American Express: Only For Use In America
Here’s how it went down.
When I got off the plane in Sweden, I connected to Wi-Fi and received an email from American Express saying that there was a suspected fraudulent charge on my card and that I should contact them via phone as soon as possible. I stopped right there in the Airport and did just that. One HOUR later, I had been assure that my card had been cancelled and a new one was being rushed to my hotel via DHL. The new card was to arrive within 2 days, which was only modestly acceptable since I would have to ask colleagues to reserve my hotel room on their credit card, but it was a workable solution. Amex assured me that I would shortly receive DHL tracking information for my card, but did I ever receive that tracking information? No, never.
Over the next 2 days, I checked with the hotel front desk so many times that I know I was becoming irritating. Nearing checkout time, and past the promised delivery time/day, I contacted Amex to find out where the card was. They couldn’t find the tracking info, had no local office who could help, and they couldn’t verify that it had ever shipped. Lovely. What now? Oh yes, transfer me to the Global Assist dept after 1.5 hours (at ~$2/minute) on the phone with the I-Can’t-Help-You dept. Global Assist will now try to pay for my hotel room with a fax to the front desk. Oh, that worked out just great…authorization codes that don’t work, support calls, finger-pointing, Amex abandoning the whole situation blaming it on the hotel staff (who was very patient and helpful), and eventually Devin yelling at Amex to FIX IT! When they realized that I was not going to stop yelling at them until they took responsibility, they did in fact fix it - after costing me another hour on the phone while I was running to catch a train and a plane.
As I was traveling on the train, I would get cut off from Amex while trying to resolve this mess, and yet Amex would never try to call me back. Why? More money and frustration for me going back through all of those menus and telling my story to a new person every time. I was very upset, as you can imagine.
But hey, what about my replacement card? Oh… that??? Yeah, they couldn’t get it to me in Germany, or Barcelona, so perhaps maybe in Madrid at the airport…yeah, that’s the ticket. Let’s leave the Devinator without a way to pay for anything in Sweden, Germany, and Barcelona, but we’ll get him a temp Amex in Madrid…one day before he leaves for home. Yeah, that’s helpful. So in each city, I had to ask colleagues for help with paying for things, making me all-the-angrier at Amex, who was still unwilling to do anything to help me in this situation.
I get home and ping Amex, and what did they do? They gave me 10k SkyMiles and $200 toward my account, and then acted appalled that I wasn’t excited about it. Sure, it was a nice gesture, but it wasn’t even in the ballpark with an appropriate remedy to the situation. I would’ve gotten the 10k SkyMiles from the hotels, food, cabs, and all of that just from all of the money I would’ve spent on my card, and I spent double that $200 on phone calls to Amex, so I still came out way behind the curve on this deal.
I politely explained the entire situation to them AGAIN, and they simply refused to do anything further. I explained that I would not accept this lack of customer service. Their remedy? Silence. Hmmm….OK…that’s certainly one way to screw yourself Amex, but I don’t recommend it.
I offered a specific remedy to the situation - one that I think is more than fair - so that they would have an “out”. They could “get rid of me” and get past this nightmare just by doing something nice for me to make up for their hideous customer service, perhaps learning a lesson in the process. Here’s what I offered, verbatim (copied from my email to them) —
——-
My Remedy Proposal:
1. Since you costs me about $500 in phone calls, I would like my account upgraded to Delta Reserve for the next year for free. Delta Reserve’s annual fee is $450, and since you costs me more than that, I feel that’s a fair remedy to the situation.
2. I spent about 4 hours of my personal time while out of the country on the phone with your representatives trying to fix something that was their responsibility (DHL delivery and tracking, getting my hotel paid for, etc.). You have already given me a $200 credit toward my Amex account, 10k SkyMiles, and expedited my replacement Platinum card, which I have received, and this is a fair remedy.
3. I had to ask colleagues in 3 countries to pay for my hotels, cabs, food, and every other expense because I could not count on Amex to provide acceptable customer service. This was embarrassing for me and a big pain in the neck for my colleagues. For this, I would like my account upgraded to Delta Reserve for an additional year for free. Put yourself in my situation for 2 weeks, and ask yourself if you think this isn’t a fair remedy.
There were additional problems that Amex caused me with this mess as well, such as not having a replacement card for nearly 2 weeks, which means that I couldn’t buy anything online. I use my Amex card for all online purchases for work, such as plane tickets, hotels, rental cars, work items, and so on. Without being able to input the new card info, I couldn’t plan the new travel, which means I had to wait until I got the new card. This means I had to pay more for the new tickets because I couldn’t buy them far enough in advance to save money. The effects of this fiasco go on and on. I am willing to overlook this nightmare given my proposed remedy above, which I think is ridiculously fair to Amex - almost absurdly so.
——-
In summary, they get off the hook with:
1) Their original gesture of 10k SkyMiles and $200 credit. Appreciated, and accepted.
2) Two years of upgrade to Delta Reserve. I already pay $150/year for Amex Platinum, but this would be two free years of Delta Reserve, which they normally charge $450/year for. The only real benefit over and above Platinum is being able to go into the Delta SkyClub lounges, which I wouldn’t typically use anyway to be honest (I’ve never used one actually). It’s the gesture of making it available to me that counts most to me.
3) I get to see if they would treat me any differently as a Reserve card holder in bad situations. I already know they screw their Platinum card holders.
What do you think?
* Am I being too harsh?
* Not harsh enough?
What would you do?
* Any specific actions you would take other than telling my story and switching to a competitor’s credit card service?
* I’ve already contacted Delta about Amex’s lack of service in this situation, but Delta hasn’t responded.
Obviously I’ve learned that I need a “backup credit card”, but at this point, unless Amex does a 180 on this, I don’t see them being either primary or secondary. I’m interested in your feedback.
