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Pastimes : The Naked Truth - Big Kahuna a Myth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MythMan who wrote (74217)	11/8/1999 11:27:00 AM
From: Cynic 2005	Respond to of 86076

The American Express Card: Don't Leave Home With It by Gary North I have in my possession a FAX to one of my subscribers. It is from American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. It is dated October 13, 1999. It reads: Dear [First Name, Last Name]: Your American Express Accounts have been cancelled: Gold...Card Amount Due... $183,666.00 Optima...Minimum Payment Due... $24,400 All Cards and/or checks issued in connection with these accounts are no longer valid and must be destroyed immediately. Under no circumstances should any attempt be made by you or any Additional Cardmember to use any Card(s) and/or checks issued on these accounts. All charges will be denied. Please send us your payments for the totals due on your last statements. The reasons for our decision to cancel your accounts are: You are presently past due on one or more of the above accounts. (If you have not done so already, please mail your payment in the enclosed envelope.) Your payment history with American Express has been unsatisfactory. You are hereby notified that a negative credit report reflecting your credit record may be submitted to a consumer reporting agency if you fail to fulfill the terms of your credit obligations. Sincerely, The message to him regarding his card is clear: "Don't leave home with it." The man runs a print shop. How did he get into the hole to the tune of $183,666? He didn't. He called American Express. He was told that all of their computers were down and to call back later. The man was on the road. He didn't leave home without his American Express card. The hotel rejected it. Computers make mistakes. What happens to American Express or any other credit-issuing organization if this happens to such an extent that dunning letters get sent out to tens of thousands of people? How about the threatened consumer credit bureau reports? The words "class action suit" come to mind. We live by plastic in the United States. What if the computers melt the plastic? I called AmEx at the number on the dunning letter. I tried to get clarification. I explained that I was a reporter asking about the bill. I was told, "You are not making any sense." I asked repeatedly for a supervisor. Miss B. refused to give me the name of one or transfer me to one. I asked three times. I have never dealt with a Fortune 500 company that allows its clerks categorically refuse to allow a caller to speak with a supervisor. When the caller identifies himself as a reporter who is about to post a story, the customer relations person really should shift res-possibility to a higher employee. Not Miss B. She held the hammer. She simply refused. This is stonewalling. When a low-level phone lady knows that a reporter is on the line and wants clarification regarding a $183,000 bill, and she refuses to say anything except, "You are not making any sense," three times, and will not put on a supervisor, that company has major public relations problems. It surely has a chain-of-command problem. Multiply this bill across tens of thousands of card holders in 2000. Could it happen? Maybe. But do not ask Miss B. Maybe her supervisor knows what is going on. I was not able to find out. Miss B. was the second lady I spoke with. The first one had put me on hold to get her supervisor. I was on hold so long that the connection died. When fears over the Year 2000 problem are rising, computer glitches like this one make customers nervous. When they are shut off from anyone who can tell them what is going on, they get even more nervous. Managers should know this. They should not allow stonewalling. They should have someone who can provide cogent answers. Of course, the cogent answer may be, "our computers went haywire in our y2k upgrade." That, they may not wish to admit.