Fidelity Investments Withholding 401K liquidation. Marlborough Massachusetts

Briefly, I was working as a software engineering contractor at Fidelity Investments. The outsourcing-to-India situation became intolerable, as they are farming everything they can out to other countries to get the lowest rate. So whatever, it was a personal decision that I wasn't going to contribute to what I consider anti-Patriotic business practices. I left Fidelity on March 5, 2003, with no notice because I'd had enough.

Starting a couple weeks after March 5, I started calling to try and get my 401K liquidated from Fidelity, because I didn't want to help line the pockets of the people robbing our country of jobs and money. I called Fidelity to liquidate, and they said I was not yet "INACTIVE" with Veritude (the contracting company I was going through, who was billing me out to Fidelity). They said it would probably take 60 days after the end date for the account to become inactive. So, we waited 60 days, and still, the account was ACTIVE when we called Fidelity. So, yesterday, June 23, 2004, I called Veritude to find out what was going on. They said it should have been all set as of the end date of March 5 (which it wasn't), he said we were listed as inactive in his system. So, we called Veritude back again the following day and they said there had been a "glitch in their system" and that it was now "taken care of". I called back Fidelity this morning, and Fidelity still has me showing as active, they said.

This kind of monkeying around with my 401K money is unsettling, and I would advise anyone to steer clear of either of these consumer-abusing companies. (Fidelity and Fidelity-owned Veritude) Not to mention, preventing someone from liquidating their own money in a 401K has to be against the law somewhere???? Or is that now acceptable also?

Doug
Marion, Massachusetts
U.S.A.