I was check out Consumerist and I came across Don’t Move House If You Have An Amex Card. Here are some of the highlights:
Today my wife went to withdraw money from our bank account and noticed to her surprise that we were over $4000 overdrawn. We then went online to check our account and noticed that there was a large pending payment to our American Express card….But neither my wife nor I had authorized this payment. So we called American Express…
1. The first person my wife talks to at Amex says that she’ll have to open a billing inquiry and it could take up to six weeks to resolve. My wife said that was unacceptable and asked to speak to a supervisor.
2. The supervisor said that they called a number (they wouldn’t even tell us what number) associated with our account and that the person they spoke with authorized the payment. My wife said that neither of us had spoken to anyone and the supervisor said that he would pull the tape of the call and would call us back within the hour.
3. The customer service rep (not the supervisor) who called us back said that they had reviewed the call and related the transcript to us. It’s important to understand that my wife has an unusual first name that someone could take for being either a male or female name:
Amex Rep: Is this [my wife’s name]?
Man at unknown phone number: “Yes, this is [my wife’s name].
Amex Rep: Do you authorize a payment of $XXXX on your account?
Man: “Yes, you can take the money out of my bank account.”
Amex Rep: Would that be the account ending in xxxx?
Man: “Yes, that’s the account.”Based on this crack display of identity verification, Amex says they would not be refunding the money.
It reminded me about our lawsuit we had with a mechanic shop that neglected my husband’s car. During the court case, the owner claimed to have called us but our phone records said otherwise. It turned out that the clerk didn’t bother to confirm the identity of whoever she spoke with. All she told them was “Your car is ready and it’ll be $X amount” and basically hung up after they told her that seemed expensive.
That should’ve been the tip off since we got the esimate before we dropped off the car for repairs, but they didn’t ask who they were speaking to or anything. I’m glad we won the lawsuit, but it was a headache to go through the whole process.
Do you have any horror stories on bad customer service?
Photo Credit: Milica Sekulic
