Consumer complaint received 2016-12-09
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: MO
Product: Credit card
Issue: Customer service / Customer relations

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I filed a number of chargebacks to my american express credit card. These charges were for collectible wines which I had purchased over a multi-year period and had actively worked with the merchant to have my items delivered. Many purchases were delivered, but by XX/XX/XXXX I was losing confidence and being told many different stories by the merchant. From XX/XX/XXXX thru XX/XX/XXXX, various customer service agents processed and asked for additional documents regarding my disputes. After many rounds of this my disputes were denied on the basis of various dubious claims by amex that I had a limited amount of time to file a chargeback, and that the clock starts when I place an order for an item, not when Im told it will be received. None of these claims are backed up by the card member agreement or any other documents visible to cardmembers. During my dispute, the merchant filed bankruptcy, the owner was charged and pled guilty to a massive fraud scheme dating back at least a decade wherein he sold wine that he did n't have in inventory and used the proceeds to buy other wine and perpetuate the scheme. American Express not only has breached their responsibility to me as a cardmember by arbitrarily applying chargeback rules which are not documented, but was also in a position to prevent the continuation of this merchants ability to run amex charges once they were aware of the massive number of chargeback requests and customer complaints about undelivered orders. 

To make matters worse, once bankruptcy was filed, attorneys for american express filed and were granted a motion for the trustee to deliver to amex the purchase history and inventory records for amex cardmembers dating back over 8 years from the filing. However, in denying my claim, XXXX of amex 's excuses was that they do not have and are not required to retain documents over XXXX XXXX XXXX. However we can prove from public filings that in fact they ASKED for these very documents dating back well before any of my disputed transactions. 


In XX/XX/XXXX, the legal department of amex, in response to me filing a claims notice as required by my cardmember agreement made XXXX arguments as to why I was not entitled to a reimbursement 1. i did n't submit a dispute for billing error within 60 days of receiving a bill - of course I did n't. I bought items that were sold for future delivery, so 60 days later I had no expectation of having received them yet, and thus there was no error. 

2. I did n't submit a dispute within 540 days that amex extended what they call a " courtesy extension, '' This is a very deceptive phrase and claim, as amex agrees that in many cases I had not made a dispute within 540 days because I was working with the merchant to secure delivery and being told that I would get the wine shortly multiple times. Further, I have seen no evidence of any policy about 540 days in the cardmember agreement, any addendum or on any amex website. Furthermore, if you look at amex rules for merchants, the 540 day rule starts from delivery not from the date of a charge. 

3. amex asserts that I unknowingly waived my right to a refund by paying in full for the items at time of purchase and before submitting a dispute. this is another deceptive claim, as amex knows that all wine orders, of which they processes XXXX per year on behalf of merchants are pre-paid. Further, there is no documentary notice that indicates I am bound by a pre-payment clause or that I waived such a clause.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation