Consumer complaint received 08/25/2017 about Credit card or prepaid card (General-purpose credit card or charge card) with AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (VA).
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Credit card company forcing arbitration

Complaint: As an initial matter, I am submitting this complaint to CFPB for notice that what has happened to me is no doubt happening to thousands if not over a million other customers at American Express. The choices preceding this section only allowed for 1 selection, however, many of them apply to my situation as you will see below. I have been forced into arbitration with Amex against my will and have filed a claim AGAINST THEM for over {$100000.00} ( plus interest, attorneys fees, arbitration costs, and as of next week, punitive damages will be added to my claims ). They opened an additional credit card in my name without my permission ( it was only supposed to be an upgrade ), and when I found this out, I immediately drafted a demand letter to their general counsel, who forwarded it to a staff attorney based in Florida. The opening of the card created an outstanding balance of app. $ XXXX that I normally work against each month and pay in full. At the time, I also filed a complaint with your organization. When that complaint finally made its internal rounds at Amex, my demand letter was sitting with a staff attorney in Florida and she informed me that she had that as well. There was no action taken on that initial complaint with CFPB by American Express. It had zero outcome. 

Let me give you some additional background. I have been with Amex for TWENTY ONE YEARS. I have paid my bill in full, on time every single month for 21 years. I have been the PERFECT customer who began her tenure with Amex with a green card at age XXXX, then upgraded ( successfully and properly at that time ) to a gold card and my desire to upgrade from gold to platinum is what began this nightmare that has been drawn out by Amex since XXXX of this year. I have had my account set to " auto debit full amount '' each month on the XXXX of the month for as long as I can remember and for as long as the service was made available to its customers -- again the epitome of perfection. When I moved from XXXX to XXXX, I promptly updated my bank account online app. 28 days before the next payment was due. When the time came for the amount to auto debit from my account, it did not happen and I did not understand, so I tried to investigate online and could not ascertain why my balance was not paid. I ended up calling customer service only to find out that I had a " late '' payment notice and that updating bank information on their website can take 90 days to validate. There is NO notice of this ANYWHERE and both XXXX and XXXX validated it in less than 12 hours -- not 3 months. NO ONE would know that it takes 3 months nor would they presume that. Once this service rep " corrected '' the issue, we spoke about an " UPGRADE '' and I decided to upgrade my gold card to platinum. This fool opens a NEW account and fails to correct the due date as he promised me he had done ( please note I took contemporaneous notes during this conversation as well as got his name and ID number ). I did not know that he had failed at every request I made. My platinum card arrived in the mail and I promptly cut up my gold card as that was no longer a valid card ( at least in my mind ). Several days go by, I am using my platinum card, and I discover that there are active charges to my " old '' gold card. I then call customer service to try and ascertain what is going on and I am told I have TWO active accounts. I then proceed through the motions with 2 additional customer service reps. ALL of these notes are in my demand letter that I attached to my previously submitted complaint to your organization. I will not reiterate them here. 

Once the staff attorney had my demand letter regarding my claims at that time, she informed me she needed 30 days to " investigate '' which in the corporate world is quite excessive ( I am a XXXX XXXX and have been for 14 years ), but I allowed this and told her I had a pending payment due, which was the nature of my demand and claims and the very nature of my dispute. I informed her she needed to address that. Instead, during her " investigation '' they post a fraudulent and erroneous " past due '' notice to the credit bureaus WITHOUT NOTICE TO ME ( which had been changed by me with THREE customer service reps and I had DOCUMENTATION from Amex regarding changing the date ). I had done so deliberately so that I could work with the legal department on the claims and issues -- I purposely moved the date out to XXXX XXXX. Again, I can prove this and submitted it to the staff attorney AFTER I found out about the past due notice online -- NOT EVEN FROM THE ATTORNEY INVESTIGATING THE CASE. This staff attorney FAILED TO INFORM ME that they would continue to damage me during this 30 day period, something which she was ethically and legally required to do. Not only did she allow the fraudulent and erroneous past due account posting, she also allowed them to randomly debit an amount of over {$12000.00} from my checking account on a random day THREE DAYS AFTER she asked me to clarify my claims so she could work with the business to handle this " amicably. '' ' This was the SECOND time she used the word, " amicably '' and did so in a directly deceitful manner. So now, AFTER she has my demand letter and AFTER she tells me they want to work " amicably '' with me on this, they FURTHER DAMAGE ME by submitting the fraudulent/erroneous past due account notice to the credit bureaus and then deduct some unsubstantiated amount from my checking account to the tune of over $ 12k WITHOUT TELLING ME THE DATE THEY WOULD DO SO and without notice of the past due credit posting. Literally, this organization asked me to give them 30 days to " investigate '' my claim to ONLY unnecessarily DRAW IT OUT for 30 additional days and cause incredibly extensive damage beyond that which they had already done which is UNCONSCIONABLE. 

During her " investigation '' -- shortly after I received her email acknowledging my demand letter and informing me Amex wanted to work this out " amicably, '' and that she needed 30 days to " investigate, '' I am the subject of a data breach to my Amex accounts. I inform her of this IMMEDIATELY and SHE IGNORES IT. I inform her that the outstanding balance on my account could include fraudulent charges, but I could not get to the account because it was locked as it had been deemed " past due. '' SHE IGNORED THIS. I informed the organization PRIOR TO the amount being fraudulently pulled from my account that there could be charges that were not mine, but she still allowed this damage to occur, again, with NO NOTICE whatsoever. So not only did I waste time I do not have by allowing the 30 days for the " investigation '' and NOT filing for arbitration at the time I received the letter ( and thus being able to possibly mitigate any further damage ), but Amex then had an additional 30 days to fraudulently damage my credit rating ( it went down TEN points and I have NEVER EVER had that happen to me in XXXX years of life -- NEVER -- I had a PERFECT credit rating ). They ALSO ignored notice of a data breach, ignored notice of possible fraudulent charges, and ignored a request for a fraud alert to be put on the " new '' credit card, as well as fraudulently deduct over $ 12k from my checking account, thus causing an overdraft in my account. I had only been with this new bank for a couple of months when that occurred ( and that has NEVER happened to me before at any bank ) -- so now, I have a history of " overdraft '' that will affect every single transaction I have with that bank and now can no longer get " favors '' as a result. The first time they drafted over $ 12k from my account, the money was not in there ( because the staff attorney did not see fit to give me notice they were going to pull the funds from my account during her active " investigation. '' Instead, I receive an email from my bank that my account is in overdraft by over $ 12k from Amex. I then go online that morning and quickly shift the money over as I struggle to understand why this is happening DURING the 30 day " investigation '' and 3 days AFTER this staff attorney asked me to clarify my damages while reiterating to me they want to work " amicably. '' I then immediately email the staff attorney ( who to this point has refused to speak with me on the phone -- and with whom I never actually spoke to despite the severity of my situation because she refused to speak on the phone ). She ignores this AS WELL. Just  as she ignored the data breach notice, the fraudulent charges notice and the request for the fraud alert. She just IGNORED it. At that time I asked who her supervisor was and that I was going to file a complaint against her with the Florida Bar. She ignored that request as well. I immediately draft a bar complaint and send it in. 1 day after Amex drafted over $ 12k from my account, the money is deposited back. 1 day later, they debit it out AGAIN! Clearly they want to damage me purposely, repeatedly and in the same manner. It is an actual proactive effort on the part of American Express which infuriates me to no end. 

I am writing to you so that you can try to accumulate all of these issues and ascertain just how many people are affected by this scam. Unfortunately, I am NOT finished yet and Amex continued to make my situation worse, if you can even begin to imagine such a travesty. They now have all of my money. I have filed an arbitration claim against them. THEY REFUSED TO PAY THEIR PORTION OF THE ARBITRATION FEE and they are 100 % at fault. I paid my {$200.00} fee, gave them proper notice of the claim and even provided them with documentation with that notice ( which is not required ) just so they could see how very bad this situation is and continues to get worse at their hands. Now, next week, I have to pay THEIR portion of the arbitration fee of {$3200.00} by XXXX XXXX so that the arbitration can proceed. If I had not been able to afford this amount, the arbitration would simply go away and Amex would walk away from this situation with no consequence whatsoever and that would be a SUPREME TRAVESTY. This is unconscionable, unethical and illegal on its face. My claims against them are numerous and all substantiated with documentation ( and their recorded customer service phone calls ). My claims are fraud in fact, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, employee misconduct, bank fraud, violations of the FCBA, unauthorized opening of a consumer credit card, among many, many others. I was FORCED into this arbitration provision that I would NEVER have agreed to, and certainly not in regard to fraud claims. I have XXXX hundreds of clients against XXXX in my 14 years of XXXX XXXX, just for this reason alone -- that this group can force me into arbitration, be 100 % at fault with my claims, and then refuse to participate in the process. If I did not have money, they would get away with it, which is what they count on time and time again. That is unconscionable, unethical and criminal on its face. 

I will be calling your general counsel to attempt to discuss this in person. I want to work with your organization to prohibit credit card companies/financial institutions from perpetrating this kind of fraud on customers such as myself. I am also bringing this to the attention of my senator and congressman and will obviously continue to pursue this in arbitration as I am very confident in my claims. The fact that I must now pay their filing fee is horrendous and shocking to those outside, but unfortunately, the MO of American Express as I have come to see the past few months. 21 years of loyal service to them and this is how they repay me. I will be loud and viral about this entire situation. I am contacting all of the news organizations that have covered this arbitration provision and any settlement payouts made by Amex, specifically the most recent one of {$95.00} million to app. 200,000 customers. It is my understanding they did so at your behest, but of course, did not admit to any fault. 

Amex is so big with so much money that they simply do not care. THEY DO NOT CARE. They prey on individuals who do not know the law and who do not have the resources to fight them. I however, am not only a lawyer, but I also have the money to handle this appropriately. It is my goal to stop them from this behavior and I want to meet with you to see how I can do that in conjunction with your lobbying efforts over these kind of predatory practices. Amex has tried to spend me into an oblivion and has been unethical, unprofessional and has committed crime after crime, despite me acting in good faith at every single instance. I even continued to pay the balance on the " new '' platinum card until I stopped using it entirely after utilizing a positive balance. I did this during the staff attorney 's investigation, during her deliberate damaging of my finances, and while the entire organization, including their lawyers, continued to ignore the arbitration process and my pleas to address the data breach, and subsequently, even after they owe me a significant amount of money in damages. 

The arbitration provision that I was forced into requires that I arbitrate fraud, which NO ONE EVER AGREES to because it is absurd. Anyone with a fraud claim wants to be before a jury because at that time, you can obtain punitive damages which is the ONLY punishment that large organizations such as Amex pay attention to -- a customer WANTS to punish Amex when they commit the kinds of offenses they have committed against me and it is the ONLY way they really take notice. Everyone is aware that punitive damages are rare in ADR processes, which is why Amex wants it to be arbitrated -- so that they can perpetrate fraud after fraud on their customers and not see the light of day in a courtroom. Unfortunately for them, I am going to make this very public and that particular purpose shall be defeated. 

This is my second complaint with you since XXXX and Amex continues to damage me to this day which is again, unconscionable. I will do everything in my power to make this as public and painful as possible for them. I want to work with you on the Hill regarding this legislation as I would be an exceptional voice for your efforts. 

I am lucky to be able to stand up to American Express, but many of their customers do not have that luxury and again, that creates a large source of revenue for them -- people who walk away from fraudulent billing practices because they do not understand what is going on, can not afford to address it, or flat out do n't want to handle it at all because it is too much work. Their customers either have no idea they have subscribed to an arbitration provision, they do not even know the contents of their contract, or, if they do manage to read it, they have no idea its meaning. As a XXXX, I have NEVER EVER seen such imbedded unethical practices in a corporation at every conceivable level within. Now, their ADR branch ignores what has happened thus far and is on board with making my case so much worse, when they already have caused such a tremendous amount of damage to me. Had I known that their staff attorney would continue to damage me, I would have filed for arbitration well over 30 days ago and at the time of receipt of her acknowledgment email of my demand letter. I am no fool. I am not going to give Amex another 30 days to unnecessarily draw out an already unnecessarily drawn out nightmare and contemporaneously destroy my credit rating, damage my banking history, and rock my financial stability. That is insane, but again, they simply do not care. The public will care very much, however, and I look forward to addressing it that way. 

I would be happy to provide to you my additional research on the data breach ( that again was completely ignored by their staff attorney ) as it demonstrated that many people experienced the EXACT SAME set of circumstances around it, and in general, at the same time period. I have tried to reserve the damage claim in arbitration on the data breach as I am unable to ascertain if I have fraudulent charges because Amex refuses to acknowledge me, my claims, or the arbitration, so I can not come to a conclusion. I am confident, however, according to my research, that there are thousands of other people affected by this data breach which went unaddressed by Amex. I just can not find out about my own account because Amex ignores me. Again, just the epitome of " professionalism. '' I am hoping to speak with you next week. Please feel free to contact me directly. I can provide documentation for all of my claims, research and issues around arbitration. I am again, paying THEIR fee when they are 100 % at fault here and it is shockingly unconscionable. Please do your research to find out just how many people are victims of this scam and please ensure this complaint is made public. I know so many other people are victims just like me and I want to help them in every way I can. 

Thank you

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation