BlueBird by American Express / Walmart WalmartAmerican ExpressAMEXBluebird Rip off in customer service Herndon Virginia
I had the worst experience of this year dealing with BlueBird service this week. I opened an account with 3 subaccounts for my family so my kids have access to money since this service claims easy access. I waited for the cards to arrive and today validated the cards as instructed. I proceeded with linking my business account to this account so that I can move money here. There was no instructions implying that you cannot link a business account to personal account. Infact, I entered the acct number and ABA number it prompted me to enter my external account's username and password and after processing gave me a message that the account has been verified. Next step, I wanted to move money to my BB account so I tried and it gave me a meaningless error saying the AMEX card must be validated before. They were validated and that's why I was able to link an external acct. I called the customer service and they immediately surprised me by saying you violated terms and your account has been locked (closed). I tried to tell him that I only followed your instructions or no instructions. Then I felt why am with such lousy service anyways. I wanted my balance refunded and account closed and the AMEX manager (Dominique??) instructed that I need to check my account (that I do not have ability to login to) and one the funds are here they can refund the balance. I could not give them the basic common sense that I cannot check a "locked" account. The manager insisted that I tried to violate the terms. What terms when I was not instructed to not use two different types of account. Why in the world I would maintain another personal checking account just to move money to this BB account. I am pretty sure that American Express has learned a great deal of business from China and using that great customer service on us. This is so lousy that I feel ashamed of calling an American corporation. Now I am instructed to call everyday to find out if the money is available and only then they can close my account and send me my money back. What a rip off. I wasted several hours to get the whole thing set up correctly and because of lousy management at AMEX who did not provide instructions on what accounts could be linked and the lousy customer service that have no clue. They should simply outsource this to India or Philippines so we have a better reason to call it a bad experience.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Bilal Ghayur
Virginia,A RipOff is a RipOff...
#3Author of original report
Fri, June 27, 2014
Responding to TYG-()
First of all I did read the Terms & Conditions, and NO I do NOT read the 500 page Terms and condition to sign up for credit cards or basic website accounts. If you do then either you have nothing else to do in life or you are a lawyer. And once again YES I called the customer service and they instead of fixing the problem cancelled my account.
Pehaps before writing your comment you should read my complaint. No money was involved. We are only talking about customer service and how rudely they cancelled my account. As of last week my credit score is at 845 (Equifax) so I might be a responsible individual.
Bottom line is that if I have to deal with 500 pages of terms & conditions and no customer service who are willing to hear me and onsidedly cancel my account, it is NOT the way american business works. If you live in a third world country, sure businesses can treat you as they wish. Do I care to have that card? Absolutely not. I have over $130,000 in credit cards alone. My point is that everytime I face an experience that resembles what I could have in Russia or India, I must complain in a desparate try to keep our business checked and hoping that they won't become what we have in other countries. The pathetic customer service is good enough reason for me to not do business with AmericanExpress BlueBird card. Surprisingly enough, it has been over 2 years since the incidence and BlueBird even with Walmart leverage could NOT fly the way they thought. My feeling is that main cause is their lousy customer service and arrogance.
The rest of your comments do not apply as you did not read my basic posting forget about TERMS & CONDITIONS and foot note...:) I don't want to see this country going to the path where one has to hire a lawyer before signing up for a creditcard or some basic service or membership.
Tyg
Pahrump,Nevada,
Read??
#3General Comment
Thu, June 26, 2014
While Im sure you are making yourself feel better with the balm of "No one told me", there is a reality here that you are COMPLETLY ignoring. DID YOU READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS?!?!? Im betting you did not and just clicked the "I accept" button. There are FULL T&C on the website, there is a mini one in the card pack. Either way, if YOU did not read the Terms and Conditions then your ignorance is YOUR fault. Heres a thought, did you ever think to just call customer service BEFORE you attempted this?? No....WHY would you do that?? I mean its NOT LIKE its YOUR money...oh wait....YES IT IS!!! While having your money tied up IS frustrating, it IS your fault for attempting to circumvent the processes they have in place. Like I said, Im sure it makes YOU feel better to think that "No one told you", as an ADULT there is responsibility here that you are completely bypassing in favor of making yourself out to be a better victim. Its YOUR money, its YOUR responsibility to read ALL of the information provided to you. Be it a piece of paper attached to your new debit card or the FULL Terms and Conditions available at their website. To place the blame on THEM for WHAT YOU HAVE DONE is ridiculous and you should really be ashamed of yourself. You have children!! Look at the lesson you are teaching them. Its OK to blast someone online because YOU made a mistake. Its OK to be slanderous and defaming so long as YOU get to be a better victim. Its OK to yell and scream at the people at the other end of the phone because YOU made a mistake. While you wont be teaching them this lesson as say one of THEIR teachers would, they DO see and observe these behaviours in YOU. THEY see YOU doing it and will for the rest of their lives think that since YOU did it, it must be acceptable. Did you even bother going to the terms and conditions area of the website??