
Sarah of honolulu, HI on Dec. 2, 2011
Satisfaction Rating: 1/5
Horrible. This letter is in regards to my canceled American Express Account card ending in xxx. At this point, after wasting hours of my own time, endless phone calls, being transferred to various different departments (and no dept. being on the same page), I am thankful that this account is closed. With that said, I am absolutely appalled by the lack of professionalism, integrity, customer service and human decency during my short time with American Express. I have never in my life experienced this type of round and round treatment from a credit card company especially one who prides itself on customer service.
I opened my credit account with American Express in early October (2011) of this year. In the first month, I pre-paid $2500 as I was told that a good faith pre- payment was the best start to instill a positive credit relationship with American Express. I did charge on this account but made my second payment in the amount of $1000 on Nov. 15th. I was told via customer service rep that the remaining payment of $2119.73 was due on the 28th of Nov. As I am in real estate, I am commission based and at times payments come to me later than expected.
I called American Express customer service on Nov. 26th, two days prior to my due date, and advised them that my payment may be a day or two late. The representative told me not to worry, set up a scheduled payment for the $2119 on Dec 2nd and ensured me that my card would not be canceled but could be penalized. With this info, not wanting to be any later than absolutely necessary, I called American Express on Dec 30th and made not only the $2119 payment that was due but also payed an extra $800 and some odd dollars that was not technically due until the 13th of December.
This was in good faith again, as I recognized that I was two days late in payment. After I made the payment, the customer service rep informed me that my card was canceled and she was not able to give me any more information. She failed to inform me of my canceled card until she received that $3000 payment. How nice of American Express to be so astute in their actions. Are we now a cheap collections department? The CS rep at this point was incredibly rude and told me to call a different dept. the following morning. Essentially, too bad, so sad, no help here.
The following morning, Dec 1st, 2011, I called the number (xxx) xxx-xxx provided and the CS rep (Tony) reviewed my account, empathized with the situation, apologized for the CS rep who ensured me it would not be canceled and said if I pay the remaining $1673.19 balance bringing me to a zero balance, that my account had a pretty good chance of being reinstated. He also noted that based on the actions on the account that he could see he felt that I acted in good faith. I paid the remaining balance (this balance was not due for another solid month) but I paid it in good faith, over the phone.
Once processed he electronically tried to re-instate and it declined. He then said to give him until 5:30 Eastern time to speak with his supervisor and manually reinstate it. He also said that it is better to have all payments clear my bank (how convenient) before looking at manually reinstating it again. They did clear and no call back from AmEx that day! I called again in the evening, went to a different dept, had to tell my story for the third time to a brand new person, who essentially said too bad, he should have never given you that info. They are a collections department and we canceled your account based on negative info from your credit report and the fact that you failed to pay us. Okay, great.
She then tried to get a hold of Tony in the Pre Outside Agency (xxx) xxx-xxxx. He did not respond but she did transfer me to someone else in Tony's department who said that he essentially had no information but that Tony and his supervisor, Mr. Barry, would get back to me the following morning not later than 8am my time.
Next day, 8am no response. No response by 10 am. I called the (xxx) xxx-xxxx number again and spent another 30 min telling a completely different CS rep the same story. He said that no promises should have been made, that they canceled my account based on serious delinquencies on my Experian Credit Report and that there was nothing he could do but he would have Tony call me back. Tony finally did call to inform me that they would not be reinstating my card as it was late two days and my credit report was essentially quite horrible. I called Experian today and this is what they told me:
Currently, I have zero collection accounts as American Express reasoned for the cancellation of my card; I have one over the limit charge on a credit card company (since corrected) in the last few years.
I just thought I would illustrate my honest experience with this company for others to take note of before deciding upon using them. They can cancel the card for any reason at any time without consent and as all of their systems are computerized, they essentially have no ability to do the right thing by a customer. I would much prefer using Chase bank or even Capital One at this point.