And I thought my troubles in this regard were unique.

My wife and I first met with a rep from AmEx almost exactly ten years ago after he'd been recommended to us by some friends. We were ultimately very surprised at the recommendation because a more rude, pushy individual cannot be imagined.

We were brand new to investing at the time and so bought some IDS mutual funds. They were dogs and we got rid of them pretty quickly. When I called him up to tell him of our decision, he accused me of jeopardizing our children's college education. He didn't change my mind.

We still have life insurance and health insurance policies with American Express, and my wife has a TSA with them (to which she stopped contributing years ago). These seem harmless.

BTW--a few years ago, AmEx assigned us a new rep. Somehow, word had gotten out that we weren't a good fit with the original rep.

Lessons learned: AmEx mutual funds are pretty poor; the company's reps are worse.