American Express Membership Rewards - Price Guarantee?

So I bought myself a nice new flat panel display from Dell.com to go with my shiny new macbook last week. Today, I get an e-mail from dealmac that the price was just cut ~$10 and now shipping's free (which cost me ~$20 the first time). Hmm. . .no problem, I'll just call Amex and ask them to handle it as I bought it on my starwood amex card. Boy was I wrong.

The person on the other end of the line had no idea what I was talking about. Amex apparently doesn't do price guarantees (or at least not anymore)--am I making up the fact that this was a benefit? I could swear that it was provided. Only on plat? Am I crazy here?

Normally, I'd follow this post with a general, "what has the world come to" remark about Amex service. But given that I'm still fighting with Visa over a bar charge that I disputed (Visa doesn't understand that when you use a credit card to secure a tab and then close the tab in cash, the additional charge on your visa card that can't be backed up with a signed receipt is fraud), I guess it's the entire industry that's going down the drain. ::sigh::

The person on the other end of the line had no idea what I was talking about. Amex apparently doesn't do price guarantees (or at least not anymore)--am I making up the fact that this was a benefit? I could swear that it was provided. Only on plat? Am I crazy here?

I just checked their website. I know they used to offer this benefit pretty much on all their cards, but a few years ago (I think back in 2006-2007), they started to cut back.

Looking at their website, I don't see any of their cards having Price Protection anymore.

Oddly enough, I just requested the Program Information for my Citi PremierPass and it appears that they still continue to provide Purchase Protection, but it does not cover internet purchases (so pretty much useless).

The price protection feature went away about two years ago IIRC (there's a thread on it somewhere). You could use return protection, but I think you're over the limit. You could also call Dell and say you want to return for refund - it's possible they do a price match instead.

Agreed. If you are within the return period for the original Dell purchase, you can try to tell them that you will return/reorder unless they match. But you would most likely need to get someone higher-up to approve of that.

Keep in mind though, that if you do decide to return, you're on your own for shipping, so that cuts into any potential savings you might get.

Agreed. If you are within the return period for the original Dell purchase, you can try to tell them that you will return/reorder unless they match. But you would most likely need to get someone higher-up to approve of that.

Keep in mind though, that if you do decide to return, you're on your own for shipping, so that cuts into any potential savings you might get.

Yeah, that's my worry (that the cost of shipping negates the cost of the rebate). I guess I'm SOL. . .

Thanks for everyone's insights.

Best Value Guarantee (BVG) is a thing of the past because it was so prone to abuse. Two of the most oft reported issues were mail in rebates and brooklyn based camera stores, that advertised cameras at extremly low prices but never intended to deliver. The program was scaled back in several steps before it got canceled altogether since it just didn't make sense from a fiscal perspective.