Consumer complaint received 2020-06-25
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly
Sub-issue: Contacted you after you asked them to stop

Complaint:
I am writing again, because, knowing that I was ready to end this ordeal, Amex has chosen to continue providing resistance. You will notice you have lost a $ 300,000.00+ per year personal account - that is one of many to come, corporate and personal. It's clear that you don't care about people or making this right - as soon as you heard I was not interested in suing and looking to negotiate my own settlement, you started giving me the runaround. Amex is guilty of a breach of contract vis-a-vis their improper reporting of my credit and making false representations on a near daily basis. For instance, I am frequently told that departments don't exist or that they can not connect me to so-and-so, etc., so on and so forth ; yet, I frequently speak to reps in the same department ( s ) directly afterwards who miraculously connect me to people/divisions of your company that seemingly didn't exist minutes ago ... Additionally, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and any other credit reporting agencies who took part in recording my credit limit incorrectly is also guilty of this breach. Amex is also guilty of a breach of contract vis-a-vis my MULTIPLE written notices for MONTHS ON END instructing them to fix my credit ( vis-a-vis letters forwarded to your company and these credit agencies ). 

And the fact remains : I have never taken out a CREDIT CARD with American Express, because their gold card, a CHARGE CARD, functions on a fundamentally different system. Amex may use ones credit history to determine ones eligibility for the card and even ones ability to use the card ( as stated in the cardmember agreement ) ; however, they may not report a delinquent balance as credit card debt ( much less report that balance as debt/delinquent before it is even close to being considered as such, with respect to the procedures regarding member penalties and warnings specified in the cardmember agreement ) the typical account holder is allowed before their ( the delinquent account holders XXXX balance is sent to collections/credit reporting agencies as unpaid debt, when compared with the speed and tenacity with which they automatically did this to me. 

As concluded in XXXX ( XXXX et al v. American Express Company et al ), the prospective plaintiff in this new case ( based off of this precedent ) being myself, I also allege that American Express XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and their affiliates took part in multiple counts of civil conspiracy with the goal of illegally reducing my creditworthiness as a borrower by reporting a balance accrued under a charge card account to these agencies ( XXXX, etc ) as rolling credit card debt. 

Per these frequent and continued breach of contract ( them reporting my credit to XXXX as rolling credit card debt when it was not, instead of an appropriate financial device like an installment loan ), they are guilty of one ( 1 ) count of false enrichment, one ( 1 ) count of break of contract, one ( 1 )  count of bad intent, one ( 1 ) count of negligence, loss of consortium, and a litany of addt'l tangible and/or intangible compensatory damages for EACH TIME I MADE A TRANSACTION, WHETHER OR NOT IT WAS ACCEPTED OR DECLINED. 

The compounding nature of the charges is due to the fact that your spending power system functions, per your SEC filings, cardmember agreement, and all past lawsuits filed by and/or against Amex, these decisions ( whether or not to approve a transaction/extend an additional loan ) come down to human discretion, which means that each time I made or attempted to make a transaction, whether or not it was successful, the possibility of human override/intervention was present. This means that each isolated occasion, each time I used my card ( successful or not ) constitutes one instance of human error and therefore constitutes a breach of their fiduciary ( and other ) contractual obligations on all of the above counts ( and sometimes more ). 

Based on this principle and the fact that I had 106 successful transactions in XXXX and XXXX ( combined ), I can reasonably estimate that ( conservatively ), 50 additional successful charges occurred in the time between the beginning of XXXX and now. Therefore, I am alleging 156 counts of criminal negligence, 156 counts of civil negligence, 156 counts of breach of contract, 156 counts of bad intent, and 156 counts of false enrichment. IN ADDITION TO ALL CHARGES NOT INCLUDED IN THIS TOTAL, the final lawsuit will include XXXX additional count for each additional transaction/attempted transaction not counted here. Additionally, the final suit will include several criminal charges ( negligence, harassment, abuse, discrimination ). I am still requesting that you fix my balance immediately ( I am putting this statement on record for the CFPB and this complaintl ; however, I want to make it clear to the future trial attorneys that Amex has not tried to resolve this and does not plan to fix this issue. 

In fact, they ( Amex ) have also gone out of their way to further ( and more egregiously ) breach the cardmember agreement by frequently denying me the means to contest unfair charges, continuing to report my balance ( falsely ) as delinquent, lying to me about their ability to connect me to different people/departments, and lying about not having the ability to accommodate my XXXX. These are all things that I am legally entitled to, per the cardmember agreement, not that I expect you to do anything at this point. You know what you're like amex? You're like that toxic spouse/partner who keeps causing drama in otherwise peaceful and cooperative relationships ( and these people, these " crazymakers '' as I call them, have a tendency to do this right when it seems everything is settling down/returning to normalcy ). This creates an almost addictive and totally miserable cycle of highs and low. I have been there, and I am no longer participating in this with Amex. You will hear from my attorney, XXXX XXXX, within the next week. No settlement this time - everyone will know how toxic and XXXX up your company is when I win. You're XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation