130 days and counting, no response from American Express

After reaching literally millions of consumers through mass media in publications like The New York Times and on television programs like ABC’s Good Morning America; after writing several letters and making numerous calls to American Express executives including C.E.O. Kenneth Chenault himself; after contacting elected officials in Washington, D.C.; after complaining to the appropriate federal agency that regulates American Express; after getting American Express to admit, denounce, and cease its discriminatory policy publicly in The New York Times; I still have not been contacted by American Express with an apology and news that it will restore my credit line.  

As my colleague from CreditMattersBlog.com warned: “Your 15 minutes of fame will come and go.”  That’s exactly what happened, not that I didn’t believe him and not that fame --or infamy for that matter-- was my goal.  In fact, I basically said the same thing when The New York Times story broke in late January:

“As part of its new strategy that uses weapons of mass deception, American Express has told media that it will change its policy even though the changes are still unclear and unverifiable.  Do you really expect the company to regulate itself if it doesn’t have to?  As a result of this “commendable” change of heart or slight of hand, the story quickly will lose its national luster and then be reduced to the ranting blogs of consumer activists.  Meanwhile, consumers will feel relatively safe again and begin using their cards like before.  Also, I increasingly will become the disgruntled consumer as I continue to call for real accountability.  Moreover, the credit lines of those affected by the gross misunderstanding will not be restored. Perhaps the reason for not restoring the lines will be other factors that are deemed acceptable or within the law.”

The producer of Good Morning America was overly confident that as a result of my story airing, American Express would restore my account to the way it was.  I am pretty sure that the show’s investigative reporting has a high success rate in undoing wrong done to a customer, but I was naïve to believe that my situation would change too.  

So, here I am 130 days after everything started and with nothing to show for my efforts as they relate to my own account. But I am not discouraged because this campaign has changed the thinking of millions of consumers and revealed the true essence of a poorly led company. In fact, the audacity of American Express’ lack of business ethics empowers me to continue fighting for consumers who need bold agents of change to fight an industry rife with deception.  

In short, it's too bad for American Express, not me.  Customer Service 101 would have guided the company to simply resolve my issue --and as soon as possible.  The cost of mass, negative publicity far outweighs the cost of resolving a good customer's problem.  I suppose the company should implement a new algorithm to improve public perception and customer satisfaction.  It's risk management --when it comes to public relations-- is quite poor.   

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Comments

[Z]

Yesterday I had my total credit lines cut from $16k to $3.4k. I pay in full every single month and had just made almost $13k of payments the day before. This is normal usage for my cards since I use them for my business. The reason they gave is because I had recently opened up 2 new accounts with Discover and Citibank, and my utilization in Feb. 2009 was higher than normal. They took a month's worth of data and decided to erase years worth of work building credit with them.

With only $3.4k of credit, these cards are worthless to me. From now on I am only using Amex cards whenever I absolutely have to (if someone ONLY takes Amex). They can forget about the thousands in transaction fees they've collected from me using their cards in the past.

I'm trying to start my own business in the midst of a recession (doing very well), doing my part to RESCUE the economy and possibly create jobs. Without credit, people cannot start businesses, jobs don't get created, and the economy stays in a recession. By keeping credit tight, Amex and other banks are forcing the economy to stay in a recession. The government continues to give them free money (OUR MONEY) and turn a blind eye to the havoc they continue to wreak on the economy.

[Holly]

DW....

You are not alone.....Please go to the "Complaint Guide" section on this site and see who/where/what you can do to file against AMEX.

Kevin....do you have any additional guideance for DW?

[DW]

ALSO - we were told we could re-apply in 12 months. Yeah, like I'm going to mark that down on my calendar!

[DW]

We had our personal cards and business cards cancelled by Amex this week. I tired to use my personal card in a business solely owned by my husband. The charge was declined so I called. I was informed that this violated the cardmember agreement yet I was reassured there would be no problem. The conversation was even recorded by Amex! Next day, BOOM, personal account closed. My husband spoke to no fewer than 7 representatives since Tuesday and everyone replied with, "There is nothing we can do, sir." Like drones they were! One rep even had the audacity to say that I must accept responsibility for my actions. My husband explained that I neither own the business nor am I the primary on either account. Didn't matter. 18 years of card membership down the drain in one swipe of a card. The male reps were all hostile and unhelpful.

PS - today our business cards were cancelled. We charge about 120K per year on our personal and business cards combined and my husband accepts Amex at his business. The business alone generates about $5000 in annual revenue for Amex as they charge the business 3% of sales AND take up to 5 days to put the money in the account. That's about $166K in charges my business processes on just Amex alone in ONE YEAR. And we pay on time.

Recently, Amex called and took the time to make sure I knew which of my vendors took Amex so they could "maximize my business." They also said they felt comfortable with us charging 20K a month. I pay so many vendors on auto pay that I have about 3 hours of phone calls to make now. And I just lost my 30 day float.

WTF? is all I can think.

Letters have been written to the Amex executives and an email bomb is in the works. I'll be notifying consumerist.com and possibly my state's AG.

Does anyone know where in the agreement it states this act is a violation? Can someone post that language here?

Any suggestions?

[Srinivas Annadi]

After Amex and what if all other credit companies does the same thing at same time. Isn't it bizarre... I think nobody should have paid single penny to any company... So here is what congress need to do.

1. Creditors will know our history by looking at credit score. But how do we know the creditors history? I think congress should account this.

2. Credit card companies credit rating should be calculated based on numerous things... for example

a) How much liquid cash does it have?
b) What is its turnover?
c) What are the types of accounts dealing with?
d) How many business/customers does it have?
e) How many of them have good/bad (may be credit score come into picture)standing customers
f) What are the credit limits of accounts?
g) How much of the credit being used?
h) Raise/decrease in account limit.
i) Raise/decrease in APR
j) Frequency of change in terms and conditions.
... list goes like this

My point here is that, all the credit companies should also have their grading by looking at its position. Comments pls...

[Holly]

Kevin,

I sympathize that the "clock is ticking" without resolution or even a reasonalbe response....any news on Class Action Suit?

Can we solicit a lobby group to support our efforts at the congressional level?

[Carole May]

There is no such thing as customer service anymore when it comes to credit card companies. When I got a letter from WaMu (now Chase) saying that my interest rate was going up to 21.99% I called. I asked them why, they couldn't tell me. I never paid late and always paid more than the minimum. Well, they screwed themselves as I re-did my budget and in 9 months they will be paid off and it's good riddance to them! Today I'm opening accounts at my local credit union, as WaMu (Chase) is also losing my banking accounts.

[Jessica Grey]

Sounds like they need a Crisis Management expert. They should hire you, Kevin!! LOL.

[Kevin D. Johnson]

Could it be that things look so bad for the company that it completely and intentionally neglected all courteous protocol in dealing with certain customers? I think so. That protocol went out of the window as charge-offs continue to reach unprecedented levels.

[L. Elliott]

Kevin,

This happen to me around December 2008 by AMEX. I have been a member since 1999 with a credit limit of over 30K(NEVER LATE) with a balance of roughly $2500. One day I get a email alert from AMEX saying my credit limit had gone from 30K to 4k. No call from AMEX to inform me and no one in customer service could give me a logical answer as to why my limit was reduced. Until Congress acts with swift action to hold these card companies accountable for stupid actions such as this, they will continue to "Pee" on us and convince us it raining.