Complaint Review: American Express

I contacted American Express on 4/23/2014 to inform them of two charges ($30.09 & $100.00) made to my card that are fraudulent. At that time American Express refunded the money to my card and ordered a new card for me. Today 4/25/2014, I logged onto my account as I do every morning and noticed the charges were back. I contacted American Express again and spoke with "Gordon" an overseas agent. He informed me they would now have to dispute the charges with the merchant, whom is ExxonMobil. However, during the dispute process I would not get my money back and American Express could not even guarantee that I would get my money back in at the end of the 6-8 (or longer) week dispute process because it's dependent on what the merchant, ExxonMobil says.

This obviously made me furious as I am the customer and I'm telling them the charges are not mine. In addition, this is a prepaid card, with my own money. After hearing the same thing again and again from Gordon, I asked to speak with a supervisor. He placed "Sharon" on the phone, another overseas operator. Sharon advised me of the same thing and I am just in shock this is American Expresses policy, to make their customer suffer while waiting for a merchant, ExxonMobil to make the decision if the charges were in fact, fraud. I pointed out to Sharon, that according to the transaction, these charges were made in Miami, FL and I live in Dallas, TX, I then curtly told her to look at a map, the card was in my possession the entire time and I've never been to Miami, FL. Still, I have to wait out the dispute process to see if I am going to get my funds back.

First, why would American Express on 4/23/2014 just refund the money and send me a new card, then allow the charges to clear, then proceed to tell me om 4/25/2014 that I can't have my money back, I have to dispute the charges and wait for the outcome. This is the complete opposite thing that I was advised on 4/23/2014. Again, this is a prepaid card I put money on that I refer to as "fun money" so it's my own money American Express is taking from me.

I also do not appreciate that when I was speaking with Gordon, he asked me what I did for a living, which I responded honestly, System Operations. He proceeded to tell me I was I.T., I quickly corrected him and said no, I do light programming and write in SQL. He then said since I do that, that I understand what data mining is and I know how to work a computer. Was that his way of telling me I did this?? Just because I know how to write in one form of code?? I was insulted! I closed my card with American Express and demanded a refund on the money on my card. Though American Express can easily remove money from my checking account, they cannot refund it and I am once again inconvenienced as I have to find a western union and again, I'm at the mercy of American Express as I have to wait for a phone call providing the western union number. These are just terrible business practices.