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AmEx was my first card, and I've stuck with them. Despite some decline, their customer service is still top-notch. I always put major purchases on there. Thei

AmEx was my first card, and I've stuck with them. Despite some decline, their customer service is still top-notch. I always put major purchases on there. Their Platinum travel insurance has been a lifesaver. When a volcano stranded us, AmEx covered our stay at the TWA hotel in JFK. Lost luggage? They reimbursed $400 in clothes, no questions asked. Disputes? I haven't had many but they were always resolved in my favor. I experimented with having a Chase card when they launched the Reserve. Europcar defrauded me, and Chase wouldn't even let me file a dispute. I eventually won by sending a written complaint (FCBA), but I ditched the card right after. Plenty of reports online suggest Chase discourages disputes heavily.

singleshot_ 2y ago
Here's a challenge for you, inspired by real life: contact Chase's legal department.
- bombcar 2y ago
  Usually suing in small claims court will work, somewhat. Sometimes.
  - pizzalife 2y ago
    That’s a lot more work than calling customer service.
    - lmm 2y ago
      With how long you have to stay on hold these days, I'm honestly not sure it is. You can file small claims completely online with a simple text form (at least in my country) and any response will always be in writing.
      - MobiusHorizons 2y ago
        Don’t most credit cards require arbitration these days?
        polski-g 2y ago
        Then they can spend the $400/hr on a lawyer to draft a response to the small claims court request that the consumer should refile with the AAA. Then the consumer could send a reply, and they another $400/hr lawyer will have to reply to the reply. And then...
        buffington 2y ago
        The lawyer is getting paid whether you file something or not. They're employees of the company. I think they care less about their cost to their employer and more about wasting their time on petty stuff (when they could be doing important stuff). It's a difference that doesn't change the outcome for the sort of thing you're responding to here, but certainly a difference that matters in other circumstances. For example, Disney will gladly spend far more fighting someone selling counterfeit Disney shirts out of the boot of his car than any profits from sales they'd lose to that counterfeiter. But if they don't fight him, they lose their trademark.
        singleshot_ 2y ago
        I hope you looked very closely at the contract that bore the arbitration clause. Scroll down to the spot where it explains who will pay all the attorneys fees. Oh no! Your clever plan failed.
        qingcharles 2y ago
        I think arbitration is an affirmative defense, e.g. if you file a suit they still have to file something to say you're doing it wrong o_O
Spooky23 2y ago
Yeah Chase sucks for chargebacks. My wife passed away and made a recurring membership-type charge using my credit card. The merchant won't let me cancel without a court order, which is difficult because the estate is closed. Chase told me to go fuck off until they re-bill me, but won't prevent that from happening, and resolved my dispute in the merchants favor. I ended up using public shaming to get the desired outcome.
- mshroyer 2y ago
  Sorry for your loss re: your wife
xeromal 2y ago
Tangent but this makes me feel sad at the customer service I lost when first republic went tits up. Ugh. They were just like this and the best customer service I've ever had with a bank
- throwawaydummy 2y ago
  I’m not good at English where does the phrase tits up originate from? If that’s not rude to ask :)
  - ThePowerOfFuet 2y ago
    https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/227589/what-is-origin-of-the-phrase-tits-up https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/227589/what-is-o...
    - qingcharles 2y ago
      As a Britisher I did not know the origin before, thank you. But, "pear-shaped" originated within my own lifetime? This has blown my mind as I cannot remember a time before this phrase existed and it seems eternal.
  - xeromal 2y ago
    I'm not sure where it comes from just that it's a mildly humorous way of saying something completely failed. Never think it's rude to ask though! :)
throwaway2037 2y ago
Hmm, nice story, but what is the total amount of annual fees that you have paid to AmEx? I guess much more than hotel and magical free 400 USD.
- i80and 2y ago
  At least on the US platinum card, the various complimentary credits mostly cover the annual fee. If you're already paying for streaming services, the occasional Uber, etc. then the annual fee disappears.
dleary 2y ago
My experience with Chase chargebacks has been stellar. I have the sapphire preferred card, and the Amazon card. I use the sapphire preferred card for almost everything, it is my “daily driver”. I never touch my Amazon card, but I have it tied to my Amazon account, and it gives 5% off. Anyone who spends serious money at Amazon should have it just for that benefit alone. Anyway, a couple of years ago I noticed that it felt like I was paying more on my credit card, and had been for awhile. I wasn’t really paying very close attention to my finances unless something “felt off”. Well, something felt off, and when I investigated, I saw that there were hundreds of Amazon purchases that I hadn’t made, going back almost 2 years. Because all my Amazon purchases go through my Amazon chase card, and because I make so many purchases on Amazon, when I see AMAZON on my credit card statement my eye just skips over it. Well, I noticed a purchase that didn’t line up, and when I investigated, I saw that it was also on the wrong credit card, it was on my sapphire card and not the Amazon card. Using the tools to dump your entire purchase history to CSV, it was easy to find all of the fraudulent purchases, because they all used the wrong card. The purchases stretched back over 2 years, for a total price of almost $30,000. It was sort of a perfect storm of me ordering lots of stuff on Amazon, not really looking at Amazon fees on my credit card listings, and doing a couple of remodels during this time so funneling large amounts through Amazon and Home Depot were not out of the norm. I thought I was screwed when I saw that it had gone on for more than 2 years and 30k, but when I called up Chase they took care of it almost instantly. I was amazed. They definitely earned a loyal customer that day.
- sam2426679 2y ago
  Zipcar charged me for getting a parking ticket. The ticket was given for returning/parking the car in the “only Zipcars can park here” reserved spot on the street. The problem was that Zipcar had not applied the Zipcar sticker to their own car, so it didn’t appear to be a Zipcar to the parking attendant. Yes, tl;dr Zipcar charged me for parking the car in the spot they directed me to return the car to. Chase decided the CSP chargeback in Zipcar’s favor.
e40 2y ago
My problem with Chase: they stopped integrating with bill pay so I couldn’t automatically pay off the balance. It was always manual. I talked to customer service and that was a unique experience. After about trying to blame me for 99% of the call, they finally admitted it was a feature.

singleshot_ 2y ago

Here's a challenge for you, inspired by real life: contact Chase's legal department.

bombcar 2y ago
Usually suing in small claims court will work, somewhat. Sometimes.
- pizzalife 2y ago
  That’s a lot more work than calling customer service.
  - lmm 2y ago
    With how long you have to stay on hold these days, I'm honestly not sure it is. You can file small claims completely online with a simple text form (at least in my country) and any response will always be in writing.
    - MobiusHorizons 2y ago
      Don’t most credit cards require arbitration these days?
      - polski-g 2y ago
        Then they can spend the $400/hr on a lawyer to draft a response to the small claims court request that the consumer should refile with the AAA. Then the consumer could send a reply, and they another $400/hr lawyer will have to reply to the reply. And then...
        buffington 2y ago
        The lawyer is getting paid whether you file something or not. They're employees of the company. I think they care less about their cost to their employer and more about wasting their time on petty stuff (when they could be doing important stuff). It's a difference that doesn't change the outcome for the sort of thing you're responding to here, but certainly a difference that matters in other circumstances. For example, Disney will gladly spend far more fighting someone selling counterfeit Disney shirts out of the boot of his car than any profits from sales they'd lose to that counterfeiter. But if they don't fight him, they lose their trademark.
        singleshot_ 2y ago
        I hope you looked very closely at the contract that bore the arbitration clause. Scroll down to the spot where it explains who will pay all the attorneys fees. Oh no! Your clever plan failed.
      - qingcharles 2y ago
        I think arbitration is an affirmative defense, e.g. if you file a suit they still have to file something to say you're doing it wrong o_O

Spooky23 2y ago

Yeah Chase sucks for chargebacks. My wife passed away and made a recurring membership-type charge using my credit card. The merchant won't let me cancel without a court order, which is difficult because the estate is closed. Chase told me to go fuck off until they re-bill me, but won't prevent that from happening, and resolved my dispute in the merchants favor. I ended up using public shaming to get the desired outcome.

mshroyer 2y ago
Sorry for your loss re: your wife

xeromal 2y ago

Tangent but this makes me feel sad at the customer service I lost when first republic went tits up. Ugh. They were just like this and the best customer service I've ever had with a bank

throwawaydummy 2y ago
I’m not good at English where does the phrase tits up originate from? If that’s not rude to ask :)
- ThePowerOfFuet 2y ago
  https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/227589/what-is-origin-of-the-phrase-tits-up https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/227589/what-is-o...
  - qingcharles 2y ago
    As a Britisher I did not know the origin before, thank you. But, "pear-shaped" originated within my own lifetime? This has blown my mind as I cannot remember a time before this phrase existed and it seems eternal.
- xeromal 2y ago
  I'm not sure where it comes from just that it's a mildly humorous way of saying something completely failed. Never think it's rude to ask though! :)

throwaway2037 2y ago

Hmm, nice story, but what is the total amount of annual fees that you have paid to AmEx? I guess much more than hotel and magical free 400 USD.

i80and 2y ago
At least on the US platinum card, the various complimentary credits mostly cover the annual fee. If you're already paying for streaming services, the occasional Uber, etc. then the annual fee disappears.

dleary 2y ago

My experience with Chase chargebacks has been stellar. I have the sapphire preferred card, and the Amazon card. I use the sapphire preferred card for almost everything, it is my “daily driver”. I never touch my Amazon card, but I have it tied to my Amazon account, and it gives 5% off. Anyone who spends serious money at Amazon should have it just for that benefit alone. Anyway, a couple of years ago I noticed that it felt like I was paying more on my credit card, and had been for awhile. I wasn’t really paying very close attention to my finances unless something “felt off”. Well, something felt off, and when I investigated, I saw that there were hundreds of Amazon purchases that I hadn’t made, going back almost 2 years. Because all my Amazon purchases go through my Amazon chase card, and because I make so many purchases on Amazon, when I see AMAZON on my credit card statement my eye just skips over it. Well, I noticed a purchase that didn’t line up, and when I investigated, I saw that it was also on the wrong credit card, it was on my sapphire card and not the Amazon card. Using the tools to dump your entire purchase history to CSV, it was easy to find all of the fraudulent purchases, because they all used the wrong card. The purchases stretched back over 2 years, for a total price of almost $30,000. It was sort of a perfect storm of me ordering lots of stuff on Amazon, not really looking at Amazon fees on my credit card listings, and doing a couple of remodels during this time so funneling large amounts through Amazon and Home Depot were not out of the norm. I thought I was screwed when I saw that it had gone on for more than 2 years and 30k, but when I called up Chase they took care of it almost instantly. I was amazed. They definitely earned a loyal customer that day.

sam2426679 2y ago
Zipcar charged me for getting a parking ticket. The ticket was given for returning/parking the car in the “only Zipcars can park here” reserved spot on the street. The problem was that Zipcar had not applied the Zipcar sticker to their own car, so it didn’t appear to be a Zipcar to the parking attendant. Yes, tl;dr Zipcar charged me for parking the car in the spot they directed me to return the car to. Chase decided the CSP chargeback in Zipcar’s favor.

e40 2y ago

My problem with Chase: they stopped integrating with bill pay so I couldn’t automatically pay off the balance. It was always manual. I talked to customer service and that was a unique experience. After about trying to blame me for 99% of the call, they finally admitted it was a feature.