Credit Card Rant

Okay, I'm sure American Express has many loyal customers. I'm just not one of them. Let me tell you why.

A little over a year ago I had about $200 credit on my account which I am still in the process of trying to receive. When a refund check was first sent out I was in Grenada and so called to see if it could be cancelled and either resent to me in Grenada or held until I returned to the state. That representative told me nothing could be done until I was back in the states. She was very rude. Then several months later a letter was forwarded to me saying that if I didn't respond quickly my money was going to be confiscated and issued to the state of my last known address. Upon calling back to figure out why this company was going to confiscate my money and why they couldn't just check to see that the first check was never cashed and reissue it, that oh-so-helpful representative informed me that she could not reissue a check without extracting it from my credit card account--effectively charging my account as if I had made a purchase in order to send a check for money that was already mine. I got a little miffed with her.

Finally when I return to Hawaii I again try to sort things out and eventually get the I-can't-do-anything-about-this-except-file-a-dispute-claim rigmarole. But at least I was told to expect a call within 7-10 days. That never happened. Okay, so I let it slide for a couple months. I have a life. But then, frustrated, I call again. After 40 min. of being on hold while she "researches" my account--in which she periodically comes back to me to politely ask, "Are you still there, hon?" as if she's surprised I haven't already hung up and given in to the fact that they're never gonna give me my money (only she doesn't realize that while my married name my be Temple, I'm still half Chinese and I was never going to forget that they owed me money)--she finally returns with the great news that a week before a decision had been made and a new check sent out that should be there in a couple of days. She even gave me the check number--such a nice touch. Like that makes it all tidy and official.

Of course, today after waiting longer that the prescribed time limit, I call back only to be told that another dispute claim will be filed and a decision made in 7-10 days. When I asked if someone would be calling me in those 7-10 days as was previously promised but never delivered, she told me that calling was not part of the protocol. Hmmmm. I've got a dispute claim number for this one, too. Anybody want it? I think it may be like the "code" Murray uses in Flight of the Concords to pay for company expenses. So I guess we'll see what happens in 7-10 days.

And I loved her personal response to my situation. So sympathetic. "We appreciate your business and I apologize for any inconvenience this MAY have caused you." May have caused. I think it's safe to assume that waiting a YEAR to receive a check is more than an inconvenience and I resent the implication that it MAY NOT have been an inconvenience at all. It felt like someone apologizing for hurting my feelings by saying "I'm sorry for any harm I may have caused." Where's the responsibility in that? Grrrr. Rant over.