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American Express

Gift Cards

Michael of Rancho Palos Verdes CA (06/30/08)
We had in our possession three American Express Gift Cards, 100, 25 and 25 for a total of 150. We had noticed an expiration date of 08/08 on all of the cards and planned to use them prior to the stated expiration date. In attempting to use them today 6/29 at a local retailer, we were told that the 25 cards had no value and the 100 card had a value of 72. The retailer was witness to us opening the cards in their presence and did not understand why this was the case.

We called the 877 number which was hard to make out as it was pressed in on the exact line of the card imprints making it almost impossible to read. We eventually got a hold of someone who verified one of the cards and responded with this card has no value as we had to take back 2 per month since you had not used the card that was activated in May of 2006. Oh by the way you got a year free of this charge. This was obviously news to us since the card had clearly indicated an expiration date of 08/08. I feel that any person(s) looking at the packaging of this gift card would have no idea that there is a penalty of any amount for not using the card, the deception occurs due to the misleading expiration date written in large clearly visible lettering on the package and not the small print cleverly minimized to deceive. As an example if a 25 card loses total value due to this fee prior to the expiration date as occurred in our case, why have this false expiration date imprinted at all, did they not know of their own math. I think American Express is deserving of the exposure and proper inquiry and full application of the law in order to stop this sort of practice, I hope someone in congress or place of proper authority has them under a magnifying glass and will hold their feet to the fire.

Loss of 78 of the 150 value in gift cards that were used to purchase household goods.

Donna of Bloomingdale, NJ June 29, 2008

Donna of Bloomingdale NJ (06/29/08)
Upon purchasing an American Express gift card I was charged and additional 4.95 fee to activate it. I am appalled that I would have to pay to purchse a gift card. No other businesses charge to purchase their gift cards. American Express is making an unfair profit.

Gary of Westlake Village, CA June 24, 2008

Gary of Westlake Village CA (06/24/08)
I was given a couple of American Express gift cards a few months ago and had never gotten around to using them until last week-end. The merchant to whom I submitted the cards said both were declined. I looked at the card to see if there was a customer service number. There was no phone number so I went onto the American Express gift card website. I found a page that would supposedly tell me the balance and history of use on the card. After I typed in the card number the site told me my time on the site had expired and I was kicked off the page. I went through the same routine several times with the same result.

Then I found this card rating site with dozens of complaints from people having major problems with their American Express gift cards. After reading through some of the experiences people have had one question immediately came to mind: Why hasn't some enterprising attorney filed a class action lawsuit agains American Express? It looks like it would be a slam dunk.

It looks like I have probably suffered the loss of the value of the gift cards. What was the amount on the gift cards? I have no way of knowing, but the least expensive American Express gift card is 25.

Giovanna of San Diego, CA June 20, 2008

Giovanna of San Diego CA (06/20/08)
I married on June 14th and received two gift cards in the amount of 100 each from separate family members. While using one card for on online transaction, card was returned as declined. Reattempted orignal card as well as second 100 card and both continued to be declined. Went online to amercicanexpress.com/giftcard and was horrified to discover that both cards were showing a balance of 0. You could see that the cards were used in fact on June 9th at an Enterprise Rent-a-car. Both cards, which came from 2 different families, each unopened until by meself until just earlier that day.

No one at American Express could provide a reasonable explation. I in fact stated to them that this can't possibly be the first type of this situation and why had their Customer Service Department Managers not provided them with better response. I then was asked to fax in basically my life; ID card, mailing address, phone number, copies of cards, copies of packaging, copies of receipits which I didn't have - they were gifts! to a dead zone. Waiting to see if anything pans out - my family, rightfully embarressed and horified that their generous gift has turned out to be a hideous honeymoon.

The worst part though, has to be American Express's gain in all of this. Upon discovering sites such as this one that recount similar events that are happening way too frequently, after being repeatedly questioned and convinced that this situation was unique to me, disgusts me to a level of human discontent that is purely unimaginable. How could a company knowingly take someone's money for a product and turn around and provide them with absolutley nothing in return amazes me.

Robert of Alta Loma, CA June 19, 2008

Robert of Alta Loma CA (06/19/08)
I purchased a gift card about 3 months ago as a gift for one of my customers. She reported to me that the crd was not valid. After calling AMEX I was told to issue a fax, copy of the card, etc. About 2 weeks later I got a call from AMEX wanting to re-issue the card. The phone number given to me was bogus. I still have not got my money back. I stopped buying AMEX gift cards and do not recommend that anybody buy them

Marlea of Lakewood, CA June 15, 2008

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