American Express Membership Rewards - I cancelled my AMEX PLATINUM before receiving it due to poor customer service

I'm livid with AMEX PLATINUM Customer Service and the so called 'Worldwide Card Replacement Service', which apparently is not able to replace US AMEX cards in South Africa, as I just found out today.

I applied and was approved for the card last week and was planning to use this on my trip to SA. I was concerned that the card wouldn't arrive by last Friday, in time for my trip.

Amex Customer service indicated on Wednesday that the card was shipped and would arrive by Friday morning before my trip. I called back on Thursday as I hadn't received a shipping notice from UPS. Customer service confirmed that the card was en route and would get to me by Friday. They were not able to provide a tracking number, due to security concerns. I was concerned about not receiving the card in time and asked what would happen. I was assured that if the card didn't arrive by the time I left for my trip, AMEX would cancel the card and ship a new card to me in South Africa.

You can guess what happened next....Needless to say, the card was never shipped on Wednesday, this was only shipped on Friday, to arrive the following Monday. Amex is not able to ship out a new card to me in South Africa (even though they have offices here), as they need certain security info from the card that was already sent to me, which I can't access as I'm away in South Africa for the next 2 weeks. I called them on Sunday btw.

I asked AMEX Platinum Customer service to cancel my card, as they had blatantly lied to me repeatedly the previous week. This was all from my international call (thank you Skype) to them, when I phoned to have them deliver the card to me in SA. I was on hold for about 20 minutes on the call, and the guy who cancelled my call didn't even try to ask the reason I was cancelling. I'm seriously considering cancelling my AMEX PRG card as a result of this experience. I guess I expected more from Amex, hope someone out there has had better experiences, let me know as I'm on the fence after this experience.

Amex, in my experience, has always been extremely efficient in sending out new or replacement cards. I would imagine that asking them to send your brand new card to you in SA before you even received or activated the original raised a few flags. I, for one, would be happy that someone can't just call up with my info and have a card expedited to SA.

AMEX responds best to a combination of polite requests and strong-arming. They are only interested in the spend and will be helpful if and only if you directly link poor service to moderate/large customers walking; once they get that in mind, then they are generally helpful IME.

It's a shame you didn't get your card in time, but I don't think canceling your new Platinum card is really going to affect AMEX in any significant way.

Also, doesn't this post belong in the AMEX forum?

Thanks for the responses. Cancelling the card was a 'knee-jerk' response, as I was upset with Customer Service for providing me blatantly false information multiple times when I called about the card status. The option to ship the card to SA if I didn't receive this before my trip was initially offered by Customer Service, which is why I balked when they indicated this wasn't an option.
In retrospect, I can see the security implications about them shipping the card to SA before I've received the original card. I'm just still feeling really burned by this whole experience, and am still weighing the option of cancelling my PRG card as well.
My Ameriprise World Elite is starting to look much more attractive, except for the Amex Rewards program, which I would really miss.

Any thoughts?

Kindly ask to reopen the Platinum card account and give AMEX another chance

I has the same experience a few years ago. Lost my platinum card and noticed on the way to Europe. They wanted me to go to one of their offices there (a 300 mile trip from where I was staying) to get a replacement card. I politely told them to go suck an egg.

Any thoughts?

I can understand the frustration, but why waste the credit pull and initial bonus? I would recommend the same thing as yOyOYoo and ask them to reopen the account.

This is unusual. Ime, amex has used xpresspost (overnight) service to get me my cards twice.

>> This was all from my international call (thank you Skype) to them,

There is never a requirement to pay for calls to AMEX. Of course there is SKYPE which is always free. But in any event AMEX accept collect calls.

This is unusual. Ime, amex has used xpresspost (overnight) service to get me my cards twice.That's because you had an existing account with a proven track record. The OP had just opened the account, was awaiting receipt of his brand new card ... and then makes a demand ... er, request ... that a replecement card be mailed to a foreign country. Don't you think this raises security issues to the highest degree ... not meaning to besmirch the OP's reputation ... but who knows what "game" might be "afoot" (to quote Sherlock Holmes).

+1

1. Amex is great about overnighting replacement cards. This one must have tripped a bunch of fraud warnings.

2. If the CSR didn't ask why you wanted to cancel, that's a sign that AMEX wanted the account closed and certainly wasn't going to fight for it.

3. Likely going to be very tough to get this card reopened and at a minimum AMEX will do another hard pull on OP's credit, not a good thing in the context of an account which will show up as closed at the customer's request within a week of opening.

>> This was all from my international call (thank you Skype) to them,

There is never a requirement to pay for calls to AMEX. Of course there is SKYPE which is always free. But in any event AMEX accept collect calls.

+1 to this too. The collect call numbers are easily available online

That's because you had an existing account with a proven track record. The OP had just opened the account, was awaiting receipt of his brand new card ... and then makes a demand ... er, request ... that a replecement card be mailed to a foreign country. Don't you think this raises security issues to the highest degree ... not meaning to besmirch the OP's reputation ... but who knows what "game" might be "afoot" (to quote Sherlock Holmes).

Agreed, the request to ship the card does raise flags. In my defense, the request was based on Customer Service indicating to me that shipping the card to me in SA was the next option if I wasn't able to receive the card at home before I left on my trip.

As I'm already travelling, I'm less concerned about getting the card. Not till my next overseas trip anyway. I'm less concerned about losing the bonus points, as the benefits while travelling were more important to me. Wrt the hard credit pull, I'm not too concerned as my credit history is quite solid right now. I'm not expecting a serious ding to my credit from closing the card within a week of opening it, which is the only reason I may reconsider requesting the card be reopened. I have an existing relationship with Amex from the targeted offer for my PRG card, which I think I'll retain for the time being.

I appreciate all the responses, thanks Forum posters for helping me put matters into context.

+1 to this too. The collect call numbers are easily available online

Agreed, I could have easily found these online, I was just using the number that was readily available to me.

+1

1. Amex is great about overnighting replacement cards. This one must have tripped a bunch of fraud warnings.


indeed, requesting a replacement card into a different continent whilst the original one was only despatched a few days earlier, and not activated, and on a brand new account, sounds like a highly unusual situation and probably one that got some alarm bells ringing.

My experience, too has been that Amex replacement of existing cards for accounts in good standing are no problem.

But getting a NEW card shipped to a hotel or offshore location is not working out.

For a new card they like to play it safe. A few billing cycles later you can get a replacement card shipped to a Youth Hostel in Timbuktu, no worries.

Personally I'm glad they didn't send a replacement card for a brand new account to a different continent. That just screams fraud! Maybe it was or maybe it was not the OP's intention to commit fraud (I'd assume not since he's posting here), but that's exactly what someone would do if your account was hacked. They'd request a card be sent to some far off place then use all they could until it was cancelled then hack another account. Your new account plus your request probably triggered every alarm bell possible and had everyone at the Amex office ducking for cover under their desks!

For two weeks now I have been trying to get Amex to send a replacement for a damaged (not lost) card to my registered home address (not to some hotel in some dodgy corner of the world) without success. Their laughingly-called 'customer service' is execrable. For a couple of years now it has been in steady decline (one of the reasons I cancelled my Centurion card) and whenever I think that it cannot get any worse it does. And for this my membership fee is going up 50%.......

I got a replacement card sent to me a few months ago and it arrived at my house about 19 hours after my phone call. I'd call that great service!

If you haven't gotten a replacement card in 2 weeks you're calling the wrong number or something.

I got a replacement card sent to me a few months ago and it arrived at my house about 19 hours after my phone call. I'd call that great service!

If you haven't gotten a replacement card in 2 weeks you're calling the wrong number or something.

He wants to replace a card that's worn out / damaged, not lost.

In those cases, I have waited a week+ as well. If the replacement is not an emergency Amex tend to save cost and the replacement takes more time. For emergencies though, Amex have been awesome every time..

I remember there was a thread about this where some people in Canada were also having problems getting emergency replacement cards sent out. It seems to be a case of service getting spotty and YMMV.

... people in Canada were also having problems getting emergency replacement cards sent out.

A feature in common to both UK (SouthOxon) and Canadian examples is the inclusion of an EMV chip. Magnetic swipe cards are fairly easy to make, some American Express Travel Service offices can fabricate them "while you wait". American Express may be having a problem with their EMV card supplier.

Sorry to hear that, their customer service is truly hit and miss.

A few months ago I accidentially approved the CDW on a rental car, so called to temporarily cancel the Plat primary insurance for that one charge. They agreed, no questions asked; however, when I called to do it again 2 months later (same mistake with new rental place), Amex wouldnt budge and when asked why I was able to do it before, the supervisor said new policies came in effect the day before, lol made me laugh and I hung up.

Closer to what your experiencing, when I got approved for gold biz a few months ago, I needed it ASAP for a trip to DCA. Amex overnighted the card Friday, arriving at my apartment Saturday early morning at about 8am :D