Consumer complaint received 2026-02-24 00:00:00
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
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
In XX/XX/year>, not being very techy, and with my partner asleep in a different time zone, and not wanting to wake him for a stupid question of how to convert doc for work to pdf, I went online. A site by the name of XXXX said i could instantly convert docs thru them for for XXXX cents per doc. So i filled the information, name, email and credit card info and got my period document was provided and converted and I was charged {$.00} and that was the end of that or so I thought. As it turns out this company is a scammer basically - not in the sense that they don't give you what they say- but in that because they can't make money on conversion PDF documents for XXXX a pop, so, you know, this whole thing becomes about getting people to sign up for monthly memberships for XXXX $ a month. Imagine that! I say " imagine that '' because only an insane and completely dumb person would agree knowingly to, in order for converting a PDF for {$.00} a pop, to a XXXX XXXX XXXX membership with a stupid company that doesn't send you information on the membership and doesn't clearly say you become a member oif their scamming program. Apparently, merchant has claim to the credit card company that there was some fine print that I agreed to in order to get the PDF converted at that moment which involved a trial membership and then the fee which is exorbitant and to be honest with you I don't have any independent recollection of having done so ; having said that it's quite possible that I may have done so. But most of the time I'm type quite meticulous prior to hitting the run button on any purchase online. I say this because, ordinarily, if I agree to a trial period on anything online, ( for just wanting to get the thing done for cheaper for free or gimmick rate ), I'll take note I will take of the expiration of the trial period and cancel accordingly. Thus, I can cancel the membership before being placed on a " membership plan '' for something that common sense decrees you would not need to have monthly - and even if you didn't want to ask the program, it certainly wouldn't be for 20,000 times more than the price you pay for a one time, gimmick price. Furthermore, if you if you're a merchant and you're allegedly in good faith signing up people for memberships, then isn't it also true that you have to then send some information via email, stating, you signed up for membership and your membership has this benefit or that benefit and all the limits of that membership. Nothing of the sort was ever sent to me and the whole thing reeks of a scam. Now we get to the even more offensive part of this whole dirty situation. The credit card I used was American Express and, sure enough, according to what the XXXX XXXX told American Express is that I had agreed to membership, and thats why I began being charged monthly almost {$60.00} a month, XXXX, XXXX and XX/XX/year>. When I saw the first charge in XX/XX/year>, I rang American Express up and, with great pleasure, told them that I had I saw an unrecognised charge. I didn't know who this company was even at the time and I didn't recognizing the charge so, in spite of the fact that I pay {$300.00} a year for that platinum card with American Express- not worth XXXX cents a year in truth - but I digress, the AMEX dispute agent lazilyy\blew me off, saying you must first dispute with merchant. It took me a while to figure out and remember that in fact discharge was related to that one time I've gone online to convert a PDF document with this unscrupulous an awful merchant. After the initial call to AMEX to set up dispute, and their saying first reach out to merchant before they open dispute, I searched online and found a number for XXXX XXXX Interestingly, a sidenote you should take note of, is that AMEX was not able itself to give me the merchant 's at XXXX number. It didn't have that information - to me, that alone should be a red flag to the credit card company that there's something less than legit about that merchant, but i won't get into that topic to save my breath and your valuable time. Online I was able to find an XXXX number for XXXX. And a business address as it turns out XXXX is a company that is run out of XXXX and they have an XXXX number set up in the US for customers in the US. However, no human answers ; it's an answering machine. Yes, folks, you heard me right - an answering machine for an XXXX number and when the machine goes on, it just says thank you for reaching out to us leave your number we will get back to you about your issue and, if it is urgent, send us an email. Another sign of the company being shady and on the sly. I left a couple of messages on their machine, probably between XXXX and XXXX of last year. No response at all from the merchant in this mode of communication. Then, by the closing XX/XX/year> Amex statement I got a second charge from XXXX for about XXXX XXXX I called American Express up again and attempted to file the dispute again and add the second dispute. Unlike my first call to AMEX, where the agent blew me off lazily and where she didn't inquire whether I had done any business with the merchant and if i had any membership with them, adn if so, that I would need to first cancel it with merchant, before AMEX could set up a dispute, on my second call to them, I was suddenly introduced to AMEX DISPUTES XXXX - a whole panoply of things I needed to do before they would get involved. That is extremely unfair and doesnt give the customer fair knowledge of Amex internal policies of handling dispute to the customer. I told the first Amex rep in my XXXX call the same things I mentioned in XXXX, only now, by their own internal and ridiculously lazy policies, I was told that if there was membership involved, then charges prior to my canceling the membership with the merchant, would be considered valid by AMEX. Outrageous : why was i not informed of the redtape AMEX expects of the customer, AND, why would they not tell me this when the first time i called them everything the second agent told me? By now, despite my efforts to dispute the charge when I first saw it, I had incurred a second unauthorised charge. Incensed by the sheer robotic and truly uncaring response by AMEX, I found out how to contact these thieves at XXXX thru XXXX they have and cancelled the membership they claimed to AMEX that i had signed. I have not been offered any evidence of my signature to that by the way from AMEX. Not sure, in truth, whether AMEX even cared to request it on my behalf. Either way, it's unfair, even if I hypothetically did signt the trial memebrship, it must been thru XXXX, because i can not recollect that happening. Before concluding my second call to Amex and being told all the new hoops they wanted me to jump threw just to get into the " Disputes '' door with AMEX, I told the agent to block this merchant from charging my account again. That, she assured me had been done, as per my request. So comforted with that false hope, I concluded that second call. When, in early XX/XX/year>, I had a little more time to provide AMEX proof cancellation of this supposed membership, I contact AMEX to tell them that as a customer with them for XXXX years, paying a ridiculous XXXX $ annual fee, they should dispute the charges- and certainly the second one which was due to their not informing me of the fact that I have to cancel the membership before dispute can set up, I asked the very reluctant agent to please set up the disputes and that I had been scammed and that the second charge was a direct result of their lack of communicating what I needed to do. To be frank, I dont understand the very pronounced resistance AMEX is putting in then face of bona fide customer disputes. I have rarely had disputes with AMEX and something smells afoul with the way AMEX handled the whole process. Either they skim off the top and are in cahoots with thieving merchants, such as the one in the case, or they just would rather not handle disputes. Its all very unsettling, given the amounts involved for the putative membership, my years of being a customer with them and all the red flags regarding the merchant itself. Anyway, after this XXXX call, I was told XXXX disputes were being entered and that they would await merchant response. Now just to add an important point here that the agent made me aware of : in XX/XX/year>, the merchant had tried again to charge my card and had not been successful, and so, in XXXX, the merchant, using a different terminal was able to willfully, and obviously fraudulently, circumvent the block that AMEX had put on them. I believe also the merchant had manipulated the name of the business in a subtle way or had changed the charge by a few dollars. Now, Im not a bank or savvy credit card company, but if an Amex agent is telling me of a willful, fraudulent act by a merchant that has succesfully overridden their block, then please tell me how AMEX can accept the charges as legitimate. Today, I had the final call with AMEX where, in spite of all evidence given them, they said they could not pursue disputes on any of the 3 charges as they deemed them to be legitimate. I informed them I was coming to u first, in the hopes u can talk sense into them, but my government has not been hard at work for me of late, so maybe you will give me room for hope. Miracles happen. Then, failing your decisive involvement, I informed AMEX that I would be filing a small claims against them. Please stop these free trial schemes! Nothing a merchant is willing to sell u one time for XXXX is worth a monthly XXXX $ membership and that is precisely why those are orchestrated. And each time, the subscription plan is in small print. In this case i was diligent and, despite my best efforts, AMEX failed me, placing new and additional burdens on me to discourage me from disputing these charges. Thank you and please spearhead this complaint on my behalf as you would if you were a prosecutor trying to charge a XXXX with the crime ; because being told by AMEX that I allegedly signed for a subscription and that I cant dispute it, until I cancel my membership is tantamount to telling a XXXX XXXX, because you agreed to XXXX drink, then you agree to it all. We all know that, in the criminal context, that would be an outrageous assertion. So is what AMEX is telling me in the instant matter. Respectfully submitted.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation