ctbarron

Glad something improved. I only have the PRG, so no other benchmarks on this issue.

kellyfjn

Hi, I'm kind of new here, and this is my 1st thread. Not sure if discussed anywhere here, but I'm going to talk about the Amex Blue Cash Preferred Grocery Category.

When I checked my monthly statements, I recon that lots of stores coded as "grocery" in the activity page has no cat specification in the statement and rewarded as 1%, including Whole Foods, Wegman, Wawa and my local liquor store. What really astonished me are Whole Foods and Wegman, because I usually consider it as a standard american supermarket. Moreover, there's even an Amex statement to assure Whole Foods to be "supermarket": https://www.americanexpress.com/us/c...fo/retail.html

I just called the amex rep about my concerning. The rep was super nice but trying to confirm me that whole foods and wegman are "special stores". After I talked her about the previous link, she said that may be my local whole foods are special and not coded as "grocery". When I told her about the cat in the account activities, she talked with some "specialist" for a good while and finally claimed that there was an internal issue with the coding that they fixed and I'll get my previous cb refunded and the future purchase correctly rewarded. Didn't asked them for other groceries a part from those two, but I'm definitely not calling and spending time with them for same/other stores next time. Hope no hassles in the future, otherwise I doubt if BCP is worth as advertised.

mia

Welcome to Flyertalk. I have appended your post to the established thread discussing this problem, which appears to be nothing more than a data processing error at American Express.

tsmith12

FYI- For folks that shop at "Stater Bros" stores, I did not get 2X on my PRG, even though the transactions were listed under "Grocery Stores" CSR informed me the stores weren't coded as such when AMEX got the charges and they could not award 2X on it. Of course, they voluntarily credited my account with the bonus points as a "one-time" courtesy.

Never had any issues with Vons, Ralphs, and Alberstons charges.

farwest101

You were told nonsense by the CSR - if it's coded as grocery, then you should get the 2x (or 6x or 5%). I suspect everyone was screwed out of the proper bonus points in Dec and January - and unless you call, none have been retroactively posted unless you call and get eyeballs looking. For those of us adverse to eyeballs, we just let it slide. My latest Surpass and BC statements both started reporting proper bonus categories at grocery again - but no retroactive points were given for the two months I didn't get the correct amount.

tsmith12

Well, that was the issue- Stater Bros is not coded as a grocery store by the merchant, even though it is one and was listed as a grocery store on the statement. CSR said they had no control over how that merchant decided to code.

farwest101

Almost positive that it's whatever Amex codes your purchase that matters, not the merchant (you think Amex would blithely allow Sam's Club/Costco to code themselves as grocery? Lots of people would love that).

If your statement shows grocery, you're entitled to bonus points. And vice versa (eg, no grocery code, no points). What happened in the past few months is despite grocery being coded correctly, grocery bonus points weren't awarded - had nothing to do with merchant coding and everything to do with Amex miscoding. Amex knows there is a problem but isn't doing anything unless you call.

mia

Neither. The merchant's acquirer choose the classification code. The credit card issuer, however, choose which codes to aggregate into the categories that it uses for promotional purposes. The notion that frontline CSR's know specifically what's gone wrong is amusing , they just want to make a plausible statement to get us off the phone.

2B or back in coach

My HH Surpass March statement just closed. It showed "Other bonuses" of 26k. That is the amount that did not post in Dec.

farwest101

Same with my PRG card - statement closed a few days ago and I rec'd the missing MRs from Dec/Jan. Nice to hear Surpass also had missing points awarded.

So all seems to be (finally) back in order. But sure would have been nice to get a better acknowledgement of the problem - and the resolution - rather than dumping the points into accounts without notice. I could have used those missing MRs last month...

xnarg

I am about to get my Amex Blue. Are the points being posted correctly now? Will be a shame to waste a CC app and then not get to use it if AmEx is playing shenanigans.

jimz1012

I thought when I applied this card it had 2x points for supermarkets and grocery stores. but when I checked the website today, I couldn't find the bonus for grocery stores. did amex change the bonus category recently? or I remembered it wrong. Also is it 2x for Kroger and Payless?can someone confirm it for me?

mia

Nothing has changed. See here:

https://www304.americanexpress.com/c...ards-learnmore

jimz1012

can someone confirm if you get 1x or 2x in Kroger and Payless? I purchased gc there last month and points are not posted

mia

Login to americanexpress.com
Find a transaction at Kroger or Payless
Click the + icon to the left to expand the transaction details
If it's a Supermarket you should see somthing like this: