Consumer complaint received 2016-12-16
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CT
Product: Credit card
Issue: Billing disputes

Complaint:
I am an American Express ( Amex ) card holder. I gave my Amex card number to a merchant, being XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, for a limited time professional advertising campaign to take place over three months on the XXXX web site. That campaign started on XXXX XXXX and ran through to the end of XXXX of 2015. That campaign was never provided to the terms promised so when I was asked to renew the agreement I said I want to terminate at the end of the original term, being the end of XXXX 2015. This was done the same way as the contract wsas entered into, over the telephone with an XXXX representative. XXXX then continued to charge my Amex credit card for two more months of services claiming the advertising campaign became recurring at its end despite the original verbal only agreement being for a limited time. XXXX tried to claim I had to terminate the agreement in writing for it to end. The original agreement was over the phone with payment only online. When the oral advertising agreement was entered into I asked if XXXX would attempt to make this recurring and I was told by the salesperson that XXXX did not have a policy of recurring contracts. Over a month after the original three month contract reached its term I saw that XXXX had continued to bill my Amex account. I contacted XXXX and XXXX then claimed I electronically signed a recurring agreement. 

I filed a dispute of the claim with Amex. Amex upheld the claim based on XXXX stting I had signed a recurring contract. Despite having over a year to produce my signature, XXXX has failed to produce a signed contract. I disputed the claims again and that second time XXXX produced an unsigned contract that lacked both my signature and a check in the box that alleges I agree to the recurring charge. Based on this unsigned contract, created by XXXX, Amex again allowed two months of additional charges to enter for {$220.00} each, totaling {$440.00}. I have disputed the claim with Amex a third time as no prooof of a signature has been provided. Amex claims XXXX has supplied the proof by way of the unsigned contract. 

I have no faith that Amex will not continue to allow merchants to charge my account without my authorization so I have terminated my credit card with American Express. I now have Amex making a claim against me for payment of the {$440.00} in services I did not contract for or receive. I have tried three times to dispute the charges with Amex but I keep being told the unsigned blank contract created by XXXX is acceptable as Amex 's proof of my approving the charge. 

I am XXXX and I have done lots of consumer work in my XXXX. This is the first and only time I have seen that a blank unsigned contract is acceptable proof of a written contract. Amex 's reasoning flies against all consumer protection rules and screams for justice. I am reaching out for assistance in getting this properly resolved. Amex has acted as a faceless behemoth throughout this process. My dispute claims have frequently changed identification numbering by Amex as their system has had troubles with the claims. This has made my providing information and following Amex 's dispute process difficult. After the initial telephone claim Amex is all in writing in handling the dispute. That is made difficult by Amex 's changing numbers for the disputes and its bifurcating each of the XXXX charges ( XXXX for each alleged month of service ) into separate dispute numbers. XXXX is on the other side of the continent from me so suing them in small claims is difficult and will cost more than the amount taken from me. 

Please let me know what can be done to correct this. Amex 's actions in accepting an unsigned blank contract as proof I agreed to specific unknown terms, is contrary to all consumer protection rules. Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation