An American Express story

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Bradley Malin <malin () cs cmu edu>
Date: January 30, 2006 4:49:06 PM EST
To: Multiple recipients of list talk <talk () LAB privacy cs cmu edu>
Subject: PRIVACY:: An American Express story
Reply-To: talk () LAB privacy cs cmu edu

(from a friend looking for advice)

[Part 1]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: American Express
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 13:40:38 +0100
To: Brad Malin <malin () andrew cmu edu>

Dear Brad- I thought that you might find this little story amusing so I
am passing it on to you. Somehow, I think that this is going to be a
"continuing saga"- we'll see.

While trying to make airplane reservations last week I realized that my
AE card expired on Jan. 30th. I called AE to see what was the deal. I
was told by a human that my card had been shipped to Switzerland, but it
had been returned- they didn't know why!? However, they would send me a
new card by DHL and I would receive it on Tuesday of the next week.  On
Monday DHL indeed delivered my card along with 34 other cards that had
been returned to AE the same day as my card. The 35 cards along with AE
info and explanations, opened envelopes that had printed on them the
post offices stamp saying that the mail could not be delivered as
addressed, and a notice from a company to another company explaining why
these cards were rejected by the post office. (The explanation was that
the addresses needed to have the country name printed out in full and
all these envelopes used initials for the countries.....)
So- here I am with 34 AE cards in my possession- I looked at a few and
realized that the ones I looked at were actually "ready to go" and
didn't even need activation....WOW! American Express can thank me for
being honest!

I have called them twice at my expense and both times they have said
that they would call me back.......so, we'll see. There doesn't seem to
be any way to contact them through the Internet as they have very  
cleverly
designed a site that is similar to Wonderland- and I don't have a white
rabbit!

My next move may be to contact all the people that I have their credit
cards and tell them that they need to contact AE- maybe then someone
will pay attention to me!

So much for confidentiality!


[Part 2]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The rest of the story-
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 09:49:22 +0100
To: Brad Malin <malin () andrew cmu edu>

I am totally  amazed at how this is being handled by American Express. I
called them on the number that is listed on the back of the credit card
on Jan. 23, 25 and 27th. The first two times the operators where
concerned and promised to have someone call me back. No calls. The third
time the woman couldn't have cared less- she said . "just cut up the
cards and don't worry about it...". When I asked to talk to her
supervisor she refused and said that they would tell me the same thing.
I still have the cards and I don't know what to do with them- I am not
sure who to send them back to, I am not really interested in having the
responsibility of having them in my possession and I don't want to spend
an hour cutting them up.

Just to give you more information for your acquaintance-They came in a
DHL envelope inside a large white legal sized envelope (already opened)
with the address of: MGR Information Systems, PO Box 247018, Omaha,
Nebraska, 68124-7018. This envelope had a First Class postage Permit
G-10 stamp on the upper right hand corner. Disturbingly enough the left
hand corner where the return address should have been listed had:

Research-Unable to deliver
Next action: 2/24/2006
American Express
(my credit card number!!!!)
(Name Obscured)

Inside the white envelope besides my and 34 other opened and returned AE
credit cards was a form routing slip from : J.T. Weeker International
Service
Center
                          514 Express Center Dr.
                          Chicago, Illinois, 60688-9998
Stating as I said that the letter could not be delivered because the
country names were abbreviated and needed to be written out completely.

I think that I will write all these people today and let them know that
I have their 34 cards and what should I do with them! If you have any
other advice, let me know.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the TALK mailing list,
send an email message to majordomo () lab privacy cs cmu edu
with the subject line and body of the message containing either:
   subscribe talk
OR
   unsubscribe talk
Those two words should contain the entire subject line and
body of the message.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/