Folks I need you to all be aware of a practice I have discovered that American Express is using. I have been with American Express for more than 23 years, have been in good standing the entire time, and even opened a Business Blue account.
In February I was travelling the U.S. With my family to have our son participate in a National motocross race. Because I was not in my home office I telephoned American Express and asked that the charges that were coming due while I was away be transferred to the Sign & Travel account. "No problem Mr. Lawrence is there anything else we can do?" I said my thank you and thought things were handled. My nightmare started.
American Express transferred the charges all right but transferred each one 2 or more times each. For example, I had a $112 charge for a dinner at Texas Road House in Tucson Arizona. That was transferred 4 times for the month of February. One dinner has now cost me $448. This happened with several transactions for that month totalling more than $2,600 in duplicated transfers.
American Express caught THEIR mistake and issued "credits" for each duplicated transfer. PROBLEM, American Express created a new Sign & Travel account and added all of the credits to that account and charged me finance charges on top of it.
Since March I have been dealing with this issue. Each month and every clerk or supervisor I talk to explains that they too see the mistake. The charges that are American Express' mistake are "suspended" pending an investigation. The following month the errors are corrected but placed back into the Due In Full or another Sign & Travel account.
Just this month my American Express statement showed I have more than $6,000 in "new charges". My total dept increased from $30,000 on Sign & Travel to $38,000 and a minimum payment was listed at $6,500.
I conducted an audit of my statement and the actual amount of "new charges" is only $2,300. When I called American Express I again got the response of, "I see what happened" and was given a new amount for a payment of only $1,500. My account showed current and in good standing.
The day after I received this report of our standing with American Express my wife went shopping for groceries for the family. To her embarrassment her American Express GOLD card was declined. When I called American Express, I was told that because our debt is more than $38,000 the account was suspended, "to protect us from over spending." I explained my conversation of the day before and guess what! The supervisor saw the notes, realized the mistake of American Express and immediately reinstated the account.
This keeps going but I will stop here. I again called American Express and was told that Mrs, Boon of the Nrth Carolina office would do an audit of the account and call me back. I have not heard from her since and my calls to American Express are now sent to Credit Services.
I have spent several days now auditing every statement since December. I was shocked to find that every month either my or my wifes "new charges" were stated between $20 and $30 higher than actually spending. When I brought these audits to the attention of American Express my account has again been suspened.
Check your statements closely, compare your actual charges with what the statement shows, and watch for credits to appear in a Sign & Travel account. Lastly, DO NOT expect help from Customer Service, they just want your money.
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