Consumer complaint received 2024-07-09
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (FL)

I made a purchase through XXXX XXXX XXXX located in XXXX XXXX for a four night stay. This is a hotel which offers all-inclusive pricing, including flights. I made a purchase through the hotel, which posted three separate transactions to my account : the hotel stay, arrival flight, and departure flight. The flights were charged by the airline. The hotel stay was charged by XXXX. I used this specific card ( Chase Freedom Flex ) because they offered 5 % back on XXXX transactions, postings between XXXX to end of XXXX. I made the on XX/XX/year> and it posted XX/XX/year> in the eligible timeframe. However, my rewards balance only reflected a 1 % earning. 

I called today, XX/XX/year> after waiting to see if this would be corrected. When I spoke to the first representative, they told me that the merchant registers themselves with the government and that this merchant shows to them as a travel agent. Therefore, they can not change the reward earning. I told them that this is a hotel, with an all-inclusive department that handles bookings but is a physical hotel resort. As a consumer, how am I supposed to know they arent registered as a hotel? They did not have a good answer and sent me to a superior after stating that the supervisor may be able to offer a statement credit to amend for the confusion. 

When I spoke to the supervisor, they explained they do not have any power to change my rewards points or provide a credit. She asked me, If I could, why wouldnt I? As if that is an actual answer and not an open-ended question to posed by a corporate representative. I explained that this was false advertising and as a consumer, there are protections against this kind of behavior. I explained that I have credit I could leverage elsewhere that is specific to travel rewards, but I elected to use this card because of the offer. I also explained that this conversation was pointless if she was not empowered to do more for the customer when there is a clear grievance that directly relates to money I am entitled to based on their offering. 

The transactions regarding the airline were never my concern, only the transaction reflecting the hotel-specific charge for the 4-night stay. This amounted to {$2700.00}. The 5 % cash back offer caps at {$1500.00} of purchases, maxing at {$75.00} payout. Theoretically, in dollars, I would have been awarded {$75.00} at the 5 % rate, with a remaining {$12.00} added at the 1 % rate. Thats {$25.00} per XXXX points at the 5 % rate and {$5.00} per XXXX points at the 1 % rate. This is a relatively small dollar amount but massive when thousands, if not millions, of customers are open to fraudulent marketing claims that influence their credit use. When a customer leverages credit, they should be making a conscious, informed decision that is based off of trust and clear understanding of the terms. The term page regarding the 5 %, which I must manually activate every quarter, did not specify exclusions that do not fall under the umbrella of Hotel category. And as a consumer, with clear proof of the transactions intention, the credit card agent not being empowered to make manual changes to someones reward balance is either a lie or a deliberate ploy to get the customer to back off from pursuing action over such a small amount of money. However, that small amount of money amounts to extreme financial loss to the consumer population, to the benefit of the corporation. The employee should not be granted unchecked power to mess with peoples accounts, but they can and do reward or credit in special circumstances or for client retention, providing their discretionary policies allow them that. If they are not provided discretions for allowances to credit the customer based on actual system errors or misrepresentation, then why have the rewards customer service sector at all? 

When I asked if this was a call that they receive a lot, she directed me to make a formal complaint to the executive offices. I will be copying this text and mailing it to them in addition to your correspondence, as I am all about transparency. This is a small scale loss for me, but absolutely a bigger issue and abuse of marketing to trap customers into debt.