Consumer complaint received 2018-06-09
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Other problem

Complaint:
On approximately, XX/XX/2017, XXXX XXXX bank began conducting an investigation into a potential fraudulent charge. The bank then contacted American Express and American Express refunded the potentially fraudulent payment to the XXXX XXXX account. American Express not only reversed the one charge, but in fact reversed all the charges from the XXXX XXXX account. They reversed charges that dated back for 18 months with no communication with my father, the named entity on the trust account in question, regarding the name of the account holder, myself, where the charges had gone for the previous 18 months. Upon receiving notice by American Express that my account was now {$58000.00} delinquent going back 18 months, I made an immediate investigation on my part. The charges were indeed not fraudulent and American Express was contacted regarding repayment of the funds. American Express then informed me, that the only way to repay the funds, was via check. They would not except a electronic transaction. The check for approximately {$58000.00} was sent to American Express along with a written letter ( included with this complaint ), instructing where the check was supposed to be deposited. American Express then promptly cashed the check and the funds never appeared in my account. After numerous discussions with American Express and my urging for them to look at my fathers account, who has the same last name as I do, they then discovered that they had credited the amount to the wrong account. In the two week period between when they received the check and when they discovered that they put it in the wrong account, American Express canceled my card and account. We werent informed by American Express that the reversal of charges had been properly credited at the time but rather our credit cards just kept getting denied and we had to deal with the hassle and embarrassment of not only dealing with vendors that we paid monthly payments to from that card, who were now not receiving their payments in time, but we also had to deal with the time it took reestablishing those direct payments, and dealing with late fees from some of those companies, as well as figuring out other credit cards to put those charges on. Upon cancellation of the account, American Express removed all of my previous airline miles that I had accumulated in the excess of XXXX miles as well as the loss of many extra months of points that would have accumulated from the consistent payment of those automatic payments. I was later informed that the points could not be re-credited because I did not have an account with American Express because they canceled the card. I was informed that a canceled card could not be reinstated. American Express then suggested that I reapply for a card, so that they could credit the airline miles to that new card. When I reapplied for a card I was declined by American Express, because they claimed that I had an outstanding balance of {$58000.00} that went back 18 months and because of their erroneous reporting, my credit score dropped by 200 points. ( please see attached rejection letter ) In reality the {$58000.00} was only out of American express his hands for five days from when they notified me of this problem too when the check was sent to them but they cash the check and put it in the wrong account. They then claimed that the reason they couldnt give me a credit card was because of a debit to the account that they caused, and they knew about. I requested that they re-age the account, which took multiple requests before any action was taken. It has now been nine months since this clerical mistake occurred between XXXX XXXX and American Express, I am still have no credit card with American Express, I have no airline points with American Express. This situation has caused a great deal of undue stress to myself and my family, because we are dealing with very extreme health issues of my wife. It is unnecessary to put someone through this type of stress when they are trying to pay off medical bills for their spouse who is undergoing XXXX XXXX for XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX. All of this XXXX is documented by science as being very unhealthy for a XXXX patient. My wife called American Express and begged them to take care of this before she began treatment again. Which they never did. They in fact did nothing to help. The American Express corporate office hung up on her when she reached out to them. I have spent over 40 hours dealing with this situation that remains unresolved. I have spoken with XXXX and XXXX and XXXX and XXXX and countless others. I have spoken with customer service, debt collection, credit bureau unit, multiple managers as well as the corporate office, all of which claim they cant do anything and will get back to me, but they never do. 
Not only should American Express be bending over backwards to apologize for the activities that occurred without ever informing me of any investigation or returning of funds, but for the nine months where they have taken away my ability to use their credit card, for the fact that they took away over XXXX miles of airline miles which were trying to be used for to book tickets to Hawaii for my in laws XXXX wedding anniversary and my mother in laws XXXX birthday. Because of my wife treatment we were planning on flying business class so that she could be comfortable, but we have not been able to book tickets when prices were lower because of the time that this whole situation has taken. The length of time it took American Express to re age my account as well as the fact that they retro-actively reported unpaid balances, which were not unpaid, has caused my credit score to drop by 200 points.  American Express has also never addressed their action in the credit reporting. This ordeal has caused stress on my marriage and created strife between my father and I. 

It has taken nine months and no one has gotten back to me. Nobody has been able to give me an answer and everybody keeps putting me to other departments that tell me that theres nothing they can do. They can only send me to another department who says theres nothing they can do.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation