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On Tuesday, January 20, 2009 I received a letter from American Express dated 1/14/2009 that stated my account is being reviewed for collections. Twenty-four hours later I received a phone call on my work phone from Zwicker and Associates. They identify themselves as an Attorney that has been retained by American Express to file a law suit against me. Of course I told them I would not speak with them while I was at work and hung up. I was confused and shocked and had no idea who these people were! I called American Express and the recording told me to call the 800 number who turned out to be Zwicker and Associates.
I called American Express back and was able to speak with a Human by not entering my account number. Once the person had my information, they refused to speak with me about my account.
I then returned the telephone call to Zwicker and Associates on my first break. I was transferred to a man by the name of Steven Marshall. Mr. Marshall stated that I had to pay him the full amount of 16, 249 plus dollars to settle the account. I explained that I have been making payments, and would like to make good and catch up my account, which was only about a month and a half behind. Mr. Marshall said he would take 10, 000 dollars over the phone and I had to give him a post dated check. I refused due to not having the money and he said if I didn’t give it to him “now” or he would forward my file to begin litigation. I was scared and did not know what to do so I gave him the check for 10, 000 dated 1/29/2009, but I explained I may not be able to come up with the money. I explained that I would probably have to call and cancel the check.
Shortly after ending the phone call I did place a stop payment on the check and contacted my bank’s security office.
I have a rare heart condition and the condition is stress induced and I had to take the rest of the day off from work. I could not function thanks to Mr. Marshall’s threats.
The person I spoke with is Steven Marshall at [protected], ext. 3225.
His E-mail is [protected]@zwickerpc.com
On 1/23/2009 I sent an E-mail to Zwicker and Associates informing them that I had learned of a law in the State of Massachusetts, 940 C.M.R. 7.00, which prevents any Debt Collector from soliciting a post dated check from anyone. When I notified them of this law via E-mail they made a statement I had “re-nigged” on my agreement and they would be pushing a law suit forward quickly against me. Proof of this can be heard on a telephone recording where Mr. Marshall of Zwicker and Associates knowingly spoke on a recorded line. The conversation takes place between Mr. Marshall and Vickie Piontek, who is a nice lady I met on an Internet forum. She is an attorney, but has not been hired to represent me. A copy of the conversation is available on CD.
Also, in the recording Mr. Marshall states that I contacted him by phone to “pull the settlement.” I have not spoken with Mr. Marshall after he coerced me into giving him the post dated check. I sent him an E-mail only; he never had the chance to tell me he would now want the full amount by January 31st. He is lying. Proof of the E-mail is attached.
On 1/25/2009 I sent a Cease and Desist letter to Zwicker and Associates via Fax and Certified Mail with Return Receipt. I requested strict proof of the alleged debt, a copy of the initial contract and payment history as well as a copy of the assignment of the alleged debt. I received the return receipt, but have never received a response to my request. As of 5/11/2009 Zwicker and Associates still has not answered my request.
On 1/26/2009 date I received my first letter dated 1/22/2009 from American Express notifying me that Zwicker and Associates was taking over my case. But, Zwicker and Associates contacted me via the telephone on 1/20/2009.
Staring sometime in March of this year I started receiving calls from an unknown person by the name of “Bonnie” from United Recovery Systems who wanted to speak with me about my “delinquent account, ” as she put it. During the next few days this person called both my parents and in-laws at their residence. The lady calling herself Bonnie told my family I needed to call her in reference to an account that I owed money on and gave a reference number. On 4/1/2009 I received a letter dated 3/13/2009 from a company by the name of United Recovery Systems (from a Mrs. W. White) stating they are a collection agency and needed to pay them $16, 964.53 to settle my American Express Account.
With the knowledge that American Express had hired Zwicker and Associates, I ignored this letter thinking it was a scam. Then on 4/25/2009 I received a letter from American Express which was titled “A Helpful Offer From American Express.” The letter, dated 4/21/2009 stated I could make payment arrangements with United Recovery Systems with a 0.00% interest rate and no fees. However, American Express has not notified me of any information about my status with Zwicker and Associates.?. So, am I now being pursued by two agencies for one debt, who do I pay? American Express, Zwicker and Associates, or United Recovery Systems?
Now, to make this even more interesting I receive another letter from American Express on 5/1/2009, dated 4/24/2009. This letter was titled, “Opportunity to Regain Cardmembership.” This letter actually offered me a new American Express Credit card with an annual fee of $49.00 and a interest rate of 14.99%. All I had to do is contact United Recovery Systems and make payment arrangements and the new card was mine.
Finally, on Thursday, May 7th at 11:29 AM my father, Robert Priest, received a telephone on his personal business line. The caller identified himself as a representative of The Law Offices of Mann Braken [protected]). The caller told my father that they had been retained against me and I needed to pay the entire 16, 000 (plus) balance at once. The caller attempted to solicit a credit card from my father to make a payment. My father told the caller to send their request in writing to me and hung up on them. At 11:56 AM another call came in from a different representative of Mann Braken. My father immediately hung up. A third call came in at 5:25 PM. All three calls were received on an Alltel Cell phone and proof of the incoming calls can be retrieved from Alltel. I can also attempt to obtain a copy of my father’s Alltel statement is needed.
I am not a dead beat and have always made a very good effort to pay my bills on time. This past year or two has become difficult and I even sent American Express two E-mails using their communication system. Of course, now that system cannot be accessed by me.
Also, since this began I have not made any additional payments. I don’t know who to pay. Now more than ever I am confused and scared to talk to anyone. Who do I pay American Express, Zwicker and Associates, United Recovery Systems, Mann Braken, or who?
I will be at home recovering from Heart Surgery for the next four to six weeks if I can clarify any of the above information. Please, contact me if I can.
Note: I have also filed a complaint/case with the following:
The Federal Trade Commission
Consumer Response Center
600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20580
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Office of Investor Education and Advocacy
100 F Street, N.E.
Washington, DC [protected]
U.S. Dept. of Treasury
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Customer Assistance Group
1301 McKinney Street, Suite 3450
Houston, TX [protected]
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Division of Supervision and Consumer Protection
Consumer Response Center
2345 Grand Boulevard, Suite 100
Kansas City, MO 64108
U.S. Senate
Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs
534 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Florida Attorney General’s Office
State of Florida
PL-01, The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399
Florida Division of Financial Services
Office of Financial Regulation
Division of Finance
Consumer Complaint Section
200 E. Gaines Street
Tallahassee, FL [protected]
The Better Business Bureau
4200 Wilson Blvd, Suite 800
Arlington, VA [protected]
(Against Zwicker and Associates, specifically)
Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General
Consumer Complaints and Information
One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108
State of Massachusetts
Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation
Ten Park Plaza, Suite 5170
Boston, MA 02116
(Against Mann Braken, LLP, specifically)
Georgia Office of the Attorney General
40 Capitol Square, SW
Atlanta, GA 30334
Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs
2 Martin Luther King, JR. Drive SE, Suite 356
Atlanta, Georgia [protected]
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
AMEX approved $200 charge from Asurian Insurance/Verizon Wireless on my AMEX account. I paid $70-90 for the screen on the phone with AMEX with my Amex card, not knowing that once I paid this Screen charge at the Verizon store, that American Express would approve any additional charge from Asurian Insurance/thru Verizon Wireless, without my approval; then Asurian Insurance sent my grandson a new phone; we then sent the broken phone back. In a month, Asurian started to harass us, telling us that they did not receive the brokwn phone. I told them that we did not have the phone, it was not required that it be sent certified from PO, so we dropped in mailbox. A month or so later, Asurian charged my AMEX card $200 and AMEX approved the charge without my knowledge;I have never had any agreement with Asurian Insurance Company. I was shocked. They did not have permission to charge my card. I immediately disputed the charge with AMEX, with many many phone calls, I am not responsible for a charge that I did not approve. Nor do I have the phone. Amex contacted Asurian and told me that Asurian said I was responsible for this charge because I had not returned the broken phone. Again, I reiterated to Amex that I was not responsible for the lost phone as this is why you have phone insurance; I was told by a supervisor at AMEX that if a merchant has a copy of my account number, that they can Charge my account and AMEX would pay it. I was SHOCKED. I immediately cancelled my account. I am 62 years old and I am a grandmother. I wrote a letter to the CEO of Amex at the end of October 2010, Cancelled my Credit Card and put the card in the envelope and mailed it to the CEO at American Express Headquarters, and have not heard one word back from the CEO. Today, I received a letter from AMEX asking me to send another letter to the Dispute department by 12/17th regarding the issues. After months of letters and phone calls, wouldn't you think that a company the size of AMEX could pick up the phone and call this 61 year old grandmother, thank her for her service and loyalty of 34 years, and see what they could do to help her. I am not going to pay $90 annual fee anymore, or go thru any of this with Amex. I will use my Discover Card, they are terrific and get rebates for the thousands of dollars that I charge each month. I have told Amex service department to "please take me to court and sue me for the $200, I would like to have a judge and the world know the harassment that I have experienced, and, by the way, during a second run with breast cancer during this time. Don't use American Express. They have become too big for their britches and don't care about anything but making money at the expense of the cardholders.
AMEX screwed up my account by debiting my account with four of someone else's balance transfers totaling over $12, 000.
This happened. They refused to help me and correct their mistake until I threatened to sue them.
They aggravated me so badly with their extremely poor customer service, that I created a website containing a detailed account of my experience. I hope others read what AMEX put me through and think again before opening an account with American Express, or cancel an existing account before AMEX screws them over.
The site is at www.AMEXblew.com.
Even though I paid off all of the legitimate charges I made in full and on time, AMEX still showed a phantom balance of $138.19 after all the bogus charges were removed and were explained away as 'fraud'.
They still have not satisfactorily explained to me where this balance came from.
After I complained, they issued a $100 'goodwill credit, ' but they are still making me pay $38.19 I don't owe.
I advanced 11, 774 American Express membership points that are worth $117 on October 4, 2010 to buy gift cards in combination with my existing points. on March 5, 2011, I closed the account because I had moved my primary residence out of the US earlier. At that time, I still owed the company 10, 052 points. I would not have closed the account, or I would not have borrowed the points for that matter, if I had known how the company will deceive me. I later found out that the company charged me $251.30 for the remaining 10, 052 points. It is equivalent to 134% interest rate over 5 month periods. I have been a loyal customer of American Express for the last 10 years or so. This practice will shame loan-sharks.
Amex is full of ###.
Amex Australia takes the Bcake for false advertising. They collect money and return it months later under the pretext that the item you claimed under rewards was discontinued.
What a convenient way to collect interest free funds. Imagine Amex doing this with say a 100million dollars for just a month. The interest they earn would be huge enough.
Boycott AMEX.
In December 2008 called to cancel/close my account and request an account analysis. I had not received statements for many months and I was planning on foreclosure or bankruptcy, so wanted to confirm zero balance. Was told 5-6 days. No analysis after 6 WEEKS, so called again and requested and again no response. Logical assumption is account closed with zero balance. My current credit report shows a balance over $1300 which is more than ever charged in any 12 month period since 1984. Please advise address of executive I can visit in Phoenix AZ to get this resolved. Their customer service people know how to do nothing but read a script. Not near good enough.
Pathetic company who has no value for their long term clients. Customer for 12 years and called last week to inquire about a interest rate reduction to what other rates are being offered. They denied it. Then 1 week later I discover the cut my credit balance was cut to what was owed with no notice given. $13000 credit line reduction. When asked for an explanation, they tried to say it was credit report. Absolute lie as my credit is the best its ever been in the history with the company and least amount owed. Find it pathetic they cut it, because i asked for a better interest rate. Card will be paid off. American Express should have been allowed to fail, instead of tax payers bailing their butts out, and government converting the to a bank. Th3y mismanage their business, taxpayes had to save them, then they screw over customers who pay their bills on time.
Imagine when you have a credit limit of $9, 000 and you are not even near that, and you have never, ever, ever, missed a payment, etc., etc, . etc, . and all of a sudden ...they crash your limit ...the LETTER is in the mail! Never got it...OOOPPPS! as the csr's always say " I understand" ...REALLY? Anyways, we have always heard that American Express is the worst to ever have, , , , , ...now we know...Thanks...American Express...we will never deal with you again!Worst ever service I have ever received ... on the phone and elsewhere...at least we won't deal with you again...
I got a parcel from mail saying "free gift inside" from American Express, I opened it and it said if I want to keep it, it would charge me $20 on it, otherwise I would have to send it back. Since I didn't want it so I called customer service and asked, and she said just put it back in the mailbox and the postman will take it. The postman didn't take it because I opened it, so I need to drive to the post office and pay for the stamp and send it back. But with all the information inside the parcel, how am I supposed to know what that is without opening it. It makes me so angry because first of all, if the "gift" is not free, then just don't say it's "free gift". Second of all, It was a real hassle to send it back.
I would have thrown it in the bin and sent an invoice to the American Express office for $47.95, trash removal service
Here's the short story... Had an Amex Card that I maxed out (my mistake) and was charged big rates (25%), tried to negotiate rates but was told I needed to enroll into one of there payment plans first. Have been on for 18 months making payments and graduated from their payment plan, as I now go back to readdress old interest rate levels, now the the story is we don't negotiate. So, the story from 18 months ago has done a 360 degree turn with no help from Amex. Loan shark with a plastic card... The sad part is their story about trying to help people get out from under. They are in fact they are just giving enough breathing room to keep you making those payments.
You just recently increased my interest rate to 15.25%, up from 9.99% when I originally opened my acct with you. What's up? Interest rates are dropping all over the place, and mortgage rates are under 5%. If anything you should be reducing interest rates, not increasing them. Your customer service supervisor refused to refer me to her manager or give me her manager's name, so it's pretty obvious there is absolutely no appeal process in place. It appears you just sit behind your desks and pull interest rate figures from the air, then cowardly insulate yourself from your victims?
I went to pay in cash an amex bill for another person--was informed cash was no longer acceptable--must be check or money order--got money order--they refused to accept the payment dated as paid vbut would send to amex office UPS within 24 hoursw--this meant I QWOULD BE LATE WITH PAYMENT. FO0R THE LAST FIVE YEARS AT LEAST I HAVE PAID WITHOUT ANYT PROBLEM--THEY CLAIM A CHANGE IN POLICY but THEY NEVER ADVISXEWD ANYONE OF THIS CHANGE! Now I have to pay a latye fee and they make the money even though they never told anyone thisw was going to happen!
I have an important concern about the follow up by the American Express Application Processors at Customer Service in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh.
I have submitted my new application request since October 06, 2011, and nobody called me form American Express Group to tell me that I have missed to sign one paper of the application.
I called the free number ([protected]) on October 18, and a person named Homood informed me about the missing signature in the first page of the application.. I have signed the application where indicates the signature and there is no space or indications to sign the first page.
I think that this type of service is not acceptable to all the new credit card holders and it needs someone to rectify the deficiencies.
My Name: Ali A. Al-Dawood
Gov. ID. No.: [protected]
Mobile No.: +[protected]
Email: ali.dawood.2@aramco.com
I have s significant work history with American Express. I do not work for the company any more. I am seeking a new position. American Express is using Worknumber service to verify past employment with the company. The information that worknumber has on my employment from American Express. is missing 7 years. I have tried to straighten the issue both with American Express( there is no one I am allowed to talk and switchboard refers me to Worknumber) and Worknumber ( they claim that they cannot communicate to the company to address the issue, are left what they were given in the first place and keep advising me to try to talk to American Express).
I have a real issue with the significant gap in my history with AMEX. This is preventing me to obtain new employment and makes me to appear non sincere for my prospective employers, I am disgusted of the process the companies have created for obtaining my employment history and the impossibility to addressing the issue to resolve
After being a member for 20 years, my limit was reduced by half just for paying late due to problems logging in. Representative in India who I could not understand hung up on me twice and then could not help. I have calculated spending over 2 million over 20 years which they charge merchants 4% and me annual fees and interest. No more
I hope the get stUck with people who would stiff Tem I order to appreciate people like me.
I went and got gas today May 27th 2016 and I put in $12 worth of gas and you guys took out $75 worth of my money. I called American Express and they said that my money will be refunded within 8 to 10 business days that does not work for me. I have my money today for reason you need to stop taking out more money than I have spent. Whether it be a rule or what you should never take out more than I have spent I will definitely not recommend you to anybody else
I don't know what state you live in but all states have a statute of limitations on collecting a debt. Each state is different but most vary between 4-10 years, also depending on what type of debt it is. If a company has not contacted you within that time frame, they are not supposed to be able to legally collect that debt. You might check into that for your situation. Please note that if they have contacted you in any way or if you have contacted them, then the clock starts all over for the statute...
On Feb 25 2001 I transfered balance on blue AMX card to another card with 0 % interest. Today april 28 2009 I recieved a call from AMX saying they were trying to collect $2017.00 on said card. They claim they have been trying to collect this from 2004 and all billing they sent was returned by post office. I still have the same address, they had my PH#, how else could they call me. Looks like they need money. Save your recipts for at least 10 years with these people. I did not. Robert Smith Middlefield CT. 06455