Consumer complaint received 2023-12-12
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: OH
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other service problem

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2023 I was given the final closing total in order to purchase my first home and told by the title company that we should have plenty of time for a wire transfer to be completed by the XXXX, the date of my closing. My XXXX primary accounts, those used for the approval of the loan, are through XXXX XXXX and American Express National Bank ( XXXX ), both of which are primarily online only banking instituions, which necessitated the use of the cash wire. I began an expedited transfer to deliver funds to my HYSA at XXXX XXXX on Tuesday, XX/XX/2023 after my cash to close had increased by about % XXXX from the inital closing disclosure early in XXXX. I planned to send the closing cash via wire in XXXX lump sum as to minimize the risk of a miscommunication or clerical error. 

I was initially told by customer service that the funds would be available within XXXX hours and that I would be fine to send the total wire early on Wednesday the XXXX and was assisted in drafting a wire for the total closing balance to ensure a swift delivery. The funds did arrive that next day, however I was then told by customer service that these funds would still be held until Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, invalidating the previous assurance that I would be able to use those funds as I intended in the wire request and nullifying the purpose of the expedited transfer. So I opted to alter the wire request to send the balance that was available to me within the XXXX and handle the rest of the closing balance via a cashiers check from my co-borrower. The customer service agent was very accommodating in making notes of urgency on my request and doing what limited things they could. 

Early around XXXX the next morning, the XXXX, I utilized the XXXX XXXX customer service to check in on the wire and was told that the wire office had contacted my title company at XXXX that previous afternoon and that the title company would be able to call back via the number they had been contacted with. I was also told that they handle the wire requests as they receive them in priority, so mine should be handle with immediacy given that they had called the night before. Confused by this, I then messaged the title company who clarified that they did receive the message but that XXXX had called after the closing hours of XXXX XXXX for the title company so they were not around to complete the process and determined that the XXXX XXXX XXXX must be in the XXXX timezone as opposed to our XXXX 

After waiting for their office hours of XXXX XXXX, the title company, via the phone number they had received, and myself, through customer service, tried to get in contact several dozen times over these next few hours with the wire office. The title company kept me informed of the multitude of different attempts they made to connect with the wire office until their closing hours at XXXX XXXX. And for my own efforts, I talked with XXXX different customer service agents who were completely unable to reach the wire office, each sitting on hold for XXXX minutes minimum each at XXXX different times in the day. Each time during these attempts to make contact I was told that they were a small office and must just be too busy to talk with their own customer support. 

I do not understand this. This is a well accredited national bank with XXXX hour customer support. There did not seem to be any way for them to make contact internally outside of making notes on my account and the intial wire request before it was submitted. And there did not seem to be any way for the customer support to even check in to see that anyone was even in the wire office on that day whatsoever. I do not even know if the wire office is more than a single person given that we were completely incapable of reaching anyone within that department or clarification on why my title company was also unable to do so. I also have no knowledge as to if, or why, my wire request seemed to be pushed to a lower priority after XXXX had contacted the title company outside of their operating hours with no regard for the time difference, despite the wire request listing both the home address and title office within the XXXX timezone. 

The wire was finally completed on the morning of Friday, XX/XX/XXXX. This has resulted in me needing to both reschedule with the title company and seller to sign the closing documents again on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX, as well as costing me several XXXX dollars in additional closing costs, lost time to correspondence, and frustration and embarrassment over a process that is supposed to be usually swift, though less frequently utilized today. 

Throughout this process I talked with several very capable agents, who each worked to the best of their ability allowed by their position, and would place no individual blame on them. But the XXXX wire department is either so seriously undermanned, lacking oversight or adequate mediation capabilites, or so un-supported by the financial institution, that it begs the question as to why XXXX still offers a wire service whatsoever if that team is unable to handle the changing volume of requests they do receive in the supposedly small and very busy department. Customer service should not be made to waste time and manpower assisting XXXX requests from clients to just check in with another department. Certainly not when those same people could be trained or certified to fill in and assist the wire department if they do end up semi-regularly unreachable and overburdened. Certainly not when their customer service centers offer XXXX hour support but their wire department operating hour 's can't even cover the operating hours for the timezones of the XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation