Consumer complaint received 2020-01-30
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CO
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 filed a dispute with American Express ( AE ) over a purchase made using my American Express credit card in the amount of {$680.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. I thought I was using American Express pre sales website to purchase concert tickets for XXXX XXXX concert on XX/XX/XXXX. Somehow I ended up XXXX as they portrayed themselves as a pre-sale ticket opportunity as well. I felt XXXX  used deceptive practices fraudently representing themselves as a " pre-sale ''. The tickets cost much more than they would have had I used the American Express ticket pre-sale option as I intended. 
I provided American Express with all the documentation ( description of what happened ) they requested, in a timely manner. I can provide this to the CFPB. 
American Express handled my dispute poorly resulting in almost a 8 month response time to my dispute. This is totally unacceptable. I have had other disputes that AE handled on my behalf these disputes were usually resolved in 4 to 6 weeks or less. NOT 8 MONTHS! 
I opened the dispute and shortly after my purchase on XX/XX/XXXX I submitted all of the paperwork requested by AE. 
I kept receiving letters from AE stating that I didn't submit the information they had requested. Each time I received these letters I called AE to confirm they had the information. I called them about this on the following dates XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. I contacted AE on the following dates via phone calls. Each time AE representatives stated they saw I had submitted the AE requested information. Yet subsequent letters from AE stated that I hadn't submitted the narrative they requested and they closed the dispute. I would call AE asking them what was going on as I confirmed AE received what they needed. This cycle happened at least 4 times possibly more which caused the 8 month delay. 
The concert tickets I received were PAPER tickets not electronic tickets that would allow for easy transfer if I sold the the unwanted expensive tickets. 
As the concert date of XX/XX/XXXX approached, I still hadn't heard from AE about my dispute. On XX/XX/XXXX ( 4 days prior to the concert ) I called AE to ask about the status of my dispute. I was told by AE that my dispute was NOT settled in my favor and that AE sided with viagogo. I disagreed with that decision. FINALLY AFTER ROUGHLY 8 MONTHS I HAD A DECISION ON MY DISPUTE. BUT NOW I ONLY HAD 4 DAYS PRIOR TO THE CONCERT TO SELL THE PAPER TICKETS. This simply wasn't enough time to advertise, sell and deliver the paper tickets to a prospective buyer. Because of the 8 month time it took AE to rule on my dispute I was stuck with these tickets. Had the dispute been handled competently by AE I should have enough time to sell the tickets, but due to AE 's incompetence I was only given 4 days. 
I tried several times to obtain a resolution to this issue with AE. I asked for a written summary of their logs of my calls. I was assured each time they would provide this to me. I never received the requested information from AE. I finally talked to a AE Customer Service Supervisor named XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. He agreed that my dispute wasn't handled in a timely manner. He offered me XXXX points ( roughly {$45.00} or less depending on how the points are redeemed ) SOme of the redeem points options are NOT {$1.00} dollar per point. And he also offered {$100.00} credit on my card. I told him this was unacceptable as I paid over {$680.00} for the tickets. Plus hours of aggravating phone calls ( including hold time ). And terrible response to their lack of timely handling my complaint. I have been an AE card member since XXXX, over 23 years. I have charged well over an estimated {$200000.00} on my AE credit card AND THIS HOW THEY TREAT A LOYAL CUSTOMER??

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief