I'm not sure why this place gets such poor reviews. I typically do not come to this branch. However today I was downtown running errands and had to make a quick stop to take care of some transactions. Location is right on university. Parking is easy- there is a large multi story structure one block away. Front desk staff were friendly and helpful and approachable. There was no wait and they took care of my issues promptly. read more

If I could, I would give this place -100. It was the worst experience I've ever had, so I'm compelled to write this review in the hopes that someone will read it before going here and change their mind. I had a 1-1 appointment with a financial advisor (Courtney John) in the late afternoon. I showed up for my appointment 5 minutes before my appointment to check in. Right after I checked in, the front desk lady informed me that my advisor had been notified and that she'd be with me shortly. It was an hour long appointment, and I was waiting for the first half an hour with no updates on how much longer I had to wait. I got frustrated and left the place. Now you'd expect that they'd at least give you a courtesy call and follow up, but I got no follow-up call, and no apology for wasting my time and for their poor management. I don't think I can trust this place or their advisors with my money or any financial advice if they can't respect my time, and worse, even acknowledge their mistake. This place is horrible. Don't waste your time and energy here. read more

I feel this office definitely has a problem with treating people with dignity and respect. I do not feel the same way with the company as a whole. The office in Palo Alto has a habit of judging a book by its cover, and is guilty of giving different service to different people based on vacuous self-assumptions that have no meaning. I only go into this office if I absolutely have to. It's never a pleasant experience. read more

Totally OVERSOLD on their management and strategy. Once I was under management they dropped me like a hot potato making enough to cover the management fees, leaving me flat. I called to exit and they NEVER submitted my order! Left it there to collect more fees! I did better on my OWN! RUN RUN RUN! read more

Exceptional support provided by customer support agent Brandon. Needed to transfer college fund moneys to my daughter's account. Brandon assisted my daughter through every step in the process. Super! read more

I don't usually post reviews but here goes. When your phone call services treat you better than the actual store, you know it's bad. I had spent several hours on the phone but yet felt like I was getting more help than from this store. The employee at this store did not fully grasp the situation nor advocate for the customer. If I had to request any change, I would recommend for the staff to at least understand why the customer is trying to make last minute changes to their retirement accounts instead of just blaming the customer and saying, "nothing could be done". I am usually patient with customer service and understanding but this was just poor service altogether. This is disappointing since this will having lasting effects on my financial plans. read more

It was a lousy experience trying to open an account. Account opening team completely unaware of how to properly open a trust account, pending days, asking each other, giving wrong information. Finally cancelled the order and moved it to another company. Very bad experience read more

Near election time,I found that had been exasperated in dealing with FID customer services esp. from different states. When I cancelled the order I put in previous days, took too long to clear and put the fund back into my accounts.(Sometimes 4-5 hrs before 4 PM or 6PM or even a few days after, this happened often). As well as putting orders to buy some political-tied stocks, over sudden there is a new rule that I have to get out to change my goal of investment. That delayed for another 5-10 mins or more. Richard C. was correct, transfer the money or stocks in-out of the accounts had been horrendous, I agreed. The office on UES is poorly planned for CoVid, the door was open and I can walked through empty offices and made a complaint to finally found one person working. But FID has more customer services to pick up the phone faster than other investment banks about half are new and had not been trained yet. read more

Fidelity Investments doesn't keep to their promise, I'll say they have good educational features but at the end you lost all your investment, first my withdrawal wasn't approved, I tried to access my account on my computer and I was restricted on both devices, support doesn't give proper answer just copy and paste. since I started profiting from benarmstrong-trades i decide to stick to my copy trading which have been very successful as I don't use Fidelity investment anymore, my investment is still stuck there. read more

If hanging on hold for HOURS is your thing....then you HAVE to call Fidelity. Trying to complete a simple transaction: transfer my late husband's Non-IRA cash account balance to his Estate Account with TD Bank. Too many irrelevant steps; like having to open an account in my name (what/why??), certified mailings of forms requested, then they still will not release the monies. Did NOT have these issues with Charles Schwab, Vanguard, Merrill Lynch or Transamerica; I requested the transfers and poof they were completed. If you want prompt assistance with a LIVE representative go with another institution read more

Trying to roll some old 401k accounts into a fidelity account. Can't for the life of me get a hold of someone. Calling the palo alto branch puts me on hold for an hour plus before getting disconnected. The website general phone numbers seem to land you in the same place. Even getting live chat takes 45+ minutes and they weren't able to help. Geez. read more

Terrible! Not allowed to buy and sell without being punished and having to wait. Waste of time and money!

Fidelity welches on their offers.. when I asked if they had $0 commision trades like Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and ETRADE, and they said no but they offered to give me $2500 to keep all my assets there. When I asked if they could meet TD Ameritrades tiers for account bonuses they recended the offer. From Fidelity Dusty Watkins Assistant to the Chairman and CEO Executive Office W834059-27SEP19 "I understand that you spoke with Vice President, Financial Consultant Irina Harichkova on October 8, 2019. Irina notified you that we rescinded the retention offer". I don't trust Fidelity because they recinded the offer so I don't trust them them with my money. Really all a broker has is his or her word and that trust is broken. Fidelity also posted false market cap information on an OTC stock I was trading (GEOVAX) even after GEOVAX posted updated SEC filings. In the reply to me Dusty Walkins at Fidelity's Executive Offices stated GEOVAX is a pink sheet OTC stock. My understanding is GEOVAX is a OTCQB who files SEC statements and pink sheet stocks have no such requirement,the CEO at Fidelity and her representatives should know the difference. read more

This review is not for Fidelity Investments as a whole but it is for the downtown Palo Alto office. We could not have been more disappointed. We went in seeking some advice having made an appointment with one of the more senior people. We were treated very poorly because we did not have millions to invest. The gentleman we spoke to was much more interested in telling us how many millionaires he had in his "book" than providing service. Apparently it's all about the money and not about the people. I've lived in this area all my life and I understand the changes and growth here. Change and growth has been a good thing for the Palo Alto area. Firms like the downtown Palo Alto Fidelity Investments should be ashamed of themselves for the way they are treating the 98%. read more

This is the exact same place I've already reviewed, so I'll say it again: I prefer Fidelity over Etrade for buying/selling stock for one main reasons. When it's time to do taxes, I can suck over all the stock transactions using TurboTax and Fidelity provides the basis cost for all the transactions. For some reason with Etrade, only the selling data us provided, so I end up having to do it by hand. Although ETrade has inexpensive trades, I get about the same price here, though it's likely due to the amount I have in my brokerage here. read more

Great office in Palo Alto. My advisor Larysa is Terrific!! Terrific customer service. read more

I had a simple IRA, I have been trying to put into a 401K, with a different company, for 5 months now. The process has been a nightmare. At one point they lost my money somewhere in cyberspace. Finally got the money back in my account, with fees taken out. I had to fight for that reimbursement. Nobody there seems to know how to help me. They finally just sent me a check. I called my new 401K company to see if I could deposit the check, myself. I can't. The check has to made out to the company it's being deported with to avoid early withdrawal fees. When I call fidelity I just get the run around. I have no other option other than depositing the money and losing 10%. I will NEVER invest with Fidelity again. read more

I was so disappointed with the customer service. When we arrived the women behind the desk said (to my 92 year old father) "you're back again" ... then said (rolling her eyes), "OK, lets get started... I'm ready for my lunch and I don't want to starve" ... insinuating my father was going to take a long time. He's 92 years old and does take a while to communicate and likes to understand all the details. My father is a kind man and has a lot of $$$ invested in Fidelity - how dare this woman treat him with disrespect. In the end she handed over the filling-out and signing of the documents to her colleague. He was extremely patient and respectful. read more

I'd give the Palo Alto retail branch ZERO stars for customer service. I stopped in for help determining if my recent 401K rollover was processed. All that was needed was to check the balance. If the funds were there then my question would've been answered. The desk agent was completely disinterested and unfriendly. He brushed me off and said he couldn't help even though I'd been assisted at another retail location recently. It was clear that he either hates his job or didn't value my business. Either way, I will absolutely never patronize this Fidelity branch again. read more

In order to avoid the famous Fidelity voicemail/prompt/life-stealer service you get by using their phone number, I actually took time off work to drive to their office in palo alto and request help from humans. 45 minutes later, I was still unable to complete the simple withdrawal from my account that I had requested. Bottom line, everyone is the place was: - polite and empathetic - poorly trained - unable to perform I'm back to Fidelity's voicemail/prompt hell to get it done. read more

First of all, I have accounts with two of the major brokerages and Fidelity is one of them so I do have something to compare it to. My beef with Fidelity is something that should be very basic and easy, transfer of money from a bank to my Fidelity account. For weeks now when you try to do a transfer you receive "We're sorry, but we can't process your request right now". How is this possible for a major brokerage? I'm done with them. read more

Fidelity has the absolute worst customer service and the online help is very poor, I wish I had never started using this company, it is impossible to get anything done. read more

I went there today to close an account my deceased mother had left me. I know nothing about finances but there were questionable fees and I asked why they had taken out $500 on the account which they were not supposed to invest any of the money. The man that was helping turned out to the the manager and he proceeded to tell me how stupid I was for not knowing anything about this account and continued to yell at me until I started crying. He was a complete asshole and I would never ever suggest going into that particularly office. I've never in my life been treated that way. I hope john your reading this and I hope you know pointing out the fact that when you've just lost a parent you don't ever through that in someone's face. I'm extremely hurt and will never do business with fidelity read more

I drew part of my investments with Fidelity and it took them 6 days to get me the check for $26,100.00. It turns out that it is part of their procedure to use regular mail to save on costs. Wow, what about my cost & the fact that I was out of funds all this time???? You would think for the amount of money you invest with them that they would at least use next day delivery!!!! read more

24 hours after my last post, still no release of the funds I deposited 2 weeks ago (drawn on my own checking account) and more than 3 hours spent on the telephone with customer service just to open a cash account and a brokerage account. This is turning into a constant stream of tiny mistakes, wrong form, punt to legal (again) misinformation and so on all triggered by a teller at the Palo Alto branch who didn't provide me with the right forms at the first visit. Now we are in the process of retitling an account which is gruesome. Be very careful... read more

I spent several hours on the phone with another major financial services provider trying to roll over several small IRAs and then nothing happened. They finally sent me forms in the mail, but they were the wrong forms. Some of the IRAs had account numbers for each fund, some just one account number for all of my funds. I found it too complicated to try to figure out how to fill out the roll over forms. Then I went into the Palo Alto office of Fidelity, where I had my current work 401k. They were more than happy to fill out the forms for me, even though I had walked in without an appointment. I love t heir website format - I can easily get the information I want on my investments. Also, the stock and mutual fund trading is easy to execute on the website. When I have need help on the phone I have always had courteous, prompt and knowledgable service. Their phone reps even give their first and last names - they are not ashamed of the way they do their job. The only reason they didn't get 5 stars is because they have recently been sending me solicitations to give me investment advice on a very small 401k I had with my most recent employer. The 401k had a limited number of pretty undesirable funds to choose from - there was no way Fidelity could have earned 0.5% of the account balance by giving me advice on how to invest that money. Seems like a rip off to me, though a small one, that will sucker a reasonable number of people who are afraid of investing. If they hadn't been sending me those solicitations I would have given them 5 stars. read more

For some reason, I've always had problems here -- nothing major, but it always seems like I get some conflicting instructions, minor misinformation, or its hard to find someone that can help me. Today I deposited some money there and they assured me that I could see it reflected on my account online in about 15 minutes. Its about 3 hours later and of course there is no update online. Is this a big deal? Not really, but taken together with multiple small irritations like this makes me see a pattern of mediocrity. I think Fidelity is one of those organizations that is so huge and which is difficult to switch from (if you have a lot of money invested), that they dont really have incentive to provide good customer service. read more

I went in here to establish a 529 (college savings account), mind you a small account, but fidelity is the california broker for the 529. The office is nice, but I wasn't really helped by any brokers inside, and was left up to fill out the application by myself. Luckily I know what I'm doing and what to choose, but if I didn't, I would have been very confused and intimidated. 3 stars for nice office, friendly enough staff, but no help... read more

After trying Scwab and Vanguard I came to Fidelity in 2000 and have been very satisfied since then. Their telephone support is exceptional.

This review is not pertaining to any local location but to the entire organization as a whole. I have been with them for a long time and finally got tired of the lack of services, and all the terrible changes on their webpage, making it hard and unfriendly to use. I am a Premium member and on average I have to contact them 2-3 times to get an answer. And when I do get a live person he/she does not know the answer and all they do is provide me with another 800 number to call. Finally after a year of poor services my family and I made the move to Schwab. Finally getting the customer service level that we used to get with Fidelity. Very disappointed with them. I think they need to stop being so focus on being the largest brokerage firm and return to roots and provide the level of care I know they are capable of. read more

I recently checked in about my accounts with Fidelity which I had been ignoring for quite a long time. Nancy Agaiby was my agent and she was very helpful, clear and friendly. She didn't try to sell me services or push me too hard on any direction, but instead helped me understand the current status of my accounts and gave me reasonable advice on how to redirect them without making a huge overall change. I left with a much clearer understanding of my options and appreciated her approach. read more

The front desk is no more helpful than that at other investment firms (eg., eTrade, Charles Schwab), but I have a very good CFA, Teresa Lee, whom I can call anytime. My one big complaint about Fidelity Palo Alto is that it is on University Avenue. What a nightmare to get to that office! read more

My local Fidelity branch and one where I've always had decent service. Granted, all I usually do is make deposits into my account, but the representatives at the desk never try to shoe me away. Maybe it's just my timing, but this branch never seems too busy and I can usually be in and out in 5 minutes, which is nice. Finding parking in downtown PA can be a little challenging during their banker's hours but it's also within biking distance for me. read more

No matter how much you click on paperless, they will keep sending you paper spam in mail forever, go back to 19th century with your mail.

My employer used Fidelity for disbursement of my pension benefits payments. The check is SUPPOSE to be in my mail box on or before the first of the month. I always get an email when they have put the check in the hands of the USPS for delivery. Well, on August 31st I received an email that my pension check was sent out on Thursday the 31st, ironically right before Labor Day weekend. Come Friday, September 1st my check did, of course, not come on the 1st. So, I waited until Saturday, no show. The same with Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I called Fidelity Tuesday and they said because of the Labor Day Holiday (of which I sat home for because I had no money to visit my family) that the mail might be running a little late and to give it another day and it SHOULD be here. Of course it wasn't. The mailman never set foot on our block. I know because I watched closely for his arrival so I could get my check and run to the bank, then run to the pharmacy to fill my prescriptions. So, I called Fidelity again on Wednesday, August 6th after the mailman no show and they said they would cancel the old check and send a new one out 2 day air delivery through UPS. Well, the next day my cancelled check finally arrived (after 5 o'clock and the banks were closed anyway). Friday, August 8th comes and goes and no 2 day air check arrival. Today is Saturday, August 9th and still no UPS 2 day air delivery. I find it ironic that here is a guy that has worked (LABORED) his whole life away and in his old age, when he needs his pension check, this multi-billion dollar corporation wants to hold his check so he doesn't get it before LABOR DAY weekend, or even after. When I was chewing out the Fidelity person on the other end of the phone, I mentioned that being I'm a veteran can I expect them to hold my checks before Veterans Day and Memorial Day. Come Monday, my account will be overdrawn due to bills that automatically come out on August 10th. Not to mention my COPD medications will have run out. In conclusion, I know where I stand with Fidelity, they'll send my check whenever they please and maybe not even send it at all. If you don't like it, suck on it. They have almost $16 billion in assets and they feel need to squeeze the poor workingman of his desperately needed chump change. Don't invest with these cruel money grubbing corporate assholes. They only concern themselves with filling their own pockets, not yours. read more

Looks like I am not the only one that is dissatisfied with this "Service" center for Fidelity. I was directed by the online customer service (which was very helpful) to visit the local Service center to assist me with rolling fund from another provider into my newly established accounts with Fidelity. I was "greeted" by a very smarmy man (can't call him a gentleman) who first said I could do this myself. When I mentioned that Fidelity directed me to come into the center, he made a comment about that and then asked if I wanted to make an appointment. I chose to leave. I will first call Fidelity and then possibly see if another service center has better ratings for assisting clients. I can't tell you his name since he didn't introduce himself but this took place today at around 1:00 pm. read more

Came in here to deposit a check. The office was very new and clean. Good location as it's on the corner. Had to wait in line a little longer than I wanted, but once I was helped, the transaction was completed quick and efficiently. The staff was professional, but friendly. read more

I'm a fan of Fidelity in general (a customer for nearly 30 years), and use the Palo Alto office rarely. But I needed to have some forms completed and notarized to make a transaction. The representative saw me promptly (I had an appointment), phoned the retirement account experts while I was there, printed out the proper forms, completed them, and had them notarized (for free) and processed while I sat in his office. The interaction was professional and took about twenty minutes from the time I arrived. I would have given them five stars, but I have extremely high service expectations, and only give five stars when somebody goes "above and beyond," which wasn't needed in this case. (I will say that it helps to have some basic financial understanding if you are a customer. If not, make a financial planning appointment ahead of time, as the agents are not necessarily going to be able to teach you everything in a short, walk-in meeting. Mostly, that's because there isn't always an immediate correct answer for a financial question - it depends on many factors....) read more

I, too, have had repeated bad experiences at this office. They're slow and generally unhelpful, even for the simplest transaction. Instead, I got to the Fidelity service center in Los Gatos when I'm in the neighborhood. read more

Tried opening an account online, called with a question which customer service needed to put me on hold so I could speak to a Supervisor, after a period of time, the customer service representative came back to the line "not a supervisor" by the time my question was answered the application form "Timed Out" causing me to go through the entire process all over again? Hello Scott Trade! read more