Consumer complaint received 2018-04-16
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Problem with a purchase or transfer
Sub-issue: Charged for a purchase or transfer you did not make with the card

Complaint:
On or about XX/XX/XXXX - an unauthorized, unknown charge of approximately $ XXXX+ from an unknown vendor located in XXXX resulted in a debit of funds from my Amex Serve Account. I have never traveled, nor conducted business - in person, online or otherwise, with any vendors or companies located in XXXX or XXXX, using my Amex Serve card, to-date. I contacted customer service for Amex Serve Card to obtain details of the unauthorized charge, via telephone, along with disputing the charge and debit of my account. I was informed by loss prevention and account security that a case file would be open to investigate the alleged fraud and charge. I contacted customer service in XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX to obtain a status update of the investigation into my account to no avail. I also contacted Amex Serve in XX/XX/XXXX and on XX/XX/XXXX to obtain a detailed status of the vendor who debited the $ XXXX+ from my card in XX/XX/XXXX. Amex refused to provide me with the details of the transaction over the phone and/or remit documented or written correspondence via US mail. Instead, several customer service account representatives, stated an email notification was sent to me - to an email address, I informed Amex I no longer had access to, because the email subscription service went out of business. I made several attempts to provide an updated email address to no avail. Amex refused to resend the email to my new XXXX address. Amex Serve also locked/suspended/blocked online access to the Amex account to prevent login availability to review the unauthorized transaction in dispute.I received a refund check from Amex Serve in the amount of {$12.00}, dated XX/XX/XXXX, along with an attached letter stating, " Your American Express Serve Account is no closed. As you requested, we are providing you with a check for the amount of your available balance ... '' I do recall ever speaking to Amex Serve Team requesting a refund for the balance on my account. The stated fact that I had spoken with representatives in XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX - instructing me to callback within 7-10 business banking days to obtain the status of the internal investigation, and receiving a refund check in XX/XX/XXXX, lends to a level of fraud and incompetence on the side of the card issuer - American Express Serve. The funds that were direct deposited to my account were funds deposited by the US Department of Education. The inconvenience caused by the closure and blocking of my account resulted in suspension of graduate studies work at my University for a period of 18+ months and several deferred payment requests of my Federal Student Loan to the present date. 

Lastly, as a retaliatory and punitive action, on XX/XX/XXXX at approximately XXXX EST, I contacted Amex Serve to discuss the pending issue again and the representative refused to allow me to speak to a supervisor/manager - after I stated I was not satisfied with her inability to properly assist with resolving the issue directly. The Amex Serve representative put me on hold and return to state, to wit, " Sorry, but there are no supervisors or managers available to speak to you. When I informed the representative I was intending to contact the CFPB to file a complaint, if I could not speak directly to a supervisor/manager, she put me on hold a second time and returned to 'rapidly ' state, in broken English, to wit, " ... you may be on hold for 30 minutes to one hour before someone can speak with you. '' I hung up and decided to proceed with filing this complaint.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation