Not upheld: failure to provide information and poor customer service complaint against American Express Services Europe Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr T complained that AMEX failed to respond to his contact attempts in July and August 2025 regarding his outstanding balance and payment options, and that the October 2025 response letter contained incomplete payment details. AMEX had no records of receiving Mr T's July 2025 letter, and Mr T provided no evidence it was sent. The October 2025 final response letter provided the requested balance information and included a phone number and complaint references enabling Mr T to obtain full details. The ombudsman found no evidence of unfair treatment and did not uphold the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the standard of evidence required by the Financial Ombudsman Service, which requires evidence of unfair treatment rather than accepting one party's word without corroboration. In the absence of evidence that AMEX received Mr T's July 2025 letter or failed to respond to contact attempts, the ombudsman could not conclude AMEX acted wrongly. The October 2025 response provided the requested information and adequate contact details for Mr T to obtain full payment details, and AMEX's practice of withholding full card numbers is standard industry practice for fraud protection.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website