Interesting experience I had with American Express.
I had 4 cards with American Express.
Two were business, two were personal. Business cards require a business TIN in order to get it (and the proper credit standing for that business). Personal cards simply require being creditworthy enough to get them.
I had a Delta Gold Amex card. I got it only for the purpose of credit card bonus whoring, in early 2016. I ran up the $3000 required, then stopped using it. I briefly used it again in September during a gasoline promotion. Other than that, it was untouched for the past year.
The Delta Gold Amex is available to a large number of people. It's a personal card, and the approval process for it is fairly lenient.
On January 12, the card became a year old and they billed the $95 annual fee. For whatever reason, I never got that statement. I'm not just bullshitting here. I seriously never got the statement, and had no clue I owed the $95.
Sometime around June 2016 (after I got the card), they notified people that they were no longer waiving the annual fee more than 30 days after it was charged, even if you canceled the card. That meant that I had until February 11, 2017 to cancel it and get my $95 BACK, or otherwise I would be stuck with it. I never got that notice, either, as it was attached to the June 2016 statement, and I had a zero balance, so I got no statement that month. (Or if I did, I opened up the statement, saw $0 on the front page, and threw it away.)
So I happened to log into my account a few days ago and saw the $95 charge. I called Amex and asked if they could close the account and remove the $95.
There were several reasons they should have said yes:
- I was only a few weeks after the deadline to have canceled. All I wanted was the annual fee BACK after cancellation.
- I didn't use the card at all in 2017, so I was getting no benefit from it.
- I have a card I use actively with them (a business card), so I'm not just bonus whoring them.
- I've had cards with Amex since 2001, with a perfect payment history.
- It was reasonable that I wouldn't have known the changed policy, given that it was in June when I had a zero balance.
I had nice memories of calling Amex customer service. Unlike other credit card banks, I had always encountered the following:
- 24/7 availability of customer service reps.
- Never reached a foreign call center.
- Reps seemed intelligent and empowered to solve problems.
In short, I believed Amex to be highly professional and the model for how credit card banks should handle customer service.
That's what I was surprised by this experience.
I called about this matter and got a foreign rep. I was told he could not waive the $95 fee, which wasn't a surprise, because foreign reps are rarely empowered to make exceptions.
I asked if I could be transferred to the US.
"I'm sorry sir, all I can do is transfer you back to the queue and you can hope you get a US rep."
That never works. Indeed, I tried it, and got another foreign rep.
I figured that perhaps this was because I called late at night. I tried the next day, and ran into the same situation.
Finally I asked what could possibly be done. I was told that "retentions" in the US had to handle my request, and that they were available from 6am-4pm PST. However, they had no direct number.
So I called back the next day, had to hold for a long time, got a foreign rep again, asked for retentions, waited another 15 minutes on hold, and finally reached the US.
I thought I was home free, but no. The retentions rep told me that she wanted to help me, but "no one in the company is empowered to remove the $95 fee after 30 days", except for one corporate office which can't be reached by phone. I would have to write to the office, I was told. No way I was doing that, as those written requests for exceptions almost always get rejected.
I asked for a supervisor. I waited on hold about 10 minutes. "They are swamped with calls right now, and can't take any more", I was told. "You'll have to try later."
Next day I called, again during the 6am-4pm window. Asked for a supervisor. Again was told they were "really busy" and couldn't take my call, and that I would have to try "another time" (lol). I asked them to tell the supervisor that I had called a number of times already, and keep getting the same "try back later" crap. Didn't matter. Was still told I couldn't speak to one.
"What can I do here? I can't keep doing this every day and getting the same 'We're too busy' answer", I protested.
"Sorry, sir," was the cold response. "You can either keep trying or I can give you the address to write to corporate."
Then a light bulb popped over my head.
I also have the American Express Open Business Platinum, a business card. I had recalled that my customer service experiences with that card were excellent, with the last time being as recently as a few months ago.
I grabbed that card and called the number on back.
Immediately reached a US-based rep.
"It's not about this card, but it's about my Delta Gold card," I told the rep. "Let me tell you what's going on...", and I gave him the story.
"Hang on, sir, let me see what I can do."
About 5-10 minutes passed.
"Your Delta card is now closed, and the $95 has been refunded. Thank you for being a customer of American Express."
Like night and day.