Consumer complaint received 2018-02-19
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Problem with a purchase or transfer
Sub-issue: Card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase or transfer

Complaint:
Note : All dates referenced below are this year, XXXX. 

My federal tax return, in the amount of {$3100.00} was direct-deposited into my American Express Serve account on XX/XX/XXXX. That day I received an email from the company notifying me of this and that those funds were immediately available to me. However the company sent another email shortly after the first email stating that because of " unusual activity '' my account was under review. I called their customer service number as the email instructed in order to " authenticate '' and was told that the account indeed was under review and it would take 2-3 business days to resolve. I then learned that not only was the card not usable during this period but that I had been locked out of my account and could not see transaction activity. Here I should add that direct deposit of tax returns was a service that was heavily marketed to me by AMEX. 

Since that initial call to their customer service I have made several follow up calls and each time have been given new, different or contradictory information. Specifically, the review period moved from 2-3 business days to 3-5 business days during my first follow up call later in the day on XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, on another call I was told that my account was " permanently suspended '' because I " violated '' the company 's user agreement and that I should expect a check from the company in 7-10 business days. The company representative would not tell what the violation was instead referring me to the company web site where I could read the user agreement. I dutifully scrolled through the thousands of words in that user agreement and could not identify anything that I had violated. I was baffled, but at least now my check was " in the mail ''. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from the company informing me that my California state tax refund direct-deposit in the amount of {$1000.00}. was rejected by the company and those funds had been returned to the California State Franchise Board ( as of the writing of this complaint the state had not received those funds ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a duplicate of the company 's email of XX/XX/XXXX, informing me that my account was under review. I had not yet received the promised check. I called the company 's customer service on the XXXX and this time was told that my account in fact was not permanently suspended but was still under review, and more specifically that I had not violated the user agreement and that the direct deposit of my federal tax refund was the " unusual activity '' subject of the review. It stretches credulity that it would take this long to verify a payment from the United States Treasury. 

In 43 days I will turn XXXX years old. I'm on a fixed income. This refund money, my money, is not only a significant amount to me, much of it is earmarked for essential expeditures. This has become much more than an inconvience, it is a true hardship. 

It's possible that my case is an anomaly but I suspect that I am not alone and the issue is an AMEX systemic issue.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation