Consumer complaint received 2019-10-12
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
XX/XX/2019 I was in the middle of booking with Delta Airlines for a trip for my girlfriend and me. I successfully applied for an American Express Delta Sky Miles Credit Card. I was advised the card would be available for use immediately ( id est for the flight booking I was processing ). Unfortunately after entering the card it did not go through. I thought, maybe it needs a little time. I tried again and it did not go through. I checked my online account from AMEX which I had just established, and noticed to pending charges for {$460.00}. I called the company and explained that I did not get any booking confirmation. I was told to call Delta. Delta had no record of me booking a flight -- they only saw that a charge was attempted and declined because of an " Invalid CID '' error message. 
I called AMEX and they explained there was no problem with the CID and if I wanted to get the pending charges removed I would need Delta to call their Authorizations Department. I then called Delta and tried to book over the phone ... same error message. So I then asked the very helpful Delta Rep if she would remain on the line while I got the Authorizations Department. She did. I quickly got AMEX Authorizations on the phone -- a gentleman whose name I don't recall. He was apologetic and quickly got the information he needed from Delta to reverse what was now FOUR pending charges for {$460.00}. He then said the card would work. I asked him to please stay on the line while I try it to make sure. He instead hung up. The card did not go through. 
I called Authorization Department back and XXXX answered. I told him what had happened and he said " no Mr. { last name } that's not possible. '' I said, " I was sitting on the call, with my end on mute. I know that's what happened, so you're wrong. '' He said : " No Mr. { last name }, you're wrong. '' Verbatim. After more discussion I was advised to use the Delta app to purchase and use " American Express Checkout '' to pay. This I believe is their online version of paypal sort of. It did not go through. They proceeded to put me on hold for 15 minutes and then hung up on me. I gave up trying to book the flight that day. It had been 2 hours and 45 minutes of being told to call different departments. 
Monday XX/XX/XXXX I received a voicemail from the American Express Fraud Department. Apparently because of all the activity my account was flagged. Having not even received the physical card, I waited until Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX to call them back. 
Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX They cleared my account and said I was good to go and that in fact the card could now be used. I should have known better. That afternoon, I went online to book my Delta Flight and noticed the price had increased much to my dismay to {$500.00}. I called AMEX and asked if they would cover the minimal difference of {$50.00}. They would not ; no real surprise there. In any event I went to book and once again the card did not go through. I attempted their recommendation of using " American Express Checkout '' on the pay screen. I attempted to do but learned I was locked out of my online account and was told by the AMEX representative I would have to wait for my physical card to be received in the mail to unlock my account. 
Thursday XX/XX/XXXX My card arrived. I activated it and went to book my flights. Much to my dismay it was now {$630.00} and some change. I called AMEX and explained this was ( in my opinion ) their fault and asked them to issue me a {$200.00} statement credit. They declined saying there was nothing that could be done on their end. I had moved past the period of being upset. I was simply exasperated. 
As a last ditch effort, I called Delta and explained the scenario and how the flight price increased. Because of the notes taken on the account by the first representative with Delta and perhaps because they could tell how depressed I was about the whole situation. Delta came through and got me on the flight with the original booking cost. Good job Delta. Because my girlfriend had a different mailing address, I needed to make two payments of {$230.00} ( one for each of us ) which I did. The flight was booked. The day was saved ; not at all by anything AMEX did, but because of Delta and my communication with them. 
Friday XX/XX/XXXX I probably should have left it alone, but when I went online to set up my AMEX app, I noticed a pending charge of {$500.00} from American Express ( the Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX declined charge ). I called American Express and said hey, that's eating up my credit, it didn't go through, would you kindly remove it. And they said, a pending charge will fall off your account in 7-10 business days. I did not want to wait, as it was a Friday, so I  knew what I had to do. 
Once again I got Delta on the line. I called AMEX Authorizations. I spoke with XXXX. I got him up to speed and told him that I needed the {$500.00} charge removed, that I had successfully booked a flight and that both {$230.00} charges were accurate and one for {$10.00} but that ONLY the {$500.00} needed to be removed. I told him that I had Delta on the line. He said it would not be possible for him to do anything on a conference call and that Delta must call American Express directly to inform them that it was not a charge. I refused to accept that and said I would hang up and they could do the transaction. I then " hung up. '' In reality I muted myself from the call. I did this so that I would have a clear understanding in case there were any mishaps. 
XXXX asked XXXX from Delta about an approval code for the XX/XX/XXXX transaction. He wouldn't give her a dollar amount. She said, she didn't get an approval code because it didn't get approved -- solid logic. He then pressed and pressed for an approval code which was associated with my already booked flight ( one of the two tickets ). XXXX had the amount at {$660.00} because it did not take into account the credit I was given by Delta to drop the price by {$200.00}. XXXX did not understand this and I probably should have interjected but then after some conversation, ultimately XXXX said he had what he needed and he had corrected the charge and they hung up thereby disconnecting the call. 
I immediately logged into my account and noticed my available credit had increased by {$230.00}. XXXX had canceled one of the authorized ticket purchases, possibly canceling one of my boarding passes and potentially ruining my vacation. Luckily I caught it, I thought. I called American Express Authorizations immediately. XXXX answered ( because you'd never get the same person twice ) and I explained to him what XXXX had done and the negative affect it would have on me. I told him at this stage, I expected that {$500.00} amount to be removed immediately, without hesitation or delay. The frustration was clear in my voice. He said he wouldn't be able to do that without Delta Airlines calling him. I said that was unacceptable and that this was American Express 's screw up and they needed to fix it and by fix it I simply needed them to remove the correct pending charge and ensure that I have a flight for me and my girlfriend on XX/XX/XXXX. I could tell XXXX didn't know what to do. He asked if he could put me on hold. He then came back and explained he was trying to get Delta on the line. He was trying to be helpful and I acknowledge that. He said the wait time was too long and asked if I " wanted to call them '' myself and then call Authorizations back. I told him no I did not want to do that at all. I want the enormous screw up to be fixed and also perhaps the last three hours of my life back. 
I informed XXXX that I would be inclined to make this exact report on the CFPB website if it couldn't be resolved because I felt a certain responsibility so this type of experience could be mitigated in the future. I then spoke with a supervisor to see if perhaps it could be resolved. XXXX ( spelling may be incorrect ) got on the line and proceeded to insinuate it was a Delta Airlines screw up and that XXXX canceled based on the approval code Delta gave him. I was livid. A blatant lie as I was on the call and heard the conversation and once again American Express was passing the blame to Delta rather than taking responsibility. When I told XXXX that she was incorrect and I was listening to the conversation she backtracked but ultimately told me that she would continue to attempt to get Delta on the phone and that maybe I should try the same thing. 
I called Delta and requested a call back and received it about 25 minutes later. This new Delta reps name was XXXX ... while explaining to her what happened and how my flight might be canceled she said that Delta wouldn't be notified of any cancellation " for a couple days '' and as far as she could see it was confirmed but that if they got a notification from American Express to cancel the charge I might lose the seat in one or two days. Around that time I saw an Unknown Number on call waiting and figured it was AMEX. It was XXXX with AMEX and she wanted to talk to me before being merged in. The gist of it was that there was no way for them to recover my booking in the event they had erroneously cancelled it and that I should re-book with Delta " to be safe. '' I was incredulous but suggested we take care of the {$500.00} ( one problem at a time I thought ) and so we merged calls. We got on the phone with a supervisor from Delta named XXXX and after some wait time the correct amount {$500.00} was reversed. The time on phone was 3 hours and 30 minutes at this point. And then we turned our attention to the fact that one of my tickets was likely voided at this point. XXXX and XXXX confirmed based on the approval code given that the reversed authorization was in fact tied to my girlfriend 's ticket. 
At the composition of this complaint I am forced to wait and see if in fact I will need to re-book my girlfriend 's flight, as there is no way for Delta to book a ticket twice for the same passenger on the same flight. American Express Card Services and their Authorizations Department have been nothing but trouble from the beginning. They have been unhelpful, rude, fraudulent, dishonest, and have failed to take responsibility. Had I not spent countless hours on the phone, who knows what I may have been responsible to pay.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation