Consumer complaint received 2025-06-11 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: CA

Complaint narrative:
We are disputing XXXX American Express charges totaling {$39000.00} paid to merchant in the XXXX for an event that never took place.. The merchant contract required XXXX  days notice for cancellation. The Contract allowed retention of the deposit only in case of cancellation. We did not cancel we submitted a timely request to postpone our event. The contract contained no clause prohibiting postponement, and we provided more than XXXX  days notice as required. To date, no goods or services have been rendered by merchant. In addition, merchant is still in possession of a total {$39000.00} which includes a {$6.00} per day/ per person XXXX XXXX, as of this writing. 
Merchant refused to honor the original contract and instead offered a new agreement with higher rates and retention of {$5000.00}. We declined this entirely new offer and requested a refund, as no services were provided. Initially, American Express sided with us. The rates were already too high and they wanted to impose even higher rates, making the villas harder to sell and the marking campaign has already went out to our clients. merchants claim that we canceled is unfounded, as no communication from us contained a cancellation request. Instead, merchant tried to impose an unwritten or post hoc conditions, which simply did not agree to. In numerous emails to merchant, we never requested that villas be held for our event. We stated that we do not request that any villas be held and we would check availability once a client book a villa on our website. ( Ensuring that at check-in, the client would receive the booked villa and not an alternative villa ). Further, the resort continued selling villas for our original event dates, to their guests. As well as, allowed third party sellers ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and more, to sell merchant villas at reduced rates on the same dates. 
Unexpectedly, Amex reversed the decision in the merchants favor, despite no new evidence or change in the facts. Amex reversal was received on XX/XX/XXXX and dated XX/XX/XXXX, with the event scheduled for XXXX XXXX. The late notice from Amex did not allow us an opportunity to try to mitigate the damages. We were not provided with the merchants cover letter, much of the documentation was redacted, and key contact information and evidence were omitted. The first page we received of the merchant 's docs doesnt make sense because we dont know the language that proceeded the comment. We repeatedly requested full access to the file submitted by merchant, but Amex never delivered the full submission. 
This raises concerns that Amex may not have followed fair dispute procedures, and potentially acted under * * commercial pressure from the merchant * *, who may have threatened to terminate their card acceptance. While we can not confirm this, the lack of transparency and reversal without full disclosure merits investigation. The file provided to us was incomplete, key communications were redacted, and the merchants cover letter or justification was withheld. This denied us a meaningful opportunity to refute the allegations. In American Express decision, Amex stated that we canceled which is inaccurate and not supported by any correspondence or the contract. We never received a copy of the merchants full submission despite requesting it multiple times. American Express referenced Reason Code XXXX ( Card Not Present Services Not Rendered ) in closing the case. This code is misapplied. We received no goods or services from the merchant, and they continued to sell the villas that we never requested to be put on hold. In order to advertise on our website, they requested we take XXXX XXXX  to justify the nonrefundable cancelation policy of {$39000.00} which includes {$6.00} per day, per person green tax. This was not a cancellation or no-show situation. This is causing serious financial and irrevocable harm to our small business, and we are requesting a fair reconsideration of the facts.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation