Amexcard service

I was an American Express card member until a few weeks ago. In 1977, I obtained my Amexcard in Brighton, England, when there were no Amexcard activities and operations in Indonesia. For 21 years I was a member in good standing until my withdrawal nearly three weeks ago.

In January 1998 Amexcard charged an annual fee of US$175 for a gold card. At the time, this was equivalent to about Rp 1.9 million. I refused to pay, considering that my other gold card annual fee was only Rp 300,000. Upon my call, the Amexcard official offered me to keep the gold card at a reduced rate of Rp 400,000. On top of that I would be given an Amex blue card free of charge. I decided to accept the deal.

To my astonishment, I received the reduced Rp 400,000 charges but not the Amex blue card. When contacted, Ita Haerani of Amexcard asked for details like filling in an application form, as well as copies of a bank account, KTP (ID card), salary statement from my employer etc. In other words, I was made to apply anew, while I have been an Amexcard member for 21 years. Actually, all my data was already in Amex files and could have easily been obtained by any authorized Amexcard officer without sweat.

Furthermore, it was Amex which promised the blue card to me.

If Amexcard cannot retain, let alone appreciate a long-time member, if Amexcard decided it wouldn't keep its promise, then I may as well do without Amexcard.

WIRYAWAN

Jakarta