Consumer complaint received 2024-04-23
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (FL)

I had an issue where I had mistakenly paid my {$2500.00} Credit Card bill with an incorrect bank account. 

I have a savings account with American Express that I don't use anymore. However I had mistakenly chose this bank account to pay from instead of my normal day to day bank account. The payment did not go through and when I received the email informing me of this, I realized my mistake and immediately contacted American Express support through their Chat function on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I was advised to wait XXXX hours and the amount should show up as my " owed '' amount and I can then re-make the payment. This was incorrect as this never happened. 

I contacted American Express support again on XX/XX/XXXX and they advised me to go to my bank and make a payment right to my card number and use that as an account number. However this is not a common payment method in the US because we use ACH payments. And without a routing number this was not possible from my bank. I explained this to the representative and they transferred me to someone else that said to call them and provided a number. I was clear when I advised the support person I would not be able to call until later after work. 

When I did call after work, I was told that they could not help me at all and that there was now a hold placed on my card because the money has not gone through. I had advised all I wanted to do was make a new payment from the right bank account to clear this up and they said that would not be possible. I asked for a manager and the manager was able to process a new payment for the amount from the correct bank account.

So I was given incorrect information three separate times. 

I also want to note that I am currently in XXXX Texas for work and I live in XXXX XXXX Florida. I advised the American Express support person that they can clearly see charges from XXXX TX and they know I live in Florida. If I would not have pushed the subject, I would have been without food, water, or a way to get home. 

I asked for a refund of the returned payment fee due to the overwhelming stress this has caused me but they had denied this request. The fee was {$29.00}. I would have been without food or water for days, so my safety and health is not worth {$29.00} to American Express. 
I then asked for a transcript of the Chat to which the representative said they do not provide copies of the transcript. So I can only see it through my American express account and can not download it for sharing with you today. 

My complaint is alleging that American Express was going to leave me stranded XXXX miles away from home without food or water, meanwhile all I wanted to do was pay them what I owed them. This was by far the worst customer support I have ever experienced. 

I had also asked the supervisor if this violated any Regulation-E rules to which they responded that they did not know what Regulation-E was. Every Financial Institution in the United States needs to know what this is and they don't.