@longtime_lurker wrote:Does anyone have some experience with disputes in general/with AMEX.
I cancelled a hotel reservation over 2 weeks ago (who had taken a $300 deposit) and was over a month away from the cancellation policy. The e-mail had told me that "the credit would be posted soon". Last Wednesday, I called the hotel and they told me it should show up by Friday (citing 10 business days), and told me to call to call on Friday if it was not there. I gave them the weekend and called today, and I got a snobby attitude who basically told me to pound sand. SO, I went online and initiated a dispute w/ AMEX. My question is should I pay the bill in full, or in full minus the disputed amount. AMEX gives me an approximate resolution time of 4/23/15.
FWIW, there is absolutely no way I will lose the dispute. I have the cancellation e-mail confirmation w/ number, and the confirmation e-mail that elaborates the cancellation policy specific to my reservation..."reservation must be cancelled before March 7, 2015 11:59PM hotel local time to avoid cancellation penalties". I just thought it was pretty crazy to see an expected resolution date of 4/23/15
That's a standard timeframe for a chargeback. Even though you know you will win, Amex still has to give the merchant (in this case, the hotel) a chance to respond and they get a certain amount of time. Then their information gets sent back to Amex who will review it. It all takes time but in your case, I doubt you'll lose as Amex always sides with their cardholdersbut they still have to follow protocol.
I also third that you should pay it; worst comes to worst, you wind up with $300 statement credit which I'm sure you'll use anyway!
Quicksilver $10,000 | Better Balance Rewards $2000 | Sallie Mae $3500 | Freedom $3500
I just recently had a dispute closed in my favor last week. It took about 1 and a half months for the investigation to complete pending review of the evidence, but during the time, Amex gave me a temporary credit so I didn't have to pay. When you log onto your account online, it should have a banner on the top that says "The payment due amount has been adjusted to reflect a disputed amount of $xxx.xx." Once the dispute is finalized, they will let you know if you need to pay the amount if it is decided in the merchant's favor or the temporary adjustment will be permanent.
@scorewatcher7 wrote:Did the snobby person tell you to wait it out, or that you will not be getting the credit? He told me the credit should've already been there, to call the CCC, and that it really wasn't their concern because I wasn't a guest anymore - I told him that there was no way I'd ever stay there again (stayed there once before)
Amex takes a little longer than MC/V to post chargebacks issued by the merchant because the typical merchant processors (the companies that process credit card transactions) are directly fed to MC/V, whereas Amex needs to be rerouted. Also, though the hotel may have processed the chargeback to your card, you don't know if the chargeback was batched out of their system the same day. Some hotels charge your card on day X, but batch the system days later. In that case, the merchant processor wouldn't receive it until the system is batched, and if that is over the weekend, it takes even longer. If this particular hotel processed a chargeback for you on a Monday, but didn't batch it until Friday, had you paid MC/V, you probably won't even see that credit until the following Tuesday at the earliest. Seeing that you paid Amex, could be 5 days on top of that. -Yes, you're absolutely right. For a lot (I don't know about all) Hilton hotels, we use a program called EDC to batch and submit them to the card issuer. It's done every night as part of the EoBD program ot reconcile house accounts. This is the report that the other gal was reading but there was an error w/ the transmission I guess that night I cancelled and it was never submitted. The other gentleman didn't look to see if the batch was successful when she resubmitted my credit, he just told me the above. I know chargebacks for a hotel can be annoying as all hell, which is why I went this route. Wonder if AMEX will be told to pound sand...
If all else fails, disputing with Amex is typically a win... - a good reason why when rewards are equivalent/about the same I choose to swipe AMEX.
Thank you everyone for your replies, I went ahead and submitted a payment for the entire balance. Mostly I was posting on here to make sure that I didn't give up my right to dispute by making a payment that included the disputed charge.
