I got let go for admitting I returned computer items from over 3 years prior. Repurchased but eBay goes back only 3 years and PayPal 2 years. Don't think it would of mattered even if I could get them. If you are called into investigation by internal director, I highly recommend you say nothing and tell them you want to discuss with your legal council. you may be let go any way but at least you can force their hand. They may have got records from the stores without your consent which is better to show if it goes to court.
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I don't think anyone who got fired gave their recumbent bike to a needy family who returned it to get cash for food. Give me a break, people are sounding desperate and panicky.
Let's assume that the objective of anyone called into an investigation is 1) keep your job and 2) if you can't keep your job, at least try to leave with a clean U-5.
There are several methods to try: 1) being brutally honest about how you tried to scam the company out of a few hundred $$ and never really thought you'd get caught but now you are asking for mercy and a second chance; 2) trying to make excuses and justifications to convince the investigators that you really didn't do anything wrong and don't deserve to be fired; 3) say nothing, walk out and hire an attorney to fight fire with fire.
Question for anyone who has gone through this or heard stories: have any of those methods resulted in success? or does everyone who gets called into investigation get fired with black marks on their record?
So for years I would buy 300 dollars of fitness equipment and get fully reimbursed by Fidelity. I would then take it home and smash it with a hammer. I think I’m good.
One year I misplaced my hammer and so I gave away the recumbent bike to a needy person. They returned the item for cash to feed their family. I felt good at the time. I think I’m screwed.
Is everyone that they have interviewed being fired? Has anyone heard of any other disciplinary actions being taken?
To answer a previous poster, there is no statute of limitations for fraud. But it doesn't really matter since we are not talking about criminal prosecutions here. We are talking about (at-will) employment and regulatory disclosures. The legal system in America gives rights to the accused in a criminal case--fair and speedy trial, jury of ones peers, right to an attorney, protection against cruel and unusual punishment, presumption of innocence. None of those apply here since we are not talking about criminal proceedings. So don't waste your breath on this board talking about any of these principles because they do not apply in this situation. You have very few rights unless you were discriminated against because of your race, gender, etc etc which no one is accusing Fidelity of.
Amazon too!
And is this in store or online or both?
Not 100% sure on this, but I believe the statue of limitations for a lookback on “fraud” is 6 years. An attorney could verify.
So far, is it only Best Buy and apple?
They went back 5 years ago in my case.
Anyone with half a business brain, and some deep pockets, should set up a national RIA and hire all these fokes. A lot of talent looks to have been thrown away.
Anyone know how many years they are going back?
I would think Fidelity would need to say something to it’s employees. This has been all my team has talked about this week and has become a distraction. If the auditors are going back 5+ years I’d imagine it would take a long time to check every submission. Dragging this out doesn’t seem like the smart move.
I am telling everyone I know to move their money out of Fidelity and sharing this thread. We cannot let Fidelity get away with this behavior unscathed.
They’re targeting everything including fitbits. It has nothing to do with Fraud, it’s just to reduce staff and cut costs while not allowing the former employees to go work for competition.
Has the firing letup now or still going on? This is a big distraction at work.
When was the last firing ? Did people get impacted this week?
What was the amount? Are they targeting large purchases ?
Apparently as an employer, if you allege fraud, you can pretty much do whatever you want, even without real proof.
All those links are great and everything but that’s not what they used to get my info. That would only give them basic info on the purchase side of things. It wouldn’t give them a photocopy of the RETURN receipt, which is what they presented to me in my interrogation. Only I and the merchant had the necessary info for that. How they convinced the merchant to send them a photocopy of the return receipt is beyond me. And yes I saw it there in the meeting with my own eyes.
Is this focused more on online purchases which have easier tracking or in store purchases. In store purchase tracking seems like more of an invasion of privacy.
And remember just because that information is easily accessible on order tracker pages, that doesn’t necessarily give a third party the right to obtain the data. But also keep in mind, those being fired are saying that they are being handed return receipts. So did Fidelity first use the tracker pages for info and then bullied the companies for the receipts? It would seem like this request would have to come from actual law enforcement not the Green Line Gestapo.
If I’m an investigator, I’d be questioning whether Fidelity allowed or authorized me to possibly break the law for their benefit. This whole thing was a half c---ed idea that came out of discovering actual fraud with the duplicate receipt scandal in Jacksonville. I’m not 100 percent positive but I don’t like Fidelity’s chances in court. Careers are still ruined, either way. Just a sad situation.
Good catch to the person that mentioned you can look up your order without signing in on Best Buy. The same is true for Apple... Actually calling and requesting this information would be very difficult and time consuming. No company would just hand over that information b/c there is no upside for that company, only a chance that the fired employee becomes bitter and doesn't shop there anymore.
If you have very basic information about an order, you can look it up without an issue and it is public knowledge apparently. I never realized you could do that, but most sites that I've researched in the past hour or so will. Anyone get fired and they can't find their order online without signing on?
Apple: https://secure1.store.apple.com/shop/np/sign_in/order?c=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXBwbGUuY29tL3Nob3AvYWNjb3VudC9ob21lfDFhb3NhMWUwODQwYjlkNTVhMTVlOGI3NTlkNjViN2U5ZmNjYmY4NTBhYjE2&r=SCKFUHKXACXX7DYHYT9JT7JJTAPAXHFKH&s=aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWN1cmUxLnN0b3JlLmFwcGxlLmNvbS9zaG9wL29yZGVyL2xpc3Q_aGlzdD05MHwxYW9zNTNiODk0NzlmYmJmYWI5MDM3NDhjZGY0MzlhMTU5NTY2YjZiZjY5MA&t=SXYD4UDAPXU7P7KXF
Best Buy: https://www.bestbuy.com/profile/ss/guestorderlookup
Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/account/trackorder
Probably a bunch more, but I tried and Amazon seems to not allow you.
There are so many questions because there is no clear and concise policy on how to handle returns & exchanges. And to be quite frank, I don’t think Fidelity knows how to handle these exchange situations as there is no real policy to go off of so they just decide to throw everyone in the same boat. I’ve heard of an employee fired that got a partial reimbursement for a computer, ended up exchanging it for a more expensive computer, and was still fired for not redoing paperwork. There would be no questions if there was a clear policy.
If they were smart they'd audit everything based on the amount of guilty questions coming out of these posts. These questions are just giving the company more reasons to keep going.
for computer purchase have they targetted larger amounts or even under 2K?
F--- Fidelity. Total WitchHunt! If you’re called into that conference room. You’re time is over regardless of what they say. Might as well not say a word, hand over your badge, and walk out. No way you will make it out of that room. Maybe if fidelity properly compensated their employees, people wouldn’t be doing this sh--.
Me too, the investigators totally made me feel like because I was honest that it would help me and that I had a level of control over the final outcome. Totally ended up not being the case. The investigators were very professional and courteous though.
The “investigators” that questioned me were fidelity security employees that I was very familiar with. They frequently patrolled the parking lots and the hallways and were just those guys. It seemed as tho they were asking me questions from a talking points memo and telling me answers from the same. However they did say that what I told them would effect the outcome of the investigation, which was meant to make me think I had sort sort of influence over my fate. In reality it meant nothing. Oh well. Can’t rag them. Just doing their jobs
When the investigators place you on leave, they state that senior leadership will make a decision how your situation will be handled, and to expect a call days later. In retrospect, this is most likely to minimize causing a scene in the workplace. I wonder if there is any documented cases where senior leadership, whoever that is, stepped in and made the save?
You can just punch in the receipt number, last name, and a phone number online. It comes up with the full order and status of it. It's not like someone dropped the receipt in a parking lot and there's a privacy concern. You have to know more than what's on the receipt to get into the record. We submit receipts for reimbursement along with all of the other information needed to just look up the order.
I wouldn’t be defending Apple for turning over return receipts to a business partner. Apple who spews so much bs about protecting customer privacy literally made this easy for Fidelity.
Fidelity doesn’t notify FINRA 3-4 months before you’re fired. The date receipts and data is viewed by them can be seen online. It’s literally a week before investigators interview the employees. This wasn’t a long process. It was a short and the decision is made before you’re even interviewed.
I don't know why folks are ripping on Apple and Best Buy. You handed over the keys to Fidelity to be able to audit these things and check them by sending in your receipt, name, phone number, etc. I just looked up something I bought at Best Buy without having to log in. Sure enough, it's got the status of the item that I ordered.
Employees have been let go over solely the fitness reimbursement program. The dollar amount of the reimbursement is, quite frankly, irrelevant in the eyes of Fidelity. It’s all about process. There was no clear instructions or process on how to handle returns and exchanges. Once it came to their attention that things where getting returned and exchanged without reimbursements getting adjusted, they took the stance that if one benefited from this it was fraud.
The most direct question to ask Fidelity is what is their return and exchange process for personal items subject to reimbursement. Then ask to see that process in writing that was available to employees. There was nothing. If they were clear on the process, I bet 95% of the people fired would still have a job today. It’s sad because a breakdown in communication somewhere in the company cost a lot of great people not only their jobs, but their careers.
I wonder if they would focus on the companies that offer the best bang for their buck. The computer reimbursement offers the biggest risk of fraud, so they would first focus on tech places that sell computers.
Any other retailers? How about Walmart, Amazon, Costco?
It’s interesting that Fidelity also has a workplace and or stock plan relationship with both Best Buy and Apple. You don’t think....no they wouldn’t do that? They wouldn’t stoop that low. Would they?
Is it focussed on Brokerage operations or Fidelity employees from other businesses like PI, FI, FPCMS etc are impacted too?
Why would FIRNA be notified months before an employee is fired that they are under internal investigation? If Fidelity is auditing everyone, what do they tell FINRA?
The legal case may very well be with Apple and Best Buy and others. I don’t see anyone complaining that the investigators had a receipt from Target or any other merchants so far.
To the fitness exchange poster, I feel bad you have to go to bed each night now feeling like you do. If it means anything, in my eyes, you did nothing wrong. So what do you do now...you pray. Don’t go and be forthcoming. Any other firm, they would respect you coming forward, fix it if it needs fixing, and let you go about your job again. It’s full blown #WitchHunt mode now. No one is going to stick their neck out for you, because Fidelity already set the precedent that if paperwork was not redone and something was exchanged, you will be fired for fraud (end of story). Doesn’t matter the amount, the rationale, literally nothing matters other than you did you redo the paperwork. If they let you walk, the people that were fired will riot. Not saying this is acceptable behavior for a firm to take, but it is what it is, know what your working with. If you are licensed, I would get out...if it was through Acclaris that this happened, I would quit tomorrow. If you are not licensed, maybe you hang on. I dunno, just a terrible situation. I was fired already, don’t think your totally normal and acceptable response is going to save you if you are questioned is my last piece of advice. All comes down to a yes or no if you redid paperwork, and they already know the answer once they pull you in for questioning.