Consumer complaint received 2021-03-26
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
I contacted American Express to resolve a disputed charge due to fraudulent activity by the merchant. The merchant appears on my card statement as " XXXX XXXX '' and the merchant purports to provide real estate lead generation services. 

I was contacted initially by XXXX XXXX by their salesperson XXXX XXXX. XXXX described their service offering as a " referral service '' which purchases bona fide leads from companies like XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, etc., and that this is their primary service offering. The service was described as a new type of program whereby the merchant charges a membership fee of {$1800.00} in exchange for membership in its lead program, and promised to provide bona fide leads which are purchased from the aforementioned providers XXXX XXXX, XXXX, et al ) and funds the purchase of these leads from a " referral commission '' of 20 % of the commission income generated by a member which is charged to its members/customers upon the successful consummation/closing of a real estate transaction. This was described by XXXX XXXX as representative for XXXX XXXX as the general scenario : Their customer, a real estate agent or broker, works with a buyer or seller of real estate referred by XXXX, and upon successful closing of a transaction, the agent/broker pays to XXXX a referral fee, similarly to other referral systems, such as broker-to-broker or relocation company referrals, e.g., a 5.5 % total commission is split between a listing agent and buying agent, so ( 2.75 % ) * ( XXXX purchase price ) would equate to a total commission income of {$5500.00} to a XXXX customer, and the XXXX customer would pay to XXXX a referral fee of {$1100.00}, thus funding the acquisition of the leads as described by XXXX. 

Unfortunately, I paid this company {$1800.00} for these leads based upon the description by XXXX after speaking with his " data manager '' who also confirmed the description provided by XXXX. 

After I received an email with login information, I used their portal system, and discovered the following : 1. There are no leads from quality lead vendors like XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, etc. 

2. All " leads '' which I contacted had no recollection of providing their information to any real estate-related portals like XXXX, et al., and because these individuals were near-universally on the Do Not Call registry, this was extremely concerning.

3. Because this was within the 3-day cooling-off period under Florida law, I emailed a notice of cancellation to XXXX XXXX and the entire onboarding team at XXXX. I did not receive a reply, but did receive a phone call from an individual who claimed to be the 'head of sales ' who berated me for cancelling, and referred to a contract he called a " MSA '' which I still, to date, have not been provided, and thus have never agreed to. 

4. Beyond the fraudulent nature of the service itself, and the service delivered not being even remotely similar to the service which was described, the routing process was also fraudulently described. 

After trying in good faith for several weeks to effect a cancellation and total or prorated refund from XXXX, I filed a dispute with American Express which documents the above with multiple and exhaustive evidence from email communication with the merchant, which clearly demonstrates that I have received no services that were described to be on the phone. 

American Express closed the dispute in the favor of the merchant with the explanation of " services were provided '' which is categorically false and contrary to reality by any standard of measurement. 

I contacted American Express via their online chat and by telephone to demand that they re-open the dispute under the Fair Credit Billing Act 's provisions which require creditors to remove from billing statements charges for services which were not delivered as described by the merchant.

American Express has refused to reconsider their incorrect assessment of the dispute, and has refused to provide evidence to the contrary of my claim, and thus has violated multiple provisions of the Fair Credit Billing Act. 

PDF copies of evidence sent to American Express electronically by me are attached to this complaint.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation