Employer Auto-enrolled Me In 401k Despite 6-month Paper Trail Of Trying To Opt Out. Hr/fidelity Refusing Refund.

Location: Oregon, USA

​Background:

I started a new job in early January 2026. The company uses an automatic enrollment policy for their Fidelity 401k plan if employees do not manually opt out by a specific deadline. For my hiring cohort, the hard deadline to opt out was in February.

EDIT: My first email to HR about this issue dates January 2026.

Within a week or two of hire, I attempted to log into the benefits portal to opt out, but my shell account did not exist. Fidelity could not locate my information either. (Note: Around this same time, HR incorrectly inputted my SSN during onboarding. They claim this was unrelated, but the timing overlapped. The employee that made this crucial mistake then quit and/or was let go. I don't know specifics.)

​Because I was physically locked out of the system, I took immediate action well before the February 24th deadline:

Feb 17th AND 24th, I emailed HR expressing my concerns and explicitly stating that I did NOT consent to any 401k contributions.

​HR explicitly replied stating that no funds would be withheld due to my written proof of non-conset and that this was verified by the company's dedicated Fidelity Benefits representative.

This has been nearly 6 months of back-and-forth emails. Over and over again, HR/Benefits told me they had "fixed" the issue and that my account was working. However, I was continually unable to access it. I have a meticulous paper trail of this entire six-month period proving I was locked out of my benefits portal despite my continuous efforts to resolve it and HR being stumped as to why it was not working.

However, I noticed on a paystub I was getting less pay than expected, and I discovered that Fidelity had bypassed my opt-out anyway, deducting 3 to 4 pay periods of contributions without my consent, totaling roughly $300–$400. I was finally able to log into the portal and manually verified that future contributions were turned off. Another note: we went months after Feb without an auto deductions, so I thought I was in the clear, then randomly like a month and a half ago they started taking the deductions. Despite having written confirmation prior to the February deadline that my opt-out was accepted, HR and Fidelity are now refusing to return the wrongfully withheld funds.

I have asked for the documentation on why that decision was made despite having written non-consent and written proof of my literal inability to opt out, but I am currently waiting on a reply.

EDIT: Their reply states that all Fidelity said was "The Plan has automatic enrollment and we cannot refund the deductions that we made." Despite having the proof they said they would waive deductions (Email confirmation they would not deduct on Feb 24th)

I am wondering if any laws here were broken and if anyone legally would take me seriously. I know its only $400, but for me its about the fact I have crossed all my T's and dotted all of my i's to make sure THIS DIDN'T HAPPEN.