People in the Chase forum that have multiple experiences to understand what are the real Chase's practices.

Phone reps (for any company) just read scripts and if you ask something outside their provided script, the response is unreliable. It is very possible the rep provided the standard "if no previous bonus" answer and ignore the part about the waived annual fee - they may or may not be familiar with waived first annual fee bonuses.

I don't know the answer but I know customer support reps many time muff non-simple questions.