Consumer complaint received 2018-01-09
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NC
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
We have a XXXX XXXX card by XXXX. About a year ago XXXX switched from American Express to XXXX. We pay our bill in full each month. In XXXX we paid our bill via the online electronic bill payment at our bank ( an ACH transfer ). However, the payment was inadvertently sent to the old American Express account rather than XXXX. We were contacted by XXXX that they did not receive payment. We discovered that the funds were sent to the old account so we paid XXXX. 

We contacted American Express about getting our incorrectly routed payment refunded. We called American Express at least 5 times. The first calls went to a recording that said call XXXX. XXXX indicated that they could not help because the funds were sent to American Express. I called American Express back, and got a human, and they said they could not see any payment but we should be sure they would get the money back to us in the next 30 days. 

We then contacted our bank and they provided documents that show all of the trace and file information for the transfer. They said we should be able to contact American Express and have it reversed. The bank told us that if the account no longer exists it should have been rejected when it was transferred. When I called American Express back again they indicated that I had to contact the intermediary bank, XXXX XXXX XXXX, who handles their transfers ( the routing number on the ACH ). I contact XXXX XXXX XXXX and they said they could n't do anything. It would have to be American Express who initiated a transfer validation and reversal. 

I called American Express back yet again and they said, literally I am quoting here : " We ca n't see the old account but if the money comes to us we will return in 30 days, trust me. '' They " ca n't see the old account '', " if the money comes to them '', and " trust '' them. 

I then called XXXX as they are the sponsor company for the card. XXXX, after waiting on hold for 45 minutes, said they ca n't do anything. We would have to call American Express. XXXX indicated that although this financial instrument has their brand all over it and it acts as our XXXX membership card that could not help to resolve this issue. 

My bank indicated that I can challenge the ACH transfer and put a hold on it at the bank. However, this would stop us from using this service for all transactions until the issue was resolved. So, effectively they discourage consumers from putting holds on transfers by holding the entire service hostage until it is resolved. 

I have spent nearly 8 hours on the phone between American Express, XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX and my bank. The answer is " trust me ''. Which incidentally is the very last thing I would do with any U.S. financial institution - trust. 

This payment was for over {$10000.00} and it has been out of our account for over 20 days. We have now paid the bill to both American Express and XXXX. We are out over {$21000.00} in our bank account. 

I acknowledge that the error was on our part for selecting the wrong e-payment account on our banking system. However, it is astounding that nobody, except for our bank, can verify that the funds have been sent/received and where they went. Also, it is crazy that I am just supposed to accept on faith that they will get our funds back to us without them even acknowledging that they can find the funds. The suggestion that it will take 30 days to refund us over {$10000.00} is absurd. If the roles were reversed we would not have 30 days to refund the bank or credit card company without penalties.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation