American Express Membership Rewards - The BBB - Who Would Have Thought?!

Back in August of 2011 Mrs. ariyo15 and I both applied for two AMEX cards. I got the PRG and the Business Gold, while she got the PRG and the "standard" gold. We applied at the end of August, about 10 days before the shut down of the "better-bonus-bumps."

At the time, I wasn't 100% aware of everything going on, but I "knew" that I could call up and match to a better offer. "Great," I figured. "This is awesome! Instead of just 15 or 25,000 points, I'll now get 175,000 between my two and the Mrs. will get 100k!" Sounded great, but as many of you know, the next 8-10 months were a nightmare!

With hours - nay, days! - spent on the phone between August, 2011 and April, 2012, I was continuously spun in circles. I started (for about the first three months) with "Of course you're getting them. Just wait the 6-8 weeks!" Then it was "Hmm. That's weird, they should have posted by now. Not to worry - I'm not allowed to manually post them, but I'll take care of it - you'll get your points." Then, it was "I don't think you're going to get those." And lastly it was "This is as far as we can escalate this problem - our final answer is no!"

Needless to say, that didn't sit well with me. Just last week though I had an epiphany as I saw a smart car with some local business' art on the side, saying "Accredited with the BBB." That was it - I dusted off the old notes I had taken during each call, with names, times, dates, offer codes, etc... and put it all into a BBB complaint online. I didn't waste the time with my wife's b/c I honestly didn't think it would go anywhere, so why double my trouble. That though, is where I was wrong. Yesterday (about six days after the initial complaint being filed) I noticed 185,000 points posted into my MR account!!!! 175,000 broken into the two different bonuses, and 10,000 with some other coding - seemingly compensation for my troubles! WHOOAA!!!

Of course, after seeing that I quickly fired one off for my wife.

Honestly though, it's ridiculous. To think I have to be on top of this for A FULL YEAR before I see any benefit - and to have to take it to the BBB on top of it! Well, at least it's all water under the bridge now :)

Moral of the story: The BBB is your friend!!

Congratulations!!

I sense the BBB will be very busy with Amex complaints in the coming weeks once this hits the blogs, lol.

Congratulations though!

I sense the BBB will be very busy with Amex complaints in the coming weeks once this hits the blogs, lol.

Congratulations though!

That was kind of the point ;) What they did was absolutely unfair. While they have full right to end the bump-up-program, they can't just leave hundreds stranded. Had I applied on September 3rd, I would not have filed and instead, said, "Oh well - it could have been good."

Thankfully though, they made up for it. While I still think their way of handling it was an embarrassment to what they call "customer service," I'm happy they finally woke up and handled this appropriately.

That was kind of the point ;) What they did was absolutely unfair. While they have full right to end the bump-up-program, they can't just leave hundreds stranded. Had I applied on September 3rd, I would not have filed and instead, said, "Oh well - it could have been good."

Thankfully though, they made up for it. While I still think their way of handling it was an embarrassment to what they call "customer service," I'm happy they finally woke up and handled this appropriately.

I too had to resort to the BBB to help with AMEX for a very similar situation. Seems as if AMEX doesn't like unresolved complaints with the BBB because they 180'd on me once the BBB got involved.

They have taken care of everything post the BBB incident without hesitation, I wonder if our accounts are somehow marked or flagged after something like this.

I too had to resort to the BBB to help with AMEX for a very similar situation. Seems as if AMEX doesn't like unresolved complaints with the BBB because they 180'd on me once the BBB got involved.

They have taken care of everything post the BBB incident without hesitation, I wonder if our accounts are somehow marked or flagged after something like this.

I certainly hope not. I really don't see why they would be - it's not like we just came up with random BS to complain about.

Ironically, I had a complaint with a merchant once and the BBB was not able to get ANYTHING resolved. A dispute with AMEX (and the resulting impact on the merchants accounts) and the merchant quickly changed their tune, acknowledged their errors, and offered to reduce their original fee by $500 to resolve the dispute. Way to go AMEX!

I had given up on the BBB after that incident as a "pay to play" broker - where businesses that pay their dues are rewarded with favorable outcomes if a dispute ever arises. I would have never considered using them for AMEX, but I will store this in my repository of tricks if ever needed. Thanks OP!

Ironically, I had a complaint with a merchant once and the BBB was not able to get ANYTHING resolved. A dispute with AMEX (and the resulting impact on the merchants accounts) and the merchant quickly changed their tune, acknowledged their errors, and offered to reduce their original fee by $500 to resolve the dispute. Way to go AMEX!

I had given up on the BBB after that incident as a "pay to play" broker - where businesses that pay their dues are rewarded with favorable outcomes if a dispute ever arises. I would have never considered using them for AMEX, but I will store this in my repository of tricks if ever needed. Thanks OP!

Help comes in all sorts of forms! In this case, for me, it was the BBB. Hopefully any of you who had points withheld can follow suit and claim what was promised!

Just curious... Anyone else gone ahead and filed a BBB complaint as well?

Filed a complaint last week after getting the run around for 3 weeks by their totally useless CSRs: "You will hear from us within a day or two" was their standard answer, of course never heard back. Filed a complaint with the NY BBB against their HQ, received acknowledgement from the BBB the next day, the day after received a call from AMEX about an "issue I have", two hours later the issue was resolved.

Just filed a similar request for my wife as I mentioned I'm the OP... Hers took a bit longer to resolve, but in the end she was given 80,000 MRs!!!