Recently I received a holiday bonus from my boss in the form of an American Express Gift Card. This is the 2nd time I’ve gotten one of these, and I’m completely happy with the card. I remember being able to access a website to check my card balance, so I searched for “american express gift card” on Google and found the site for the AMEX gift card. But something caught my eye, and I decided to check it out before going and checking my balance. A Consumer Affairs website listing complaints about AMEX gift cards is where I ended up, and I started reading around for fun.

Here’s one of the complaints that made me chuckle:

Another hitch is you have to use for the exact amount of the card, and can not make up the difference, example: if you purchase something for $101. then it will be rejected and you will be billed $2.00 by AMX for going over the card limit. -David from Plano, TX

ITS A FREAKIN’ PREPAID CREDIT CARD!!! Does your normal credit card let you charge $101 when you only have $100 left, and not reject it and charge you fees? Most credit cards reject a transaction that goes over your balance. What makes this one worse is that its from a local idiot, as I live in Plano as well. Great job dumbass!

This one also made me laugh. This person’s a sales clerk and should know better, but again the idiot factor has played a huge role in her complaint:

I am complaining as a sales clerk and a recipient of an AX gift card. As a sales clerk when we have a customer use one with a balance, if they do not know the balance, we must stop, call a special 800 number to get balance, then continue This is a nightmare when we are busy. I recieved one last Christmas. I used part of it for a small purchase. Since then, every merchant I go to does not know how to find the balance so this card with approximately $80 is worthless to me. I now encourage customer and friends not to purchase them -Terri of Huntley IL

You are a true moron. As stated earlier, its not a gift card like you get from Target or Walmart. Its a prepaid credit card. Meaning only the cardholder can check the balance. Meaning that stores are NOT allowed to check the balance through an automated system. Meaning you, as a customer, need to do the work. And merchants have no authority or right to ask the consumer if there is enough balance. If there isn’t, it will automatically be deducted and the consumer will be charged for their stupidity. So if you know you have $80, just go use it. If the merchant asks, tell them they have no right to ask.. if they insist you tell them then guesstimate. And if you wanted to prove to me that you aren’t a complete idiot, you could simply flip over the card and call the 877 number on the back to get your balance. A phone number on the back of the card to call when you don’t know your balance - what an amazing concept!

I could go on and on about these idiots complaining about stupid shit, but I would prefer not to because I would be laughing for days at their antics. I’ve got a great idea - for Christmas, lets give all these complaining morons an AMEX gift and let them beat themselves to oblivion with their stupid complaints!

I heard about this story through my parents, because they have known this family since they immigrated to the U.S. Although I personally didn’t know any of the family members, I still feel horrible about what happened and its hitting me at a really deep level. I won’t really elaborate, because the news story says it all.

The news story from the Indy Star:

4 from Carmel die in icy accident (by Scott Thien) December 16, 2007

Icy road conditions led to at least four deaths Saturday as a winter storm hammered Central Indiana.

A Carmel mother and her three children died after the family’s van slid off the road Saturday night and crashed into a retaining pond in Hamilton County, trapping them in the submerged vehicle.
Rescue divers removed driver Batul Abbas, 47, Westfield, and her three daughters from a pond near 141st Street. The four victims were taken to Methodist Hospital in critical condition late Saturday, where they later died.

Abbas, 1585 Charity Chase Dr., Westfield, was driving the van carrying Shazreh Abbas, 18; Shaail Abbas, 14, a student at Carmel High School; and Azmeh Abbas, 8, a student at College Wood Elementary in Carmel.

Batul and Shaail died around 3 a.m. today, and the other two daughters’ deaths were announced just before noon.

The coroners’ reports showed Batul and Shaail’s deaths were related to complications from hypothermia.

Abbas Khan, a distant cousin in Karachi, Pakistan, who grew up with the mother, said Abbas was delivering food to a friend in the area who recently suffered a death in the family.

Khan said his cousin wouldn’t have risked traveling in bad weather unless she thought it was important.

“She was always that sort of person … she was always helpful toward her friends and family,” Khan said off Abbas, who grew up in Pakistan and lived in Houston, Texas, before moving to Indianapolis in the 1990s.

The girls’ father, Hadi Abbas, was out of town on business and stuck in Ontario, Canada, because of the weather, said Saleem Haidery, a cousin calling from a Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

“He knew they were in a car wreck” but didn’t know their exact condition, Haidery said today by phone.

Hadi, he said, grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, and studied engineering in Houston, where he got bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

“He’s a nice guy, a very nice guy,” Haidery added.
According to Carmel Police, Batul Abbas was traveling east on 141st Street near the Lincolnshire subdivision about 9:30 p.m. Saturday when she lost control of the vehicle and slid down an embankment and into a pond on the northwest corner of 141st Street and Towne Road.

Abbas apparently called 911 from the accident scene. The vehicle was completely submerged when officials arrived.

Fire departments from Fishers, Indianapolis, Zionsville and Westfield were among those who responded to the scene, as well as dive teams from Fishers and Indianapolis. The Hamilton County Sheriffs Department also responded.

Neighbors in the Abbas’ neighborhood expressed shock at the overnight developments.

“They were just a wonderful group of people, … loving and kind and very giving,” neighbor Angela Moreman said of the family this afternoon. “(Batul) was a very classy lady, a beautiful person inside and out.”

Moreman added that Batul was taking college classes in the area and was known for planning graduation parties and weddings. The Abbas girls were described as studious and outgoing.

Another neighbor, Gayle Fedele, said her daughters were friends with the Abbas children, some of whom babysat for others in the tight-knit Carmel neighborhood.

“It’ll have an effect on all the kids in the neighborhood,” she said.

Only thing I want to add is I’ve noticed that this version of the story was pulled from their website (I’m not sure the reason) and I had to use Google’s cache feature to pull it up, because this was the first article I read on it.

I hope their souls rest in peace.