Consumer complaint received 2017-11-18
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: WI
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 opened a " XXXX XXXX XXXX Business Credit Card '' through American Express on XX/XX/XXXX. My fiance had watched me open the account and confirmed the signup bonus. American Express was running a promotion for this card - all applicants who apply beforeXX/XX/XXXX receive the following terms : " Earn XXXX bonus starpoints after you use your new card to make {$5000.00} in purchases within the first 3 months and an extra XXXX bonus starpoints after you make an additional {$3000.00} in purchases within the first 6 months. '' I spent {$5000.00} within 3 months and I received the XXXX starwood points as promised - this posted on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. I completed the {$8000.00} spending requirement on XXXX XXXX and waited for my statement day of XXXX XXXX to see if anything had posted - it had not. I created a case in late XXXX / XXXX XXXX with American Express. After the hours of efforts I have spent via chat and several phones calls with XXXX to try to resolve, I have gotten nowhere. they claim that the XXXX promotional bonus was not attached to my account, but I have a screenshot of the application page before I submit that says otherwise. They will not accept the screenshot though, so it appears I am out of luck. 

The thing is, I applied on XXXX XXXX via a referral link - i still have the link if required. I have been following this promotion very closely as I had really wanted this credit card. The promotion was started XXXX time and ran through XXXX XXXX. Being so late in the promotional period, the only possible links generated - affiliate, referral, or otherwise - was the XXXX offer. The fact that I do n't have the XXXX offer attached to my account is beyond me. After searching the internet, I have found several other instances of American Express XXXX XXXX XXXX Business credit card account holders who applied in late XXXX having a similar issue with their second bonuses posting. There is even a blog post about it : XXXX XXXX XXXX I can attach any more details, statements, screenshots, or instances of other people on the internet i have found having similar issues. 

The XXXX supervisor I discussed with pretty much flat out said I was lying and was asking how I knew more about the card than she did. I mentioned I do n't, but I do n't open credit cards lightly and I did a ton of research before and after getting the card, and all the issues other people had. The person who referred me HAD to have referred me with a XXXX link because he previously sent me a XXXX referral link that had expired and he had to regenerate a brand new link to show XXXX for me. 

I feel lied to about the partnership and trust I put in Amex and XXXX. And again, I 'm not the only one having a similar issue. In addition to the blog post above, see all of the research and datapoints of other people having the issues with the XXXX XXXX cards. See below in Appendix. 

I understand that the extra XXXX points are a lot to ask for here, but I feel that American Express should have a vested interest in ensuring that their loyal customers have their rights honored and given the benefit of the doubt in the wake of all the confusion and issues. From all the research and other data points provided, I feel there has there is reason enough to believe that American Express has some glitch or technical issue in their database that is capturing the wrong signup bonuses for these XXXX cards. 

If the full XXXX points are n't obtainable, can we please reach some sort of compromise for goodwill and good faith? 

I also reached out to American Express as I was told I could write in and ask for a copy of my application to prove what signup and terms I signed up under. After getting a notarized affidavit and several weeks of waiting, the only thing I received in the mail was my basic information that I used when signing up ( ie : name, date of birth, phone number, SSN, etc. ) and my IP address. There was nothing that would prove to me one way or the other that the signup bonus that I signed up under was honored or not. 

Honestly, I just want this to be over and am looking for any reasonable resolution. I definitely would not be spending all this time if I did n't think I had a good case. I love Amex and XXXX, but I always get a bad taste in my mouth when I see this card in my wallet now from the situation. 

Thank you kindly, XXXX XXXX : See research below of other people 's issues : whencanwedothisagain They told me to wait 2 more weeks to see if they show up in my XXXX account. So much for using these points for my trip next month. 
As of today it shows I have earned the correct number of points on the Amex site but the additional XXXX points are not in my XXXX account. What a mess. 
Checked again today and they said it 's still with the back end team to check back in 2 more weeks. Unreal.
themickstar Typically Amex is faster because they post it right after the charges post but I think something has been going on with some business bonuses. Our XXXX bonus was attached fine and posted just a few days ago. 

XXXX Yeah I 'm beginning to think that the massive influx of applications for the XXXX cards towards the end of that XXXX offer caused a lot of IT issues for Amex. 
You 'd think their IT would be able to handle it but more and more they 're proving to be more like Citi. 

rovitm Signed up with XXXX offer, only getting XXXX to post nigson Taking 3 months to post XXXX ( in full ) whencanwedothisagain After disputing with Amex for 3 months I finally got my XXXX bonus on my business SPG for the XXXX offer. Win. Then I logged into my SPG account and in addition to my XXXX bonus there was a XXXX and XXXX from Amex. I did not realize Amex could remove points from my XXXX account. 
One of the reps told me it was a glitch on their end and there had been other disputes filed. No explanation as to what caused the glitch though. 

rovitm So I referred my wife to the XXXX XXXX. I used the referral link on Amex.com. My wife applied, was approved and met the XXXX spend. She was denied the bonus. We put in an investigation and was denied. They said they will put in another investigation. I called and spoke to a supervisor. She said the regular and business SPG card are considered the same and that she is not entitled to the bonus. She said on some cards and especially with the Platinum they are considered different products, but for this offer it is not. Has anyone been told this before? I assume many here have used the referral links on XXXX and have not had a problem. I think I will wait a few days and call again. Any suggestions are appreciated. 

encin Just followed up with amex on my missing spg biz points from when I met min spend on XXXX for the XXXX offer. This is the second case I opened with them, they decided to just close the first case with no apparent action. 
The CSR just mentioned that the second case which I opened on XXXX was closed on XXXX, and apparently they confirmed a glitch on their end that did n't properly attach the sign-up promotion code to my account. They verified that I do qualify and that I should be receiving the points, but did n't get give a timeline. I think he mentioned something about this being remediated in a batch or something ... .last time I called I got them to give me XXXX courtesy points for all the calls I put in the last few months ... .. 
I had called so many times, and I was really upset they had closed the previous case I created 8 weeks before with no resolution and she just said she had to create a new case and it would be another 6-8 weeks. I was like how do I know they are n't just going to close this in two weeks and keep telling me the same bs and I demanded something in return. I was hoping for more points but settled for XXXX - she was n't willing to negotiate there mwwalk My wife got the XXXX business back when it was available for XXXX points. We hit the spend immediately and then never received any of the signup bonus points. In XXXX I chatted and they could see the points had not posted despite completing spend so they opened a ticket. I chatted again ever couple weeks and they could never do anything and were really annoying ( and lazy ). Today, the bonus points finally posted. Thank goodness. For those that will want to know, they never called or emailed to ask questions. A significant portion of the $ XXXX MSR was done with MS , probably about 65 % of it. But none of it at Level 3 data supplying stores and I put in a bunch of other smaller charges as well - genuinely used it for everyday spend except meals/travel. Several charges were {$500.00} from XXXX because I got lazy so it would be pretty obvious what they were, but did n't seem to matter. Yay! If you 're still waiting, have hope. 

netscooby I had signed up for the XXXX XXXX card with the XXXX bonus. After meeting the XXXX spend back in early XXXX with no MS and never having the card, I never received the bonus, not even the XXXX for the XXXX spend. A couple support calls and they finally sent my case to the mysterious back office a couple weeks ago. Follow up today and they stated that I 'm still good and do qualify, but this is a " Known issue '' for this card. 
Anyone else experiencing this? I would think there would be others experiencing the same thing if this was truly a known issue they are having. 

reachforthemiles Yes, there 's many people in the same situation, myself included. Over five calls now with the same answer " It 's Amex 's fault and we 've opened a case, we 're working on it! ". But never any resolution. The travelcodex link that XXXX [ +4 ] mentioned has additional people in the same situation. 

XXXX XXXX : It is known that there was a glitch attaching signup bonuses to applications for the XXXX cards, but I 'm speculating that it may have affected additional product lines during the same time period. The timeframe of the glitch appears to be approximately XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX. ( Please provide any DPs to prove me wrong/right. ) Evidence : 1 ) My XXXX application was XXXX and bonus has n't posted after 8 weeks. I opened an AmEx investigation and CFPB case and response so far is : " We have identified an issue which, regrettably, may have impacted your account. '' 2 )  XXXX is waiting on a XXXX bonus from first week of XXXX. 
3 ) XXXX had trouble getting a XXXX bonus to post. Not sure of his application date, but possibly around then. 
4 ) Users XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX on the Travel Codex post are reporting issues from around that time frame on the XXXX Surpass upgrade offer ( I know it 's an upgrade offer, but still maybe related ). 
5 ) Maybe unrelated, but XXXX is missing XXXX XXXX bonus. Do n't know application date, but similar time frame. 
6 ) Obviously many DPs on SPG offer and time frame is at least XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX. My application was XXXX XXXX, XXXX was XXXX XXXX, XXXX was XXXX XXXX, XXXX [ +4 ] was XXXX XXXX, and XXXX [ +2 ] was XXXX XXXX. 
7 ) Since the XXXX higher bonuses ended XXXX and many people applied in the final days, we are mostly seeing SPG missing, but I theorize that is just selection bias and the glitch affects other product lines too. 

nigson Affected timeline dp : Got my biz SPG XXXX and was waiting quite a while for the bonus to post. Still waiting for it on the SPG website, but at least it 's there in the Amex side. My personal XXXX applied XXXX ( approved XXXX ) bonus posted on time automatically. 
XXXX Add me in as a DP : Applied and approved on XXXX for biz SPG. Hit {$5000.00} + {$3000.00} in XXXX statement. No bonus, and nothing posted in Amex. Chatted and spoke with CSRs that confirmed I passed the threshold, no discussion of any sort of technical glitch. 
XXXX I opened my business spg on XXXX and had problems with the bonus posting. I hit {$5000.00} within the first statement. My XXXX points did not post until about 2 weeks ago.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation