Consumer complaint received 2016-08-10
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: MA
Product: Credit card
Issue: Transaction issue

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I was approved for and received my American Express Platinum card. I began using it and eventually reached a spending threshold which awarded me XXXX of their Membership Rewards ( R ) Points, as promised. On XXXX XXXX I was charged their {$450.00} annual fee and I have continued to use this card and have no balance due at this time. After other charges I now have, as the time of this writing, XXXX points and my Membership Rewards ( R ) Program Number ends in XXXX. My credit card ends in XXXX. I have been a customer of American Express for decades and have good standing with them and good credit as well. I followed any and all terms and conditions for this card when making purchases and for earning or trying to use points. 

These points can be used to transfer to airlines or other services for travel or commerce. Onoe is supposed to be able to simply link the American Express account online with other listed programs such as airline accounts, etc, and then make an online transfer after filling in their online forms. In XX/XX/XXXX I tried to do an online transfer of XXXX of my points and received the following error online : " Unable to process your request We are unable to complete your order. Please do not attempt to resubmit the order, as this will only delay the process. Please contact us at XXXX between XXXX and XXXX ET, Sunday through Saturday. '' I called American Express and spent no less than 45 minutes on the phone being transferred up a chain of CSRs and supervisors, all who thought my account was fine, and eventually reached someone who told me that some accounts are being reviewed at the corporate level, and the points would be available " soon. '' She could not tell me anything else. I waited. Today I tried to transfer XXXX MR points to one of my linked accounts online and got the same error. It also came with error code : code : XXXX. Online chat is unable to help, further phone calls will result in longer waiting and no real answers, and in the meantime, my points, which I properly earned, can not be used. Why are they in my account if they can not be used? I think American Express is pulling a bait and switch of sorts if it offers something like this but now does n't let its customers actually take advantage of it. If they have some sort of internal issue being worked on by corporate, they should have solved that before hand on their time and stop wasting mine. I have actually visited online forums and have learned there are many others with this card experiencing the exact same issue. As well, a friend of mine from another state is also having it happen to him and his wife, so many people -- not just me -- are having their points held up by American Express and that is help money! 

What I want is for you to help me get them to release any hold they have on my points and NOTIFY ME IMMEDIATELY without me having to contact them and fight for an answer again. Why did I pay {$450.00} for a card that has no intention of letting me use its benefits?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation