pandoracrystal

Hi all,

I had a rather unpleasant dealing with the Amex CS recently and thought i should seek advice here.

I recently referred hubby to sign up for the Amex Platinum card. He proceeded to call the 1800 number to have the application completed over the phone. I specifically asked my husband to ask the agent if there's any bonus referral rewards for me referring him to join Amex. To the agent's reply, he stated that there's no such program and that Amex doesn't offer any referral reward bonuses. Hubby then proceeded with the application and obtained approval.

I later went online and learned that I could simply log on to my account and earn referral bonus by entering hubby's email address, in which case he will get an email with a link to complete the online app. We would have both gotten reward bonuses that way (10,000 to him & 5,000 to me)

Hubby later called the CS center and reported the same. The agent handling the call claims that I will need to be 'invited' to earn referral rewards. I then requested to speak to the supervisor and was told by the supervisor the same info.

Is this true? This is obviously not what I learned from the existing Amex website. Did I miss something?? I am not used to all these reward offers and I know it's not a lot of points anyway... but I am just a little annoyed by this 'misinformed' treatment... any thoughts? Many thanks!

amrom

Log in to Amex, and send an SM explaining your situation, they should be helpful on this one.

mia

Welcome to Flyertalk. This part is accurate, referral offers are targeted. It appears you were targeted and could have earned the bonus if you had followed the process, generated the referral -and- if your husband had applied online using the link provided in the referral email. The entire process is automated, and online offers seldom apply to telephone applications.

If you ask nicely they may give you some amount of points as a goodwill gesture.

flymonthly

The process may be automated, but it certainly doesn't always work correctly. I referred people on two different occasions and made numerous phone calls and SMs trying to get the referral bonus. I ended up writing a letter to the SVP of Membership Rewards. The assistant that responded said she couldn't understand why I hadn't gotten the bonuses since my account showed that I was due them. She gave me an extra 5K MR points for my troubles, but I don't know that it would be worth going through that effort again.

redtop43

There is a quantum difference between Amex applications online and by phone. I'm not sure why, but there are.

I agree with mia, bonus offers are targeted. In the past, I have logged into my acconut and sometimes seen referral offers, but other times they don't show up in any kind of obvious way, but if I search on the word "referral" I will get a referral link.

I know these links work; I have gotten referral bonuses.

The CSR probably meant there are no bonus referrals available for phone applications, which might well be true. Alas, their CSR's are also generally not as knowledgable about the whole application process as regular readers of this FT forum.

You can certainly try to get a bonus by writing or calling, but frankly, it may be so much trouble that it's not worth it if it's only 5000 points.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ding-them.html

pandoracrystal

thank you for all your input. i have since written an email via the message center and the reply was they have forwarded my complaints and concerns to the correct dept and will investigate the matter. i shall report back the outcome, if any! many thanks!

mia

It's the same at all of the credit card factories (Bank of America, Chase, Citi). I assume it is because the costs of the call centers are charged against the cards which are opened by telephone. Accounts opened online are self-service.

ringbark

Part of the difference is that the credit scorecards are different depending on which channel you use to apply.
Online, telephone, invite to apply, take-one, referral - they all have different scorecards reflecting different risk profiles.
Whether this is also reflected in the customer service, I can't say, but it is important from the issuer's point of view to know what channel the application originated.

pandoracrystal

thank you for the input. i just want to update on the outcome. i haven't yet heard back from anyone via SM but i did make a few calls today and spoke to the supervisor at the CS. after much discussion, hubby was credited 3000 points. it's a joke but end of story.

i guess my point is that it's not about the little reward points, i was just annoyed by the incorrect info offered to my hubby at the time of signing, in which the supervisor also acknowledged the same. yes, we should have known better (signing online via correct link vs. over the phone) but as consumers we rely on CS for up-to-date info as well.

anyway, not a good start with amex plat but hopefully it will get better...

separately, we were trying to apply for amex plat AUS but they said they won't consider US income, what a shame.... we were able to get our hsbc premier acc and credit cards set up here for AUS so not sure why it's can't be done for amex plat AUS....

mia

American Express has a separate program called Global Transfers which you can read about here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...xperience.html

biggysmall2

I am a US Platinum Card member and would like to refer a friend to Gold. I can't seem to find any "refer a friend" pages on the Amex website. Are these offers only provided on a targeted basis?

mia

I have not paid close attention, but in general I think you can only refer someone to apply for the same card that you hold.

Try this:

• Go to americanexpress.com
• Login
• In the Search box (upper right) type: referral
• This should generate a link titled: Refer your Card
• My account returns: Sorry, your card is not eligible to participate at this time.

hqly2001

MY wife would like to sign up for the card but I don't see the referral tab to refer her. How does one refer someone?

mia

hqly2001's question has been appended to the discussion in progress. Reading the previous posts will explain one way to test if there are any referral offers authorized for your account.

teddy25

I referred multiple people with the 100k offer on the HH surpass, but I have yet to receive any referral points(15k each). Has anyone else received them yet?