UA Fan

I applied for the 50K PRG earlier this year and one of the T&C was that it had to be at least 12 months since you had the card. I am pretty certain I did not have any in my name in more than a year, however at the time of applying my wife had one and I think I was an AU on that.

Amex refused the bonus saying I had a similar card within the past year. Does Amex consider secondary cards also?

flyer4512

The question is does Amex consider any other Amer personal card a similar card ? I would say yes because having the same card is not similar.


This what concerned me when members said use a fresh browser to make a certain offer appear. Fresh browser or not Amex knows who you are when you apply.

I was getting the this offer is not available (10K +15K) to you as you have been identified as a current Amex cardholder message when I would bring up a SPG app and redirected to a 10k page.

I use the fresh browser, did not log in and applied under the 25K offer a couple weeks ago.

My 10K first purchase posted, rather than spend the $5k blindly and hope I chatted with Amex and without telling them what offer I signed up for asked them what my SU bonus would be.

Two different agents told me it was 10K points/first spend and neither saw anything about an additional 15K points.

mia

Not to my knowledge, but ask them to be more specific.

Problems with the SPG offer have been consistently reported since 2010, see this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...us-points.html

The explanation offered by American Express is almost always that their records show that you only applied for a 10,000 point offer. This is not the "existing cardholder" problem.

flyer4512

I applied under the 25K offer and upon reading your response hit AMEX up again on chat to verify what offer I applied under. I told them before when they said it was 10k that I applied under the 25 K link

They confirmed that I did apply under that offer but am not eligible for the additional 15K because I already have a Amex branded card.

I'm fine with it though as 10,000 points for a $5 spend is fine, plenty of other cards to go to and this just means I will know longer be keeping any AMEX card as I have had the HH Amex since 2005

Jetsfan

I applied for a 50K offer and did not get the points. What bothered me is that there was no notification that the offer would not be honored, and even after I sent a secure message I had to wait and send more messages to get an answer. The reason for being denied was for having a card 11 and a half months ago. No exception would be made.

flyer4512

Did you have the same car 11 1/2 months ago ? When I applied it said if you had the same card within 12 months you would not get the full bonus.

Despite the objections of some I always verify the SU bonus before I spend the $$. This way if they deny me it's no big deal and I just get a different card/points.

babycakes01

+1 here. I have called AMEX customer service several times and each time they look at the application and tell me there was no bonus for this card. Each time I tell them it was on the Starwood webpage. They have referred my "case" to their marketing department and I have been assured of a phone call back. Still waiting for that call!

I have had this product in the past but it was well over two years ago that I closed that account. I recently received a targeted offer for a business card with a signup bonus but I think I will skip it and keep my business business (?) with Chase.

I have two other AMEX cards. A Costco card and a BCP card, both of them I am planning on keeping. I cannot say the same for this card. That is too bad as this is the first negative issue that I have had with AMEX.

Mats

I ended up complaining through the Better Business Bureau. I got a useless reply from American Express. All they did was document all of my contacts with them. They continue to state that they have "no record" of a signup bonus. They don't care that I have screen shots of where I applied for the card; they just claim "no record."

As far as I can tell, I have no recourse with them.

Their repeated line is "We consider this matter to be closed."

As others have mentioned, 25,000 points isn't much. But they're really being nasty about this one.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

flyer4512

Reason # 1 why I break "rule #1" ( according to some on this forum) and get an SM confirming my signup bonus BEFORE I spend a dime on any card.


They can still deny you but at least you have proof of what offer you signed up under

MarkMColo

Unless you're talking about "snail mail", how do you get an SM from AMEX these days?

Jetsfan

My problem with Amex SM is that when I am promised a response within a certain number of days, I do not receive the response. When I send a follow-up, I receive back the same script. These were sent in the context of a bonus not posting. I prefer to call Amex and present the case. I might not get what I want, but I get closure. In one instance, I asked for 5000 MR points and received them (even though I did not get the 50K that I was seeking).

Mats

The only "snail mail" I received were three letters with almost identical text. They just kept saying, "we have no record." AMEX ignored the printouts and evidence I provided. I filed complaints through the BBB and the FTC (the latter does not handle individual disputes.)

American Express was unapologetic.

I felt like it was as if I saw a gallon of 1% milk for $1.99. But I went to the cash register, and they said, "that will be $11.99. That price tag is wrong. The price tag on the shelf is wrong. The package is labeled incorrectly That isn't actually 1% milk. Case closed. Goodbye."

It's not like I even had great plans for 25,000 reward points. I barely know their value (not much.)

They're fighting hard for something that isn't currency at all, and isn't in a massive amount. It's quite sad from a customer service perspective.

flyer4512

SM has been replaced with Chat for Amex but still works with other cards. I used chat once so I forgot to mention that.

Take a screenshot of the Chat as evidence although if the rep says your going to get "xyz bonus after xyz spend " without you telling them what bonus you are expecting chances are it's in the system and you are all set.

I always let them tell me what I will be getting or in a couple cases ( LAST SPG CARD, etc) not getting.

schneider4

Hi -

I signed up for the Amex SPG card in July 2013. The deal that I signed up for was 10K points on first purchase, with 15K more points after spending $5,000 in 6 months. I neglected to screenshot what I saw (shame on me for that one), and now I'm getting a runaround from Amex - their position is that this offer wasn't available at that time (although they acknowledge that it was before and after - it's even available now).

Any suggestions on how to proceed? I've called in, but their customer service folks don't seem to be terribly interested (or able) to resolve this. How do I find someone at Amex who cares?

Thanks for any insight...

mia

Discussion begins here in 2010:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...us-points.html

and continues here...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html