Amex stole my money and won't give it back

Paul1_2

I was daft enough to take out an American Express credit card to take advantage of the 3 month cash back rate. Activating the card led to a complaint (an omen with hindsight) as did the poor service from Amex India, but they said sorry and credited £30.

First months statement arrived and three weeks before the collection date I paid £1800 in, meaning that they should only take the balance of £1200 by Direct Debit, but guess what's coming.........they took the full amount! Effcetively they have taken £1800 of my money.

I contact Amindia on Monday and after a significant complaint they agreed to complete a CHAPS transfer back to my account immediately and would compensate me if I incurred any charges in my account, job done.........so why the post?

Wednesday still no deposit to my account so another call to AmIndia, this time to an advisor and supervisor. The conversation was almost farcical, they hadn't made a CHAPS Transfer as they didn't have a reason, so why agree to it in the first place. There was no proof that the money was mine, even though they have drawn it from my account and have an £1800 credit on the account.

Nothing can be done and despite telling me that managers don't work evenings earlier in the conversation they then tried to put me through to the manager! AmIndia could do nothing, but a manager would contact me the next day. You guessed it they didn't.

I faxed a formal complaint their UK office on Thursday night with instruction to close the account and return my cash, nothing yet.

Customer Care Dell style and that's saying something!

Legal advice sought today and a further letter sent, guess they saw my cash and thought that'll do nicely.

The lesson: go with the top tip of a Conran Card for cash back.

Paul1

Voyager2002

No need to close your Amex account.

Contact your bank, and under the Direct Debit guarantee the payment to Amex can be recalled.

hjb123

Yeah just call your bank and they should be able to do something.

A couple of weeks ago I was doing online banking and accidently paid Barclaycard twice instead of paying them once and M&S once. I rang Barclays up and they told me to ring back in a couple of days, which I did and they transferred the money back to my account so that I could pay the right amount!