crazy about their website, even though they've changed it several times it always seems to be a bit of a put off. I guess just not that user friendly or bland looking or something but that doesn't really reflect on their service which is quite good. I also like that their prices are more reasonable that Schwab.