Consumer complaint received 2021-12-22
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: FL
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:
In XX/XX/XXXX, I opened a charge card with American Express, their Platinum Card product. I opened the card as part of a promotion they were running. The promotion offer was to receive XXXX points in their Membership Rewards program if I spent at least {$6000.00} in 6 months from the date of account opening ( there were other terms to the promotion, but I had not problem with those other terms ). The card requires that I pay a {$550.00} annual fee. 

Around XX/XX/XXXX, I reached the required amount of spend within the allotted 6 month period. While their terms dictate that points for a promotional offer like this would post to my account within 8-12 weeks, promotional offers I've participated in in the past have posted within a few days ( this is also corroborated by other American Express users on the internet ). 

I contacted American Express for the first time over chat around XXXX ( 2-3 weeks after meeting spend ) and was told about the 8-12 week terms and to wait until those terms expire. I contacted them a few more times during this 8-12 week period, but they declined to act on the issue until the term was up. 

After the 8-12 weeks were up ( around XXXX XXXX ), American Express opened a ticket into the issue. They told me to reach out to them after a few business days, then after a few weeks. After a few weeks, the ticket was escalated. 

Around XXXX XXXX, I was told by their customer service representative that the fact that I didn't get the points was a technical " known issue '' and was being worked on by a few of their teams to reach resolution. I was told I would definitely get the promised points. I reached out to their customer service representatives over chat a few more times after that, and received the same message about a " known issue ''. I was no longer told to follow up with them after some amount of days or weeks. 

In late XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I reached out to their XXXX customer service team ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) since I heard they are better able to handle niche issues. This led to the same thing, I was told it was a " known issue '' and that I would definitely receive points. 

In late XX/XX/XXXX, I was charged another {$550.00} for the second year of card membership. I was not pleased with my experience having this card because of this promotional offer issue and was considering closing it. But I felt compelled to keep the account open since I felt they would not honor the promotional offer if I closed the account. To this date, I have not received the promotional points offer and I have no estimate from them on when I could possibly receive it. 

A few days ago, a fellow American Express cardmember responded to me because he had a similar experience with them. They also opened this card in XX/XX/XXXX, also met the spending requirement in XXXX, and it took them months to resolve the request. Here is what they wrote ( I can link to their response on the internet ) : " I actually also signed up XX/XX/XXXX and meet my XXXX ~XXXX, for months I didn't get my XXXX. I called and chatted in countless times and was given the same XXXX  excuse, 8-12 weeks additional to the 8-12 weeks. A savy CSR found exactly what my promotion ID ( PID ). He read the terms and escalated to the rewards team and explicitly mentioned the PID number. 3 weeks later I had my XXXX XXXX and I found out my points had to be manually added. ''

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief