Consumer complaint received 2017-11-08
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:
In late XX/XX/XXXX I had a large balance on my XXXX Card that I was unsure I would be able to pay off before my 12 months 0 % interest expired. Having recently opened a card with AMEX that offered 0 % interest for 18 months including on balance transfers I decided to start filling out an application for a balance transfer and see if this would be helpful to my situation. Upon getting most of the way through the application I received an email from AMEX stating that they needed further information from me to complete the transaction and to contact them. At this point I decided to wait and see what I wanted to do. No where in the email did it mention that the process would be completed regardless and I would not be contacted. After never receiving any further details or information about the transaction I was rather annoyed when on XX/XX/XXXX AMEX without my knowledge or final approval transferred {$3900.00} to my XXXX card. I had already paid the balance on XX/XX/XXXX ; when I receive an email from the company stating they need more information to complete the transaction I expect especially for a relatively large transaction to be contacted by the company at some point via phone call or email. I immediately upon discovering the issue contacted both creditors to figure out how to fix this issue. I then as quickly as possible got the {$3900.00} returned to AMEX. Howeever they were unwilling despite everything to credit back the {$110.00} fee to my account. I disputed the claim and hoped the issue would be resolved. Unsurprisingly I never received word about how the issue was resolved on AMEX 's end. So when I called on XX/XX/XXXX to inquire about the issue and they tell me it was resolved and there was nothing that AMEX can do to reverse the fee due to the balance transfer being completed, therefore I am responsible for taking care of this {$110.00} fee. In the end did not want the balance transfer and AMEX without ever contacting me completed the transaction. There customer service staff have been incredibly difficult to deal with and largely unsympathetic to the situation or how poorly this situation has been handled. I am trying to find the email from the ordeal stating more information was needed, but it appears to have been deleted from my inbox. The most frustrating part of this whole ordeal in the time expended trying to resolve the matter and the fact that AMEX continues to place all the blame with me for this matter even though I keep trying to explain to them that this transaction was not properly completed and yet they relentlessly try to put all the blame on me when I feel this whole issue could have been avoided if once via phone call or email I was notified that the transaction was going forward. AMEX tells me I am responsible to cancel the transaction, however in my mind it is difficult to cancel a transaction that you were unaware you had completed.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation