[Resolved]  American Express — AMERICAN EXPRESS MUST BE IN TROUBLE

I have been with American Express for 14 years and have always been on time with my payments. A few years ago I was offered the extended payment option, so that any charge over $100 would go on the revolving account. In the last couple of years I have had to put some car repair bills on the extended payment. My balance is about $9000. We have limited ourselves with our every day spending on the card so that know we will be able to pay the bill each month. My father passed away a couple of months ago and my husband and I have been traveling back and forth from Texas to Washington state to help my mom move near us in Texas. We did not get the American Express bill paid until Oct 15th. Exactly three days late, I was contacted on Monday Oct 13 at work asking me about the payment and I told them about my father and that I would get the payment to them. They said that was not a problem this time. On Oct 15th I received a letter from them that was dated Oct 3rd (so it took 12 days to get to me) that due to my debt to income ratio from the reporting agency Experian they were suspending my extended plan. Then on Oct 22nd I received my statement for which a $500 payment is due by Nov 11th, and I also received in another separate letter from American Express. It said due to me being a valued customer with American Express they wanted to sign me up for the extended payment plan. Of course I got on the phone to try to understand what was going on with both letters. The first girl I talked to transferred me to that department. Well that department is in India, the connection was so poor and she could not speak English very well that she had to hang up and call me back for a better connection. The connection still was not very good, but she asked me what date was on the letter to sign me up for extended payment plan. I told her there was no date on it just a reply by November 30, 2008. She said it was sent to me in error, even though it said Dear Ms Derby, I was not suppose to receive it, and basically the joke was on me. I asked to speak with a supervisor and held for about 20 minutes and just hung up. Then I called the regular customer service back and asked for a supervisor. A Mr. Robert Carr talked to me I thought we had a rather good talk. He also told me that I received it in error. It seems that it comes from their marketing department and American Express has not informed their marketing department about my account. So once again ha ha the joke is on me. I asked him if he could explain to me why American Express for the last two years has looked at my overall credit every month and sometimes twice a week. He said he did not know the answer but would call me the next night with the answer. Okay, on to the next evening, I get a phone call from American Express about 8pm from a Tamika and she tells me that I have to come up with my minimum payment due of $500 that night or American Express would cut off my account. I explained that I just got my statement the day before and the $500 wasn’t due until Nov 11th. So once again I asked to talk to a supervisor and his name was Chris Ball, and he did not have very good customer service skills to say the least. He told me due to my debt to income ratio I was out of luck and either I pay the $500 then or my account would be cut off. I asked him if I had ever not paid AX and he said that didn’t matter and according to their agreement page they can do whatever they want, whenever they want to me and that I just have to sit back and take everything they dish out to me. I asked him that I wanted it in writing about the $500 payment that night and he refused saying it is all in the agreement and he could send me another copy of the agreement. I just told him to close my account and that due to how they have treated me they just might go to the bottom of my list. They are determined to ruin my credit anyways with suspending my account because I wouldn’t pay them the bill the next day after it arrives. I am just really fed up with AX and after reading all the stories they must be in a world of hurt right now. The supervisor Chris Ball told me that AX was one of the few that was making money. Boy, he sure needs to do some research on his company. Oh, and I could hear the little clicks in the call with him and I told him that I knew they were recording me and he of course denied it. And today in my mail was a offer from American Express for the Black card which carries $450 per year. And another letter stating that because I am such a valued customer with American Express they are offering me a Blue card with 0% interest on balances for 12 months. How many more am I going to receive from their marketing department before they relay the message to them. Thank You for listening and at least I know I’m not in this alone. Loretta Derby