There Are 11 Responses So Far. »

1. 

   Comment by Toni P on 9 January 2008:

   Wow, they should change this!
2. 

   Comment by silver on 25 January 2008:

   Giving very good protection to the consumers is a very good thing but making a bad business with merchants is a bad thing.. they should find some other way to overcome this or they will lose in the long run.. if no merchants will accept their card, why would anyone use them?
3. 

   Comment by Bryan on 6 August 2008:

   I work for a company in the disputes department where we process online transactions strictly for online vendors from all over the world. It’s true. The way American Express treats the online community is very bad. No matter what, even if we’re in the right, the cardholder comes clean while the vendor eats it.
4. 

   Comment by John on 12 August 2008:

   This article is right on the money. We are an online merchant with a good solid history and customer service record. A customer called AMEX and said the the item they received wasn’t to their liking. Very subjective if you ask me, and if they would have called we would have done something about it. But instead, AMEX simply takes their word for it and TAKES THE MONEY AWAY from the merchant. The merchant just gets a letter in the mail that says that the customer disputed and that is it. The wording on the letter say’s “Our investigation has found this claim to be valid”. They didn’t investigate, they assumed. There is absolutely NO RECOURSE for the merchant. You are out the item, the shipping cost and the funds. Talk about risk! Luckily this was a nominal dollar amount, but we are now worried about future transactions with a substantial dollar amount. Sure, AMEX customers spend more, but one large chargeback eats up a lot of margin. We are done with AMEX. Too much risk. This is legal robbery.
5. 

   Comment by Mark Yannone on 31 December 2008:

   American Express cannot be trusted. They are a boon to thieves but useless to vendors. American Express, with the full cooperation of PayPal, enables the cardholder to commit fraud. Look: http://yannone.blogspot.com/2008/12/free-money-from-american-express.html
6. 

   Comment by Jenulence on 6 January 2009:

   Merchants! Do no accept American Express!!! There is no time limitations on chargebacks. My company was charged back for 2 orders a thief had legally placed 6 months ago and it is perfectly fine with Amex. They just stand by the word of their cardholder that “unauthorized” charge had occurred. And their Terms and Conditions say that: “Chargeback may still be applied if Cardmember doesn’t recognize the signature or the name on a proof of delivery”. American Express’s policy just encourages online robberies.
7. 

   Comment by Member Since 2003 on 14 January 2009:

   EXCUSE ME !!!!!!! I had an american express geen card and a amxe blue card for about 3 years. I paid them both off beautifully every month. Over the three years I had 4 incidents where the merchant was at fault for ruining my drycleaning, lousy hotel, damaging my car…I think the highest amount I wanted back was about 100 dollars. American Express turned me down each and every time. Mind you I had to pay them $150 dollars just to carry the green card every year. I was furious so I closed both accounts. American Express doesn’t believe in the consumer anymore, that was something they gave to the priviledged few who had their cards in the eighties. But since poor people like me with excellent credit can now qualify for THE CARD, they have resorted overlooking the consumer and are trying make goody, goody with the retailers. I will never, ever recommend this company to anyone.
8. 

   Comment by O Abrao on 6 March 2009:

   The refusal expanded beyond on line retailers.. In Canada not even City Hall (parking ticket) accepts them anymore, including dentists, Medical Labs and the list goes on and on … Amex now is my secondary card. About sidding with consumers, well… they don’t even have a method to listen to their customers. Try to ask for someone to speak about all these refusals and they will give you an obscure address and a dept for you to write a “letter” ??!!

   As they say: it is too difficult to teach an elefant to dance!
9. 

   Comment by john on 31 July 2009:

   this is 100% right on the money!

   When it comes down to it, it’s about their chargeback policy. Unlike Visa and MasterCard, which run an open loop system, American Express is closed, meaning that everything ties back to them and them only. When a chargeback occurs, American Express is notorious for siding with the end consumer and, rightfully so, the bulk of American Express’s money is made off of the end consumer so it’s no surprise that they know where their bread and butter is. This leads to a heavy amount of fraud, giving way for consumers to get away with purchasing items and simply charging them back at a whim. It is this fear that drives many merchants away from accepting American Express. I’m sure you’ve seen the Amex Tina Fey commercials where she declines orders that she doesn’t feel were made by her. Well, that’s the same thing that keeps online merchants away from accepting Am
10. 

    Comment by Tim on 24 August 2009:

    Its the worst thing Amex can do to them self. That is why they are not a major role in the industry still. There needs to be a way where a Merchant can have a chance to fight back against fraud. If they had a better policy where a dispute can be made they would start get more merchants acceptance.
11. 

    Comment by Kevin on 28 August 2009:

    In defence of Amex, in my experience the chargeback system is fully transparent and fair for both consumer and vendor. On two occasions recently I had to make use of it and there are recourse for both parties in the event of a mistake as I will explain. On the first occasion a hotel overcharged me by around $400. I called amex to dispute the charge and they contacted the hotel and duly credited my account in an instant. The hotel had 60 days to appeal against my claim, which was just as well as amex had refunded me to the tune of $800, exactly double my disputed amount. I assumed it was the hotels mistake and waited the 60 days to see if the overcredit would be debited from my account and it was, and everything balaced out in the end.

    This next occasion is exactly the reason I carry and use amex wherever possible. I used a globally renowned car hire company in the middle east a year ago and the contract came to around $3000 for a couple of months. Once complete the hire went back and the charges ceased. 7 months later I received a charge to my account from the very same vendor for $1000. I firstly tried to contact them to establish what the charge was for to no avail and I didn’t want to be given the runaround by trying to contact the head office or any other trading post as it would have been a hassle for me. So I called the disputes dept who asked if there was anything it could have been for and I explained there were no accidents, damage or punctures or traffic violations and when I handed the car back this was verified at the vendors end too. I would understand if there had been any issues but if there had been I would have expected a charge within 2 months maximum and not 7 months after.

    Anyways, they contacted the vendor and no-one could verify the charge details and hence they immediately credited my account for the $1000 and told me that even if it was for something valid, they are only supposed to charge people up to a maximum of 180 days after the final bill and as it had gone over this time, their charge was effectively illegal.

    I since went to visit the guy at the shop that I hired the car from and he told me and this is the truth, that there had been damage to the car at some point after my hire and because of their incompetence they couldn’t establish who had caused the damage so it was normal practice to charge every person that hired the car for the year and the ones that complained would get a refund and the others may not notice or say it must have been them and accept it. Thank you amex for giving me the fair side of protection as if I had to complain through any other card as I have in the past, it is up to ME to prove the vendor is in the wrong and with AMEX it is the other way around. I understand this can be subject to abuse from certain parties but at least in my case it gives me the insurance that I need.

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