No surprise to everyone out there, but feel obligated to share. In over 30 years, every single customer service issue I've had with American Express has been INCREDIBLY negative. Screen shot of recent "Chat" below on a minor matter; however, it sums up how little this company cares about its clients. I realize that most big companies are like this; however, I actually had relatively positive interactions with both Xfinity and AT&T yesterday.
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AE: Hi W, please select one of these options, or in a few words tell me what you need help with.
Me: Requesting that $29.00 late fee be credited back to account after total payment goes through. My records show that I scheduled payment on July 1st, but it obviously didn't go through. Whether it's my fault or not, we've been clients for a very long time and most certainly do not make a habit of missing payments. Thank you for your consideration.
AE: A Customer Care Professional will be with you shortly. In the meantime, please provide any information that may help us assist you.
Hi W! You are connected to Rein. Appreciate you reaching us about the late fee in the account.
Thank you, as well, for making sure that payments are made and you're on top of your finances.
Please allow me to check my options to process your waiver request.
W, can you please confirm the last 5 digits of the Card in concern?
ME: *****
AE: Thank you!
Checking the account now for you
Appreciate the time, W! I have tried submitting a request on your behalf and it appears that the system would need to keep the fee in the account for now
ME: Yes, I don't expect you to reimburse the late fee until the payment I just re-scheduled goes through 100%. But I expect American Express to follow through and credit the account for the late fee once the payment goes through, please. That's why I'm taking time from work to contact you. Thank you.
AE: Appreciate your efforts in doing this, W! And I thank you for making sure the account is paid. For now, though, the request is being stopped by the system as the late fee is being recognized to be a valid charge
ME: I disagree. I am asking a PERSON to override the system. Please assist.
AE: I really want to assist, W, and this is the same request I am doing to override the system.
ME: Okay, you said "for now" the request is being stopped. When and who should I re-contact at American Express to have this issue resolved to my satisfaction?
AE: Good question, W! For this fee, my request to waive it is being stopped since it is considered as a valid charge in the account. You may try contact our accounts' specialists over the phone, though, they might get the same result as we are using the same tools.
ME: Probably true and I don't have time for that. Please give me a account specialist manager's name and phone number so we can cut to the chase. Did you look at how many years we have been a client of American Express? Did the system take that into account?
AE: Yes, I did, W, and we really appreciate the loyalty. For the accounts' specialists,nPlease call us at *******800 available 24/7.
ME: It will be faster and less trouble to just cancel the account. I am extremely disappointed and dissatisfied with American Express.
AE: A Customer Care Professional will be with you shortly. In the meantime, please provide any information that may help us assist you.
I'll just go through your previous conversation, so we can pickup where we left off. My name is Eli by the way!
ME: Thank you.
AE: I respect your decision and can certainly process your request. To complete the cancellation process, we need your consent. If we experience a disconnect or no response, we won't be able to cancel the card unless you re-initiate the chat or call *******800. Do I have your consent?
ME: No, I did not ask for cancellation. I wrote that if would be faster to do that than to contact an account specialist.
I did, however, ask for the name of an account specialist manager and direct phone number.
AE: I do see here that a request for a waiver was already put through for the late fee. The result fro mthe waiver request was declined.
ME: And I dispute that. I want to speak to a real person, not have a "system" deny a request.
AE: Appreciate you pointing that out. All roles among American Express like me and other departments have the same access and tools to request this waiver. We would all get the same results as this is being checked by our system through your account.
ME: What crappy customer service American Express has if they refuse a small request like this from a loyal, longtime client. Really, really bad, especially since I fully believe that the "scheduling" error was on American Express's side, not mine. I frequently get the error message that the administrative system is down, try again message when I login to the account to view/pay bills. I'm done. I will take the time for a bad google review, not that American Express gives a "*****".
AE: Thank you for the feedback.
Thank you for chatting with us. Have a great day, W!
The agent has left
Close the Chat or continue typing to reconnect

I received a electronic gift card in December, used a bit of it and after a few weeks of not using it, it was put on hold for "threat of fraud". After talking to customer service, they informed me they could mail me a new card after i send in a proof of address. I emailed my proof, didnt hear from them until 2 weeks later when they told me my proof was not valid and i needed to send in a new pic of a piece of mail. I sent that in, they confirmed it was valid and told me to wait for it to be mailed within 7-14 business days. After that time, with no card in the mail, i called back and they said they had the return address that was on the proof i sent in, and not my correct address. After correcting their information for them, i had to wait another 7-14 buiness days. After that time and no card in the mail, i called in again only to have them tell me they would escalate my case. After a few days with no word, i called back only to be told my 2nd proof of address was not valid and they did nothing to review it the entire time.

Each time calling in, my call was dropped multiple times or i was put on hold after talking to someone for over 30 min. Each representative i taled to told me something different and was unable to give me clear answers. When i asked how to leave a review, i was told it was impossible to do so.

DO NOT USE THEM FOR GIFT CARDS! They have literally been holding my money hostage for the last 3 months, shuffeling it around, making up excuse after excuse and using the entire 7-14 business days each time to do anything. They dont care about helping you, even though they say they are "so sorry for the inconvienence". I never get mad at customer service reps and i am overly nice to them, but this company has gotten on my last nerve consistently. Seems like they are hoping i forget about my money all together and keep pushing it out and pushing it out. Dont waste your time or anyone elses by using their gift cards tfor your self or as a gift. Its a pain and a scam. Ill be surprised if i ever get my card this year

RUBBISH CREDIT CARD AND CUSTOMER SERVICE! STAY AWAY!

I bought a very expensive kitchen appliance from a prestigious online marketplace.

After 3 months the appliance stopped connecting to the Internet, so I sent it to the manufacturer for repair.

The manufacturer immediately contacted me to let me know that the item was part of a large lot of stolen appliances, and they confiscated it as it belonged to them.

The marketplace refused to provide a refund, as the seller had already disappeared with my money, but that's a separate story and also a separate review/feedback.

Given that I was basically sold fraudulently a stolen good I was 100% convinced that Amex would have protected me fighting "tooth and nail".

In reality they found every possible way to deny me any kind of protection and refund.

Their "purchase protection" scheme was denied because the item was allegedly bought "privately" even if it was a brand new item.

The main dispute was denied basically without any comprehensible explanation although the true reason is that they operate a charge-back system, so if the merchant isn't happy with the charge-back (and who would be?) then Amex tends to favour the merchant (otherwise they might lose a big chunk of business which is a lot worse than losing just one private customer) and submit a one liner explanation which doesn't mean anything 99% of the times.

Most of the denials happened only hours (sometimes less) after I raised the disputes and there was never a way to fully understand the reason behind them. The most common explanation was "the merchant has provided their terms and conditions"...
Ok and so what? The terms of conditions of the merchant certainly don't cover selling stolen goods.
Other times the response was that I didn't return the item. The item was a "stolen good" therefore it got confiscated by the manufacturer. Besides returning a "stolen good" to the thief? It clearly meant that they never bother to read the one pager explanation I provided with the claim.

The ice on the cake, however, was the final attempt to get a refund under the "Section 75" of the Consumer Credit Act, the law that should protect British customers better than anywhere else in the world... This was the only case when the "Dispute Team" bothered to read the details of the issue/dispute and they suddenly became shrewd lawyers and declined the refund on the legal ground that the "contractual chain" between the buyer and seller was interrupted by the marketplace. In reality the seller, to all extents and purposes, at least from my point of view, was the marketplace itself but that's a different story, one for the courtrooms…

All in all, there is just a deep sense of being completely, utterly abandoned and neglected by the one of the largest and most effluent credit cards on the planet.
Their standard "dispute" system is just a joke where they only move money from one party to another, without any shred of time/money effort spent by themselves to evaluate the facts and try to resolve the dispute in terms of what is right and fair.
It should have been a "slam-dunk" case as I had all the police reports about the theft and the consequent fraud I was subjected to.

USELESS! STAY AWAY!

I have had a Platinum Card with American Express for years. We loved the card and recommended it to all of our friends and family members. Customer service used to be top notch, ability to use credits and promotions was easy and made the card worth it. Not in 2022. I booked a hotel stay at the Mirage in Las Vegas in January 2022 and canceled my cancellable reservation when learned that my husband wouldn't able to attend. We were charged $199, and then refunded $199. All good! A few days later our account showed a $144 charge to Mirage (we had not even flown to Las Vegas)... so we called and found out it was a billing error on Amex's part. They refunded the $144. Fast forward to November 2022 and we book the Westin in Anaheim expecting to get our $200 Hotel Credit since we never had used it up until this point. Credit never shows up on our account, I call and ask why? Well $144 of it was used in January when we stayed at the Mirage... that's not possible?! Not only did they use up $144 of my hotel credit, I never got the remaining $56 during my Anaheim stay. I call 6 x at 1 hour per call and each time customer service sends me to "the travel team" but the travel team can't see reservations made under promotions?!?! Makes no sense so they send me back to customer care team... and back and forth I've been ping ponged for months. Someone says they'll open up a dispute, finally! I was told I'd receive an email... no email after weeks so call back again. The customer service rep apologizes and says he will send email now... I open up the email to see they've "decided" to recharge my account $144 --- total and utter shock and disbelief. Not only did I not stay at the Mirage, I lost $144 hotel credit, and now they are charging my card $144. This. Makes. No. Sense. Spend another 2-hours on the phone with travel team, they can't see my bookings to give me any further details. They guess I didn't get the remaining credit because I didn't pay in advance (never have before). I ask when did this rule change? Customer service associate says she just found out about it when she put me on hold. Comforting. After 2-hours I am given a "case number" and told a supervisor will reach out to me within 48 hours. This was on a Wednesday... It is now Saturday and I call to speak to someone. I'm told there are no supervisors... I'm told my case is "open" and there's nothing I can do about it until they reach out to me. I ask when I should try back, and was told I couldn't get a hold of a supervisor because it was a weekend and should call back on a weekday... like I did... the first time... to no avail. I am SO DONE with this company... their rising annual fees, incompetent customer service representatives and kangaroo court dispute investigations. At this point I am biting the $400+ in credits I'm owed and canceling. Will never recommend this company again.

I thought these people had some class. They have been playing with my account - every other day - I can't login (I don't know if anyone else has this problem ongoing for the last few months, I have tho). I have a hearing disability, I_need_ Chat as I have a Very collapsed tolerance to sound (cat 4 hyperacusis) - I have sent them a medical letter from my doctor speaking to my inability to go through switchboards/Muzak on steroids and in speech ref problems with a lack of word discrimination. They had chat feature on this morning - I was so happy - it's the only way I can communicate. Then they sent me a letter "again" telling me to get a Power of Attorney. How can they do this? I think they just don't to use the Chat function - they also didn't put it on the login page, meaning that one has to login to get access to chat - pretty bad if the reason you need to Chat is because they have blocked login access for an. Account which, according to them, is in good standing. They remove and add this chat feature - and as it's the only way I can communicate? I need it very muich - but they seem to be playing games with it.

My physycians, incl specialists, have never once said to me I need to give_anyone_ Power of Attorney - American Express seems to belive they know more than my doctors?They choose to treat the disabled as if we've all had lobotomies - simply becaused they toy with us about, what? Accommodation that they already "have"? They are driving me out of my mind! I've rarely been treated with such a pejorative dismissal - "instructing" me to get a PofA becuase they want to play with the chat function - to absolute detriment of people with hearing impairments. (no, I'm not elegible forTTY, and it's too loud for me, getting pain over 30dB.) These people are just unconscionable. If I could give minus stars, I would. (They've also spelled my name wrong. Twice (even when I asked them to spell it properly - in emails) Borth letters (1st one - the salutation was also to some man that I've never heard of - and I'm not a man either. These people - apparently insist that they know how to spell my name better than I do? They are just being Awful and Abusive - I see them twittering around the coffee machine.

I was approved with American American Express to have an unlimited credit card on the website but the American Express sent me a $1656 credit card in American currency!
I don't understand why it was in American currency as I am in England and not in America but this is NOT WHAT THE WEBSITE STATED WHEN THE SYSTEM ACCEPTED ME FOR A CREDIT CARD!

I also received a letter from American Express explaining all the Privileges that came with being an Amex card member and they sounded great!

Only problem is that these privileges and rewards DO NOT EXIST! There is no such amenities awards and access to services on my card account it was all a letter lying about my card from someone who knew they sent me the incorrect card and incorrect credit limit to intimidate me as to his/her psychotic about my life in some type of way in his/her mind.
I was not intimidated however I can confirm that American Express are a scam!
They state unlimited credit cards on website but once approved you get what you are given by these mental abusers and then they will spite you as their exploited customer disrespected with no say in the matter by writing a full letter to you introducing all the benefits everything you know you should have got from the card you were told by the website that accepted you…as a way to spite you and let you know that they wronged you and don't care and they are in control!
I wouldn't be surprised if Amex creditors stalk their customers or have their more favoured customers stalk the dictated customers to randomly abuse or harm the financially dictated for the way that these creditors are actually very poor souls outside of their human body's that can't afford anything they do on earth and use Amex as a way to create different victims for themselves to live off of mentally.
These people use businesses and the workplace to find their mental victims to obtain good mental health for themselves but I say perhaps this method is not so smart anymore and Amex creditors should consider quitting or the whole business should shut down for its fraud. It's lies and it's fake legitimacy!

That was such a bad experience
Put me off of credit…the uk creditors all do this!
But Amex surprised me the most because I know that business has more money than others due to Amex and their involvement helping a famous fraudster cash out hundreds of thousands of pounds illegally for years and they did this knowing and agreeing to give him the money so that netflix can make a documentary and promote Amex further.

I was surprised, maybe Amex spent all their money on all their criminal favourites and don't have any left!?
Regardless I was accepted for a unlimited credit card and was given a dirty childlike credit limit and I experienced being mocked of all the benefits that the creditor chose to change and dictate
I DONT RECOMMEND AMERICAN EXPRESS…unless you want to be some kind of homicide victim case through some psychopath obsessed with Amex for the way they are all linked and psychotic and controlling whilst channeling mentally disturbing their customers!

I know from experience!

Service has deteriorated in the last few years, it appears I am now paying just to be lied to and put on hold...

I called AMEX today to confirm my flights in August to Europe and ask about covid precautions. I was told that the airport, date and duration of my return flight had changed but no one had informed me. My return flight went from a duration of 13hrs to 38hrs and I was then told I would have to pay if I wanted a better flight or fly from my original selection. I was also told I would have to pay for a bus to the new departure location. I refused to agree to this as none of this was my fault nor was I informed and I was then transferred to the Platinum insurance dept as my card covers travel interruptions like this. An automated service said there would be a 5min wait and I was on hold for 35mins and then the phone was hung up on. When I called AMEX Travel back I was told this department closed at 6:30pmEST, while I was on hold, I asked to speak with a supervisor who then told me the dept isnt even open on the weekends. At the same time I was on the Online Chat service and I was told the Ins Dept was open until 8pm and was given a direct number to call that didnt work.

I asked the supervisor I was speaking to on the phone to send me information to make a formal complaint as I was receiving 3 different stories form 3 different AMEX staff members and I was told there was no further person to contact and there was nothing more I could do. This s terrible service but its worse when this all in response to AMEX changing my flights without notifying me and asking me to pay for any extra cost they caused,

I spent 3 hours on the phone today to be told there is no one working that could help me and I have to call the insurance dept on Monday. I just want Amex to honor their service agreement and instead I pay hundreds of dollars to have my flights changed and then treated like this by the service team.

Dear American Express,

In total, between three businesses and my personal accounts, I have 12 credit cards and do business with 8 different banks and credit unions. I had three AMEX credit cards. Now I'm down to two, soon to be just my personal, and, maybe, none if AMEX doesn't start acting like a respectable company again.

In the past 20 years, I cannot recall any major issue I had with any of my VISA, MASTERCARD, or DISCOVER accounts. I had to dispute a few charges a handful of times out of the thousands of transactions I did, but they were all quickly rectified by the credit card company. However, from May of 2020 to March of 2021, I had four issues with business American Express cards, in particular, their Amazon Business card and their Bonvoy Marriott card, ranging from them protecting unethical businesses, I proved, through email evidence, had charged me unjustified fees for services not rendered to cutting my business credit lines from $65,000 to less than $9,000 because they felt that 'I was living off my credit cards' to rewards points being all screwed up. After calling and emailing numerous times unsuccessfully, I filed a formal complaint via email and through the website, left a negative review on several websites, and then, for good measure, sent a certified letter to their corporate office just to make certain somebody over there knew how T'd I was. I even called my attorney.

I was called a few days later by an "Executive Assistant" Naomi C., who explained that she had received my letter and would be looking into the matters. After a few weeks of sporadic contact, Ms. C. finally called me Christmas Eve morning to give me triple bad news. She was obviously annoyed to be working Christmas Eve and made several comments that were eyebrow-raising, my three favorites were; one, that the unethical companies I was disputing were also defined as "American Express clients" because they initiated the non-fraudulent transactions through my credit card. Two, that I looked to be "Living off my credit cards". And, three, that she was looking forward to going on a vacation through January 5th as soon as she finished my file along with some others.
The only good piece of advice Ms. C. gave me is that I could combine the credit limits of my now two practically worthless business cards. Unfortunately, a few months later, another rep I dealt with for that, instead of combining the accounts and then closing them, simply closed one account and didn't do the transfer at all. A few week later, when I called again, I was then told by a third rep that it wasn't that reps fault, but my fault because I didn't ensure the account remained open until after the transfer was completed. Hmmm… am I supposed to be psychic and a babysitter as an AMEX customer? When you specifically tell someone not to close an account until after the transfer has been completed and they acknowledge you then ignore your request behind your back, how am I reasonably at fault?
Whoever from American Express who may be reading this, here's my response to Ms. C's eyebrow raising remarks: Your "other clients" are criminals that wrongfully charged me $2,000.00 for services that were not rendered, I'm not "Living off my credit cards" (especially NOT your company's anymore), in fact, I paid them all down to zero last month (Closing one of yours, which another rep screwed up the credit transfer for so I lost the remaining 9K of credit) and currently have a credit score over 800 and, I hope Ms. C. enjoyed her holiday vacation because she put an unnecessary damper on mine by calling Christmas Eve with no good news (Shame on American Express for making non-essential employees work holidays). Furthermore, I wrote Ms. C. an email last week to update her and pass on some much-needed guidance to this company. I received no response. Apparently certified mail to one of the company executives is the only thing that's taken seriously over there and, even then, an executive will not be calling to apologize for multiple screw ups on a business account, they'll cowardly pass that duty on to someone who's obviously already overworked, overwhelmed, and, possibly, unqualified to be interacting with the public.
WARNING: For anyone reading this, the "business guarantee" American Express champions on so much advertising that they will fight on your behalf when a vendor mischarges you, well, I didn't see that at all. I saw the opposite. Furthermore, their interest rates are ridiculous, their rewards points incentives are shrinking rapidly, their grace periods between payments is a joke at about three weeks, and their customer service… well, quite frankly, their customer service I rate a 2 out of 10.

American Express, do you want to fix this?!

Sincerely,

James Bellile

I wish I could give them negative 1,000,000 stars. This is the second worst credit card experience I have had since I canceled my Citi card like 8 years ago which was a nightmare. This company has even worse service than Citi. Here's my story:

My dad passed about a year ago and I needed to fly home for a while. On my way back, I was checking out Delta flights and there was a promotion, Amex card, buy x dollar amount before y time and you get a $200 statement credit and 60,000 miles. Was easy to hit the minimum with my flight home and a couple of purchases. I paid my first bill without seeing my statement because I couldn't get my card until I got back home. Once I had the card, I was trying to set up my online account but, for whatever reason, the online banking system wouldn't work. I paid my card over the phone again. By the third or fourth statement, I was fed up and called again to get my online account set up. They ask me a bunch of questions about the card and I finally get it straightened out, they set up my online banking. Cool, I see they never gave me my statement credit. I did get the miles.

Fast forward months go by and every time I go to log into my account, it's saying I have the wrong password, wrong card info, whatever and my account is blocked. I call and pay my bill and ask them to unlock my account. They make a one time password for me to get in, this happens 5 or 6 maybe even 8 times, I lost track.

Meanwhile, I call Delta to get my statement credit because Amex claims "it's a Delta promotion, take it up with them." Delta claims, "it's a statement credit, take it up with Amex." This goes on for about 2 months, on the phone for hours each time, before I finally give up and decide I've spent more time trying to get the credit than it's worth.

Fast forward months again and still cannot log into my account. Every time I call them to get it fixed they are extremely rude, ask me for different information every single time, and this last time literally hung up on me when I complained why he's asking me for different information. One time it's this number, the next time it's this security question, the next time it's another number, it's never the same. It's honestly baffling and, as if they're messing with me. Literally, it feels like they're messing with my head. Every time it's a different question that I either answer and it's not right or I don't even know the answer to.

ALL I WANT TO DO IS LOG IN AND PAY MY BILL. I honest to god at this point think they're trying to prevent me from being able to pay it easily so I wrack up late fees. I can't come to any other conclusion as to why a company would make it this freaking hard to pay a damned bill.

I cannot WAIT to pay off my balance and close this card out and never have an American Express card again. This is a SLIMY SLIMY company with HORRIFIC customer service. Stay away for your own good.

How American Express Card Company ruined my vacation

Hi, my name is Chris Kim 48 years old, Korean American.

I have been using American Express card for my company about 4-5 years.
The reason I am using American express is to get points to use for our family vacation.
I used the points, and my family went to Hawaii last year did not have any problems.

However, I went through a very unfair situation with American express travel department on 8/31/17 until 9/05/17.
I booked a Cancun vacation (airline ticket and hotel) thru American express travel a month ago and I received a confirmation email.
My family (my wife and my daughter and I) went to the Los Angeles airport that night (31/Aug./2017) to catch American Airline flight # 1369 which departure time was 11:05 pm.
We couldnt get our boarding pass through their system. Therefore I went to the American airline agent and I hear from a bad news from American airline employee who is Mr. T******.
He told to me I booked flight # 1369 on 14th of July. 2017, but American express did not pay the money and the reservation for flight has been cancelled automatically. Therefore, I called to American express travel department and I talked with Mr, D***** (employee # 7****) what is going on. He told me there is an error (not their mistake) and suggested me to purchase a business or first class and go to Cancun and call them back tomorrow morning when supervisor is available. However, there are only 2 seats available. He offered me a different option which was to catch a different airline with my own expense and give them a call the following day when supervisor is available. So I asked the representative if I was going to get the difference in money back, and he responded as if he couldnt guarantee and that I would have to speak to a supervisor. Also I asked him regarding the hotel reservation status, he noted me that it got cancelled so I asked him again, if I dont have a reservation at a hotel, where am I supposed to stay? He told me again, Get a room with my expense then speak to a supervisor. This is totally wrong how they are treating me at this moment without any solution. I decided that I had to give up this trip. I hung up the phone and went back home. Everyone will agree with me with how frustrated my family was.
Im really thankful to God I didnt listen to him after I had a short conversation with America Express Supervisor, the next morning, who is named E****** today.
I called to American Express Travel and an employee name Mr. P**** answered and I explain to him what is going on and let him know I am recording this conversation as well. He said to me Thank you for letting me know". After He listened to me what is going on he had to transfer call to the Supervisor and he put me on hold for about 30 minute. During the 30 minutes that I waited, they couldve gone over what happened. Instead, once I spoke with E*****, I asked her if she knew what is going on, but she wasnt 100% sure. It made me very upset because I was on hold for 30 minutes for nothing. I notified her that I was recording the conversation as well. She told me, Dont record this conversation otherwise shell hang up. I asked her why I couldnt record her but they could. She replied Im warning you. I felt very upset again. I told her that she ruined my vacation and yet, she is warning me. Youre not going to believe this, she hung up the phone and said Thank you for calling American Express. You can see how shocked I got from this phone call. I was thinking on what I should do. Next day, I called them once more to get better results from a different supervisor. I spoke with a different supervisor named M*****. He told me that I was the one who cancelled the trip due to my illness. I couldnt believe this. They were making up stories. Once I heard the shocking lie, I couldnt speak to him any further. I want to know who made up the story because they want to avoid their responsibility. Even now, I cant believe a big company like American Express did this to me. I didnt decide what to do for the future, but I want everyone to know this situation. I want American Express to know that without us, you are not there.

Sincerely,
Chris Kim
09/05/17 11:05 A.M.