Consumer complaint received 2021-04-16
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
My name is XXXX XXXX, and I am the card account holder. This dispute is with American Express credit card - specifically the AMEX XXXX XXXX XXXX card. I've been an Amex CC customer since XXXX. 

The issue is Amex CC refusal to waive a late payment finance charge of {$96.00} - which was charged on XX/XX/. We owed a balance of {$2300.00} on XX/XX/XXXX - and we scheduled an online payment from our XXXX XXXX XXXX account to pay this amount - but the payment was in-transit on XX/XX/XXXX - and actually got credited to Amex CC on XX/XX/XXXX. Because we suspected our payment might arrive late - we called Amex CC ( XXXX ) to inform them, and to see what they can do to make sure we don't get charged any late fees/finance charges. 
Historically, we've never been late with our CC payments ( Amex knows this - they have access to my entire payment history ), and we always pay the full outstanding balance ( to avoid paying any interest on our balances ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX - we called into Amex XXXX to inform them our payment of the outstanding full balance in the amount of {$2300.00} was in-transit ( from our XXXX XXXX XXXX to Amex CC ) and that given our history of full balance payments and lack of late payments - we would request waivers of late fees, and of any finance charges. But we were willing - and able - to pay the full {$2300.00} on the call with them, if they told us they can't waive the late fee/finance charge. 

The agent we spoke with was very friendly, professional and biased for customer service. And he took care of the late fee waiver. But he couldn't waive the Finance Charge - because on XX/XX/XXXX it hadn't yet been charged to our Amex XXXX account yet. So he asked us to call back later - which we did on XX/XX/XXXX. 

Since the XX/XX/XXXX call - our full payment of the outstanding balance, {$2300.00}, was credited to our Amex XXXX CC account, dated XX/XX/XXXX. And then, Amex charged us a XXXX XXXX of {$96.00}. 

So we called back on XX/XX/XXXX - we spoke with the front-line customer service agent ( didn't get his name ) - and he was quite unfriendly, and was showing a tone and attitude of not accommodating our request to wave the Finance Charge - which was {$96.00}. 

So we asked to speak with his supervisor - and we were transferred to a supervisor named " XXXX '' ( we suspect short for " XXXX '' ) - and we were told XXXX was based out of XXXX XXXX. From the beginning of the call, XXXX was very unfriendly, and condescending to me ( my XXXX is not very good - I'm native XXXX, but my XXXX is not fluent ). 

It seemed very obvious to me that XXXX was biased and fixated on rejecting our waiver request for the Finance Charge - despite our history of full payments, and no late payments. He said he would consider our request - and call me back in a few days. 

We waited for his call - but he never called us back. So we called back - and now had to repeat our entire story/situation again to the new customer service agent. And then to his supervisor. 

But the answer was the same - because another supervisor ( in this case, this supervisor named XXXX ) had rejected our waiver request ( without ever calling us back ) - and because of that decision, another supervisor couldn't overturn his decision - regardless of how good and loyal a customer I have been since XXXX. 

I called Amex again this past weekend on XX/XX/XXXX - and spent another hour talking to the agent ( explaining our story all over again ), and then requested his supervisor to call me back. But again, the agent 's story was the same - because another supervisor ( in this case, this supervisor named XXXX ) rejected our waiver request already - neither him nor his supervisor can overturn XXXX 's decision. 

This is UNACCEPTABLE to us - not only could we have paid the full {$2300.00} balance on when we first called on XX/XX/XXXX - but we find the condescending, unpolite, and somewhat XXXX attitude from an Amex supervisor, regardless of where this person is located, to me on the initial call with him on XX/XX/XXXX to be UNACCEPTABLE. 

We would like a written apology from Amex for the horrible, unacceptable attitude shown to me - and we would like to request again a courtesy waiver of the {$96.00} Finance Charge.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation