Ref: Amex Card number *********61003
One fine day an Amex executive called me and offered me an "Exclusive" Gold Card. At that time I had been using Amex’ Corporate card for nearly 3.5 years and was a satisfied customer. So I happily took this card after getting attracted to the ’Rewards’ they offered.
With a new found interest to garner as much points as possible, I started pushing my Gold Card everywhere. But the enthusiasm died within the first week. It was not accepted at most of the places. When I inquired shop keepers, they told that Amex charges nearly 3% service charges, while other credit card companies charge only 1.5% to 2%. That was a shocker to me and I gradually understood the secret of attractive rewards.
I called very responsive Amex call center, but instead of agreeing to the problem, they asked me to keep pushing the Gold card in all my purchases. So they wanted me to act as Amex’ sales person. At the time of purchasing I was told that after a year Amex will call me to find out if I am interested in continuing, and only if I am interested they would charge me the membership fee. But to my surprise they charged a huge sum ( more than INR 5, 000 ) without even asking. Now that was the triggering point.
I paid ALL the dues except the membership fee and asked them to cancel my card immediately. I talked to the customer executive and she agreed to reverse the membership charges and told that since I am not interested in continuing, I can ignore the membership fee and confirmed that currently I do not owe anything to the company.
On 26th May 2012 I received a confirmation saying my card has been cancelled. On 27th June 2012, to my surprise, I received a letter from Tarun Bali from Amex saying that I owe 5, 729.68 and wanted me to pay immediately. I called the customer care again and they agreed that it was a mistake and told that I currently do not owe anything. For my confirmation I requested them to send a no-due certificate/letter and the executive promised to deliver it. Request number 12354983. Executive name: Srushti. Request date: 30th June 2012. I thought I at last got hold of this mess.
On 25th August 2012 (more than 3 months of canceling the card), I received one more letter from Tarun Bali saying that I owed INR 185.42 to the company. It also demanded an immediate payment else it threatened to levy late payment charges.
Now, I had given up, and paid the amount immediately, hoping to get rid of this mess for once.
Will wait for last week of September/October hoping not to have any more nasty surprises.
In summary, as you can guess, **it was a ’Golden’ truth learned and got to know the real Amex Customer service.*