I just recently closed an American Express account that my husband and I have had forver due to horrible customer service we received regarding our credit card account with them. I want to share our story and see if there is anyone else out there who has had similar problems with them.
We opened an AMEX Costco card about a year ago (after already having their Gold card for 3 years) and in the beginning we had no prolems. In May I went to make an online payment from our CitiBank account to the Costco card. The payment said that it went through, gave me a confirmation number, and they said it would be processed in the next 2-3 business days. I went back to check our CitiBank account and the payment had not gone out (this was 4 business days after the payment had been scheduled). I called, cause our payment was due on the next day and I wanted to make sure they had the payment in the que. I called and spoke to a horrible woman who said that she saw no record of a payment and that she was sure I did something wrong. She asked me to confirm the payment confirmation number, the routing, and the checking number that I entered. I did and she said that she would process the payment over the phone.
I thought that was the end of the story, but when I received a letter in the mail from AMEX saying our check had been returned due to NSF, I went back to our Citi account and the payment has still not been removed. I called customer service again and got someone else who was rude and nasty telling me that the routing number they had on file for this account was innaccurate and not only was I being charged a late fee, a telephone check processing fee, and an NSF fee. At this point I asked to speak with a supervisor, and they were even less helpful and recommended that I call CitiBank and see if their routing number had changed since opening the account.
I called CitiBank and let them know what was going on and the woman that I spoke with said that the routing number had not been changed and no charges (pending or rejectd) had come through on the account. She told me to call AMEX with her on the phone, so I did and she spoke with an AMEX rep who was much nicer than the first two and the AMEX person finally pushed the payment through manually, and reversed all charges.
The final indignity with AMEX was when we received a letter in the mail saying that due to "payment history prblems" they were reducing our credit limit (12K to 2 K). I called the next day and closed our account. I have written several emails (all supposedly being answered in 24-48 hours of being received) and send 4 letters to dispute our treatment with them, and have heard nothing back. I am disgusted and over AMEX and they will nver have my business again.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope that someone can either learn from this or has something to share regarding their experiences.