Amex Credit Card Complaint

Amex Credit card department,

Transaction issue Mississippi

On -/-/2016, I ordered some cosmetic products at -, -, NV - for delivery by shipment on -/-/2016 - because the merchant did not have all of the products in stock and because we did not wish to attempt to return to our home in - with those ( requiring additional airline baggage fees ). The merchant agreed to ship those products for free due to the size of the purchase - $2200.00. However, upon reflection, we decided we would cancel the order and returned the next day to do so. Since the merchant prevaricated about how that could be done ( for several days including in person, via text and email messages, and over the phone ), the credit card used for the charge ( American Express ) was called and the charge disputed. Though the credit card receipt said " There are no refunds or returns '', research of the Uniform Commercial Code with later confirmation by a lawyer we engaged indicated that we were within our rights to cancel that order regardless of the receipt verbiage, especially since we had not received the product. Initially, the merchant communicated with us about still shipping the product ( even


American Express, their agent even said that the merchant had claimed to have shipped the product ; however, when tracking status and other information ( text messages and emails from the merchant ) showed that the product had not been shipped, the merchant then claimed the product had been picked up at time of purchase. American Express tentatively accepted several disputes, but for each dispute eventually sided with the merchant. I feel that American Express has knowingly abetted a commercial fraud by the merchant by continuing to post the charge to my credit card account. I believe they have done so to curry favor with the merchant to ensure continued acceptance of their card by the merchant and/or to ensure they collect their credit card processing fee from the merchant. Our lawyer has advised that suing either American Express or the merchant for this fraud would cost more than the charge. It appears that both the merchant and American Express are aware of this and so are confident that they can perpetrate the fraud with impunity. Note that my wife has a similar dispute with her - credit card purchase at the same merchant, but I suppose that will need to be filed separately.