Consumer complaint received 2021-05-30
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Privacy issues

Complaint:
In XX/XX/2020 I created an LLC for liability protection and started the process to transition my existing XXXX XXXX  to LLC. I reached out to American Express sales department and shared my priorities : start credit for my LLC and not to commingle personal / business matters ( since I had an existing personal relationship with them ). Please be aware I have worked for XXXX  XXXX XXXX my entire life so I understand banking, disclosures, and compliance very well. 
He recommended a XXXX XXXX XXXX I provided all my business information such as EIN, address, finances, etc. As far as my personal information, the sales rep said theyd be using the existing personal information they had from me. He mentioned my own credit had to be pulled since the business did not have credit history then my personal credit would have to back it up, I agreed. 

In mid XX/XX/2020, I had already transitioned all my bills, accounts, expenses, accounts, etc to my business. The one rule I was given by my attorney was that in order to avoid corporate veil I must never commingle personal and business affairs so my name should not be used on business transactions. I had noticed that all posted transactions in my business checking account referenced my business name in the transaction detail except for one, the only one that would post transactions using my first and last name was American Express. 

I immediately called American Express and shared my concern and I was told a case was being opened and to expect to hear from someone in a few days but that did not happen. 
In XX/XX/2020 I was presented an offer to apply for the American Express XXXX XXXX and since I do a lot of business with XXXX then I called American Express sales department. The rep said that the only way to apply for this specific account is online and she walked me through it. American Express requires a business entity from which it only has 3 selections : XXXX, XXXX and XXXX XXXX. I asked the rep how come LLC was not listed there, and upon reviewing my existing relationship in her system she told me to select XXXX XXXX since I was the only owner of my LLC. When I did that I noticed the question for EIN disappeared and instead it would ask for SSN. She told me not to worry and advised I put my SSN and if approved I should call them back so they can include my EIN. Later that day I received the approval notification so I called to add my EIN, the rep who answered said I should be able to do it but when I get the physical card because they needed the security code. A week after when I received the card I called them and this time they said they are not able to add my EIN because it was not entered in the application, I explained my situation about me completing the application following the guidance of one of their reps, then they had me under the impression a ticket was opened to have someone call me back and help me, that never happened. Also, another important point I brought up was the fact they accepted and approved a XXXX XXXX account for a business that has LLC in its tile and mentioned this is an AML concern and they could not elaborate on this. 

In the meantime, because I had shared my XXXX Small Businesss account during the application, American Express sends this account to XXXX using my business name with a SSN as a XXXX XXXX. XXXX closed my existing Small Business relationship because they thought American Express was a more reliable source. I reached out to XXXX and they said this error came from American Express and they had to fix it. 

From XXXX to XXXX, American Express did a terrible job at providing information. A lot of the people that I spoke to told me my old existing Small Business account that I opened in XX/XX/2020 was also a XXXX XXXX using my SSN. After so many cases that were never addressed then one supervisor told me that they information they had given me was a mistake because she was able to see that my old account had my EIN, I shared with her that I thought it was odd how suddenly she found it, I asked her to validate back to me my EIN and she said this is something she does not see in her screen, I questioned her then how she had just told me my EIN was there, and she said it was because that is all it says. I was not happy with that information so I requested for them to send me a copy of the credit card application they took over the phone in XX/XX/2020, she said the only way for me to get that was to type a letter requesting it, send by regular mail and expect an answer in 6 weeks. I was not happy with this answer and then she proposed to help with getting the application followed by asking me for my EIN over the phone, I have to admit I thought it was strange and convenient but I thought if this resolves the issue then I should, and I did. She never called me back After this, every time I would call I could tell she had notated in my account information to avoid addressing my issue, and this assumption comes from the fact that each time I called then their agents wouldnt even let me finish my sentence because they would mention the account is notated my issue was addressed and I had been told this is an LLC, and at this point they even offered to give my EIN over the phone so I can validate they have it, and was not ok with me because I was the one who provided the EIN when supervisor said she would call me. 

This time I asked to speak to a supervisors manager and this was when XXXX XXXX XXXX gave me a call and he committed to help me with this. I have to say we spoke for almost 2 months because he always missed every appointment that was set by him. At this time I had closed my Amex XXXX card because they were not willing to fix the issue of providing wrong information about my business to XXXX. The only thing I asked XXXX XXXX was that I needed to be given my application for my original card that I opened with them in XX/XX/2020. XXXX XXXX did some research and called me days later to tell me he had a chance to look at my application and confirmed that it was my SSN that had been used and he also confirmed XXXX was selected as my business entity. He also mentioned he could not mail it to me. I was very disappointed because they had lied to me all the time, I asked him what is he going to do and he said there was nothing he can but New Accounts department can, I told him my account is not new and I had already been sent to that department before under the same assumption and this other department had told me they only deal with accounts opened 90 days or less. He assured me they could help me and got a supervisor from that department to call me later, when that supervisor called he told me there was nothing he could do because my account was opened as an XXXX, I asked him to provide me with any proof and he asked me to trust him. I told if I trusted then I would have to think XXXX XXXX was lying, so he offered to have XXXX XXXX call me. XXXX XXXX called me to tell if that is what the other supervisor ( below him ) said then that is the resolution, I asked him then how come he had told me otherwise and he could not elaborate. 

Last, I told XXXX XXXX that the document they provided for my XXXX year end tax summary had my personal name and my business name did not appear once in this report, I asked him if that was normal? California also had rejected that tax report because it appeared as personal transactions. He said he can notate it in my account but he was not familiar. I shared with him that it did not make sense. I was speaking to an actual manager from Amex Small Business who does not know about this report. 

I work for a bank so I understand the severity of compliance issues, I did voice my opinion on how this violated Anti-Money Laundry regulations because they had created a business using my LLCs name and my SSN which means I was operating this card using a business that does not exist. I told them my concerns on privacy, CIP errors, and most importantly they were putting my business at risk for not protecting the corporate veil, and not to mention my inability to report my taxes accurately. At the end, all he said he was sorry for the inconvenience

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation