I am sorry to bring up an old topic, but I am having a hard time with Amex Dispute resolution as well. In my particular case, I reopened a dispute after Amex received a response from the merchant claiming that I was committing fraud and they should not be held liable to a violation of their no-refund policy. The merchant also claimed that I incurred the company several thousand of dollars in extra marketing and administrative costs.

I will admit that the merchant wrote the response beautifully, albeit was nasty and 90% BS. I literally threw up after reading it. They obviously did not incur any extra costs otherwise they would have submitted proof of this. They claimed that I did not submit emails showing their good faith, yet they failed to submit the emails themselves because the emails don't exist.

I was treated like crap by the merchant and essentially strung along until the end where the merchant pulled the "no-refund policy" on me. Hell they even lied to Amex saying that their return policy was on the email confirmation when it wasn't. They even went so far as to say that I was making unreasonable demands and that they were being accommodating when in reality I was simply asking for the service to be performed as I originally paid.

Upon reopening the dispute, I spoke with a representative from the office of the president of Consumer Relations who told me to fax in a detailed response refuting each point in the 27 page claim against me. I asked him how to refute allegations of fraud and using internet services that accompanied the services I never received, which I also never used. He told me to do the best I could. He also informed me that even though he represents the president of consumer relations, there is no way to get in contact with the dispute department, and that he has no pull in terms of their decisions. For the record, he agrees with me that I should get my money back. I asked him if I should send a letter to his boss, and he assured me that it would most likely fall of deaf ears. I also asked the representative, and subsequently called customer service again and asked them to send me a legible copy of the merchant's response. The original that I received from American Express was a letterhead print out of a copy of a fax. Also the pages were not printed out in order and some backs went to other fronts. It was a complete mess.

Despite never receiving a legible copy, I submitted my second response and received a notice two weeks later saying that they closed the case because they could not get in contact with me and are therefore upholding the merchant's no-refund policy and will not open the case again. The letter also explained that I should contact the merchant to attempt to get a refund.

I'll be honest. This whole situation makes me sick to my stomach, especially since I don't have $1000 to throw around. I even addressed my response to Douglas DiPaola, the vice president of dispute resolutions from the Amex offices in Ft Lauderdale. So not only did my response not get to his office, but I received a response by mail saying that they didn't get anything at all.

Why does American Express have a dispute department if they will blatantly tell their customers that they cannot force a merchant to do anything? OBVIOUSLY a merchant will ALWAYS say no to a refund. Reminds me of someone on TV who was drugged and charged over $45,000 at an exclusive club. It wasn't until after he got the FBI involved that American Express acknowledged that the person wasn't lying about being drugged and taken advantage of by what turned out to be a Russian Mafia organized crime scheme. Hell, I would say no too if I was the merchant and I knew I could get away with it.

To make matters worse, American Express informed me that merchant is held to the laws pertaining to the sale of goods and services in the state that they reside. I purchased a service via a website that was to be executed in California. If American Express doesn't know how to apply the law properly (which in this case is California's jurisdiction, not New York), then how they can make a proper decision?

How can American Express wrongly allow a merchant to hide behind a no-refund policy despite deceptive bait-and-switch sales tactics simply because it suits them? It really pains me to believe that just because I am not a high profile customer, I should be treated like those "buyer beware" signs from the early 20th century when there were no consumer laws.

I would like to believe that American Express is at least a LITTLE bit better than other card companies. I can understand that because of the economy, I lost ALL of my benefits on that particular card but I should also lose my sense of loyalty as well? If this is the case then I should go back to my piece of crap Chase Freedom card where I know the company is completely worthless and I don't have to file a dispute to find out.