Consumer complaint received 2021-10-29
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: MI
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
After receiving several offers from American Express to upgrade my account to the XXXX XXXX XXXX account, I called in to understand the card terms, conditions and benefits. I spoke with a customer service member and inquired about the various features of the XXXX XXXX card on XX/XX/XXXX. I was read a disclosure that mentioned a XXXX XXXX credit. The disclosure mentioned that other cardholders on the account maybe eligible to receive this credit. I inquired as to whether the benefit is available for every cardholder or just the primary cardholder. I was explicitly told that if I charged my card for XXXX XXXX and my wife charged her card separately, American Express would credit the account for both charges. I then went ahead and upgraded my account ( which now included an annual fee ) based on this and other information provided on the call. I charged my card initially, and my account was credited. My wife then charged her card, as instructed, however, we never received a credit. 

I called again on XX/XX/XXXX to inquire why we had not received the credit yet for the XXXX XXXX charge done on my wife 's card. After several moments of the representative trying to understand, I was informed that you are only allowed 1 credit per account, not per cardholder. This information was completely contrary to what was previously communicated to me. I asked that this be investigated. I was provided inaccurate information, and as a result, the company should honor that mistake since it was one of the main reasons for me getting the card. The customer service represented disclosed inaccurate information for which I based my decision. I was told the company would investigate my claim. 

I never heard anything back so I called again on XX/XX/2021. This person read me a disclosure, which again stated that the benefit may be available to other cardholder the account. The disclosure that was read never explicitly stated that this benefit is only available once per account - again, quite misleading. The representative then researched my previous complaint, and it was only then that he clarified the benefit is only available once per account every 4.5 years. He told me that the company researched the call and did see that the customer service person provided me inaccurate information back on XX/XX/2021 when I switched to the XXXX account. Although they would provide that associate coaching, they still wouldn't provide me a credit. While I totally understand it not happening going forward, they should credit me for this instance. It also seems that the disclosure needs to be amended to include the benefit is only available once on an account every 4.5 years. Had the representative I spoke with on XX/XX/2021 not read the notes on my account, it seems that he was headed down the same route of providing me inaccurate information again. I am confident that training the one representative will not prevent this error from occurring again in the future.

Based on this information, I feel this practice was indeed deceptive in accordance the CFPBs Supervision and Examination Manual and at least one appellate courts legal interpretation.

-The disclosure read by the customer service representative along with them explaining that the benefit is available to all cardholders on the account was a representation and omission of certain information is likely to mislead a consumer.

-The consumer 's ( my ) interpretation of the representation and omission of information is reasonable under the circumstances -The misleading representation and omission is material ( one might compare this to a bait and switch tactic ).

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation