Dispute that Charge!

In reading an article and its associated line of comments today my debate over credit vs. debit was made tougher (look forward to a post about this).

Apparently, a guy purchased a Western Digital hard drive at a Best Buy in New York City, and when he got home and opened the box, it contained six heavy bathroom tiles wrapped in newspaper. Oddly enough, the Best Buy apparently told him that he was SoL on the matter, and that he should absorb the loss for this scam.

One of the first things he said he did after being told this, was contact his credit card company, American Express (Amex), and tell them to withold payment on his card. This is called "Disputing the Charge."

According to MSN Money, "Credit card purchases are protected under the Fair Credit Billing Act."

According to this article, some stipulations that apply are:

1) You must make a concerted effort to resolve the dispute with the merchant involved.
2) The payment amount must be greater than $50 and have taken place in your home state, or within 100 miles of your home.

If these both apply, then you can make a dispute... although some card companies will provide you assistance anyways, generally because they value your business.

What to do to make your claim: argumentation, stipulation, documentation, registration, evaluation. What I means is that first you must argue the claim with the vendor or merchant, then see if you qualify under the stipulations above, or per your credit card company's rules, then create your claim on paper and submit it with any and all supporting documents, like complaint letters to the vendor, to your credit card company. At that point, your claim is registered and finally after the credit card company has performed its job/research, it makes an evaluation on your claim, choosing either to award the claim in your favor and credit your account (if they haven't done so already), or deny your disputed charge. *Shwew!* Again, MSN Money lays this all out very nicely.