Consumer complaint received 2019-08-03
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with rewards from credit card

Complaint:
In late XX/XX/XXXX, I applied for and was approved an American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card ( the product name was changed into American Express Bonvoy Credit Card ) ending in XXXX, with a sign-on bonus of XXXX XXXX Bonvoy points for spending {$3000.00} within the first 3 months after opening the account. 

By XX/XX/XXXX, I had met the said requirement, as shown on my XX/XX/XXXX credit card statement attached herewith, and the bonus points automatically posted to my XXXX Bonvoy rewards program account, as shown in the second attachment. However, due to an unexpected incident with a restaurant merchant named " XXXX XXXX '' in XXXX XXXX, part of its charge of {$1700.00} on this card was reversed on XX/XX/XXXX, resulting in my total spending, less returns, falling short of the sign-on bonus threshold. While I noticed this turn of events and its potential consequences, I tried contacting the merchant to fix it, but it didn't go smoothly. 

Upon receiving my XX/XX/XXXX credit card statement and surprised to find that the XXXX  bonus points were still there, I remember contacting American Express through online customer service chatting in XXXX, XXXX, to request the agent confirm if I had ever met the requirement for the bonus. I was given an affirmative answer, whose chatting log I'm unable to retrieve because the AmEx system only allows me to do so as early as 3 months ago. Relieved by the confirmation and the fact that my XX/XX/XXXX credit card statement didn't show the XXXX  bonus points deducted as I suspected to happen, I quit urging XXXX XXXX to charge back the original amount to this card and stopped using it to make further purchases for the time being. 

Everything had gone well until XX/XX/XXXX, more than 9 months after the issue, when I was astonished to find that my XXXX Bonvoy points balance dropped by a drastic XXXX, as shown in the third attachment. I hastened to inquire American Express through online chatting the next day and was told they had clawed back the said bonus points based on their records indicating I had not met the spend threshold to be eligible for the sign-on bonus. The customer service agent also refused to provide me with any means to remedy it and make up for the delinquent spend in order to earn back the deducted bonus points. Furthermore, I highly doubt that I have been mistakenly categorized into AmEx 's blacklist of " misusing rewards programs '' for the same reason, which denies me of any future sign-on bonuses when applying for their new credit card product, according to my multiple frustrating experience recently. 

In light of the above, I hereby complain about the mistreatment of American Express to me in this case as misleading, discriminatory and irresponsible, even to the degree of fraudulent. It was the retardation of their automatic points reallocation system and the false confirmation of my bonus points eligibility by their customer service chatting agent that largely caused me to misjudge the situation then to have stopped negotiating with the restaurant merchant or have not continued to use this card to spend to make up for the reversed portion of that transaction, which I would be absolutely willing to. If the points deduction had taken place much sooner and reflected in my XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX credit card statement, or had the chatting agent in XX/XX/XXXX, been responsible enough in reviewing my account to give me a negative answer, I wouldn't have sustained such substantial losses and landed into such a hopeless situation. Listing me as " mis-user of rewards programs '' and denying me of further sign-on bonuses are virtually adding insult to injury, which I strongly oppose.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation