The front lines @ Christmas

Everyone is being hit with the repercussions of the current economic environment. Amex reduced many people’s credit lines because they are trying to protect themselves from the current economic environment. Watch out for the APR. I and a dozen people are in the same situation. Brad Stone interviewed me for the article To Survive, Net Start-Ups Slow Their Metabolism about the impact to Kangalope but we didn't make the cut. It was great talking to him and a bit of an ego boost. Smart Money wants to include my experience in an upcoming story on Behavioral Profiling but they want me to fax over all of my Amex statements to find common behaviors from other consumers. I think not.

I got mad at Amex and decided that if they didn’t want my business then I didn’t want theirs. I stopped accepting Amex, transferred all reoccurring charges to other cards and was ready to say, “Good Bye Amex”.

Karma has an interesting sense of humor. My wife told me that I had to buy all these presents, today! I tried to renew my Amazon Prime membership for the free/discounted shipping but was told my Capital One credit card was declined. I called Capital One and was told my number had been changed for security purposes. They had no idea why I didn’t get a new card or a letter explaining this change but apologized and said I would receive my new card in 7 to 10 business days. So, back to Amex but that charge was declined too!!!! I called Amex to see what was up. They said nothing was sent to them by Amazon and the fault must be on the side of Amazon. So back to Amazon for an hour long hold to find out what happened. I spoke to 4 offshore reps, was disconnected twice and finally got a supervisor who said it will be 24 hours for the charge to go through. 24 hours?

Isn’t customer service great? I’ll talk to my wife and hope I’m not in the dog house.