AMEX - Assistance with a charge?

American Express always raves about it's own customer service. Im wondering if what I am asking from them is in scope for their services.

I am going to Japan next month and booked ferry tickets on the ferry's website. It says that you can login with your reservation number and cancel online at anytime.

Well, I needed to cancel, and when I logged in, it said I needed to call to cancel it.

Not a big fan of the idea of calling Japan, so I submitted an email to Amex. I picked the topic "disputing a charge" because it seemed the most relevant out of all the help topics.

This isn't a case of a fraudulent charge, just a lying website that won't let me cancel online.

I got the traditional "dispute a charge" letter saying that they are researching it to see if the vendor violated their agreement with Amex.

I guess I was just thinking Amex is an international company, it says it takes care of their members, I was almost hoping they would somehow help me cancel this reservation.

Now it says it will take 6-8 weeks for them to investigate, which goes way over the time of the reservation and Im thinking should they find that the company is not at fault, I totally lose my $$.

Any advice here? Should I re-contact Amex and be more clear? I feel like this is a unique request and would need to talk to someone other than the normal fraud investigator, so Id have no idea the avenue to go through. Anyone have ANY experiences like this?

TIA!

Re: AMEX - Assistance with a charge?

I don't think you should have disputed the charge without going through the the ferry company to cancel your reservation. I understand their site was misleading but they aren't taking money for nothing at this point. I would contact AMEX to cancel the investigation - I agree with you that you will likely be out the money since the ferry company didn't do anything wrong and call the ferry company to cancel the reservations. Maybe you can email them first to see if they can cancel that way.

Re: AMEX - Assistance with a charge?

Re: AMEX - Assistance with a charge?

I would call AMEX and discuss the issue with them and see what they say - as opposed to just sending the email.

Talking to someone will provide a bit more info.

I had to dispute charges with them and they told me it would take 6-8 weeks too but, it took a little less time (I had tickets booked on an airline that went out of business though in my case).

Re: AMEX - Assistance with a charge?

I would call them- they will advise you of your options

anything you can print out as evidence will be helpful