LondonElite
Nov 14, 03, 6:26 am
Some of you may remember that about a year ago I posted and unusually generous offer Amex was running, published in its Departures magazine.
Here is the old link to that thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/pasttalk/ftpasttalk_forum/Forum69/HTML/001402.html
The offer was for unlimited champagne at the Oyster Bar in the Carlton Tower hotel. The offer, which is still active on the website, was meant to run until 31 December 2003.
http://www.departures.com/britishexcellence/25.html
I called the Oyster Bar yesterday to find out whether they knew anything about this. Unsurprisingly they did not. I get put through to increasingly more senior people who either tell me that the promotion is over or that it never existed. Telling them that it was a published offer from Amex made no difference. Finally the restaurant manager agreed to speak to the head of marketing who would ring me back with a decision. Predictably he did not.
So I call Amex PCS in the UK (ie Brighton). They have no idea about this offer so I tell them about Departures magazine which they insist has nothin to do with American Express! I push this point a little and a senior person in the 'Lifestyles' group insists that Amex has never had any magazine called Departures anywhere in the world and that this must be some sort of co-branding exercise. I try to get her to go to the website but I am wasting my breath.
To get back to the issue at hand, I tell her I'm holding the voucher, which clearly states that it is valid until 31 Dec 2003, when she tells me that they ran the promotion last year and that my voucher has some sort of printing error. She's not getting the point. She insists that the promotion ended in 2002. I then ask her why the blackout period clearly states 1 Dec 2002 to 6 Jan 2003. She is confused.
She then tells me that Amex reserves the right to change the T&Cs, and that's what they've done in this case. This is seriously aggravating...a bait and switch I ask her? She tells me all companies can change their rules at any time.
...but Departures is most certainly not an Amex magazine!
Here is the old link to that thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/pasttalk/ftpasttalk_forum/Forum69/HTML/001402.html
The offer was for unlimited champagne at the Oyster Bar in the Carlton Tower hotel. The offer, which is still active on the website, was meant to run until 31 December 2003.
http://www.departures.com/britishexcellence/25.html
I called the Oyster Bar yesterday to find out whether they knew anything about this. Unsurprisingly they did not. I get put through to increasingly more senior people who either tell me that the promotion is over or that it never existed. Telling them that it was a published offer from Amex made no difference. Finally the restaurant manager agreed to speak to the head of marketing who would ring me back with a decision. Predictably he did not.
So I call Amex PCS in the UK (ie Brighton). They have no idea about this offer so I tell them about Departures magazine which they insist has nothin to do with American Express! I push this point a little and a senior person in the 'Lifestyles' group insists that Amex has never had any magazine called Departures anywhere in the world and that this must be some sort of co-branding exercise. I try to get her to go to the website but I am wasting my breath.
To get back to the issue at hand, I tell her I'm holding the voucher, which clearly states that it is valid until 31 Dec 2003, when she tells me that they ran the promotion last year and that my voucher has some sort of printing error. She's not getting the point. She insists that the promotion ended in 2002. I then ask her why the blackout period clearly states 1 Dec 2002 to 6 Jan 2003. She is confused.
She then tells me that Amex reserves the right to change the T&Cs, and that's what they've done in this case. This is seriously aggravating...a bait and switch I ask her? She tells me all companies can change their rules at any time.
...but Departures is most certainly not an Amex magazine!