Consumer complaint received 2020-11-20
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action — Sued you without properly notifying you of lawsuit
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (CA)

On the evening of XX/XX/XXXX, around XXXX XXXX PST, I was served a summons by XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, A Law Firm Engaged in Debt Collection informing me that I am being sued in a case titled, AMERICAN EXPRESS NATIONAL BANK XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXXXXXX, inclusive. 

The date stamped on the summons paperwork indicated that the suit had been filed on XX/XX/XXXX, 24 CALENDAR DAYS prior to when I became notified. 

The summons indicates that I have 30 CALENDAR DAYS to respond, thus I have been left with 5 CALENDAR DAYS to respond. 

This action taken by American Express, and facilitated by XXXX XXXX XXXX, comes at a time when the United States of America surpasses 250K COVID deaths, more than 30 million Americans remain unemployed due to the pandemic, and during the start of the holiday seasonleveling extraordinary amounts of stress upon my family and me, at time when we have never been under greater stress, both financially and socially. 

Further, sometime between XXXX and XXXX of XXXX, I contacted American Express directly to request that payments be deferred until after the pandemic and/or I am able to secure an income sufficient to continue to make my obliged payments. American Express refused to defer my payments but proposed instead to lower them to an amount of several hundred dollars a month for a 12-month period of time. This was an amount that I was still unable to afford, and the result of my conversation with the company was a feeling of complete and utter hopelessness. I found no sympathy in American Express, a company supposedly considerate to the needs of its longtime members, like myself, during an extraordinary period in time. 

So, how did we get here? 

In XXXX, I moved from XXXX XXXX back into my parents house in XXXX, CA with my then fiance, now wife, to prepare for the birth of our first child. I continued to work remotely in my role at my former employer doing XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXXt work. 

The decision at the time was made to help us get our finances in order, including paying off our outstanding credit obligations to American Express. This was going according to plan until the week before XXXX XXXX, when I received a phone call about the XXXX I was building for my employer. In that phone call, I was politely informed that my job was terminated. 

To say I was surprised by the news would be an understatement, not to mention my wife had just given birth to our son a month prior. 

I spent the next several months educating myself for a career transition as well as entering into unemployment and attending their career counseling and facilitation programs. 

I earned several XXXX certificates in XXXX XXXX to make a switch into XXXX XXXX which sent me down a path of learning XXXX XXXX. I applied for myriad jobs and landed none of them. 

It was a demoralizing time. 

However, in desperation, I built a XXXX XXXX and decided to pool what little finances my wife and I had into starting a XXXX XXXX. We were successful in securing an initial investment which gave us a short runway and the bandwidth to build and develop a XXXX XXXX, and partner with four renowned nonprofit organizations in addition to the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

We had built a public-benefit, Certified B-Corp Pending corporation with a mission and model to reinvest our profits in our community, stakeholders, and environment. 

All of my energies, talents, and efforts were channeled into our company, launching our fundraising campaign, and securing additional investment to launch off of our runway and provide myself and my family with an income to support ourselves and pay off our outstanding debt obligations. 

Then, COVID-19 hit and fundraising vanished and we went off the end of our runway. 

We applied for any federal assistance that might apply to our business but have not received any support to date. There is no category for the multitude of startups and entrepreneurs, like ourselves, whose fundraising opportunities were severely impacted by the pandemic. Thus, we have found ourselves fighting day-in and day-out to keep our company alive and out of bankruptcy, along with ourselves as individuals. 

My family and I have spent two years living with my parents, which has been the only way we would have been able to keep a roof over our heads during this time of great economic despair. 

COVID has taken our business 's fundraising opportunities as well as our job opportunitiesstriking down my wife 's first job after XXXX a day before she was to hear her offer ( the company informed her they were freezing all hiring until further notice due to the global COVID-19 pandemic ). 

Not an hour has gone by that I do not think about, and work toward, getting our company 's next product released and building enough recurring revenue to provide a stable income for myself and my familyso that we can afford to support ourselves financially and pay off our outstanding debts. 

This is, in turn, reflected by my card history as a member with American Expressthe records of which I have requested as the company 's system no longer grants me access to this period of my account history. 

Whenever I have found myself with the means to afford paying off all of my debts, I did so. When I could not completely remove all outstanding debts, I made on-time and continuous monthly payments that either met or exceeded the minimum due. 

The ceasing of any and all payments by myself to American Express has come about due to the incessant financial toll on me, my business, and my family, reflected in the economic toll on the public wrought by a previously-unimaginable global pandemic. 

The actions taken by American Express and XXXX XXXX XXXX reflect a deep disconnect with the American public, American small business owners, and American entrepreneurs. A company with " American '' in its name, has forgotten what it means to be an Americancompassionate, collaborative, forgiving, and brave. 

This lawsuit and its delivery, an exceptionally late notification, are hallmarks of a process and system designed to intimidate and harass people who are working and persevering each and every day to rectify, make right, and improve their lives. 

This lawsuit and its delivery place severe emotional and physical stress on me, my marriage, and my family. 

This lawsuit and its delivery impede the psychological and emotional impetus necessary to achieve returning myself, my business, and my family to a financial standing sufficient to afford to make payments on the debt obligations upon which this lawsuit bases itself. 

This lawsuit and its delivery is an unabashedly shameful attempt to harass and extort an American entrepreneur and his family as they struggle to make ends meet during an extraordinary and devastating global pandemic.