American Express Cardholders Beware! They charged me HK$2,100 for what was supposed to be a standard HK$200 fee!!
I am one of these people that hardly ever checks my statements. It just so happened that I had to check the exchange rates charged for several overseas charges that I noticed a 2 March 2006 HK$2,100 charge labelled "Membership Rewards Transfer fee". This first time I saw the charge, I remember thinking it was kind of high, but that perhaps they charged according to the number of points redeemed. I made a mental note to check, but didn't have time and forgot about it. Today, as I was about to transfer more points, I suddenly remembered the high fee and decided to check how the fee is charged. Now, finding this is no easy task in itself. It took me some searching, but you will find the charging scheme on the following pages of their website:
1. Note no. 3 on the Programme Information page in your online account under the Membership Rewards section.
2. When you select Transfer points under the Membership Rewards section within your account, there is a link to their program Terms & Conditions, you will find the charges under section 9.4
3. When you actually fill in the Transfer Points form, right before you submit, under the fourth and last bullet point, right before they make you check the box that says "Yes, I have read and understood the above notice.", it reads: "Administration fee applies. Please refer to the Terms & Conditions". Why can't they just tell you what the fees are right there??
Turns out, the fee is: HK$100 to transfer 120,000 points or below to your preferred mileage program, HK$150 to transfer 120,001 points to 180,000 points and HK$200 to transfer 180,001 points or above. I am already wondering why they charge this transfer fee when they already charge me a HK$240 annual fee to be in the Membership Rewards Triple Plus program on top of the annual fee for the credit card, which I could not actually find what the annual fee was on the website (although it does mention supplementary card fees). Why do they make it so hard to find out what are all the fees they charge you?
So I finally figured out that they overcharged me HK$1,900. The questions that come to mind are:
1. How could this happen when they have an automated system? It's not like there was an extra "0" to the charge. And this is a standard charging scale.
2. Have AMEX overcharged me before on this fee or other fees?
3. Will AMEX overcharge me again?
4. How much have AMEX profitted from overcharging other unsuspecting cardmembers?
So I called up the customer service hotline (2277 2338). I explain the situation to her. She acknowledges that there has been an overcharge and tells me that the difference will be credited to my account. Full stop. End of story. I should be satisfied.
But I'm not satisfied. Because all of my questions above have not been answered. Customer loyalty is based on trust, and I have been a loyal AMEX cardmember for 14 years (since I was in university). But when that trust is broken, as it was in this case, I need reassurance that my trust is not misplaced and that a similar situation will not and cannot happen again. I did not get it from the customer service officer. And, to be honest, I did not expect her to be able to give it to me. So I asked her for the customer service manager or director's name and contact. What she gave me was the name of the Call Centre Manager, a certain Catherine Leung. My problem was not with the Call Centre, so I decided this was not the person I was going to contact. I went through most of AMEX HK's website and could not find the name of a manager in HK. All I found were various hotline numbers, AMEX bank and travel service addresses. By this time, I was feeling a bit frustrated. I went to google and proceeded to google various keyword search combinations of: American Express, Hong Kong, manager, director, managing director, marketing, credit card, etc. About 30-45 minutes later, I found "Anthony Lee, Chief Executive, American Express Hong Kong" in various press reports. So I've written to Mr Anthony Lee and I've addressed the letter to their Cityplaza Four address, which I found on their website, hoping it is the right address. Let's see if he can offer me the answers to the above four questions.
I think what's made me most angry and frustrated in this case is really the fact that "customer service" has been non-existant. Firstly, the call centre employees attitude is that the overcharge fee is simply a harmless, technical glitch and that by refunding the difference, problem is solved and I, the cardmember, should be satisfied. No harm done. There was no acknowledgement that this problem would be raised up to the right person to be fixed. How can a problem be fixed if you don't acknowledge there is a problem in the first place? And then there is the issue that I had to make an effort to look up the fees to actually figure out how much I had been overcharged. On top of that, I had to spend even more time to try and figure out how to bring my case up to the powers that be, those who should know about such problems and are responsible for fixing them.
This last point is actually not unique to AMEX. Other major corporations who claim to offer "customer service" oftentimes just pay lip service. This includes all the major telephone and internet service providers in Hong Kong, airlines, other credit cards and banks. The worst is when they charge you for it and don't deliver. I have so many incompetant AMEX Centurian (Black) card stories, so many dishonest netvigator sales stories. I was actually so angry with Hutchison and Wharf T&T "customer service" (the latter phone service provider switched my phone service without my knowing and before our contract with Hutchision expired, causing us to suffer thousands of "early cancellation" charges), that I wrote to Consumer Council. Consumer Council did nothing. In the meantime, I wasted many months of irrate telephone conversations, never once able to get a manager's name.
I am sick of wasting my time just to make sure I am not cheated by large corporations that get away with things time and time again simply because they make it so difficult for any disgruntled consumer to make a case. And the government stands by and turns a blind eye to all its taxpayers getting cheated day in and day out, doing absolutely nothing.
It's time to end this insanity. I urge everyone not to overlook these things, simply because it wastes your time. Kick up a fuss! We all deserve real service, the service that was promised, the service we signed up and pay for!
1. Note no. 3 on the Programme Information page in your online account under the Membership Rewards section.
2. When you select Transfer points under the Membership Rewards section within your account, there is a link to their program Terms & Conditions, you will find the charges under section 9.4
3. When you actually fill in the Transfer Points form, right before you submit, under the fourth and last bullet point, right before they make you check the box that says "Yes, I have read and understood the above notice.", it reads: "Administration fee applies. Please refer to the Terms & Conditions". Why can't they just tell you what the fees are right there??
Turns out, the fee is: HK$100 to transfer 120,000 points or below to your preferred mileage program, HK$150 to transfer 120,001 points to 180,000 points and HK$200 to transfer 180,001 points or above. I am already wondering why they charge this transfer fee when they already charge me a HK$240 annual fee to be in the Membership Rewards Triple Plus program on top of the annual fee for the credit card, which I could not actually find what the annual fee was on the website (although it does mention supplementary card fees). Why do they make it so hard to find out what are all the fees they charge you?
So I finally figured out that they overcharged me HK$1,900. The questions that come to mind are:
1. How could this happen when they have an automated system? It's not like there was an extra "0" to the charge. And this is a standard charging scale.
2. Have AMEX overcharged me before on this fee or other fees?
3. Will AMEX overcharge me again?
4. How much have AMEX profitted from overcharging other unsuspecting cardmembers?
So I called up the customer service hotline (2277 2338). I explain the situation to her. She acknowledges that there has been an overcharge and tells me that the difference will be credited to my account. Full stop. End of story. I should be satisfied.
But I'm not satisfied. Because all of my questions above have not been answered. Customer loyalty is based on trust, and I have been a loyal AMEX cardmember for 14 years (since I was in university). But when that trust is broken, as it was in this case, I need reassurance that my trust is not misplaced and that a similar situation will not and cannot happen again. I did not get it from the customer service officer. And, to be honest, I did not expect her to be able to give it to me. So I asked her for the customer service manager or director's name and contact. What she gave me was the name of the Call Centre Manager, a certain Catherine Leung. My problem was not with the Call Centre, so I decided this was not the person I was going to contact. I went through most of AMEX HK's website and could not find the name of a manager in HK. All I found were various hotline numbers, AMEX bank and travel service addresses. By this time, I was feeling a bit frustrated. I went to google and proceeded to google various keyword search combinations of: American Express, Hong Kong, manager, director, managing director, marketing, credit card, etc. About 30-45 minutes later, I found "Anthony Lee, Chief Executive, American Express Hong Kong" in various press reports. So I've written to Mr Anthony Lee and I've addressed the letter to their Cityplaza Four address, which I found on their website, hoping it is the right address. Let's see if he can offer me the answers to the above four questions.
I think what's made me most angry and frustrated in this case is really the fact that "customer service" has been non-existant. Firstly, the call centre employees attitude is that the overcharge fee is simply a harmless, technical glitch and that by refunding the difference, problem is solved and I, the cardmember, should be satisfied. No harm done. There was no acknowledgement that this problem would be raised up to the right person to be fixed. How can a problem be fixed if you don't acknowledge there is a problem in the first place? And then there is the issue that I had to make an effort to look up the fees to actually figure out how much I had been overcharged. On top of that, I had to spend even more time to try and figure out how to bring my case up to the powers that be, those who should know about such problems and are responsible for fixing them.
This last point is actually not unique to AMEX. Other major corporations who claim to offer "customer service" oftentimes just pay lip service. This includes all the major telephone and internet service providers in Hong Kong, airlines, other credit cards and banks. The worst is when they charge you for it and don't deliver. I have so many incompetant AMEX Centurian (Black) card stories, so many dishonest netvigator sales stories. I was actually so angry with Hutchison and Wharf T&T "customer service" (the latter phone service provider switched my phone service without my knowing and before our contract with Hutchision expired, causing us to suffer thousands of "early cancellation" charges), that I wrote to Consumer Council. Consumer Council did nothing. In the meantime, I wasted many months of irrate telephone conversations, never once able to get a manager's name.
I am sick of wasting my time just to make sure I am not cheated by large corporations that get away with things time and time again simply because they make it so difficult for any disgruntled consumer to make a case. And the government stands by and turns a blind eye to all its taxpayers getting cheated day in and day out, doing absolutely nothing.
It's time to end this insanity. I urge everyone not to overlook these things, simply because it wastes your time. Kick up a fuss! We all deserve real service, the service that was promised, the service we signed up and pay for!
Labels: gripes
posted by 10000miles at 13:00
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home