Consumer complaint received 2017-04-01
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: MD
Product: Credit card
Issue: Closing/Cancelling account

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX, I was a platinum card member of 32 years with XXXX ( XXXX ), in good standing, when my accounts were abruptly cancelled. When I contacted XXXX for explanation, I was told that I had " disputed too many charges, '' the determination made by the " responsible lending team. '' XXXX my disputed charges as " buyer remorse '' and ignored my issue of fraud and unauthorized charges completely. I was penalized for reporting a recurring billing issue. The charges at issue, recurring monthly billing for XXXX memberships, were reported as " not authorized '' or " disputed '' to XXXX every month for 5 years. These recurring charges followed an initial reported not authorized charge from XXXX, in the amount of {$1000.00} ( also reported ). The recurring charge issue was reported monthly ( beginning XXXX through XXXX XXXX to XXXX XXXX over 130 times ), also reported by fax, and phone. I also communicated with XXXX by letter and phone, and met directly with the manager three times. I did not have a contract with XXXX to support the monthly billing. I also lived in Florida in XXXX, where there were no local XXXX. The gym manager said " not to worry, it has been taken care of. You do not have a contract. '' And the billing just continued. I was arguing for XXXX not to pay these charges. XXXX did not listen to its own customer. To investigate why XXXX cancelled my accounts, I contacted the vendor XXXX, again in XXXX. To my annoyance, XXXX had continued their solicitation and billing attempts for the non-existent memberships. I was able to stop the perpetual billing ( because the XXXX account was closed, they finally could not collect payment ), and highlight the serious irregularities going on. I also learned, that they were never contacted by XXXX to block the charges, nor stop the billing, despite my requests for over 5 years. XXXX just let it flow against my account. With the collusion of XXXX, XXXX overbilled me by {$6000.00}, I would like this paid back, and this fact makes me question my XXXX account balance as well. I mistakenly believed, the entire time, that XXXX was helping me with this issue. Every month XXXX sent me messages stating : " We have contacted the merchant '' and " We are investigating this issue. '' I also learned about data issues when attempting to fix my XXXX account in XXXX. The date of birth on my account was wrong, very strange after 32 years with XXXX, I have verified my date of birth many times, so this discovery was indicative that my personal data was corrupted. I sent my correct date of birth to XXXX by fax, and expressed my concern about personal data and balances. I spoke to a rep about my compromised data concerns, who disregarded what I had to say about data integrity and said it was not possible. Following years of reporting these issues, contrary to my belief, there was no action by XX/XX/XXXX to block the charges, no consumer protection, no investigation, no merchant outreach, and incomplete credit for fraud charges. What happened to the XXXX advertised promise to help with consumer protection? What about the value of Membership? Loyalty? Nothing to back up the advertised slogan of " What 's in your wallet '' implying security and service. I never had a conversation with a decision maker who could help. Every call was transferred until they dropped after 50 minutes of hold. XXXX has no ability for outbound customer service calls. No escalation process to help resolve. They intentionally ignored my requests and have now ruined my credit and sent my account to collection.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation