American Express Serve

Anyway, I recently experienced utilizing the Temporary Card, which mind you, is immediately activated upon purchase at any said 'retailer' that sells the cards for a Fee (ranging from $1.00 to $3.95) for the one-time loaded card in an amount up to $500.00. I simply made an online purchase, for which the company I transacted with turned out to conduct themselves in fraudulent activity by not only not delivering exactly what they promise, but also creating hidden stipulations that I would never agree to knowingly, willingly, or with competence.

Nonetheless, I attempted to dispute the transaction with the online company, and of course, they have been reluctant to issue a refund. Even though the finance they stole from me is minimal, they still have committed Fraud and are therefore liable as a company, now and forever, until the wrong is set right... each and every employee on all levels of operations.

Since the online company was not willing to cooperate, I was forced to contact American Express Serve to have them complete a federally-regulated transaction dispute for the fraud I reported within a reasonable timeframe. Rather than initiate a dispute, I experienced both a Customer Service Representative and a so-called "Manager" after having called: 800-954-0559, which is the Customer Service toll-free number given on the back of the card, denying me my absolute right to dispute, since according to them, the card is was only a temporary card.

A temporary card does not have to be registered to be activated and utilized, simply purchased (which activates the FDIC aspect of the card as well), as the account is activated within American Express Serve's Card Accounts Department by the retailer. And, instead of me arguing with American Express Serve's Representatives about what I do understand and what they do not, I simply explained their liability for setting up their company and being insured with the FDIC, which has clear policies that address fraudulent transactions and the immediate remedies to be afforded to all people (i.e. customers), without compromise.

The moral of this story is, "Stop trusting these lying, thieving, and conniving companies, who know exactly what they have arrogantly been doing to have defrauded honest and innocent people for decades... it's definitely nothing new. However, they still seem to be around in operation, or they transition under a new legal entity, by a different name, operated under the same types of corporate policies and procedures that only benefit them, while robbing the unsuspecting and pretending that the unsuspecting agree to their "Terms and Conditions" that are deceptive coercive in nature themselves, by principles. Thanks for reading and hopefully this review helps tons of people stop tolerating corporate tyranny. They are only in power so as long as we keep turning to them and buying from them... Otherwise they would be as "broke" and as seemingly helpless as the average person.

I told them there's nothing to dispute because I'm already reporting it as a fraud. No one would listen. They just kept telling me I will get it back after 7 days. I told them when I called back today that I have an email from merchant cancelling the said transaction and that they have credited back my account. Today 12/17/18 I offered to forward merchant’s confirmation email on cancelled transaction. I was told I had to wait up to 7 days before I can access my money!!! I told them that is **!!! How can I feed myself and my kids with $16.92 for 7 days??? I'm so mad at these idiots and to think today is my birthday. If I'm still working for AMEX today...I will not allow this horrible customer service to not be addressed by higher ups. It is wrong protocol to hold someone’s funds especially when the merchant has already cancelled the transaction and yet AMEX Serve puts my funds on hold for a merchant review. What is there to review?

The merchant and I resolved the issue ourselves...why would you not release my funds back to me?? SHAME ON ALL OF YOU THERE AT CUSTOMER SERVICE...WHY ARE YOU WORKING AS A CSR IF you yourself is the cause of my hardship on my freaking birthday of all days!!! Wake up managers!!! Change your ridiculous protocol. Ask for your rights to override a hold credit status...you are supposed to be empowered to lead your people in providing world class customer service to us card holders!!! Don’t you dare waste what we worked so hard for back in 2012!!!

I called right back and, at that time, the money was still in the account. The second customer service rep also failed to shut down the account when I immediately asked him to do so. After being transferred to another department and having to go through everything again, 20 minutes later I see that my entire account has been wiped out. So instead of shutting the account down immediately, they played around until all the money was taken out.

Now, I had to have them put in a request for review and to try to get MY money back. On 12/14/18, I receive a notice that the money was put back in my account. However, I was still waiting on a replacement card. In the meantime, I had changed all my login information on my Serve account to be safe. Today, 12/10/18, I receive my new Serve card and follow the directions to activate the card. I then tried to use it to make a donation to a friend’s cancer site and I am declined. DECLINED for a cancer contribution. This is outrageous. I then get an email saying the following:

"During our recent review of your American Express Serve® Account, we identified Account activity that we believe violates the terms of the Serve Consumer User Agreement. As a result of such activity, and pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Serve Consumer User Agreement, your Account and your Account privileges have been permanently suspended."

I have done NOTHING against my User Agreement! That is when I proceeded to contact AMEX Serve at the only number provided – only to get disconnected immediately with a message that my account has been permanently closed – click. I had to use a different phone not associated with my account just to get through to a person. This then turned into 3-4 people, all who apologized profusely but told me there is nothing they can do and I may not get my money back at all. This is undoubtedly illegal and I am in the process of filing a consumer complaint and seeking an attorney.

No worries, I would just use the card at a brick-and-mortar vendor. No luck there, either -- my card was also declined at a live POS. Once again, I contacted AMEX to find out if my card was somehow canceled or invalidated. Nope, they said, it has the full $50 on it. Thus, I visited this site to see if others have had a similar situation. It sounds like a prepaid AMEX is quite the lemon. Folks, save yourself the grief and avoid these cards. Prepaid CCs are ripoffs enough, but sometimes they are necessary safeguards with the added mark-up being the price of your own security. So if you must buy one, steer toward Visa or MC instead.

I have called over 20 times to try to talk to somebody about my money. They tell me that I am not due a refund and since the account was locked it's their money now basically. I have called and called and called again. First they tell me 10 days then they tell me 30 so I don't know who is the head of this company or something needs to be done because I'm not the only one that has lost money with American Express Serve.

Having to call customer service and getting sent to the fraud department is very nauseating because nobody helps you. Everybody is from overseas. They can't understand what you're saying and I think it's some kind of ploy to get your money. I am going to consult Consumer Fraud in my state and let them know what's going on and also the Federal Trade Commission. I hear they could help. I hope so. I've already closed my account and change my direct deposit. I'm glad I did because I would have been out of my whole paycheck then in the next two days. These people are crooks. Don't do business with them.

Here we are over 10 business days later, 36 reps/managers later and no help. I have exhausted all avenues. I am going to submit to arbitration and sue this company to get my money back. I will continue to fight as this is clearly wrong. Every day I speak to them, it gives me a migraine. I call and call and get more and more furious. I looked up some company, Consumer Fraud Services and I think they are a scam but, it seemed like there was hope.

They would not take the case because of so many issues with AMEX. If you are reading this, DO NOT EVER DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE. They sell you a dream but, it's not. It is convenient, but not worth the migraine. Yep, I will continue to fight. All of those who are affected by anything that this company has done, CONTINUE TO FIGHT! Thanks for listening.

I immediately call back to so WTH is going on. I'm told to contact the merchant. I say, "It's a prepaid card. How can it be overdrawn SMH." I speak with a supervisor and again am told to contact the merchant. Why? I call Walmart up and they say, "Nope we issued a refund once and can't help you with additional refunds on products you never placed an order for." At this point it's late so I decide to call back Amex the following morning. I call again and then I'm told they're having system issues please call back tomorrow. This is beyond frustrating and infuriating at this point.

So I call today and I'm told by Amex that I need to file a dispute. I say that's what I thought I did a week ago to report the initial $632 from my account. I'm told I did not file a formal dispute. Wtf! I do so with the agent at that time. The agent tells me it can take up to 90 days for a resolution. 90 days! I changed my direct deposit to my traditional bank account but hopefully it was in time otherwise there goes 1 of 2 of my last paychecks before Xmas to cover a negative balance I didn't incur. Definitely will not be doing business with them moving forward. I've even referred a people to this card. Not anymore. I'll be letting everyone know my horrid experience. What's sad is that upon researching I'm not the only one this is happening too. How is this legal?

I checked my balance approximately 30-45 minutes after speaking with the second representative and now under my transactions it doesn’t show the transactions on hold for merchant review but the money that the representative said is being returned to my account is not there. This just seems weird to me that at first the negative balance wouldn’t be removed till the money was returned but now the negative is gone but no money.

Original Review: I have had American Express Serve for a while and had no problems till here in the past month or so. The first one was I got an email saying I had a transaction returned for not having the money. This is a prepaid card. You can’t spend money that is not on the card. The second was I looked on the app. It showed I had a negative balance of $20.01. I looked at my transactions. It showed that one transaction for 10.02 was on hold for merchant review then I had one for $11.02 on hold for merchant review so called American Express. Set on hold for 40 min only to be told that the money is being refunded to my account so the negative balance will stay there till the money is returned in my account. Didn’t really understand that then I had a transaction for .10. The person on the phone couldn’t tell me what the .10 was for. If you get or have this card make sure you have the app and check it daily.

It appears since the joint venture was announce, Serve Card customers like myself notice a consistent pattern by both companies denying CUSTOMERS access to our liquid cash deposited into our accounts via CVS Pharmacy, Walmart and other add cash to the card locations as outlined in the American Express Serve Card Terms of use agreement.

For example, I once re-loaded the Card with $500.00 a day prior to used it at retail outlet just to pay for a mere $15.62 purchase, once the card is swiped, the merchant tells me the transaction did not go thru or has been denied, requesting alternative method of payment or cash for the merchandise. Subsequent to Log on the American Express Serve Card website, I discover the entire $500.00 is now on hold by the merchant, therefore denying me the use of my money while no option to imitate an online dispute is not avail.

I proceed to call the customer service number at the back of the card (800) 954-0559, The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) only provides automation information lacking any options to speak to live person. Using some social engineering I was able to come up with a direct number of (800) 555-4318, resulting in being transferred repeatedly to several live persons located off-shore outside the United States. The Customer Service Representatives (CSR) are generally rude, speak with a foreign accent, informing me, to wait six days for the moneys on hold to be place back on my card account.

After waiting six days and noticed no funds have been credit to my account, I call back the same number and being told by very impolite and unprofessional CSRs, American Express Serve Card will being a dispute and I must wait an additional twenty (20) more days for the process to complete according to the Terms of Use that I agreed upon when the account was open. 20 days comes and goes, and contact is made again with American Express Serve Card to no avail. And no refund of my money.

If you are a victim to this scam by both companies, call or write a letter to the office of the Controller of Currency (OCC) Customer Assistance Group (800) 613-6743 Comptroller of the Currency, Customer Assistance Group, 1301 McKinney Street Suite 3450. Houston, TX 77010. You can also file a complaint with Federal Trade commission (FTC) online at (**) or call (202) 326-2222 or write to: Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20580.

Finally I was able to choose lost or stolen credit card with an automated message transfer saying this department only could take information from me and they didn't have acct info or something close to that but I went ahead and even though it disclosed that it only confused my mind because the lady was able to put a hold on my funds not used yet as it looked to me this whole thing was currently happening to me at that minute. So long story as short as possible nothing like this had ever happened to me and I couldn't understand or makes sense of it which I conveyed to the lady I was worried about the money that I had still in the account and she told me their system was down and until I could receive an email to reset my password she wasn't able to do anything for me and this was based on AE's system. But I felt relief that at least the account was frozen for that time.

Approx an hour later I got the reset passwords emails she had tried to send me and saw the charges that were made on my account that all came at once to my email. It was money transferred to someone else’s Serve card. A total of 3. I expressed strongly too as it turns out the exact same lady when I called back which I thought was weird and so was her telling me she was the same lady. Just weird conversation. I was afraid to continue to use the account outright because I didn't know how this happened to me.

I had just had lunch and paid with the card so I looked to the restaurant as part of it but it was a money transfer not the same type of charge. The lady helped me to transfer the remaining balance to my brother's Serve and then was going to send a new card which in whole would secure my account. I explained that that is what I already had a card with my email and yet it was breached. I wasn't trusting that it wouldn't happen again. She said not to worry. I would get my money back and since we closed that account or at least changed the card number it would be secure etc. Meanwhile the money was transferred to my brother’s Serve account.

In addition to all of this conversation I explained to the lady this has never happened to me and personally swore if it did then I would do everything in my power to press full charges to the fullest extent of the law to the person and it was really important that they not just correct the problem but I wanted the information to follow thru with for criminal charges. She was irritated having to hear this extra part of how I felt and said, "We will investigate" and if we have any questions the investigator would call me back and then the phone went dead. When I got back home 5 days later my new card was at my house and I had to call to access it. I made them change my email address and told the person who by the way I had to go through lost or stolen card option to even get that live person what had happened and asked him if there was any update or if I could help in any way he snapped at me and said we are still under our 10 day period.

I still don't know why that would have been an irritating question but could be a bad day for him. The following day my brother transferred the money back over to my new Serve account and then I guess at the 10 day mark, today, they emailed me saying that these were authorized charges and they denied my dispute. I went to log into my account and it said wrong password no matter what I did and then when I called them they had prerecorded for my phone number that my account had been suspended and permanently closed and an emailed explanation would be waiting for me. It wasn't so I tried again and same thing. The line just disconnects. Even when I would block my number same thing. No mention of my money at all. This is a balance at around 2300.00 including the fraudulent charges.

As the day unfolded my brother’s account was suspended also with 2100 in it. Same thing happened when he called. I think because he was associated with my account. I can’t say for sure on his or mine. So I had to try every side angle to use another phone and get a live person and was transferred all over to finally talk to "Jake id ** acct protection phone #800-555-4318" who was in a party that I had to ask if he was working at an office because I could hear kids and people laughing and celebrating making it hard to hear him. He finally said yes it was awards and appreciation day and that was what I could hear. I told him that it was unprofessional and a lot of other questions and statements but no matter what I got the same answer that I had to write a letter and that at this point I couldn't challenge the dispute because I was no longer able to use any service from them. And again to write them about the denied claim and being suspended.

I am against this sort of crime. I hear about it happening all the time and it gets swept under the rug. This company is part of the problem as they are indirectly endorsing fraud. Not only do I not get my stolen money back but they have made it almost impossible for me to get the information to at least give to the police to ignore this crime at which time I would like to have done everything in my power to resolve. So not only have they not protected me they have made it difficult to protect myself or at least move forward.

REGARDING THIS BEING THEIR POLICY: Does it make sense to close an account and not mention the money and block your telephone number from reaching them? I can’t understand how I knowingly would sign up for this. I should have trusted my instinct on not transferring my money back into the account because that is not just a random hacker but then the company stealing from me. I don’t know what to do but write them which is next but the way this guy was talking it didn't sound promising. I wish I could press charges on them since I 100% know that it was them that robbed the rest of my money and it stands to question that their system was down when this initially happened to me and seems up for question. The disputed funds is one thing but then suspending the account and not sending me the balance of the account doesn’t make any sense. This company needs a class action suit.

She needed money and I tried to transfer, but no way to get it resolved. This should be against the law, actually, to not have a way to contact someone who has a business (like AMEX) that involves your money. I got the card because of AMEX reputation and excellent customer service. Serve is a subsidiary of AMEX...but certainly not a good representative of their brand.

I called American Express a second time and was told that they received the transmission two days later than Audible said they sent it and that it was up to Audible to make sure they send everything in a timely manner. Merchant Holds seems to be something that American Express uses arbitrarily and when they do they're incapable of helping their customers other than to try and waylay blame. After years of using this service I'll be going with someone else as soon as all of my transactions clear. I would not recommend this product to anyone as their customer service has degenerated over the years to the point of being completely useless.

Are you kidding me? We trust you to handle our hard earned money and get our money on time. Two days faster than the average bank account WHATEVER but to be honest with you it's time for me to switch to a traditional bank account. It only takes one time for me. During tax time 2018 tax year they did this crap where our cards was inaccessible for up to 5 days. I wasn't too mad about because I had received the tax anticipation loan so I had money in pocket. Thank God for that but when it comes to my regular paycheck I'm not doing this with my regular paycheck. I'm done.