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Report: #1492371

Complaint Review: American Express - New York New York

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: South — Camas Washington United States
  • Author Not Confirmed What's this?
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  • American Express ‎200 Vesey Street New York, New York United States

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I purchased a laptop from System 76, and charged the purchase on an American Express Credit card.  This laptop had a one year warranty, and a no obligation return policy if returned within the first 30 days.  The laptop was purchased with the understanding that Debian Linux was supported.

Within the first 30 days, I contacted System 76 to advise them the laptop wasn't usable due to a hypersentive touch pad problem.  After installing Debian Linux, the touchpad problem greatly improved, but the keyboard lights wouldn't shut off, and the screen became very dim.  At this point System 76 advised they would upload drivers to the Debian repository to fix the problem.  A few months later, System 76 uploaded Ubuntu drivers to the Debian repository, and only changed the names of the files to .deb   As a result, I was the victim of a fraud.  

Six months later System 76 sent correspondence advising they would not be able to support Debian, and had no plans to in the future.  Additionally they were not able to fix the hypersensitive touchpad problem. At this point I requested System 76 to exchange the laptop for one that didn't have a Cleavo motherboard, and they refused.  However, they did have one, and had announced in earlier months they were going to start making their own motherboards.  I asked for a refund, and System 76 indicated I should have returned the laptop within the first 30 days. 

A dispute was filed with American express on no less than 4 times, and in each instance American Express closed the dispute within 48 hours citing the laptop should have been returned within the first 30 days.  At no time was there any mention of coverage under the one year warranty that came with the System 76 laptop. I then filed a claim with the American Express Extended Warranty program on no less than four occasions, and American Express conveniently said the claim was not received.  However, they did admit they had all the documents from the earlier disputes filed with them.

In October 2019, I instructed American Express to close my account and they refused.  Additionally I refused to give them any more money, and stopped paying them after October 2019.  American Express inflated the charges, failed to honor the dispute under the Consumer Protection Act, and then turned the matter into collection agency called Global Solutions LLC.  Subsequent attempts at filing a complaint against them with their regulator the NY Federal Reserve were to no avail, and a guy by the name of Kevin Stiroh refused to respond.  His boss John Wiliams, President and CEO also failed to respond.

This is a bad company, and I advise anyone to stay away from them.  They sell prestige, but underneath that prestige is nothing -- no service, dishonoring of contracts, no dispute rights.  You have no protection at all as a consumer if you charge something on your American Express card, and their are other institutions that can do a better job

 

 

 

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/28/2020 08:42 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/report/american-express/new-york-amex-financial-honor-1492371. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
5Author
6Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#11 Consumer Suggestion

So...

AUTHOR: Flint - (Afghanistan)

POSTED: Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Sounds like someone was too stupid to do their research on the place before dropping 6 figures on a worthless degree from a private, for-profit school?  See also: DeVry, Corinthian, Phoenix, ITT, etc.

And their accreditation is just fine, don't worry about it, they are not going to lose it.  They'll maybe spend a couple hundred k on some management consultants, which is about how much they make from one sucker, I mean student.  

Also, there is absolutely nothing that requires any employee of the school to have any kind of degree.  I don't know why you care so much.  It's a private school.  They could hire bums from the Tenderloin to run their program if they wanted to.  As long as can demonstrate a minimal level of competence when the accreditors come by, they'll be fine.

But hey, good luck with that lawsuit.  You'll need it.  That family is worth about a billion dollars, they can hire some good lawyers.

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#10 Author of original report

American Express Failed to Honor Contracts & Laptop is Not Working as Manufacturer Intended

AUTHOR: South - (United States)

POSTED: Monday, March 02, 2020

System 76 does not manufacturer the laptop.  They are rebranding Cleavos, and merely putting their name on it after installing PoP_OS which is a flavor of Ubuntu.  And for the record, the laptop is not working as the manufacturer had intended as indicated by the post reflecting a proposed fix for the hypersentitive keyboard problem https://support.system76.com/articles/touchpad/

System 76 has received countless complaints from users over this issue, and the proposed fix didn't address the problem since many users are now reporting they can't turn the touchpad back on as indicated in the following url https://github.com/pop-os/pop/issues/399

And like myself, other users have asked System 76 for a replacement laptop since allegedly they are now designing their own laptops, but System 76 won't offer a replacement as indicated in the following Reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1rtng2/system_76_fixes_that_damn_keyboard_issue_for/

As the holder of the credit card that this charge was placed on, American Express has a legal obligation to enforce the warranty, adjudicate the claim, and issue payment where it is due.  Instead American Express shut the dispute off within less than 48 hours of filing, and on no less than 4 occasions.  And with respect to their extended warranty coverage they conveniently denied receiving it, but admitted on the phone they had all the records from the disputes filed earlier.

Fortunately I found an old Dell that someone throughout in Silicon Valley, and it works great.  Everything works, and I have no problems.  Additionally the manufacturer has complete schematics on how to take it apart, fix it, and parts are readily available.  And the support is stellar, and the manufacturer stands behind everything it does, and is highly responsive.  This isn't the case with System 76, nor American Express.

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#9 Author of original report

Comment Off Topic & Not Related to American Express's Violation of the Consumer Fair Credit Act

AUTHOR: South - (United States)

POSTED: Monday, March 02, 2020

Sorry to misinform you, but the Consumer Fair Credit Reporting Act does allow a consumer to withhold funds for a period of time during a dispute.  Should a consumer pay the bill then the consumer looses all right to adjudication.  And for the record, I have never been one day late on paying any of my bills in the last 30+ years so please go slander someone else.

You should consider working for American Express.  They would love you!

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#8 Author of original report

American Express Doesn't Honor Contracts

AUTHOR: South - (United States)

POSTED: Monday, March 02, 2020

South is not the only one who believes American Express doesn't honor contracts https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/8oy2u5/american_express_not_honoring_a_sign_up_bonus/

Unfortunately the last responded thinks South is a moron because American Express would not honor its contract.  Does this same responder also think that all of the folks who posted on Reddit are also morons?

 

 

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#7 Consumer Suggestion

LOL

AUTHOR: Flint - (Afghanistan)

POSTED: Monday, March 02, 2020

I just looked at some of his attachments and just realized this idiot has his full name, address, telephone number, SSN, and a bunch of other personal info in his report. I'd say he has a decent chance of having his identity stolen now, but then he just trashed his credit by not paying his bills.

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#6 Consumer Comment

South Is A Moron

AUTHOR: Jim - (United States)

POSTED: Sunday, March 01, 2020

You've joined the exclusive moron club of the ROR site; you're granted membership status when you assume someone must work for the entity you're complaining about.  I have utilized the AMEX extension to warranties on a whole lot of purchases.  In the cases I've run into a problem, the AMEX extension has helped protect me.  I have never worked for AMEX...ever.  You claim was simply invalid.

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#5 Consumer Suggestion

Warranties

AUTHOR: Flint - (Afghanistan)

POSTED: Saturday, February 29, 2020

 A warranty covers defects in materials and workmanship. What you are describing is a laptop that doesn't operate the way you think it should, but is working as intended by the manufacturer. The problem isn't with the laptop, it's with how you are using it.

So this is not a warranty issue. You had 30 days to determine if the laptop was suitable for your use. That time is now past, so you don't have a valid claim. As far as not paying your credit card: real smart, buddy. They will just sue you and garnish your wages. Enjoy your trashed credit.

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#4 Author of original report

Amex has Long Standing History of Not Honoring Contracts

AUTHOR: South - (United States)

POSTED: Saturday, February 29, 2020

Amex also doesn't honor contracts with is frequent flyer programs.  And your response about paying the bill is erroneous.  Under the consumer protection act, and credit cards generally, a consumer looses all dispute rights if the bill is paid.  And for the record, monthly payments of approximately $92 were paid for over 15 months without ever being late.  The balance was disputed once it was apparent that AMEX refused to honor its contract. 

Below is one of countless links on the net that demonstrate AMEX doesn't honor contractshttps://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-express-membership-rewards/140209-beware-missing-membership-rewards-point.html

Now with respect to timelines, AMEX request that disputes be filed within 120 days.  The last communication from the seller was less than 30 days so timeliness is not an issue in this case.  And with respect to extended warranty, AMEX alleges to double the actual warranty of the seller so there should have been coverage one year later after the seller's warranty expired.  However, a timely dispute with the seller was instituted before the expiration of the warranty, and with AMEX as well.  The problem is that AMEX doesn't want to reverse the payment with the seller for fear the seller won't accept AMEX even though both the seller and AMEX are completely crooked.

In summary you are from AMEX, and have a bias.  You don't want to offend the seller for fear that the seller will not accept AMEX in the future, and interefere with your 36 billion in annual income, and 26% creditcard market share.   You should be ashamed of yourself!  And the right to cancel a credit card is a right that is retained by the consumer, and not the institution. 

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#3 Consumer Comment

Incorrect

AUTHOR: Jim - (United States)

POSTED: Saturday, February 29, 2020

I read the warranty on the computer company's website.  It's worthless to you because legally it's an exclusion under the warranty.  What AMEX does then is extend a worthless warranty to 3 years, so there's nothing AMEX can do for you.  What you would have wanted is extending the 30 day warranty to 1-2 years and AMEX can't do that.

As I said, you should have filed a complaint against the computer company, not the CC company.

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#2 Author of original report

American Express Has an Obligation to Uphold a 1 Year Warranty Period

AUTHOR: South - (United States)

POSTED: Saturday, February 29, 2020

A working touch pad is something that is covered during the one year warranty period.  The fact that this was discovered in the first 30 days doesn't abrogate the requirement that the seller has to fix this product during the one year warranty period nor does it abbrogate American Expresses liability and responsibility to uphold the the full one year warranty requirement.

Keep in mind that American Express didn't deny extended warranty coverage, but instead denied receiving the claim no matter how many times it was sent.  For this reason your analogy and pro American Express position doesn't appear to have merit.

Another thing you should keep in mind is that System 76 wouldn't have made their statement in  December 2018 indicating they wouldn't support Debian had this not been promised earlier.  What you should be asking is why this statement wasn't made in the first 30 days instead of six months later.  You may recall from the discussions that System 76 had made this statement as an inducement to sell the computer, but also made this statement during the first 30 days after receiving a report from the buyer that the Debian Linux OS appears to have improved the touch pad problem.

 

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#1 Consumer Comment

American Express Is Correct

AUTHOR: Jim - (United States)

POSTED: Friday, February 28, 2020

The problem you have is that the company happens to be correct.  The one-year warranty you speak of is very limited in its coverage - and based on what you're describing....would not be covered under that warranty.  As a result, you would have needed to return the laptop within the 30 day period.

When a company like AMEX reviews a dispute like yours, they will look at your dispute and then look at the information provided by the seller.  They will see the sales agreement and look at the warranty period.  Since the one-year warranty would not apply, the only item under consideration would be the 30 day period from date of purchase to return the laptop.  So it's completely understandable why AMEX initially denied the claim you made.  Whether you filed once or four times, the answer would be the same.

So you then filed with AMEX's extended warranty, however that warranty only extends the one year warranty to I believe three years if I recall correctly.  Since the claim you file would not be covered by the one year warranty, then it sure wouldn't be covered under the extended warranty.  Accordingly, that's the reason AMEX rejected your warranty claim.

Then you did something really stupid and decided to not pay your AMEX bill, because you decided you were really going to be immature and petulant.  So you now trashed your credit because of a laptop?  Then, you contacted governmental agencies?  Seriously?  You have no recourse with any Federal Agency because, of course, (a) no one in government will help you, and (b) you haven't yet detailed anything the CC company did wrong for them to to pursue.

Then you wrote the CEO of AMEX?  I mean what did you expect him to do?  The CEO is not answerable to you; the CEO is answerable to company shareholders and the Board of Directors.  What generally happens when someone like you writes the CEO is the letter is intercepted, and hand off the letter to someone else in the company.  At least that's the policy in fairly large companies like this.

In any case, you have no recourse against either the computer company or AMEX.  BTW, you generally can't close the account until you pay your bill.  If you really want to be rid of AMEX, then pay your bill.  Meanwhile, I also can't figure out why you never filed a report against the computer company.  They're at least guilty of selling you a bum laptop.....

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