Customer says they cancelled a subscription

C28 means the customer (Amex calls customers cardmembers) says they cancelled a subscription and were billed anyway.

How it arrives

A C28 usually comes within a month or two of the disputed renewal. The notice, which carries the dispute reason (the code on your notice), names the renewal date and amount. Respond before the date on that notice. Your payment company sets it, and it comes before the card network's own limit.

Amex is both the customer's bank and the card brand, so its own dispute team reads your response. It tends to apply stricter standards than other banks on how visible your cancellation route was at sign-up.

What the issuer is looking for

• Did the customer agree to recurring billing at sign-up? A click-through record showing the schedule and price is the foundation. Agreement buried in terms the customer did not have to read counts for little.
• Was the way to cancel clear and easy to reach? Amex expects it to be at least as easy as signing up. A one-click sign-up with phone-only cancellation during business hours fails this test.
• Did the customer use that route before the renewal? Your cancellation log shows it. If the log is empty and the route was reasonable, your case holds. If the customer cancelled by chat, email, or phone and you have no record, Amex often gives them the benefit of the doubt.

Usage records add weight. Logins through and past the renewal date weaken a claim of cancellation.

Common scenarios and the evidence for each

• Subscription the customer believed they cancelled. The cancellation route you published and the absence of a request through it.
• Free trial that turned into a paid plan. Amex asks for all four of these: terms disclosed clearly with a simple way to cancel before the first paid charge, the cardmember's express consent to them, a written confirmation when they enrolled, and a written reminder before the first paid charge.
• Cancellation sent by another channel. The case rests on how reasonable your published cancellation page was.
• Renewal at a higher price. If you told them about the change in advance and the customer did not cancel, you are generally protected. An undisclosed change can be reversed.

If the claim is different

If the customer says the original sign-up was not theirs, the dispute belongs under Amex F29 (customer says they didn't make the online purchase). Orders that never arrived and quality complaints arrive under C08 and other C-series codes.

How we help

We draft C28 responses from the original agreement, the cancellation route you published, and your cancellation log, built to what Amex's guide accepts: your policy with how you disclosed it and how the cardmember did not follow it, or proof they never cancelled and kept using the service. If you have received one, your first response is free. Try free.