Consumer complaint received 2022-11-23
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
I had opened the American Express Blue Cash Preferred credit card on XX/XX/2022. 
The welcome offer on the card was {$300.00} on spending {$3000.00} within the first 6 months, with the 6 months period being from XX/XX/2022- XX/XX/2022. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, American Express determined that I had met the spending requirement of {$3000.00}, and provided me with the welcome offer of {$300.00} cashback. 

On XX/XX/2022, American Express sent me an email stating that : " We have charged {$300.00} to your account referenced above and wed like to explain why. 

Heres what happened After careful review, we noticed you had received a credit linked to a promotional offer you were enrolled in. Unfortunately, after issuing the credit we found that you did not satisfy the terms of the promotional offer. 

You will see the charge on an upcoming statement. " This email is completely unwarranted, and their customer service team stated that there was a miscalculation due to which the {$300.00} welcome offer was given to me, and I have not " actually '' met the spending requirements. 

They highlighted some credits which I had received in my account due to return of items. dated XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX respectively, which they had " mistakenly '' not considered when providing me with the bonus on XX/XX/XXXX. 

The point to be noted here is that the credits being referenced here occurred on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX respectively, whereas the welcome bonus was credited to my account on XX/XX/XXXX, which is after a period of 45 days. 
This means that American Express had enough time to update their system, and even after the credits received by me on XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX, American Express determined that I am supposed to receive the welcome bonus. ( which was subsequently credited on XX/XX/XXXX ). 

However, on XX/XX/XXXX, I have received the email described above. The point to note here is that American Express specifically sent this email on XX/XX/XXXX, 1 day after the " six month spending period '' has expired. This was done in bad faith, so that there is no possibility to meet the spending requirement anymore. 

Another point is that, why have they now determined that I did not meet the spending requirement, when the welcome bonus was credited to my account on XX/XX/XXXX. That leaves a period of 4 months between XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX, when they could have sent an email to specify that my spending requirement has not been met. However, they took a period of 120 days for their system to get updated, and conclude that the welcome offer was credited incorrectly. 
This is a deliberate case of cheating and Fraud. Especially given the dates of the events as they occur, it is an obvious attempt by American Express to cheat consumers by providing them a " welcome bonus '' early, and then after the " spending period '' has expired, to get back saying that they have reviewed and it is incorrect, leaving the consumers with no chance of meeting the spending requirements.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation