Consumer complaint received 2021-05-14
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: GA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Trouble using the card
Sub-issue: Problem with direct deposit

Complaint:
ATTENTION CFPB : Ongoing severe, systemic policy and practice issues requiring additional regulation of, and regulatory actions regarding, American Express XXXX XXXX 

XXXX This complaint is regarding new and additional issues that have arisen in connection with American Express 's permanent suspension of my Serve checking account, which they closed on XX/XX/XXXX, and their withholding of over XXXX XXXX dollars in funds from me, which have already been the subject of XXXX prior CFPB complaints : XXXX XXXX  filed XX/XX/XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX filed XX/XX/XXXX XXXX. 

XXXX. To date, I still have not received my funds and American Express continues to withhold them. 

XXXX  To date, per the request of American ExpressXXXXServe, XXXX XXXX  has sent several letters to American ExpressXXXXServe, to the XXXX email address XXXX  Exh. A, Exh. B, Exh. XXXX XXXX. American ExpressXXXXServe has twice asked XXXX  XXXX  to revise the letter, and XXXX  XXXX  has twice revised the letter and re-sent the letter to American ExpressXXXXServe. XXXX Exh. D, Exh. E ) XXXX To date, American ExpressXXXXServe does not appear to have replied to XXXX  XXXX  to confirm receipt of the most recent version of the letter, even though they replied to the two prior versions of the letter requesting more information. XXXX  Exhs. D, E ) XXXX American ExpressXXXXServe customer service continues to provide misinformation, contradictory information, not keep promises, hang up on me, and apparently not follow the company 's own policies and procedures. I have spent nearly ten to twenty hours on the phone with American ExpressXXXXServe, and almost every call causes me to become irate ; getting answers to even simple questions requires a XXXX XXXX  interrogation. 

XXXX Here is a summary of all communications that have occurred since the filing of the previous XXXX second ) CFPB compliant in this ongoing matter : XXXX On May XXXX, XXXX, American Express / Serve responded to my prior CFPB Complaint, XXXX ( filed XX/XX/XXXX XXXX. In that response, XXXX XXXX in American Express Regulatory Compliance wrote that " The account funds will be release to Customers Bank within our usual process. '' But she didn't mean it. That was a lie. Her letter suggested that the XXXX  XXXX  letter had already been received by American ExpressXXXXServe XXXX  especially seeing as how it was also forwarded to American Express as part of my prior CFPB complaint ), when she said my funds " will be release XXXX d ] XXXXXXXX XXXX  sic ) - thus, in the context of a regulatory complaint, American Express XXXX Serve made affirmative misrepresentations. 

XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX, in Acct. Protection Services, to attempt to find out what the " usual process '' is XXXX given that XXXX XXXX referred to a " usual process '' XXXX. He said, " I wish I could tell you '' and says I would have to mail a letter to the XXXX XXXX XXXX find out what the usual process is. I asked for supervisor. 

XXXX Then, on XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX, Supervisor, Acct. Protection Services. She said they will be sending my funds to the originating bank within ten business days. She said that the acct. will remain permanently suspended, rather than being closed. She said there is no notation yet on the acct. in re : the return of the funds, but that once the funds are already returned to originating bank, there will be notation on acct. that already successfully returned funds back to the originating bank. 
Then she said that American ExpressXXXXServe hasn't yet received the letter from XXXX XXXX. Once they receive that, will notate right away. She also said that she would send a request to XXXX for an update on the status of my letter. I said that I would give American Express XXXX Serve a few days to process the request and call back. 

XXXX. In addition to the letter having been sent by email by XXXX  XXXX  to American ExpressXXXXServe, I also attached it to my prior CFPB Complaint XXXX XXXX filed XX/XX/XXXX1 ), meaning that it has been forwarded to and received by American Express 's Regulatory Compliance Dept. 

XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX, Acct. Protection Services. He said we did not receive any updates regarding your acct. I asked for a supervisor. 

XXXX. Then, on XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX, XXXX, id XXXX, Acct,. Protection Services. She said that there was a notation on XX/XX/XXXX, that they were not able to receive any letter. ; and no notation of any other mail. She said, if they had received it, there would be notations on the acct. She said they are refusing to accept the document from me. Our system never fails to document, she says. She said, if you really do have a copy you have option to send that to P.O. Box for double checking. 
I asked how the verification XXXX  double checking ) process would work if I sent an additional copy as she requested, but she said, " It depends on our team to verify, I really could not provide further details. '' She said there are no notes on acct. from Regulatory XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX with regard to any of my CFPB Complaints. She said she is not sure what that dept. is and that I should only be communicating with their XXXX XXXX . XXXX American Express should not be suggesting to their customers that they do not have rights under federal law to file a CFPB Complaint, even if they do not know what the CFPB is! ) XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called back but line disconnected. 

14. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called back and spoke with Ice, Acct. Protection Services. I told Ice that the letter had been sent again and I was copied on the email. He said we have not received the letter. He said it could take up to XXXX  hours to process letter. I asked for supervisor. 

15. Then, on XX/XX/XXXX, a supervisor came on line, but as soon as I started speaking I could no longer hear her. 

16. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called and spoke with XXXX, Acct. Protection Services, and asked for supervisor. 

17. Then, on XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX, id # XXXX, Supervisor, Acct. Protection Services. He said he was submitting a request to the compliance team to find out whether the XXXX had been received, and that a response would be received within one to two business days. 

XXXX However, as later revealed, there is no indication that XXXX ever sent that request, and therefore he lied and you all did not keep the process made to me. 

XXXX  XXXX also stated that he saw a notation from XX/XX/XXXX, stating that American Express XXXX Serve was waiting on an " updated letter. '' This would suggest that a letter had been received but that it needed to be updated. 

XXXX In fact, American Express XXXX  Serve has already emailed XXXX  XXXX  twice asking them to revise the letter, including by adding a mailing address to mail the check with my remaining funds. XXXX Exhs. D, E ). And XXXX  XXXX has already provided two revised letters XXXX Exhs. B, C ). 

XXXX I asked XXXX whether there was documentation of *any* letter having been received. He said no. He agreed that the prior agent who advised me that all correspondence would be documented was correct, and that the letter should have been documented even if it was deemed insufficient. 

XXXX. Therefore, either I have been provided misinformation twice about whether all correspondence would be documented ; or American Express XXXX Serve did not follow its own policies and procedures by failing to document correspondence received on my account. XXXX Exhs. A, B, apparently also C ) XXXX. As of this date, Customers Bank has received no reply from American ExpressXXXXServe confirming receipt of the second revised letter. 

XXXX  On XX/XX/XXXX, I called and spoke with XXXX, Acct. Protection Services, but the call was disconnected. 

XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX, I called and spoke with XXXX, Acct. XXXX Services, and asked for supervisor. 

XXXX Then on XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX, Acct. Supervisor, id XXXX, Acct. Protection Services. At first, she indicated the updated letter was received : " We havent received any update aside of notation of confirmation of letter of indemnity and are reviewing. '' I said, oh, you received the updated letter and you're reviewing it? She said, no, contradicting herself, and saying they did not receive it. She said the only recent notation was that I spoke with a supervisor. I said I knew that wasn't true because I knew about a XX/XX/XXXX notation stating that they were waiting on the " updated letter. '' So, she provided misinformation, but she said it was because she didn't know what " recent '' meant. She said they should have already received the letter, so lets just wait. 

I asked about XXXX request from yesterday and whether there had been a response. She failed to answer my basic question, asked several times, about whether XXXX made a request like he had promised. I said, either XXXX lied or youre lying. 

Also, she said that any letter from XXXX should not have gone to the compliance team and that only Customers Bank can contact XXXX. Also, I told her that previous reps. and supervisors have sent requests to XXXX. and reported a response. So she lied about that too. 

Then she confirmed, " I see previous agents sent request to XXXX  requesting whether they received a letter from your bank. The last response was XX/XX/XXXX confirming did not receive. '' After I asked several times whether XXXX sent the request to " anybody '', noting I don't care if he said it to XXXX, the Compliance Team, or the moon XXXX, she then refused to speak and pretended not to hear me. Then she hung up the phone. 

XXXX  On XX/XX/XXXX, I called back and spoke with XXXX, Acct. Protection Services. 

XXXX Then on XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX, XXXX, id XXXX, Acct. Protection Services. XXXX said with regard to the funds, we have not received anything from XXXX re the specific concern of documentation on the acct. 

XXXX said I will be notified at the same time if theres an update to the progress ; however, when I asked how I would be contacted, she did not know. She said they might contact you through email. If that's true, why haven't I received any communication? I have clear documentation that XXXX XXXX sent a second revised letter to American Express XXXX  Serve at XXXX, because I was carbon copied on the email ; but you all inexplicably, outrageously refuse to respond, refuse to document it, and refuse to release my funds. 

XXXX admitted that there is no showing documentation that XXXX requested an update to my concern. She added that the agent shouldve kept their promise. 

XXXX agreed to send an email to XXXX, and said it will take XXXX business days for a response.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation