Consumer complaint received 2023-06-26
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NY
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 asked American Express to provide proof of the itemized receipt for a disputed series of XXXX purchases in dispute, american express refused. They allowed XXXX to provide a computer generated statement that simply says " credit sale '' with no itemization and no signature. They refuse to provide the user name or account holder name. As a result these items remain in dispute. Then amex management closed the dispute without my approval, then amex said they can file a fraud dispute, however until we know what the facts are I can not determine if it is fraud or not. 
I want the CFPB to require that Amex per their merchant agreement require XXXX to provide the itemized invoices that make up each disputed purchase or if not then Amex will find in my favor that their merchant refused to comply with the merchant agreement to provide proper proofs of purchase. 

There was not need to waste all of our time if they simply complied. I am a small business and when I receive disputed from Amex they require that I reply with the signed copies of the the invoices detailing the itemized purchases. Why would Amex treat XXXX differently than small businesses? Does XXXX have more rights witht he cfpb or FTC regulations than a family business? Does Amex treat family businesses poorly because they are little people. Now on my personal account why would they do this to me? I want the CFPB to contact Amex management and obtain the facts I requested for the charges on my account. 
Transcript ffrom Amex chat : XX/XX/XXXX Today Welcome back XXXX! In a few words tell me what you need help with or select one of these topics : Your operator disconected, I want copies of the receipts for all the charges in dispute with XXXX. We are entitled to these copies of the actual receipt from XXXX for all these disputed items. 
A Customer Care Professional will be with you shortly. In the meantime, please provide any information that may help us assist you. 
All these items remain in dipsute. They will not be paid, I will deduct them while I await copies of all the receipts in dispute. 
A Customer Care Professional will be with you shortly. In the meantime, please provide any information that may help us assist you. 
Hello, youre chatting with XXXX from the Fraud Protection Team. Am I chatting with XXXX XXXX? 
yes Please help me with the last five digits of the card that you are referring to. 
XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX are these the charges? 
yes. 
i want a actual receipt provided by XXXX detailing what was purchased and the accountholders name the purchase was from. 
I can see these charges are under Billing dispute, I will connect you to a specialist who will help you with all the required information. Please allow me a moment while I connect your chat to a specialist regarding that. In case if you are unable to wait during the hold time, you may dial the number given at the back of your card for further assistance regarding your concern. 
A Customer Care Professional will be with you shortly. In the meantime, please provide any information that may help us assist you. 
Hi, XXXX. My name is XXXX. Please allow me a moment and I'll pick up from where we left off. 
ok Thank you for patiently waiting. 
I see you wish to have the receipt of the charges from XXXX. Am I correct? 
We have not heard from you for some time. Do you wish to continue to chat? 
Yes, these items remain in dispute and will not be paid. I am entitled to know the facts of the charges. The response you provided by XXXX is insufficient and does not meet the cardmember and merchant agreement requirements. After I receive the copies then I will review Sure, let me check this for you. 
Thank you for sharing. 
May I please confirm the last 5 digits of the card number you're referring?

You must require XXXX to provide the actual receipts with prices and the accountholders name XXXX The XXXX account holders name. Not the cardholders. 
I can understand, please stay connected. 
I sincerely apologize for the hassle you faced in this, I'll quickly check this for you. 
Please stay connected. 
ok Thank you for patiently waiting. 
In order to continue, please answer the following identification question in the space provided. 
To protect your account security, please answer the following question. 
Answer Submitted This question was answered I am sorry, I see an another email registered with us. 
I will share the form again. 
To protect your account security, please answer the following question. 
Answer Submitted This question was answered Please stay connected. 
I just tried changing it, but it says " system error '' try again I'm sorry about thatl, the email is linked for additional so if you or me change it then it will only change for your not for the additional user. 
Also, the receipt I can email will include the charge amount, date and the name of merchant not the itemized receipt. 
I understand, Just to be sure are you looking for itemized receipts? 
I am entitled to the actual receipt. You must send the dispute to XXXX requiring them to provide this information. It is part of the merchant agreement and I am entitled to see it. 
Yes, the actual receipt. Not the automated response from XXXX I understand, the reason you opened the disputes with, we only send the information that I listed above. But I understand you're looking for actual receipts. 
Just to confirm, are you not seeing these charges listed under purchase history on XXXX? 
Those purchases are not listed in my XXXX account. 
Clearly they belong to someone elses account. 
Got it, is there anyone at your business or in family who may have used your card for these purchases? 
I have no idea, I dont know what those purchases are. After XXXX fulfils my right to see the receipts then I could research it further. We do not buy XXXX digital, or books, so I know its not ours. I want the receipts as I am entitled to and I want the name of the XXXX account holder. 
The merchant is in violation of the merchant agreement if they can not or refuse to provide those receipts within 10 days. 
I understand XXXX, we can't provide receipt for purchases with this reason but XXXX can. But we'll have different process to assist you with these charges. 
Have you contacted XXXX to get information about these charges? 
I tried, XXXX states " we can not speak with you about an account you do not own. therefore we can not discuss the matter. '' Understood! In this case the billing dispute won't help you. but we'll have to raise a fraud dispute in this case to better assist you with these charges. 
Please allow me a moment while I get you connected to our account protection team. 
A Customer Care Professional will be with you shortly. In the meantime, please provide any information that may help us assist you. 
ok Hello, youre chatting with XXXX from the Fraud Protection Team. Am I chatting with XXXX XXXX? 
Yes Thank you for confirming. 
I have checked and I can see that billing dispute was set up for the charges of XXXX. 
Please read the prior chat above- it has everything you need I have located all the charges. 
All these charges are on the additional card XXXX XXXX card right To help you better on this I will set up the fraud case and replace the card for the safety of the card. 
Please confirm shall I proceed with the fraud case? 
They all remain in dispute until XXXX fulfils the requirement of proof of the actual invoices detaing the items and prices, and XXXX account holders name I understand, billing dispute was also set up for the charges. 
Replaceing the card does nothing. in XXXX they retain the ability to re charge the same card and it transfers over to the new card even though the number does not match. That is not a good solution You will not get the charges from XXXX the additional card. 
We can add merchant block on the merchant. 
sure, thats fine but none of that resolves the issue. Please require XXXX provide the requested copies Once the fraud case is set up and card is replaced. You will not get the charges from the merchant. 
not electronic copies, actual invoices with the items listed and prices to match the billed amounts Your solution will not change the charges in dispute, those are from prior to this date, that is not the question For the invoice I would request you to please have a word with the merchant once. 
It will only prevent future Once the fraud case is set up you will not be liable for the charges. 
I called the merchant, as previously explained, they refuse to talk to me because the customer who used my card is not me- they said they will not talk to anyone but the XXXX meber themselves, Our team will investigate the case and once the investigation is done we will send the acknowledgment letter too. 
You will require XXXX respond to the dispute with the actual invoices, itemized with the prices and the XXXX account holders name. 
That is as required by the merchant agreement I am entitled to that information. 
Its simple, they must provide the facts. Then we know. There is little need to discuss any other solution at this time. You can handle your work more efficiently by demanding that from XXXX. 
I have checked and I see that letter from our end was sent to you regarding the billing dispute charges. 
Taht letter answers none of the request It states that you are liable for the charges. Just to confirm if you want more information on the billing dispute I can connect you with the account servicing team or do you want to proceed with the fraud case? 
It also fails to comply with the merchant agreement and dispute resolution requirements of merchants I do not want to be bounced around again, Please get me a higher level manager. 
Jave a senior level manager call me Have I apologize for the trouble caused. 
Let me check this for you. 
Please stay connected let me connected you with the supervisor. 
ok Unfortunately, we're unable to connect you at this time due to technical reasons. We appreciate your patience and ask that you please try again later or call the number on the back of your Card for assistance. 
An agent has now joined Send me the transcript Hello, youre chatting with XXXX. I am the available supervisor. 
These items all remain in dispute. 
I will quickly go through previous conversation real quick and ensure you do not have to explain the situation again. 
Hi XXXX Thank you for waiting, I really appreciate your time and patience! 
I have read the previous chat with XXXX, and found that you are concerned about the unauthorized charges from XXXX on your account. 
I do see that dispute was set up on your account for these charges, however, dispute is not the correct procedure to help you with the unauthorized charges. 
We need to file a fraud claim on your account for these charges for our team to investigate on it and get to the culprit. 
As a manager I am sure you can see my request is simple and as of now unfulfilled. According to the FTC and the merchant agreement I am entitled to copies of the documents from the merchant detailing the charges. I also want the user name of the XXXX account. I am entitled to this to prove if there is a fraudulent charge or not. 
It is a dispute claim until the facts I requested are received by me and reviewed. 
Save yourself and myself time and respond back to XXXX that these requirements must be met within 10 days according to the merchant agreement. 
I can certainly understand your point here, however, for your privacy merchants do not share any information about the charge that what was bought or what merchant account was used to make that charge. 
that is not true. I am a merchant as well, We regularly answer these requests for copies of documents and in the past you have fulfileld these requests for other charges I had disputed. It appears you allow XXXX to follow a different set of rules if you stand by your statement. 
As I can check, on that dispute it is mentioned that you have an email with the order details for these charges. Did you receive any email regarding this? 
no I have received nothing in email We certainly do not have any other rules for any merchants, all the rules are same for all the merchants including XXXX. 
Then according to the FTC federal regulation requires you send me copies of the detailed invoices showing the items and total that make up that invoice. 
Or XXXX can accept the chargeback and seek colelctions from the owner of their account. 
But I will be absolved of payment responsibility of you can not provide this information within 10 days. 
In the interim all these items will remain in dispute. 
The dispute is showing closed right now. 
What ever you did is your doing, it is not closed. 
Since, you have not made these charges I would suggest you to proceed with the fraud case. 
However, if you only want the details which the merchant provided in this case we will need to re-open the dispute case ask the dispute team to send those details again to you. 
That is your choice, I can see you want to treat me badly for some reason. 
I apologize if you feel that way. 
Yes, re open ( i never closed it ) and get the copies of the invoices as required - tell XXXX they must answer with the copies. 
Telling someone " I am sorry you feel that way '' is an insult. 
Its like saying you have no respect for the person and invalidate their issue We never want to give an experience like this to you and I really appreciate your membership with us since XXXX. 
You obviously do not If you had any respect you and your team would have simply gone back to XXXX and told them their response is inadequate and they will provide copies of the itemized invoices. 
You have wasted a lot of my time. 
As you want to get the details from the merchant, I will need to connect you with the disputes team who will re-open the dispute for you and then they will send you the details about the charge which the merchant sent supporting the dispute case. 

Amex makes excessive and unnecesary requests to waste consumers time costing productivity and tax revenue. This interchange took 2 hours to simply request copies of proofs of what was being charged to my credit card. There is no reason a cc company should not provide copies of the invoices for charges on my credit card account, if they can not fulfil that request then they must chargeback and credit the consumer.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief