Consumer complaint received 2023-08-08
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: IL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-issue: Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online

Complaint:
I purchased a prepaid AmEx gift card in XX/XX/2021 that has a remaining balance of {$98.00}. At some point after purchase, AmEx apparently changed their terms per their representatives, without notification, and I have been unable to use this card as promised. I have had issues using this card as it is being declined at every retailer ( see full experience below ). I have been given multiple reasons, supposed fixes, 5+ hour long calls ( yes, you have that right, see the unresolved XXXX  complaint XXXX that AmEx has not replied to for months for context, this horrible experience is not included in the full experience below ), and a card that is ultimately not working as agreed to when purchased. I need AmEx to provide a full refund on this card and acknowledge the incredibly awful and unprofessional experience regarding this gift card below. 

Full experience : I have an AmEx prepaid card that has been declined at multiple merchants and is unable to be added to XXXX XXXX. I called AmEx 's customer service number multiple times to be told that my card needed to be re-issued over a month ago, yet they never sent one. I then called back a month later to be told that they never sent one but just " reactivated '' my card without any notification. Of course, upon trying to use the card again, this specific time at XXXX, it was declined. I called again and was told that the card can not be used in any wallets ( even though I didn't use it in a wallet ) and was transferred to a manager. The manager then said I can use it in my wallet (? ), just not on XXXX. I then tried using it at multiple merchants ( XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX ) and all that were declined, and am being told that I can not use it at all with XXXX due to risk. They then offered for me to speak to a team to have my card added to XXXX XXXX, which I agreed to, and I am transferred to one of the rudest female representatives I have ever spoken with, after being on the phone for an hour, who said that my payment for this card ( a card I paid for over 2 years ago ) is " under review '' and hasn't settled (?? over two years later? ) and that my card will not be unlocked until the review is complete... Instead of actually being helpful, she continued to repeat that I didn't understand this simple issue and then hung up the phone. Yes, really, after waiting for over an hour, being given new/different information by each rep, did AmEx have the audacity to hang up the phone. 

To top everything off, I spoke with a female " supervisor '' offshore who put me on hold for over 5 hours ( again, see the XXXX  complaint referenced above ) who happened to be even worse ( surprisingly ) than the female above. After 5+ hours ( possibly more ) of hold music, without her offering a callback, I happened to catch her during he 2-second check-ins she did every hour and asked for a callback. Of course, no one called, and this experience with this individual was incredibly concerning, unprofessional, and a major waste of AmEx 's resources, likely already known by the supervisor/employee happily getting paid while doing nothing.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief