Sprodo

Soo, I'm an AMEX plat cardholder, and AMEX basically emailed me and a lot of other card holders, and used 'cc' rather than 'bcc'. This is annoying anyway in any circumstance, but I'll let my housing association do this as it is run by a bunch of grandmas. However I really don't expect a company like AMEX to be able to do this anyway, let alone do it!

In the UK this is probably a breach of data protection act, but nothing would happen on a one off I imagine and it was only relatively small scale. I'm looking to dump the card anyway with all of its 'devaluation' in the last 12 months, but think its worth trying to get some MR out of them at least.

Anyone had anything similar, or recommend an alternative course of action?

MoneyBagger

Wow...that is really really poor. I hope there were no personal details in the email too!

Was it a general marketing email or targeted email?

Is the email genuine? I sometimes get spoof emails but my junk filter picks those up.

Sprodo

No personal details - it was from Lifestyle team about ticket allocations for an event.

Definitely genuine as they admitted it...!

gum

Although this may be inconvenient this happens sometimes. Not by a large, credit card company like Amex but by smaller business partners.

IMHO the only course of action is to approach the sender in a friendly and not humiliating way. He/She already will know by tons of negative comments that he/she made a fault.

And I see no reason for squeezing out a compensation in form of MR points if you already want to end transactions with them. For me it seems a bit like being a freeloader.

You haven't had any harm and just would like to get a compensation for a minor annoyance. Due to the fact that I treat all business partners with respect squeezing out a compensation for nothing is far beyond all thinkable alternatives.

So no course of action IMHO!

Sprodo

I'm far from being an 'ambulance chaser', however it strikes me as crazy that anyone is able to do that. I do not blame the person that did it really, its the fact Amex allow it to happen. Especially when asking people to pay £450 a year, to become a cardholder! I've had some experience in 'email marketing' and know that this kind of information + the background of the people on the list (probably all Amex plat or cent, looked to get tickets for a certain event etc) would be worth a bit of money to sell this information on.

If I don't kick up a fuss, how will things like this ever get fixed!

tigertanaka

I would complain to AMEX as even if it is not illegal it is certainly unprofessional. Any company, especially those associated with financial services, has a moral duty of care to look after your data in a secure manner.

I had a similar experience with another household name organisation about 6 months ago - they dealt with it in a very good way by promptly following up the mistake with an apology (on an email using BCC) from the CEO.

bumblebees

I wouldn't be that bothered tbh but that's just me....

chanp

I got the same email. I was just about to email them.

enda1

The pertinent question really is what lifestyle event did I miss out on??

gum

+1

Sprodo

Beyonce tour. Had an email from the VP of Lifestyle from EMEA offering a £50 credit on my statement - did not even push this anymore as the girl dealing with my complaint is meant to be off!

Well done Amex, better than some MR points I guess

chanp

I was offered the same thing.

origin

I might have missed something. Why do you have the need to use a housing association property and an AMEX card.

mia

I don't believe the housing association reference pertains to American Express, but rather the practice of sending emails with a visible CC: recipients list rather than a concealed BCC: list.