Consumer complaint received 2023-12-02
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NJ
Product: 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 had won a prize of a {$1000.00} American Express gift card in XXXX. Upon receipt checked balance by phone and all was okay. Went to use the card in XX/XX/XXXX for XXXX shopping and found out that part of the card was used, approx. $ XXXX dollars. Called American Express and put card in dispute and a hold on balance. Amer. Exp. checked into dispute and reissued and mailed me a new card in the amount of {$1000.00} a few weeks later. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I tried to use the card at 3 different places and each time the card was declined. I called Amer. Exp. customer service and was on the phone for approx. XXXX hours, being kept on endless hold or being disconnected, numerous times. Each time, I would get a different person and would have to repeat all details. Finally, I spoke to a supervisor and after all the aggravation trying to use the card then trying to get through to a supervisor, I asked if a check could just be mailed to me and the supervisor said under the circumstances that a check could be mailed. The supervisor put the card on hold and told me to send an email to XXXX along with copies of my license and both sides of the card and to reference case # XXXX ( old case # more details below ). I sent the email immediately and received a generic reply that the email was received. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I called to see what was the status. Again, I was put on hold endlessly, disconnected numerous times, etc. I was on the phone for approx. 3 hours again, was even disconnected from two supervisors. ( First supervisors name I didn't get, second name was XXXX. ), before I finally got a XXXX supervisor named XXXX. XXXX advised me that the case number I gave to her was wrong. ( Though, when the original supervisor on XX/XX/XXXX gave me the case number, I had him repeat it a few times and I even repeated it back to him. ) XXXX, then advised me that I would have to again resubmit a new email request, with a new case number, # XXXX. I asked her if I could speak to a manager ( who is above a supervisor ) and she said I would first have to resubmit a new email/request, which again I did immediately on XX/XX/XXXX. After getting off the phone with XXXX and resubmitting the request, I called back and after going through the phone aggravations again, finally spoke to another supervisor named XXXX and asked for her to switch me to a manger with hopes that the manager could help expedite my request, since I really needed the funds for XXXX shopping. XXXX had me go through all the details once again and then asked me where the original card was purchased and I explained that the card was a prize that I had received, which I had told Amer. Exp. a number of times previously. XXXX ( the supervisor ) then told me that my original request was denied because they also wanted a receipt from when the card was purchased, along with the copy of the card, etc. Keep in mind, that I had now spoke to two previous supervisors that had me send out the request via email and they never mentioned anything about a receipt being needed and they both know this was a prize I received. I then explained to XXXX that I paid taxes on the prize and could provide a 1099-misc tax form along with emails showing I had won this prize. XXXX said that wasn't good. I then asked her why after being told by two different supervisors what info to send, why no other supervisor advised me that a receipt was also needed. I also asked why after I sent the first email why wasn't I notified that more info was needed, etc. In fact, I received no reply at all. At this point, I expressed my frustrations to XXXX saying that 1. ) the first card was compromised and I had to wait for new card, 2 ) upon trying to use new card it was declined number of times, 3 ) upon calling Amer. Exp. was told to send email with copies of card and license to have checked mailed. 4 ) Followed up to find out the status only to be told that case number they gave me was wrong. 5 ) Was told by another supervisor to resend request. 6 ) Now being told by this supervisor XXXX, that first claim was denied and they needed receipt. Mind you this is shortly after my sending the second request and no one else mentioned anything about having info on the first claim. I then stated that Amer. Exp. is basically preventing me from using this card or refunding me and basically that this is money owned by me. XXXX then stated that it was not owned by me, but by American Express. At this point I again asked XXXX to switch me to a manager, ( someone above her ) and XXXX said that she would have to send a call back request via email to have a manager call me back within a couple of hours. This was at approx. XXXX XXXX  and I waited all evening and never received a call back. It is now XXXX the following day and I still have not received a call back from a manager. I am beyond frustrated at this point. Each time I called, I asked for names, call back number, Id #, etc. and each time was told that they didn't have an ID #, can't give last name and have no call back number. I had even started to ask the supervisors I spoke to, to take my phone number and call me back if we were disconnected, to be told they weren't allowed to make outbound calls. I have spend so many hours on the phone trying to get this resolved, only to be put on endless hold where nobody would come back to the phone, being disconnected, being told different stories, etc and waiting endlessly for a manager to return my call. American Express is making it impossible for me to use this gift card or to get a check reimbursing me the gift card amount. Basically, the card is useless to me. Each call I made was to a different person ( had to be at least 20+ people ) not once getting the same person. Each phone call I would have to go through the full details, etc., many times before I could even be switched to a supervisor, only to have to go through the details again. What good is a gift card that is declined when you use it? I was always kind to anyone I spoke too, though at this point I was annoyed and very frustrated. I would greatly appreciate your helping me with this matter and helping me get reimbursed for this gift card. Just for reference, all my correspondences with American Express was using my name XXXX XXXX and email address XXXX. *** I wasn't able to use the same email address for opening a consumerfinance.gov account because my husband has a previous account with consumerfinance using the XXXX email. So when speaking to Amer. Exp. Please refer to email XXXX and CASE # XXXX, which is the latest number that was given to me. Please feel free to contact me via email or phone if you have any questions. Thank you so much for your assistance.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief