I have merrily rolled along with Amex for years, cheerfully paying their fees and never having problems. Until, I had a problem. The first problem I had with them was back in March. I called and actually got a woman who spoke English although she was from India. I had a technical problem with the on-line service. It wouldn't let me change the amount of my Auto Pay. She said that she would have to connect me to Technical Support. I got some Indian gentleman. He seemed disgruntled. Usually there is a problem with English, but I am very patient. He explained that he would have to take command of my computer in order to see and fix the problem. I have had this done in the past with other companies and so I gave him my approval. He went away and then came back and asked about the problem I was having. I explained and he said he would try to resolve that. Then he came back and said that he was all finished and was there anything else he could help me with. He had made the print on my computer so small that I couldn't read it any more. I asked him to fix this. He was "pissed" to say the least. Why do you want your print so large Madam? I am almost legally blind and I need to use my computer to do business. Oh, is that so? Well, then I will have to change it back then. He was clearly annoyed. I thought "Where does he get off changing the print size on someone's computter and then acting like they are making up a story. I could see that he had changed the print size on the page we had been looking at back to a larger size, but only slightly larger. Is this large enough Madam? No, I need it really large. Again he changed the size and continued to until I found it satisfactory. I let him go. Regretibly. Later on I found that he hadn't changed everything back to the size of font I had been using. Now, when I went to do the spell check, the page wouldn't even line up. The print on my printer now comes out in a size I can't even read with a magnifying glass.
That was not to be the end of THE American Express service problem. When I went in to change the amount of my Auto Pay, I still had trouble. I called again. This time I got an American woman. An Acutal American woman. I was shocked and said so. She said that they were changing thier Service network and she would be happy to help me today. I explained the problem to her and she walked me through the process. I asked about a credit that would come due in just two days time. She told me that I could just pay the amount I mentioned and that I wouldn't be penalized for the difference. I did just what she told me to do while I was on the phone with her. I reconfirmed that I had done the right proceedure. She told me that I had and that she would put a note in my file explaining the forthcoming credit.
All's well that ends well, but this wasn't going to be one of those times.
My bank called me one morning to inform me that AmEX was trying to take a payment out twice and it would overdraw my account. They would return the second one if I wished but it would cost me a $30 fee. I asked them to do this. (The payments were taken out on 5/06 and the second one was returned on 5/09.) I called AmEx to talk to them about this and why the payment request was being returned. I got a very poor English speaking gentleman of some Hisanic decent. I explained the situation to him maybe three times. He kept insisting that this was my fault as I had entered a computer payment in addition to the Auto Pay. (The same problem I had from the start.) He insisted that the woman I spoke with didn't have the possibility of having entered the other computer payment. I said "OK, it's my fault. Now what can we do to fix this because I now have a m$30 fee from my bank that needs to be paid. He didn't think that I could get my money back but he said the problem would now fix itself, so I wouldn't have to worry about it happening again. I told him that I had never had anything like this happen to me in all my years with AmEx. He said he would talk with his supervisor. He came back and said that if I would submit my bank statement with proving that the bank had actually charged me $30 to his supervisor, they would refund the fee because I had been such a good customer. I was glad that I would get my $30 back but now they make people send in thier bank statements as "proof" that they actually had to pay the fee? What is this country coming to? So I sent the part of the statement that contained the fee as I didn't think it was any business of thiers what my bank statement contained. I faxed it to "Joe San Juan" at 888-292-5012. Maybe they were in Puerto Rico? They didn't sound Fillapino to me. I don't really care. I have no problem with people in other countries not knowing English that well. How many of us know the languages of other countries? We all have to learn. Then the bank charged me another $30 fee because the first check overdrafted my account. Then I borrowed $1500 from myself and paid a $45 fee to do that. I would then be assured that this didn't happen again. The $1500 went into my account on May 11. On that same day but a bit later AMEX took out another $1,080.66, the amount that they had taken out twice before and the bank charge me another $30. (If your keeping track, I have now paid out $90 in bank fees. I called AMex again. I got a nice little Spanish speaking girl who had trouble understanding me, even though I could understand her just fine. I related the above story to her in a now impatient voice. I told her that I knew that she personally wasn't responsible for this but I wanted this straightened out once and for all. She again told me that it was my fault (They must be trained to say this now.) I said Ok, Ok, it's my fault but what can be done to resolve this. Nothing. Nothing? No, nothing. This would keep happening over and over until the computer catches up. One would think that the computer didn't have human beings running it. It can't be stopped, you are just going to have to pay the fees because it was your fault. I asked to speak with her supervisor. She was only too happy to turn me over to one. I am a very patient person, but this had better stop and soon. I got a calm voiced Spanish speaking Supervisor who could clearly understand me as I could her. She explained that the only thing that could be done now was for them to refund the $1080.66 and that would take 4-6 weeks. EEYIIKES! I cannot afford to wait for 4-6 weeks for you to refund my money. I have bills that need to be paid now! Well, she could check to see if they could send an elctronic check. That sounded good until she said that the check takes 10 days to 2 weeks. I had had it. I said "Oh, no, you don't. I will not let you steel and use my money until you can get the computer to change! I will stop using this card right now. I can't beleive that I pay a fee every year for this kind of service. I hung up and called the bank. I was told that they thought it had already been processed but that she would make a call and verify that. She said that if I came into the bank right away and paid (You guessed it.) a $30 fee they could stop AmEx from taking any more money out of my account, until I lift the order or until November. That I was willing to do. So I signed and paid and stopped AmEX from taking any more money from my account. Then AMEx started sending me threatening notices aboput what they would do to my credit if I didn't pay the $1080.66 that they had already taken out of my account three times.
Today I talked with AmEx again because I still owe them charges from last month and I always pay my bills. I got an agreed upon amount that I would pay after getting the lecture about how they couldn't refund the bank fees because it was my fault. They were trying to charge me $25 because I had stopped payment. She agreed to remove that charge. I told her about faxing Joe San Juan to get my first bank fee paid. She told me that I would not be getting any money from them because it was my fault.
When I was but a young thing in my early 20's, I went to work for Gimbel's as a "floater". I moved from department to department fixing problems and helping with rushes. I had two weeks training to do this part-time job. The first thing we learned is that Mr. Gimbel beleived back at the turn of the Century that "The customer is always right." He was dead but the store lived by this policy. I heard clerks say it all the time and they practiced it to. One gentleman told me that he actually took back a used toilet seat once. I don't know if that was true or not. What had become of this great country of ours? So many people lack empathy. So many people are just plain greedy. I think it is about time for American Express to change their name. Apparently, the Indian people they hired were too nice to people. I certainly had the feeling that that last Indian gentleman I spoke with must have been fired earlier in the day and he was taking revenge on me. Maybe that is why we now have hard hearted Spanish speaking people.
Remember to be nice and pleasant to everyone you speak with as it is only their job to help you. You may be answering the phones for poor Chinese, German or Indian people some day and you probably will not be too good at speaking or understanding them. If you want to keep your job, may I suggest that you start buying Rosetta Stone Language classes, the language classes used by the CIA. Perhaps that should be part of our troop training. Think how much better off our troops would be if they could understand the language of the people they were fighting.
Since you leave me no other means of contacting your corporation American Express, may I wish you good luck as the newly named Guatamalan Express. (No offence to the Guatamalan people was meant by this. I just grabbed some other countries name out of a hat.) How about Iranian Express? I think your standards would be better matched. There is nothing like Iranian service.
I will not cancel my card because that will ruin my credit rating. I will just not use your card anymore. It wasn't accepted at that many places anyway because you charge merchants such huge fees. Don't expect me to pay another Annual Fee either. I don't carry this card anymore and I hope that anyone who reads this will retire their card also.
Thank you so much for all your Iranian - like service. To bad the Nazi's are no longer in business.
Sincerely, Patricia A Mace
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