[Resolved]  American Express Bank — Harrassment by collection agency

My husband has two AMEX credit cards. He has paid his card dues regularly, but this month due to certain circumstances, he could not pay his dues on time. As such, we are getting repeated reminders from the company's collection department.

I recieved one such call today morning (16 dec, 2008) at 10.30. a woman was on the phone and she asked for my husband . the entire conversation was carried out in hindi. i told her he had left for work. at this point, she gave the phone to another woman who asked my quite rudely as to what my husband's problem was. I did not know who had called and so i asked her to identify herself. she said she's from AMEX, and that she wanted to know why the payment has been delayed. i told her she would have to speak to him as i am not the cardholder and i dont know what his plans of payment were.

this lady gets abusive. she says : saali, kutti, harami, MUSLIM PAIDAYISH, paise dene ki aukaad nahi to card kyon lete ho!

needless to say i was totally shocked. i could not believe that she had insulted me racially for such a trivial matter. i replied to her in kind, using expletives as i was so angry at her i couldnt think straight.she too, was continuously abusing and yelling at me. this went on for a few minutes

i asked for her name and where she has called from, and she returned the phone to the first woman and who gave me a name (which i wont divulge yet) that actually belongs to a high level employee of the company in Delhi! the address she provided was the address of the american express branch in bandra-kurla complex. upon my informing her that i would initiate police proceedings on them for harassment, i was told: kab leke aayegi police ko saali, leke aa.

i would like to know why i was racially abused by this woman. can our banks and credit card companies get away with this kind of behaviour? i am not evven a cardholder or account holder in this bank. why was i insulted in such a horriic manner?

i immediately got a call from thr hr of that company(whose name i still dont know) and she begged and pleaded with me not to make it an issue as her job was on the line. hadnt her colleague already made it an issue?

i would like to know what steps i can take to ensure that suitable treatment is meted out to this woman and her colleague. american express isnt forthcoming with the name and address of this company yet so i dont know where to press charges.

i would also like to ask the powers that be that when can we expect a strict law that ensures that such kind of racial slurring and insulting stops taking place at all levels in our society? and i would like to ask our "prestigeous" banks when they will put in place a law that wont let thies collection departments, outsourced or otherwise cross their limts with their customers.

if i have upset any readers with the abusive language used in this post, i apologise, but it was necessary to bring forward to this forum the level of insults a credit card company can mete out to you whenever they feel like.

I feel your pain. AMX has never used abusive language with me, but they have called me on many occasion in relation to an account that is not mine and is in no way associated with me other than it seems to have my phone number on file. This has has been happening sporadically for about a year and a half now. They supposedly put me on a list of numbers to never call. But, they still call.