I was check out Consumerist and I came across Don’t Move House If You Have An Amex Card. Here are some of the highlights:
Today my wife went to withdraw money from our bank account and noticed to her surprise that we were over $4000 overdrawn. We then went online to check our account and noticed that there was a large pending payment to our American Express card….But neither my wife nor I had authorized this payment. So we called American Express…
1. The first person my wife talks to at Amex says that she’ll have to open a billing inquiry and it could take up to six weeks to resolve. My wife said that was unacceptable and asked to speak to a supervisor.
2. The supervisor said that they called a number (they wouldn’t even tell us what number) associated with our account and that the person they spoke with authorized the payment. My wife said that neither of us had spoken to anyone and the supervisor said that he would pull the tape of the call and would call us back within the hour.
3. The customer service rep (not the supervisor) who called us back said that they had reviewed the call and related the transcript to us. It’s important to understand that my wife has an unusual first name that someone could take for being either a male or female name:
Amex Rep: Is this [my wife's name]?
Man at unknown phone number: “Yes, this is [my wife's name].
Amex Rep: Do you authorize a payment of $XXXX on your account?
Man: “Yes, you can take the money out of my bank account.”
Amex Rep: Would that be the account ending in xxxx?
Man: “Yes, that’s the account.”Based on this crack display of identity verification, Amex says they would not be refunding the money.
It reminded me about our lawsuit we had with a mechanic shop that neglected my husband’s car. During the court case, the owner claimed to have called us but our phone records said otherwise. It turned out that the clerk didn’t bother to confirm the identity of whoever she spoke with. All she told them was “Your car is ready and it’ll be $X amount” and basically hung up after they told her that seemed expensive.
That should’ve been the tip off since we got the esimate before we dropped off the car for repairs, but they didn’t ask who they were speaking to or anything. I’m glad we won the lawsuit, but it was a headache to go through the whole process.
Do you have any horror stories on bad customer service?
Photo Credit: Milica Sekulic
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That’s a really bad story. That is is a security issue if I must say so. I was listening to a podcast where the host talked about AT&T sending unprotected passwords in emails. Not only that but the log in to this person’s account doesn’t even use the ***** method for passwords. Just plain text. What is this 1995? These big companies need to lock down their security. Glad I don’t have Amex, but there’s no telling how dumb my card company is.
I was really surprised that customer service at American Express thought that was acceptable. I hope they re are able to resolve this without a lawsuit.
In February 2009, I agreed to permit my 23 year old son to purchase an auto using my American Express credit card.
But first called American Express to confirm the available credit on the card. They stated it had a credit reserve well over the $11,700 needed to make the purchase, however 3 weeks later I recieced an invoice from them stating that my account was $4000 over the credit limit for this card and that my new intrest rate was to be 27.24% plus an additional $30.00 per month over limit fee.
I have had an accout with them for many years and have never been late with payments and always paid more than the minimum payment.
I called them and inquired as to this action, they stated there was nothing they could do even though they admitted giving me the wrong information at the time of my credit inquiry.
I have 2 other American Express credit cards both of which I recieved letters regarding, stating the credit limits had been reduced to less than my current balance also incurring over limit fees.
In May I recieved a telephone call stating that they would like to make a deal with me send them a $12,000 payment and they would give me $617.47 back and also lower the credit limit to $7000 or send $12,000 and have the interest rate reduced to 3.99% plus prime this would equal approx 7.24%.
I chose the latter and can not wait to pay them all in full as soon as possible.
Needless to say I will not be requesting credit with them again