Originally Posted by
snic
Unlike you, I'm no lawyer, but let's say you answer an ad for a $100 ipad by calling the 800 number in the ad. The ad fine print says "we will bill you for membership in our club at $20 per month for the next 24 months". You ask the CSR if you can get that reduced to $5 per month, and he says yes. Then, a month later, the company charges you $20 and says it's what's in the T&C listed on the ad that matters, not what the CSR said. Seems pretty obvious to me that the company employed a pretty nasty bait-and-switch to get you to sign up -- one that is similar to what Amex is going to pull on you when you ask for your 100k points, complete with conflicting verbal vs fine print statements.
The contract is formed on the phone between me and the CSR. The company is going to be hard-pressed to incorporate T&C that conflict with what the CSR agreed to on the phone.
Now, if the CSR starts agreeing to things that beyond their actual discretion, and beyond what would be their apparent discretion from the perspective of a reasonable person in my position, then the company has a good argument for voiding the deal.
With Amex, though, this is not CSRs playing Let's Make a Deal. This is Amex's computers making the decision. They have all of my current and former account information (full knowledge of the key facts) and they decide to accept my bonus offer application. And it's critical to note that it wasn't mere acceptance of my cc application -- it was express acceptance of the bonus offer.