American Express
P.O. Box 360001
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33336-0001
August 20, 2009
To Whom It May Concern:
It is with great consternation that I write this letter. For the past 7 years I have conducted business with American Express. I had 5 American Express Cards, along with another 9 individuals employed by my companies who carried your cards as their main card of choice for travel, entertainment and purchases. In our past 7 years of business with American Express, we have charged more than $4,500,000.00 on our American Express cards. Our Merchant accounts have billed over $1,000,000.00 in charges through American Express. As of August 2009, neither I nor any organization that I am affiliated with will do future business with American Express. That includes merchant and credit card charges.
In July 2009 you adjusted one of our accounts from a credit limit of $110,000.00 to $10,000.00 with no warning or reason. I have three problems with this. One, we have paid every bill on time and have had outstanding Sales in 2009 considering the current economic climate. While it’s your decision to give credit to whoever you wish, I question the intelligence of this decision. You make money when I put things on my credit cards. How will American Express make money if we are not able to charge? Two, you coincidently cut our credit limit one day before our statement closed. A total mistake I’m sure. With the lowering our credit, you informed our CFO that full payment of the account was now due! Why after 7 years and all of our business would you treat us this way? While we had the cash to pay the bill, there are many small businesses right now that would have been unable to make this payment. American Express is contributing to the problems small businesses are having during this economic crunch. My third issue is by far the most upsetting. I am embarrassed for American Express on the lack of professional courtesy and communication I received while dealing with your representatives. I was traveling in Italy on business when you made this adjustment. I called multiple times attempting to speak to your underwriting department. I left a message for Andrea Horeheld on Friday July 10th to please call my cell phone as soon as possible. I spoke to someone else who informed me that only Andrea could take my call. To say I got the” runaround” would be an understatement. I spent ½ an hour on hold and dealing with other people who in the end blindly transferred me to Andrea’s voice mail. One of our employee’s spoke to Andrea a few days later. She informed them that she was not authorized to make international calls. How is it possible that your underwriting department can make a $100,000.00 adjustment to a credit limit, but lack the ability to call an Italian phone number? During my trip, I made 3 other attempts to contact Andrea. I left another message with my cell number and email. I received no response. I instructed my staff to collect all American Express Cards and freeze all payments to American Express until I could speak to someone about our account.
Upon my return from Italy, I called in to American Express to speak to someone about our account that was now past due. I never got a call back from the underwriting department, so I wanted to speak to a supervisor or someone who would give me some reason as to why our credit was cut so suddenly and so severely. Your collections department refused to transfer me to anyone until the now past due balance was paid. I paid the balance in hope of attaining some level of satisfaction from a supervisor. I left two messages requesting a supervisor return my call. For obvious reasons I had no desire to work with Andrea. I called in again and spoke to someone who I believe is the underwriting department secretary and she informed me that all the underwriting managers were in a meeting and that the first available supervisor would call me back. A day or so later I received my first call back from Andrea in underwriting department stating that she was the only person I could deal with. She could give me no answers as to why my credit was cut. She told me it would be two weeks for a review of my account based on our 2009 financials. Four weeks have now passed, and surprise, no response. Is it the American Expresses business strategy to purposefully alienate your customers?
It is clear to me that American Express has changed. My companies are all small businesses. While we don’t depend or need American Express to stay in business, I am very aware that your actions are harming other small business just like mine. Last time I checked my FICO score was above 800. I have zero credit flaws in both my personal and business life. It is my hope to draw attention to your new direction in business.
I must confess that I enjoyed the feeling I got when I laid down my Platinum card at hotels and restaurants. I received advice from your concierge on shows and events when I was on business trips and vacations. I have prospered from the rewards and benefits that come along with carrying your cards. Trust is the most important thing to me. If I can’t trust who I’m doing business with, business doesn’t get done. This incident has bankrupted my trust in American Express.
Regards,
Jason Szuch CEO
SAY Security Group USA LLC
CC: Senator Sherrod Brown
713 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
CC: Senator George Voinovich
524 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
CC: Congressman Jim Jordan
3121 West Elm Plaza
Lima, OH 45805
CC: www.bankruptedtrust.com
