DVC did direct us to use Fidelity and if you've purchased resale I think you know how important it is to find the RIGHT contract. When you haven't purchased resale yourself and have no first hand knowledge, you take a leap of faith. There are plenty of people on this forum that will go to bat for Fidelity. I'm not ashamed to say that two weeks ago I was one of them. I felt that in general they were honest but a little lazy with following through on paperwork. In my real life, I hate paperwork too and generally expect that when I send something off to someone else that only has one thing to be done on it, they can handle it and don't need to micromanage it. But, in both cases this has been extreme and I can say with certainty that it is more so the title company that they chose to use rather than Fidelity themselves. On my first contract, it was first american that messed up the cost of the closing fees and as such it couldn't be recorded or closed until it was submitted. The difference was $8 but it was an $8 mistake that only cost us a couple of weeks before we closed. It didn't cost us the loss of a 100 points. It was the seller causing the delay, okay I can choose not to do business then that seller is out the sale. I have no choice in the closing agent they choose to use that has dropped the ball on both contracts. This time fidelity played into the game by giving them the wrong seller information and they should have followed up much sooner on why the contract hadn't closed yet. Top it off with a new $195 fee to deal with their shinengans and I won't be back with them. Right contract or not. 8 months ago when we purchased our first one, I just didn't know any better. I'm sure this isn't unique but I'm also sure that there are some clients that they HAVE met expectations for and I'm not looking to drag them through the mud. They just haven't met my expectations on either contract and I don't think that they are unreasonable expectations. I expect to get closing documents within the specified window of 7-10 days (their number) unless there is some circumstance that has been communicated to me. And I expect someone to follow up with my contract to see that it was rejected by the county much sooner than before I have to bring it to their attention. They do this for a living. They should know.
I think it's especially hard for me because as a consultant in my real life, my clients pay me to handle their problems and I do so to the best of my ability. I have to be at the top of my game and know when things aren't normal and head them off at the pass. I get paid for my knowledge and my expertise and strive to rise above every other consultant that just drops something off and never follows up with seeing if it was accepted or not. Thats MY job. They pay me to do that. I feel like I pay them to handle my sale and know that everything is okay. The seller pays them a commission for the same reason. And now she's out $6000 that would have otherwise been in her pocket gaining interest weeks ago.