American Express

[susandennis]

For a variety of reasons, I have several American Express accounts - an investment account, a brokerage account, a card account, and a couple of others. The credit card is because of Costco and the rest is because I have this financial advisor who is great except for the fact that he's connected to American Express.

They have to be the most luddite company in the world. They keep sending me userids and passwords to websites for my accounts. Half the time the userids and passwords don't work. Plus, why do I want a dozen different websites to go to to get my information at one single fucking company??!!!!

Six months ago I got a mailing about their new website where I could see all of my accounts in one place plus all of my accounts from other places, too! AND pay bills and masterbate and pay taxes and do all my financial planning. (Ok, are you really reading this?)

On one of the websites where I have to go get one of my accounts, it says this new website is coming in 2003.

Today I got two letters in the snail mail. One tells me the URL or my new account information and the account number (which is the same one that I've had for years). The other tells me the PIN number which, of course, does not work. When you plug in all the required information it says 'account information is not available - contact customer service'. Of course, how to contact customer services is about 45 clicks away.

How can these people operate with all this technology up their ass?? And how in the world do they have the time and energy to torture me? Maybe I should be flattered.

Comments

[edbook.livejournal.com]

I have called AE a few times about things to do with our account and found that the folks I get on the phone are speaking English as a second language, distant second. I usually make payments by wire transfer from my credit union and never have any difficulty except with AE where I have to use an account within an account and then have to use some department name that isn't a real name but a very long code. My credit union always has difficulty getting the wired funds to transfer successfully because of the multiple account numbers etc.... And I have to call AE after a transfer to make sure that they got it and get somebody I can't understand. They send me notices that I've got a past due amount that I need to pay immediately and when I call to find out what's going on, am told that I never have had a past due and that I don't owe anything... I can use the card at Costco and everywhere else I try, they don't take AE.... I wish Costco would take other cards... oh, and one more thing... I don't ever get the masterbation department when I call... what number are you dialing?

Peace with Freedom

we must be dealing with different american express companies or something ...

[henare.livejournal.com]

i've been a "cardmember" since 1986 (several cards, in fact: gold rewards, gold (cuz i haven't cancelled it yet), blue, platinum optima (which was once a gold card loc), and i don't seem to have this trouble.

if you call after hours (depending on when you call) you may get a call center in ireland, india, or australia, but those are all english-speaking countries and i've never had trouble being understood.

and ... costco takes other cards! they take visa, mc, discover, and the "costco credit card."

Re: we must be dealing with different american express companies or something ...

[susandennis]

Now see, isn't that strange. I love my Discover card but I once waxed poetic about it and got all kinds of Discover Sucks comments!

But, our Costco takes no credit cards except American Express. This I know for sure because I complain about it every single time I go. They take checks, cash and AE and that's it.

Re: we must be dealing with different american express companies or something ...

[henare.livejournal.com]

hrm. i thought discover would be a cool idea, but their interest rates suck ... and,last year, they replaced my platinum discover with a discover card that has an american flag all over it (pretty much guaranteeing that i'll never use it).

Re: we must be dealing with different american express companies or something ...

[susandennis]

eeewe! I don't blame you. If they would have done that to me they would have gotten a treat in the mail. I do make sure to pay it all off every month because you are on the money about the interest rate. But, I sure do like that cash back. My AE card does the cash back thing, too, tho.

[susandennis]

I do think that you nailed at least one fatal flaw about AE... credit unions. Once you've used one you just can't deal with anyone else. I love my credit union to pieces. They do everything perfectly correctly. Well, they don't have that masterbation feature but then the one that AE offers doesn't work for shit, so I guess it's all the same...