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American ExpressPlatinum Card |
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Blake of Charleston SC (06/17/08) Elizabeth of Bellevue WA (05/29/08) Belinda of Bradenton FL (05/23/08) Noname of Nocity PA (05/04/08) Ajay of Faridabad OTHER (01/29/08) Mary of San Juan (01/06/08) To make a long story short...we got into a car accident. When we called to inform them, they told us that the policy does not cover rentals in your home city. We fought this and then was transfered for 3 hours. Then they told us we were only covered for 30 days (the accident occurred on the 38th day). I called customer service immediately and asked their policy again...specifically asking if I was covered for 2 months and they assured me that I am covered for the length of my rental. 4 agents gave me this same info! Now we are desperate to talk to the manager, but he is always out of the office, at a meeting, or in an important call. This has been going on for a week and a half! We feel like we are being ignored...and brushed off. Even though we have good credit history. They make you feel ignorant..by quickly get a condescending yet indifferent attitude! Kimberly of College Park GA (10/04/07) When I received the card, the limit was not enough to transfer my balances. So I called and inquired and they told me to call back in 30 days at which time I should have no problem obtaining an 'increase' to my card. They just wanted to see that I was going to use the card and it would not even hurt to make a payment. However, when I called, they advised me that I would NOT be able to transfer the balance because of what was on my credit report. Now I am really upset because when I called about the limit the first time, I asked them to cancel my card because I did not need any additional debt. They 'encouraged' me to go ahead and do a partial balance transfer from one of my accounts as there should be no problem obtaining the increase. Rhonda of Plantation FL (09/25/07) Of course not being prepared to pay the entire bill in 30 days, I did manage to pay the majority of my bill over a two month period. I notified Amex and informed the representative I would pay the remaining balance at the end of the following month. However, when I deposited the funds to pay the final balance, they refused to accept my payment by phone from my Bank Account. Even the representative didn't know why I couldn't make payment and asked me to use another account. This of course, presented a new problem since the account I normally used for my Amex Platinum card is my bank in New York. Since I deposited the check in NY before I left for my home in Florida, I had to now move the funds to my Florida bank which took even longer to pay them back. Can you believe they closed my account and penalized me because my payment was so late. They had to nerve to tell me I had to reapply for my card again. And, of course, I lost my 200,000+ miles I had accumulated as I have been a member since 1987. To add insult to injury they denied me for a new card because of my late payment. I am pissed and felt as much as they call you directly, they could have notified me when they decided I wasn't good enough for S&T but to stop my pay by phone option for no reason felt like they were trying to sabotage my payment. Rebecca of Atlanta GA (04/05/07) Sam of Skokie IL (03/26/07) After about a year, I decided to apply for the Platinum card. I was approved for the card immediately and it was sent to my home. I racked up about $6,000 after the first month on the Platinum card. This is not a lot of charges for me, as I usually spend $10,000-$20,000/month on business expenses. In my previous history, I have spent and paid off much larger amounts that this with no problems. Regardless, I get a call from someone at the Financial Review department of Amex. She called me in the middle of the day to inform me that all my cards are on hold and will be canceled unless I send them a signed 4506t IRS form, which is a form that authorizes a third party to pull your income tax returns. Not only does she ask me this, but she talks to me in the rudest manner. I felt like I was a criminal being interrogated. I was outraged. I decided to cooperate and I sent in the signed 4506t form as requested. I figured it wouldn't be a problem, since my tax returns show over $450,000 in gross sales from last year alone. Since all my charges are for my business, I figure it wouldn't be an issue. I finally call Amex a few weeks later because I haven't got a call back as promised. They tell me the fax came through blurry and I need to resend. I resent right away, this time from a different fax machine, in case there was a problem with the previous fax machine I used. By the way, I send hundreds of faxes and month and I have never gotten a complaint about a blurry fax from any of my clients. I don't hear a response from Amex, once again, so I call them back. I am transferred about 4 times, until the rudest lady in the world starts telling me that I need to pay my balance of $6,000 and says things like why haven't you paid your bill? You know we can send you to collections! She even said I can't answer any of your questions. Why don't you pay your bill first. Why haven't you paid it? Are you gonna pay or not? She spoke to me like I was some deadbeat...despite the fact that I charged and paid back, on time, over $100,000+ in the last year alone. After all that, she is treating me like scum over a measly $6,000 charge? I told her to look at my previous history, and that I couldn't pay because I was locked out of my Amex online account, and I have not been getting statements since that first phone call. Eventually they transfer me and someone tells me they are canceling my card because they never got the 4506t form faxed to them. I explain that I have faxed it twice. I also tell him that I have over $100,000 in my checking account, and have had a perfect payment history on huge payments over the last year and a half. He tells me he can't do anything. I can't believe that they would treat a loyal customer like this. I have since applied for Visa and MC cards, which treat me much better. I have also convinced three of my closest clients to cancel their Amex cards as well. They each charge about $150,000 on the card every year. Amex will lose a lot of business if they keep treating their customers like garbage. Rob of Roswell GA (01/26/07) Shortly thereafter I tried to take advantage of this offer during a trip to South Africa. A standard business class fare was $7,500 through Delta but exactly the same flight was $11,500 through Amex Platinum. If I accepted this offer it would have meant that my company was paying most of the cost for the so called free ticket without realizing it. In good conscience I couldn't do this. I called Amex and told them the offer was misleading and that I wanted my membership fee back. I had only used the card once to buy gas, in order to activate it. They refused. I think the offer of a free ticket is misleading, because the first ticket is so much more expensive than a standard off the shelf fare, it really represents a discount for two tickets but there is no free ticket. It also leads people to defraud their companies if the first ticket is reimbursed by an employer. I feel that Amex is well aware of this issue and is actually trading on it. Finally, I think it is defrauding the IRS. If I had booked the $11,500 fare and got the free ticket, I would actually be putting the price of the discounted ticket (ie an extra $4,000) in my pocket but telling the IRS it was a legitimate business expense. Vijay of Romney WV (01/17/07) Prior to calling American Express, I obtained a quote from Austrian Airlines. They quoted me a price of $2510 for one person round trip. American Express's quote was $6824. From my point of view, the most I should have to pay would be $5020 not $13648! I ended up talking with four individuals in the Platinum Travel Services department, none of which could resolve the overcharge issue. After that, I spoke with a very pleasant lady in the Executive Services department. She was very sympathetic and assured me that the issue would be resolved and to call back in two days. After two days, she said she was surprised no one had responded and that I would be hearing from them. Two days later no response. I called again at that point and spoke with the same lady who said that the Travel Services department's lack of response was not acceptable and she would contact them again. She advised me to wait to hear from them before purchasing my tickets. Needless to say, two days later, no response. This time when I called back I received an answering machine. My conclusion: Either American Express does not want to assume their responsibility or are too arrogant to address issues when confronted with them. Maybe they do not want to face potential fraud/abuse issues when a loyal customer (I have been with American Express since 1977.) requests a reasonable answer. Or, perhaps they simply do not care (as it has been demonstrated with me). Eduardo of Doral FL (11/29/06) Eduardo of Doral FL (11/16/06) On that specific month due to the volume of debts of my credit cards and my fear that I would not be able to make the regular payments I joined a Credit Counseling Service to help me renegotiate my debts with the Credit Card companies and obtain a better and feasible payment scheme. A proposal was sent to AMEX on August 2002 for the repayment of my debt and an agreed amount of $92.00/month was set for this payment. This was a propose sent by AMEX (the amount of $92.00) and accepted by me also through the Credit Counseling Agency. Since them, starting in September 2002 AMEX has received every single month the agreed amount without missing any month and by the end of 2005 I decide to reduce the payment period and paid all the remaining balance to AMEX. AMEX has confirmed that my outstanding balance with them is zero and that everything that was owned to them was paid. Despite this fact AMEX has posted in all my credit reports very negative remarks (BAD DEBT, COLLECTION, CHARGE-OFF...) that are causing tremendous damage in my credit history and they refuse to withdraw these remarks saying that they will remain in my reports due to a severe deliquency of my account. I really do not understand why I should be punished for agreeing to pay all my debts and having done so even before the agreed period and have my credit reports damaged for the period of seven years. Patricia of Canton ME (10/25/06) Even then, it is very difficult to find a trip...most requests end up with a message stating that there are no seats available. And, on the rare occasion that you can find a flight using 50,000 miles, the connections are very poor, requiring sometimes two stops each way. Because of this, I decided to cancel my card. However, I learned that then I could never use the miles I had accumulated because you must charge your trip with the credit card. Therefore, I was convinced to keep the card, but downgrade to a gold card. I was also offered a discount on the yearly fee for the year if I kept the platinum card. I still downgraded. A few days later I thought about the companion ticket that is sent each year. Even though that is not a very good deal either, I thought that for the first time I might have a use for it. I called Amer. Ex. and asked them if I could still utilize their offer of the one-time discounted rate for the yearly fee. They said I could. I specifically asked if I would receive the companion ticket, and I was told I would receive it in April of 2006. For that reason, I reinstated the card. April came and I never received the companion ticket. Upon calling, I was told that I would not receive one until the following year because I had cancelled and then reinstated my platinum card. Ramona of Alpine CA (10/16/06) I have been making payments on the card, and according to my credit reports have been timely. Every month I find myself having to call American express at least twice to obtain a verbal payment amt because my statements don't represent my last payment. I have been told this is the case because my payments come in after the due date. I have been and will continue to make payments until the card is paid off, but I can no longer justify or comprehend the outrageous interest rates that I am being charged. I understand if I actually had charges that made up the additional 8-9K but I did not. This situation is a now also affecting my other card with them. My personal card, card number 373070704512005. American express is requesting I pay more than the minum on this card. This absolutely does not make sense!! I have a sign and travel amount of approx 3k and on this card i pay the full amount of what I use. I do not carry running balance, because it is not that type of card. Edward of Phoenix AZ (09/08/06) Months later, after the flight date, I received 9 separate charges to my account made by Air Berlin. There is no indication of what these charges are for or why they were made. In this case, I wish they would have been as cautious as the first time. Now going on 5 continuous months of disputing these charges, they continue to appear on my statement. They have been reversed and then have reappeared, only to be reversed again. These charges were never authorized by me and they continue to process them into my statements. Norman of Lewisburg PA (12/2/04):
After almost 30 minutes on the phone I was told that in order to get the free ticket I would have to pay $7,300 for the first ticket. After trying to explain that I could purchase 2 business for a total of a little over $3,200 all I was told was that if I wanted the free companion ticket I would have to pay the $7,300 fare. Talk about bait and switch tactics. So much for the value of a Platinum Card from AMEX. Lois of Powell OH (8/18/04):
Kurt of Scottsdale AZ (1/11/02):
Edmund of Cave Creek, AZ, writes:
I received a brochure offering special accommodations at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, extolling the many facilities available to guests. At the time of the offer, the hotel was still under construction and most of the amenities were not available, a fact conveniently omitted in the bochure. I am supposed to be entitled to the free use of airport lounges but am refused access when I try to use them. Shortly after I filed a formal complaint, I went to dinner with some friends and was told that my American Express Platinum card would not accept the charges because of "unusual spending habits", a clear case of retaliation, sine my account always has been and is now in good standing. Consequences:
I have lived up to my part of the contract and have a right to expect american express to do the same. Report Your Experience
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