Trying to get a refund from Amex

Theleak250

I have had my Amex card for a while, never had an issue, never needed to get a refund. Until this year. I had to cancel a trip and the hotel refunded me £1200 to the Amex card. I contacted Amex and requested this money was sent from Amex into my bank account. I have a few bank accounts. According to Amex the money would have to be returned to the account where the Amex card was paid from (which isn't the same account as the Amex DD is set up to). Fair enough.

5 days passed and then they sent me a letter in the post asking me to submit a bank statement onto their website, showing the Amex payment from the bank account. I did this 20 days ago and heard nothing. I contacted them on Friday just gone, and asked for an update. They said I need to submit the documents. I told them I have already done this, they say the documents were never uploaded which is nonsense. So now I have to submit them again and wait another 15 days. My opinion of Amex is rapidly going down hill. You literally cannot get your money out of them and have to wait weeks. I may close my account. Has anyone else had to go through this process?

oldernonethewiser

When Amex changed their reward levels for flight points I cancelled.  I was due a refund on my subscription.

They sent me a cheque.

Somewhat inconvenient but I did get the money. 

sausage_time

I've always found their customer service excellent.  I have never specifically asked for a repayment of a reversed transaction though, but various other issues have been dealt with quickly and to my satisfaction.  What documents are they requesting?  It sounds like the refund has hit your Amex account OK?

Theleak250

sausage_time said:

I've always found their customer service excellent.  I have never specifically asked for a repayment of a reversed transaction though, but various other issues have been dealt with quickly and to my satisfaction.  What documents are they requesting?  It sounds like the refund has hit your Amex account OK?

They are asking for a bank statement showing the payment which paid th amex card off. It was submitted and this is visible on their own system. The agent informed me at first it wasn’t submitted. She then asked me to submit it again. So they haven’t actioned the refund despite the documentation being submitted some time ago. She has now emailed the refund department to find out what’s going on, but very poor service. 

sausage_time

Shame it wasn't paid from your direct debit account, then it would be clearer and unambiguous.  I guess they are worried about potential fraud, but even so seems far from ideal service.

MyRealNameToo

It's typical anti-money laundering requirements that money goes back to source. As said, life would have been much simpler had it been the account the DD is setup from. 

It's not something I've ever asked of AmEx either, have had refunds and chargebacks but just offset them from future spending rather than asking for the cash back. 

Theleak250

MyRealNameToo said:

It's typical anti-money laundering requirements that money goes back to source. As said, life would have been much simpler had it been the account the DD is setup from. 

It's not something I've ever asked of AmEx either, have had refunds and chargebacks but just offset them from future spending rather than asking for the cash back. 

That doesn’t excuse 22 days and counting for the refund. The fault lies with Amex CS not their money laundering policy. £1200 is a lot of money to leave there and why should I?

Theleak250

To conclude the story, a refund was finally issued (not before I received another letter asking why I had sent them a bank statement) after 26 days of request. A bad customer service experience.