I've been a platinum American Express client in the UK for over 10 years which has been one of the best financial products I've ever used. I recently moved to Italy and took out an Italian platinum card. I have never experienced such terrible customer service in all my life. The process was difficult from start to finish and using the card has been both frustrating and embarrassing. Transactions have been repeatedly declined. I spoke with a customer services representative who explained that I have to make "some payments" before I can spend freely. However, you can't make ad-hoc payments to clear the balance like you can with Amex UK (you can't even pay the balance with a debit card). You have to wait until they call for the payment from your bank which happens 4 days after the billing cycle AND it then takes a further 5 working days to clear. They say this is normal which it may have been in 1960 but this is 2023.A condition of my join up offer is that I have to spend 5000 EUR in the first 3 months to receive bonus points - it's proving VERY hard to do that when I can't even complete a 100 EUR transaction. I've lost out on so many points because of this and they just don't care. For me, the whole point of using Amex is that it's stress free, has no limits and I earn points. This card has failed all of those requirements.The customer service staff frequently talk over the top of you and offer no direct solutions to issues. The really don't want to help - they even refused to tell me what the complaints process is or tell me who to contact.They cannot use my UK account for reference as they say they are not part of Amex, just an administrator. That's news to me as everything looks and feels like Amex - at no point does anyone say this is not Amex. Still, to anyone at American Express who may be read this, I strongly suggest you reconsider the partners you choose in Italy.
