Fidelitrade's handling of the ATB 5 oz'ers

I was one of the perhaps several thousand people that overnighted my PO and check to Fidelitrade. It was received and signed for at 10:30am Friday, Jan 7. I have not received any kind of correspondence from them....emails, phone calls, nothing. Another dude on another forum snail-mailed his check and got confirmation yesterday. My friend's dad sent his check in the same time I did and got confirmation Monday. I realize it's unlikely I'll get a set of these, but I'd at least like to know something...maybe, even get the email that people are getting that says they are at least in receipt of the po/check, but aren't guaranteed a set. They are sitting on at least $2,787,600 ($929.20 X 3000), probably closer to $5,000,000, of people's money. I do realize they are multi-million dollar company and all this ATB stuff is small beans to them in the big picture, however, it's not very persuading for me to order from them in the future. To some people $900 is not much, but to me it kind of is.

 

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Has FideliTrade even cashed your check yet? No.

If they haven't cashed the checks then the funds haven't been withdrawn from the accounts, therefore FideliTrade is not sitting on your money nor are they withholding product. FideliTrade's order fulfillment stated that it will take 2-4 weeks for delivery, they are still within that window since opening to take orders.

If you can't live without the $929.20 then you probably shouldn't have sent them the funds.

 

Touché, but some sort of correspondence would be nice.

 

And I'm sure that FideliTrade appreciates both your patience with them and the business that interest in this product (these bullion coins) have generated for them. There's a lot of antsy folks looking for these coins and really no need to turn on the APs yet to fulfill orders before they've even had a chance to do so. The consensus (to date) has been that FideliTrade have handled their allotment of these coins responsibly and fairly compared to some others releasing these coins ahead of them.

Do let us know if you get your email or any other updates. I would appreciate hearing that news from you about any success you have with your order.

 

How can you say Fidelitrade handled their allotment responsibly if they haven't yet shipped any sets? Or do you mean their system of selling in general, ie, prices and such? Just curious.

 

There is no evidence that FideliTrade have not followed the Mint's directive, price gouged, sold to dealers or other customers quietly or ahead of the general public, or any other scenarios that may have previously occurred with other APs being scrutinized.

I clearly said "(to date)" FideliTrade seem to have been responsible with their allotment. They have had a straight forward ordering process and have contacted some people with orders status updates. "To date" leaves room for problems or criticism that may yet come if something else is revealed in a less than positive development. FideliTrade haven't shipped any coins yet, not that we know about nor that have seen reported by individuals on forums, so I obviously couldn't be referring to that aspect of their responsible handling of their allotted coins.

 

And btw, I sent a cashier's check, so they kinda do have my money

 

That's just a check guaranteed by your bank, which is usually treated like cash. If FideliTrade hasn't cashed it, then the money hasn't left the bank and your money is still secured should you need to cancel the check. Therefore, if not cashed, FideliTrade actually doesn't have your cash, the bank does. If FideliTrade returns your check should they not be able to fulfill your order for a set of the AtB coins you will have to take the check back to the bank to get your money back from them. Your bank may charge you a fee if you have to return the bank check for deposit to your accounts though. Each bank may vary on their policy with returned bank checks.

 

My checkbook balance is $929.20 less, therefore that money is tied up. Anyways, I am more interested in finding out why some people are getting emails/phone calls and some are not. There seems to be no ryhme or reason to this.

 

I agree Krispy. They're dealing with a huge volume of order forms that they're not set up for or accustomed to, and we have to be patient with them. You had to know when you sent your form in that you would have to wait for a while to hear from them. I'm very happy with them for actually accepting orders while some of the other APs are inexplicably holding out. The one I really don't understand is APMEX, they have the website and the ability and experience dealing with the retail public. What are they waiting for?

 

Well, your bank account is less that amount because of the type of check you sent. If you sent a personal check the funds would be in your account (barely earning a speck of interest), but equally unavailable to you as those funds would have been on hold for FideliTrade to withdraw upon cashing your check.

The reason may not rhyme, but those who have not yet heard from FideliTrade, doesn't mean they will not hear from them yet, it is purely volume of orders and the step-by-step order process of receiving all those envelopes, opening them, reviewing the orders for accuracy according to their instructions and making sure there is no attempt by individuals to get more than one set per house-hold as required by the Mint's directive, then pairing those orders with available inventory, then notifying the people with status updates. You have to realize that the vast number of these orders are from people who do not yet have accounts registered with FideliTrade, and that adds a layer of complexity, opening a new account, then placing the orders, checking inventory... and so on.

This idea of things being inexplicable and unjust to you because you cannot get instant gratification is appalling. Think about what goes into this and the scale of demand, process and level of detail it takes to handle this fairly so people still will not come back and slam them for messing up a tiny thing, thus hurting their reputation as a bullion dealer. Give them time and learn to have some patience.

 

7 days is long enough to wait for a simple confirmation that they did in fact receive my order. The whole process is just confusing. Like I originally mentioned, I overnight my check and have heard nothing, another person snail mails and already has an email. I have plenty of patience...I'll wait 6 months for the silly coins. It just seems to me that customers aren't being served on a "first come, first serve basis". What's wrong with wanting fairness? I don't need your opinion since you (assuming) didn't even place a fidelitrade order. For those who did place an ATB order w/ fidelitrade, how do you feel?

 

I feel that your impatience is getting the better of your reasoning and you know what they say about assuming...

FideliTrade stated their order instructions and estimated the length of time it *may* take them to fulfill orders. They were very clear in this. There is no reason for you to suggest nor to believe otherwise that they are not following the terms laid out for them by the Mint for APs and the process the APs gave the public, their potential customers, for how they will fulfill orders. FideliTrade never said you could expect a confirmation or any status updates by email or any other means just because you placed an order, whether or not you will be receiving a set of coins, they simply estimated 2-4 weeks may be needed to fulfill orders. That is an estimate in and of itself. It could be shorter or it could take them longer based on the amount of orders they received.

FideliTrade are, by all signs, operating fairly and according to rules put forth, but you are not fairly giving them the benefit of the doubt that they are being fair by your assumptive reasoning, your impatience and your inability to understand all of what goes into this deluge of new customers and new orders. There is a high probability that there are a few bad apples in there trying to get more than one set per household and FideliTrade needs to be very cautious of this as it could potentially damage their reputation if they make a mistake since there is such a vindictive mob mentality about this amongst many in the public watching this coin release.

7 days are not long enough to wait, 2-4 weeks are, minding that 4 weeks would be the point at which they should be held to have returned your money, fulfilled your order or given you some indication of what is going on with orders.


edited to add:

You said in your first post that your overnighted payment to FideliTrade, "was received and signed for at 10:30am Friday, Jan 7." That means your order was received by FideliTrade and you can stop worrying about it and give FideliTrade their 2-4 weeks to process order requests.

 

I was wondering the same thing since I saw the announcement from the 7th that they were no longer accepting orders. You may want to check your "junk mail" as I just came home for lunch and got a confirmation recipt and found mine there (almost deleted it actually!!)
On a side note I sent mine out on the 6th via regular mail but with an extra first class stamp just in case Hopefully I'll get a set of coins and not just a Fidelitrade account...

 

Guys, if I overnighted an order form to a vendor and didn't receive some sort of confirmation and friends of mine were sending in the same order form by regular mail and receiving confirmation, I'd be a little concerned too. JJkK8 makes a good suggestion though. Check that spam folder.

 

Check your email spam folder. Fidelitrade sent out bulk emails that look like spam to these filters. If you have not put Fidelitrade as a "non-spam" address it probably went in there. Everyone I know found theirs in their spam folders as I work in the security business and have most of my friends and family set up fairly secure spam rules.

 

Aside from the OP's anxiety generated by they collector hysteria over this coin release, he stated in his first post, first sentence:

 

The only confirmation I got was by checking FEDex tracking to see that it was indeed delivered. Nothing from Fidelitrade. Once again, krispy, you didn't place an order w/ fidelitrade so why are you even concerned with this thread?

 

You are assuming you know whether I have or haven't placed an order. I reminded you earlier in this thread about assuming.

My concern is people's inability to understand the process before they jump in and further their impatience and demand for instant gratification, and in turn their willingness to lay blame on companies for incorrectly perceived poor customer service.

 

I feel like a douche.....checked my spam and there she is. That is all I was wanting to know in the first place is why I didn't get an email. Then the conversation veered off talking about checks and what-not. Anyways, it's been there since Tuesday. Thanks, howboutatrade.