OK. I know that we are in a recession and I know that companies are doing whatever they have to do to survive. What I don’t know is why a company would kick a loyal customer in the ass. What I don’t know is why a company that you are loyal to would treat you  like you don’t even matter. What I do know is that I will take my business elsewhere gladly.

I have an American Express card. Well actually I HAD an American Express card. Last month, I made my payment online. When I made the payment, I selected the wrong pay from bank account. I had multiple pay from bank accounts that I had not taken the time to remove when I stopped using them. It was my mistake. I realized it after I made the payment. I called American Express and asked them to switch the pay from bank account to the one I intended to use. The very nice woman I spoke to told me that she could not do this. She stated that she could not remove the payment from the system. I explained to her that the account had no money in it so the payment was going to be returned if it was sent through. She stated that there was nothing she could do AND she told me that American Express was going to try to submit the payment 3 times. Three times? OK. I took a deep breath. The woman I was speaking to was really nice. She just couldn’t help me. I asked her what could I do. She told me to wait. I told her I was going to make another payment. She said that I couldn’t make another payment on the American Express site since I had that payment pending. I was a little upset, but she was just the messenger. I thanked her and got off of the phone.

American Express sent the charge to the account I didn’t want to use a total of three times just as the woman said they would. After checking every single day on their site, their system finally allowed me to pay the amount I owed again. This time I was ultra-sure to select the correct account. I made the payment which included the amount I owed AND a fee American Express charged me. I thought all was well. Then I got a surprise a few days later. I logged into my account and noticed all of my reward points were gone. I was in shock. I have been with American Express for six years and I have never had any problems or issues with my account. I then started clicking around in the account to see what happened. I went to one screen that explained what happened. My account was cancelled! I gasped. Surely this must be a mistake. I called American Express. I explained what happened and they didn’t care. They were really nice, but they still didn’t care. The woman explained that I had violated the terms of my account. What? It was a mistake! I should have been able to just cancel the payment from my account page and redo it, but I couldn’t. I called to try to have AMEX change it and they wouldn’t. Now you are closing my account after six years of never being late, never missing a payment and being a loyal customer? WTF is that about? I couldn’t believe it. All these years of doing the right thing and being loyal and caring about my credit amounted to nothing with AMEX. They did allow me to redeem my points, but that doesn’t make up for treating me like crap. They were looking for a reason to close accounts and somehow I ended up on the wrong side of the tracks. I was upset at first, but I will take my business on with a smile.

This was a  lesson for me. Being loyal to a company is very stupid. Everyone needs to be out for self because these companies don’t value you and don’t care about you. I realized that I was nothing more than a number and thinking that I was something more to AMEX, thinking that I mattered and thinking that I was special to AMEX was just plain stupid. American Express I want you to know that I was faithful to you. I was loyal to you and I even considered naming my first born after you (OK NOT REALLY ON THAT PART), but you have shown me what it is like to be cheated on. You didn’t care about me and you didn’t value me. You and your kind are very stupid, but I won’t take it personally. After all, I’m just a very stupid number to you. I will move on with a smile and remember this experience as I use my Discover card to pay for things that I would have used your card for. Farewell……farewell…..and goodbye…..