American Express Staff Misled Small-Businesses
American Express employees have revealed to the Wall Street Journal that the company misrepresented card rewards and fees, checked credit reports without permission, and, in some cases, issued cards that weren’t requested.
Former and current employees said the practices came after Costco cut ties with American Express in 2015, leaving the company to chase small-businesses who were frequent Costco shoppers, and heavy spenders on American Express credit cards connected to the wholesale club. Business accounts drive about 30% of the company’s revenue. Within six months of the campaign, some sales people had earned commissions of $50K-$100K.
The aggressive sales practices didn’t end with the Costco-retention program, as salespeople had grown accustomed to the big commissions and turned to cold calls to small businesses to meet their monthly sales targets.
Brian Daughtry is a small business owner in Ohio that was mentioned in the article. He received a $250 bill in the mail for a card he didn’t agree to sign up for. After he called to dispute the charge, the American Express canceled the bill.
A spokesperson for American Express said that the telesales team referenced in the report was responsible for approximately 0.25% of the 65 million total cards American Express issued between 2014 and 2019, and the company found that less than 0.25% of the group’s sales activities were identified as “inconsistent with our sales policies.”
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Excellent use of citing different numbers to dodge a question, Amex. And Boooo on missing a chance to follow up and prove your journalistic chops, WSJ reporter. Out of that 65 million what were the total number of _business_ cards issued?
I smell a class action lawsuit coming.
Like Lisa says, that would be an enormous help.
Is there any possible way for you to please make it so that your entire articles open in feedly, instead of having to click multiple times to get to the website to read? Other blogs I follow all are able to do this, I was wondering if you can please try to do this as well as it makes it a lot more readable.