Michael Schneider, CEO of Fluidesign, Fluidata and Nesting

Dear American Express,

I have been a card member since 1999. During this time, I have accumulated the following cards:

American Express Platinum Charge Card (no “pre set” limit)
American Express Starwood Credit Card ($35,000 limit)
American Express Business Platinum Credit Card ($60,000 limit)

I opened a second business between 2007 and 2009 and had a second American Express Platinum Charge Card during that time as well for that business.

Prior to the end of 2008, I sang American Express’ praises to everyone I could. I enjoyed feeling like a privileged card member at Airports, Hotels, and anytime I interacted with American Express.

In March of 2008, my spending on the charge cards was so high (some months were over $75,000) that you offered me the Centurion (“Black”) card. I nearly accepted, but somehow couldn’t justify spending $7,500 to get a credit card.

For the record, in ten years of being your customer, I have never had a single late payment or missed payment. I have paid all bills on time.

Everything changed in early 2009. You started shutting off my credit limits.

In March of 2009, my business started to pick back up (thankfully) and we started charging more on our Platinum card, which has been our main credit card for the last ten years for the business.

You shut off our credit line because it was “over our six -month average spending limit.” You asked me to produce burdensome documentation “proving” that I had the financial resources to pay the balance when it came due. I asked if a ten year perfect payment history was enough; you said no.

At the end of March 2009, after making several “deals” with you (that took hours of my time) to open up $5k here and $10k here in credit (on a card that has no “pre set” spending limit) we paid our balance in full, like we always do.

In April of 2009 we started with a zero balance and began charging again. You shut off our credit line after $35,000 in spending. Then, you did something that sent me over the top. You called me on my cell phone asking if I could pay the balance in full that day. The statement hadn’t even closed yet, and we you hadn’t even billed us yet!

Upon stating that to the representative, she said she understood but that American Express was “uncomfortable” with the balance and wanted an immediate payment. My response was that there was absolutely no way I was paying American Express a dime before my statement closes. I explained that if I have to pay for the charges as I go, I might as well put the card away and simply pay cash.

You’ve called weekly and harassed my accounting manager, asking for payments on charges that you haven’t even billed me for yet.

At this point, you’re denying $10 charges, causing my accounting manager to switch to our VISA to pay small monthly recurring charges, like our phone bill. You have wreaked havoc on my business’ day-to-day cash flow.

You have destroyed your reputation with me and many of my CEO and Entrepreneur friends. I have several friends that spend $100,000/mo on Black cards that are going to cancel.

You have harassed your best customers and turned what used to be a stellar reputation into one of the most hated companies in the business world. Personally, I cannot wait for the day when I pay off 100% of my balances with American Express and cancel my cards. I will never do business with you again after that point.

I understand times are tough and financial institutions have gotten burned. This tough time will pass, but the damage you’ve done to your reputation will stay with you. Customers like me – who spend a lot and pay their bills on time every month – are who you need to get you through this time. Instead, you’ve lost me for life.

Michael Schneider
CEO, Fluidesign

Santa Monica, CA

Ps. I am not the only one that has written publically about problems with Amex. Here are a few others:

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/05/im-feeling-the-costs-of-credit-card-fraud-and-defaults.html
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus29-2009apr29,0,5853535,full.column

Having become increasingly invested in solving the problem of global warming over the last few years (starting with the 2006 release of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth), I am convinced that the only way to truly solve the problem is through economics. Companies and individuals are simply not going to combat global warming in a meaningful way unless it’s profitable to do so, as much as we’d like to believe otherwise. I believe the notion of tree huggers around the world uniting in one giant force to solve this problem – simply for the sake of solving it – is counter to capitalism and unfortunately not realistic. That being said, everyone has a huge incentive to solve the problem, and I believe we can do so, and profitably.

Imagine walking into a grocery store, market, clothing store, book store – really any consumer-facing retail store – and seeing everything labeled and given a rating – based on the amount of carbon emitted in the production, transportation and disposal of that product.

Let’s take one product – detergent. Today consumers are loyal to a brand or simply choose the cheapest one available. Brand loyalty comes from a variety of things – they like the way the detergent smells, they like the colors on the bottle, they like the way it cleans, they think it’s the “best,” etc. Price shoppers are more black and white – they constantly look for the best bargain and switch to it, regardless of the brand.
In either case, the consumer is really choosing between – let’s face it – nearly identical products.

Now, imagine this same exact scenario, with all of our preconceptions about brands and our price sensitivities – only this time with the benefit of knowing how much carbon was emitted in the production, transportation, and disposal of the product.

What if a product wasn’t just the cheapest but was also the lowest carbon producer (ie. the best for the environment)? Would you be willing to pay a few extra cents – even a dollar more – for a product that is the most eco friendly? What if consumers began fighting global warming with their collective pocket book, choosing products based on their lowest carbon emissions?

Just imagine the burden that would create on companies, if this information were presented to consumers in an easy-to-understand way. Their sales and profits would be under pressure, and with consumers making a decision with their pocketbook, they would have to change, or die. It would be a race to the most “ecofriendliness” in every product (and potentially service) category.

With a universal system applied to all products (and services), showing us the carbon “tax” on our buying decisions, I believe consumers – who want to do the “right” thing but don’t have the information to do so right now – would gravitate towards the lowest carbon products (and services), creating a paradigm shift and forcing companies to adapt – and be more environmentally conscious.

This may not be the only way, but I know one thing for certain – as long as I don’t have the environmental impact information – I can’t proactively make an environmentally conscious choice.