Consumer complaint received 2016-03-15
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: IL
Product: Credit card
Issue: Rewards

Complaint:
In XXXX, I received a targeted offer from XXXX XXXX ( hereinafter, " XXXX '' ) for its Platinum Card. The offer indicated that I would receive XXXX Membership Rewards points ( hereinafter " points '' ) after spending {$3000.00}. After completing the spending, I received the XXXX bonus on XXXX/XXXX/16. On XXXX/XXXX/16, XXXX points were deducted from my account. [ SEE ATTACHMENT XXXX. ] I received a letter dated XXXX/XXXX/16 stating that XXXX had decided to remove points. The vague justification explained, " point accrual and redemption activity on your Membership Rewards program account [ ... ] indicates an effort to obtain and use points in a manner that is not appropriate. '' It continued, " if you attempt to use or obtain points in a fraudulent way, we may : take away all the points in your program account, cancel your program account, or cancel any of your XXXX XXXX cards. '' I have, to date, not redeemed any points, so the only conclusion is that XXXX is accusing me of fraudulently accruing points. This is simply not the case. I asked my son, whom I had added as an authorized user on my account ( to ensure I would meet the promotional offer 's spending requirement ), whether any of his spending might be construed as fraudulent. The only explanation we could come up with was that the loads of his XXXX, '' a prepaid debit card, were not eligible spending. In multiple online chats with XXXX, our suspicion was ostensibly confirmed : I was informed that, per XXXX terms, some of my spending was ineligible, and I simply needed to meet the {$3000.00} spending requirement-with eligible spending-and I would certainly again receive the points. Once this spending was completed ( note : excluding XXXX reloads, as of XXXX/XXXX/16, {$4300.00} has been charged to the account ), I was told I would receive the points. XXXX makes it difficult to save chat logs, but I am attaching XXXX screenshots from XXXX such conversation in which I was given this assurance. [ SEE ATTACHMENTS XXXX & XXXX ( XXXX/XXXX/16 ) : " rest assured, you have completed the threshold and the bonus points will be awarded '' and " you will get XXXX Membership Rewards points, '' etc. ] When points did not appear, I chatted back again, and this time I was told that I should have received the points ; therefore, an investigation would be opened. [ SEE ATTACHMENT XXXX ( XXXX/XXXX/16 ) : " you have earned the points and then they were removed from the account, to get this thing resolved, we are setting up a case and we will fix this for you ''. ] When I checked back for an update, I was told the investigation was not resolved in my favor. I then proceeded to call Amex-with my son so that together we could account for all spending on the account. On XXXX/XXXX/2016, we spoke with a supervisor, who informed us the notes on the account stated that the points were removed as a result of returns on the account. She conceded that it did not make sense to her, because there were no returns-not a single XXXX. The only credits on the account were from the airline fee reimbursements ( a card benefit ) and payments. While she was unable to explain the closure, she was also unable to offer any recourse, because the decision to remove the points was the result of an audit made above her. She stated that all she could do was forward my complaint to corporate. She could provide no information on when I might hear back - or if I would hear back at all. As is clear from the above explanation, I have successfully and honestly met the spending requirement to receive the sign-up bonus. Nonetheless, XXXX has deducted the points from my account. To date, no one has been able to provide an explanation-consistent with the facts-for why this occurred. After repeated assurances that the points would again be provided, a supervisor told me that she could not explain the deduction of points but could also provide no recourse.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation