Kathleen Babb sent a message to William Spence that said:
Thank you for your condolences on the passing of my husband, Edward W. Babb, Jr. He was a dedicated employee of PPL for 37 years. In fact, he lost his eye while on a trouble call for PPL in 1972 because of the way the radio antennas was located on the bucket truck he was using. In spite of this, he continued to work for PPL until his retirement many years later. While many thought we should sue PPL, this was never an option for either of us and we both continued to speak highly of the company and their treatment of their employees.
I had this same opinion until the last 6 weeks when I have had to deal with Fidelity Survivor Services who manage your employees retirement accounts.
I contacted Fidelity on Monday morning, Nov. 5th (as they can only be contacted Mon through Fri). I was advised that I was entitled to 1/2 of my husband's pension which would be $1,113.88. The funds would continue to be a direct deposit into our joint account and would be made on the 1st of the month as his were. I was further advised that a packet would be sent to me within 3 to 5 business days. After calling them to find out where the packet was, I was advised they sent it out on the 14th. When I finally received the packet on the 22nd, I filled out the forms. attached the necessary documentation and immediately drove it to the post office so it would go out the same day. They did in fact recieve it on the 24th.
Under the assumption that my funds would be handled in a timely manner by Fidelity, I assumed they would be in my account on the 1st. After finding out I was being assessed bank charges and late fees on returned checks, I again contacted Fidelity to be told that they processed my paperwork on the 3rd of Dec. and my payment was scheduled for Dec. 14 and should reach my bank by Dec. 17.
9 years ago, before my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, this wpuld have been an inconvenience. But because I battled to keep him home with me, we depleted our IRA, went into debt and took out a reverse mortgage. I had my funds budgeted almost to the penny to make my final tax payment by Dec. 31. Now with accumulated bank fees and late fee payments in the amount of $429.00 to date, I will not be able to make the final payment. This will cause me to be in breach of our reverse mortgage, will cause a lien to be filed against the home we built and lived in for 48 of our 50 married years and will incur additional late fees on my school taxes. The failure of Fidelity to handle my claim in a timely manner (in my opinion taking 29 days to handle a claim is not timely) was not just an inconvenience to me but caused a domino affect that I cannot recover from and now in additional to losing my husband, I will lose the home I have lived in for the last 48 years.
If you really do care about your employees, I would ask that you seriously reconsider using Fidelity to handle PPL's retirement funds. Maybe that way, you can make sure this situation does not happen to another widow at the worst time of her life.
Sincerely,
Kathleen M. Babb
