Amex Marriott Promotion Problems
Oct 23, 2021, 4:46 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 226
Amex Marriott Promotion Problems
Added an offer to an Amex card, spend $500 with Marriott get $100 back. This offer did not stipulate locations.
With a Marriott resort trip happening a few weeks, we jumped on this and called the resort to make a payment. Resort sent us an email with instructions on how to complete the payment.
Payment posts to Amex card however after a good week or two, no promotion. I am on chat support right now and they are telling me the payment did not qualify - primarily because the merchant used a third party payment processor.
what?! customer has no way of knowing in advance (or even at time of transaction) how a business processes their payment. Even if the customer know all the questions to ask in advance, low chance the person on the other end would actually be able to answer the questions.
The agent is stating all the different rules and stipulations and all the exclusions where where not actually printed in the small print of the promotion itself.
method is crazy.
anyone else run to not similar problems and pushback?
With a Marriott resort trip happening a few weeks, we jumped on this and called the resort to make a payment. Resort sent us an email with instructions on how to complete the payment.
Payment posts to Amex card however after a good week or two, no promotion. I am on chat support right now and they are telling me the payment did not qualify - primarily because the merchant used a third party payment processor.
what?! customer has no way of knowing in advance (or even at time of transaction) how a business processes their payment. Even if the customer know all the questions to ask in advance, low chance the person on the other end would actually be able to answer the questions.
The agent is stating all the different rules and stipulations and all the exclusions where where not actually printed in the small print of the promotion itself.
method is crazy.
anyone else run to not similar problems and pushback?
Oct 23, 2021, 5:22 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Pacific Northwest
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, AS 75k, AA Plat, Bonvoyed Gold, Honors Dia, Hyatt Explorer, IHG Plat, ...
Posts: 16,897
Added an offer to an Amex card, spend $500 with Marriott get $100 back. This offer did not stipulate locations.
With a Marriott resort trip happening a few weeks, we jumped on this and called the resort to make a payment. Resort sent us an email with instructions on how to complete the payment.
Payment posts to Amex card however after a good week or two, no promotion. I am on chat support right now and they are telling me the payment did not qualify - primarily because the merchant used a third party payment processor.
what?! customer has no way of knowing in advance (or even at time of transaction) how a business processes their payment. Even if the customer know all the questions to ask in advance, low chance the person on the other end would actually be able to answer the questions.
The agent is stating all the different rules and stipulations and all the exclusions where where not actually printed in the small print of the promotion itself.
method is crazy.
anyone else run to not similar problems and pushback?
With a Marriott resort trip happening a few weeks, we jumped on this and called the resort to make a payment. Resort sent us an email with instructions on how to complete the payment.
Payment posts to Amex card however after a good week or two, no promotion. I am on chat support right now and they are telling me the payment did not qualify - primarily because the merchant used a third party payment processor.
what?! customer has no way of knowing in advance (or even at time of transaction) how a business processes their payment. Even if the customer know all the questions to ask in advance, low chance the person on the other end would actually be able to answer the questions.
The agent is stating all the different rules and stipulations and all the exclusions where where not actually printed in the small print of the promotion itself.
method is crazy.
anyone else run to not similar problems and pushback?
Oct 24, 2021, 3:01 pm
#3
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,350
Added an offer to an Amex card, spend $500 with Marriott get $100 back. This offer did not stipulate locations.
With a Marriott resort trip happening a few weeks, we jumped on this and called the resort to make a payment. Resort sent us an email with instructions on how to complete the payment.
Payment posts to Amex card however after a good week or two, no promotion. I am on chat support right now and they are telling me the payment did not qualify - primarily because the merchant used a third party payment processor.
what?! customer has no way of knowing in advance (or even at time of transaction) how a business processes their payment. Even if the customer know all the questions to ask in advance, low chance the person on the other end would actually be able to answer the questions.
The agent is stating all the different rules and stipulations and all the exclusions where where not actually printed in the small print of the promotion itself.
method is crazy.
anyone else run to not similar problems and pushback?
With a Marriott resort trip happening a few weeks, we jumped on this and called the resort to make a payment. Resort sent us an email with instructions on how to complete the payment.
Payment posts to Amex card however after a good week or two, no promotion. I am on chat support right now and they are telling me the payment did not qualify - primarily because the merchant used a third party payment processor.
what?! customer has no way of knowing in advance (or even at time of transaction) how a business processes their payment. Even if the customer know all the questions to ask in advance, low chance the person on the other end would actually be able to answer the questions.
The agent is stating all the different rules and stipulations and all the exclusions where where not actually printed in the small print of the promotion itself.
method is crazy.
anyone else run to not similar problems and pushback?
The third-party processing language is also right there. Unfortunately, this is a risk when you try to pay in advance for a stay in order to take advantage of an offer.
Oct 24, 2021, 8:07 pm
#4
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: JRF
Programs: AA Gold, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond, National Executive Elite
Posts: 1,786
Shouldn't this have been a massive red flag? In what world does the property not simply charge you right there on the spot over the phone, you pay Marriott through the website, or you pay normally at the counter? This is no different than getting an Amex offer for some store, and you proceed to buy the store's gift cards which may in fact be sold by a 3rd party processor like Cashstar and is not identified as the original merchant at all...
Oct 26, 2021, 8:06 am
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 14,899
i know I prepaid for a Sheraton stay that was booked under the Marriott week of wonder promo - I had to call the hotel to make sure the payment processed prior to the deadline of my original offer, and that credit posted maybe 1 or 2 days after the charge cleared. So clearly pre payment in itself is not an issue.
Oct 26, 2021, 12:33 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 226
Marriott
Here is what happened w/Amex support.
Immediate response from any agent regarding the promotion was "Upon further checking your purchase did not qualify....because..." and they all quickly pasted terms and the interesting thing of all the different pasted terms different agents pasted, only ONE was actually 'partially' relevant to the offer being discussed. They pasted terms from different offers etc... conversations kept going in circles and the only consistency was that the promotion was not being honored.
• Promotion was only for Hilton.
• Terms require that the purchase is made through the vendor directly. If the vendor uses a third party to process payments (and most do) the promotion will not honored.
Explaining that I made the purchase directly w/Marriott and directly w/the resort, however we can not control, nor would know in advance, how a payment is processed. The resort did use a payment processor from the UK.
• Promotion was for United States and US territories only (this I did see on a similar offer since however was not part of the offer that was utilized.
• Promotion excluded luxury product lines.
Not a consistent response (beyond no) and it was so circular, agents pretending not to understand, providing responses to things that were not in question nor relevant....I just gave up and had the charges reversed. I'll put the charges on a Marriott card instead.
Couldn't get over it really.
Here is what happened w/Amex support.
Immediate response from any agent regarding the promotion was "Upon further checking your purchase did not qualify....because..." and they all quickly pasted terms and the interesting thing of all the different pasted terms different agents pasted, only ONE was actually 'partially' relevant to the offer being discussed. They pasted terms from different offers etc... conversations kept going in circles and the only consistency was that the promotion was not being honored.
• Promotion was only for Hilton.
• Terms require that the purchase is made through the vendor directly. If the vendor uses a third party to process payments (and most do) the promotion will not honored.
Explaining that I made the purchase directly w/Marriott and directly w/the resort, however we can not control, nor would know in advance, how a payment is processed. The resort did use a payment processor from the UK.
• Promotion was for United States and US territories only (this I did see on a similar offer since however was not part of the offer that was utilized.
• Promotion excluded luxury product lines.
Not a consistent response (beyond no) and it was so circular, agents pretending not to understand, providing responses to things that were not in question nor relevant....I just gave up and had the charges reversed. I'll put the charges on a Marriott card instead.
Couldn't get over it really.
Oct 26, 2021, 12:36 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 226
Shouldn't this have been a massive red flag? In what world does the property not simply charge you right there on the spot over the phone, you pay Marriott through the website, or you pay normally at the counter? This is no different than getting an Amex offer for some store, and you proceed to buy the store's gift cards which may in fact be sold by a 3rd party processor like Cashstar and is not identified as the original merchant at all...
It wasn't until the charge showed on the bill as having been processed through a vendor.
Oct 26, 2021, 12:43 pm
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 226
Are you sure you didn't just miss the locations when you clicked on "Offer Terms"? Every time I've seen this offer, if you click on that, it says limited to U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
The third-party processing language is also right there. Unfortunately, this is a risk when you try to pay in advance for a stay in order to take advantage of an offer.
The third-party processing language is also right there. Unfortunately, this is a risk when you try to pay in advance for a stay in order to take advantage of an offer.
Third-party processing, that is my point. We called Marriott, they tell us contact the resort ... that goes smoothly and then when we see the bill the charge was through a UK company (we'd have not way of knowing in advance or able to control.)
Yes, paying in advance to take advantage of an offer - that seems quiet reasonable and presume many do the same.
We ended up scrapping it all... reversed the charges as result.
Oct 26, 2021, 1:55 pm
#9
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,350
The terms of the another offer (similar, smaller amount received later) clearly stated US/Canada/Mexico/Caribbean however not the larger one.
Third-party processing, that is my point. We called Marriott, they tell us contact the resort ... that goes smoothly and then when we see the bill the charge was through a UK company (we'd have not way of knowing in advance or able to control.)
Yes, paying in advance to take advantage of an offer - that seems quiet reasonable and presume many do the same.
We ended up scrapping it all... reversed the charges as result.
Third-party processing, that is my point. We called Marriott, they tell us contact the resort ... that goes smoothly and then when we see the bill the charge was through a UK company (we'd have not way of knowing in advance or able to control.)
Yes, paying in advance to take advantage of an offer - that seems quiet reasonable and presume many do the same.
We ended up scrapping it all... reversed the charges as result.
Oct 26, 2021, 2:50 pm
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Pacific Northwest
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, AS 75k, AA Plat, Bonvoyed Gold, Honors Dia, Hyatt Explorer, IHG Plat, ...
Posts: 16,897
I don’t know about the dates (too lazy to read this thread again), but I definitely recall people reporting to call a hotel for a future post-stay-paid reservation to have a “deposit” charged to trigger the promo. Not sure that it is many people in the general population, but the OP should still be able to get an accurate explanation from Amex. My own experience with their chat support for a similar issue (Hilton Amex Aspire at a Hilton resort didn’t trigger the resort credit) was similarly frustrating and a giant waste of my time.
Oct 26, 2021, 3:45 pm
#11
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,350
I don’t know about the dates (too lazy to read this thread again), but I definitely recall people reporting to call a hotel for a future post-stay-paid reservation to have a “deposit” charged to trigger the promo. Not sure that it is many people in the general population, but the OP should still be able to get an accurate explanation from Amex. My own experience with their chat support for a similar issue (Hilton Amex Aspire at a Hilton resort didn’t trigger the resort credit) was similarly frustrating and a giant waste of my time.
I agree the Amex should have provided a consistent explanation. But it remains unclear what offer the OP actually used. As noted by others, the $500 spend and get $100 back was limited to certain brands and explicitly included all the terms the OP insists weren't there, as shown in the screenshot here: https://gcgalore.com/marriott-luxury...at-front-desk/
Nov 5, 2021, 4:14 pm
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 226
I dont dispute that some people do it. That doesnt make it common or the way the promo is intended to operate.
I agree the Amex should have provided a consistent explanation. But it remains unclear what offer the OP actually used. As noted by others, the $500 spend and get $100 back was limited to certain brands and explicitly included all the terms the OP insists weren't there, as shown in the screenshot here: https://gcgalore.com/marriott-luxury...at-front-desk/
I agree the Amex should have provided a consistent explanation. But it remains unclear what offer the OP actually used. As noted by others, the $500 spend and get $100 back was limited to certain brands and explicitly included all the terms the OP insists weren't there, as shown in the screenshot here: https://gcgalore.com/marriott-luxury...at-front-desk/
Promotion was not limited to geographic region and the list of exclusions did not mention Le Meridien. Still waiting for funds to register back to card.