Consumer complaint received 2024-09-19
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (WI)

On XX/XX/year>, I was contacted by a business client of XXXX XXXX XXXX in a XXXX XXXX, implying she was recruiting DM appointment setters for her business. After giving me some of the business details and a brief job description, she scheduled me on a call with XXXX of her business partners. On XX/XX/year>, I met with business reps from XXXX XXXX over XXXX, where they introduced the concept to me of a funding partner as a benefit to working with the company. However, it was not stated directly that in reality they would charge me {$1700.00} via various credit & financing platforms to fund my job training. This included a {$250.00} credit charge to my XXXX ( XX/XX/year> ), a {$990.00} charge to XXXX XXXX ( XX/XX/year> ), and a {$500.00} AMEX charge ( XX/XX/year> ). The credit charges were not initiated by myself. The sales rep told me it was a complicated process and that we had to screenshare while he set it up himself. He asked me to share sensitive information including XXXX codes and my XXXX. I was asked to sign a contract that promises to provide appointment setting training alongside guaranteed job placement from the day of the onboarding call. I attached XXXX screenshots from the contract below. It also stipulates, If the client books a total of XXXX fully qualified appointments within XXXX  days from this agreement being signed, then they will be refunded their initial payment A fully qualified appointment is known as XXXX that has {$5000.00} per month in monthly income minimum, XXXX that is willing and able to invest based on the entry level questionnaire, and XXXX that shows up and completes the call. If XXXX clients are not found within a month, the customer is bound by the company to pay installments for their investment, which in my case was {$1700.00}. During this time, the customer is hired, but will have their investment taken out of their earnings. In the XXXX months that have elapsed since signing the contract, I have learned, through consulting with legal sources, that XXXX XXXX XXXX  service guarantee was deceptive/misleading and violates XXXX XXXX XXXX Section XXXX. During my XXXX  month training with XXXX XXXX  after signing the contract on XX/XX/year>, I was confronted with many unforeseen issues that made it impossible to book XXXX qualified appointments and get my initial payment refunded. Firstly, the initial contact by XXXX XXXX of recruiting for a job opportunity is inherently deceptive due to omission/misrepresentation of details. I have attached XXXX screenshots with my initial conversations on XXXX messenger with XXXX XXXX who misled me into thinking XXXX XXXX was a job opportunity as opposed to a pay-to-work scheme. Secondly, XXXX banned me XXXX  times from sending too many outreach messages to find new clients. As I mentioned earlier, in order for me to receive a refund for my initial payment, I have to book " XXXX fully qualified appointments. '' In order to do this, I had to conduct outreach to hundreds of prospective clients on XXXX messenger. Each time XXXX banned me from sending outreach messages, I could not send messages for XXXX days. XXXX XXXX  did not caution me about this, nor did they provide me with a solution. Consequently, I was unable to book appointments for the majority of the XXXX period. I have attached XXXX screenshots that display this problem. When attempting to message the prospects XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX, a " Couldn't send '' in small red font appears below my blue message. This would happen for several consecutive days on my end. XXXX, the companys sales closers did not show up to the qualified appointments I booked. I have attached screenshots of message threads from XXXX prospects ( XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX ) on XXXX asking me why no one showed up to the call. Situations like this made it impossible for me to reach the " XXXX fully qualified appointments '' benchmark. And finally, when I reached out to XXXX XXXX client success managers to resolve these issues, no responses were given to resolve my issues on time. Which means that I was unable to access a refund after the XXXX  month ended. Recently, I discovered that {$1900.00} in credit charges was unknowingly charged to my AMEX account, much higher than the {$500.00} initially agreed upon. This means that in total I have been charged {$3100.00} as opposed to the {$1700.00} stipulated in the contract. I attached a screenshot of these transactions below. This served as proof that XXXX XXXX was violating the terms of our contract. Which means that in addition to violating XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, they are breaching a contract. Since then, I have also met several individuals who have been victimized by XXXX XXXX XXXX and its sister company XXXX XXXX XXXX.