AMERICAN EXPRESS BAD FOR BUSINESS???

This is a blog about a recent experience we had with American Express.

I want to preface this with saying that I had long believed that American Express was the premier card to have in your wallet and that "no one should leave home without it."

My recent experience however changed all of the and now my business hangs in the balance.

We are a small business that applied for an American Express Gold Card in 2007 and made our payments on time everytime.

In the fall of 2008 everyone was scrambling, and althought we made payments every month they were not for the full balance. I believed that the gold card offered flexible payments, I am still not sure if that was misguided or if in fact it does.

Anyway, American Express calls and invites us into a care program to help us get the balance paid. The care program is set up that during the program, you cannot use the card, but make reasonable payment and the bonus is that your merchant services are credited to your account as payments. So you encourage your customers to paying using American Express and it pays your balance. Terrific Right ?? WRONG

Right from the start American Express withheld funds from our merchant services but did they apply them to our account? NO. In December they held over 2,000.00 in merchant services funds to which I still have no idea where they went. Neither does American Express. I have complained and complained and gotten nowhere. No one calls me back as they promise and it is still not resolved.

So, I carry on make my payments and encourage my customers to use American Epress all in the hopes that they will sort out my account in the end. So now comes April and there are merchant services available for more than amount of the payment and since other merchant services are applying right I am sure that they the problem corrected. WRONG

By the time I figure out they they again have not applied the credit they now have me listed as late, because they didn't take the over 5,000.00 in merchant services as they were supposed to. Not to mention that the other 2,000.00 is still out there with no idea where it is. So I make a payment which they are now considering to be late which if they had done what they were supposed to it would not have been, but when I call customer service, they say tell me that the account is fine don't worry they will sort this out and get back to me.Wrong again.

They cancelled the card listed me as being 180 days late and ruined our credit. When I called American Express to find out what was going on, I got nothing but the run around. Customer service has no idea what is going on as far as they can see I am in good standing, I ask to pay the balance off and asked specifically "If I pay this off today, will you show this as PAID AS AGREED on my credit report and reinstate the account/" Alisha's answer a resounding "Yes, we will". To that I counter can you send that in writing? and she I am sorry I have no way to can send that to you. So I repeat "you are telling me that if I pay this in full today, you will reinstate the card and list this account as paid as agreed right?" and she answers "Yes". Now mind you I know that the conversation is recorded so I figure okay a representative of American Express is telling me that this will happen and is there any reason that I sould have not to believe her? No, American express has trained this woman and has trusted her to relay accurate information to its customers and thereby should stand behind what she tells those customers. right?

I mean if they did not trust her to relay accruate information they would not have her respresenting them to thier customer right? Why would you do that? American Express would know that thier customers are their bread and butter they need us to survive right? After all without customers where would American Express be??

So did American Express stand behind what was told to me? NO !!! I paid the card off and they have still ruined our credit.

I am trying to figure out how a representative of American Express can tell customers things that are not going to happen, and feel no obligation to make it right?. I know in my business, that if an employee were to tell a customer something even if wrong we stand behind what was said 100% everytime even if it comes out of our own pocket. I would have hoped American express would do the same.

I would love to have comments on the recordings that American Epxress makes of thier phone conversations. If it is recorded doesn't that mean they would have record of the customer service person telling me that they would report as PAID AS AGREED???

Anyway, in the end American Express has ruined out credit and thereby our business I hope they are happy that thier error may have cost 20 people to lose thier jobs because our credit is now ruined. This may not seem like alot of people for American Express to care about but these are people who we have had employeed here for years and we are close to thier families and this is devestating for us.

I want to further add that we were not a small account for American Express on this card alone we paid over 260,000.00 in 2008 to American Express. And since being a customer of American express with other cards since the year 2000 we have spent over half a million with them not to mention our Merchant services account. We have been good loyal customers and had hoped to be treated as such. I cannot share with you my dissappointment in American Express and thier lack on Customer service, even more dissappointing is this was thier mistake not mine and they are punishing our business and now as a backlash our employees.

I also hope that someone from American Express reads this and learns how not to treat your customers.