Amex Offers and Customer Service – gone to the dogs?

[Travel Strong]

From multiple reports in the old ‘chat’ pages – it seems clear that something has changed in the speed at which offers credit.

Feel free to share your good/bad experiences here – seeing as Amex may read this forum!

[Travel Strong]

My recent offer experiences:

Morrisons: Credits eventually, but takes some time.

Avis: After waiting approx. 6 weeks for an Avis offer credit – have now been told on chat that the merchant is not eligible (despite simply being a UK airport Avis branch, booked via Avis website, and having credited in the past from the same “merchant”)

BP: I’ve also been told that BP station I used under the BP offer is not an eligible merchant – despite just being a heavily branded stand alone BP station.

Regarding customer service:

Finally – I had come to expect swift and empowered resolution from amex customer services
… but CS have just told me computer says no, you are ineligible, no resolution possible.

I have raised a complaint, and no way I am renewing my amex platinum for £595 with performance like this!

[SteveJ]

Yep, had an Esso spend 30 get 5, on one card credited in 5 days. Same petrol station another card still waiting a month later. CS spitting out the same tired “wait til 90 days” line.

It’s starting to feel like some of the c*shbk sites where they almost hope you’ll forget.

Likewise supplementary card bonus didn’t post. Contacted them, told the 90 day line, contacted on day 91 when it still hadn’t, they added manually and were adamant that it would’ve posted overnight if I hadn’t chased. I call bull on that claim, not a premium experience anymore with Amex in my recent experience.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Andrew J]

Agree, all gone down hill a bit – and become unpredictable whereas it used to work like clockwork. My examples are Selfridges – used on main card, credited after 2 weeks; supp card nothing after 3 weeks, chased, sent to back office, waited another 2 weeks then credited. Fenwick however, credited 2 days after the purchase as per old timeframes. Not sure why some offers work as before and others don’t.

[Gavin454]

My Morrison’s credits took about 4 weeks on my Platinum card, and I’m still awaiting a restaurant credit from the 100% back offer after 5 weeks. Annoying because I want to cancel the card and don’t want to wait the 90 days after offer end (end of March!). Already contacted CS once and was told to wait.

[Andrew J]

SteveJ wrote:

Yep, had an Esso spend 30 get 5, on one card credited in 5 days. Same petrol station another card still waiting a month later. CS spitting out the same tired “wait til 90 days” line.

It’s starting to feel like some of the c*shbk sites where they almost hope you’ll forget.

Likewise supplementary card bonus didn’t post. Contacted them, told the 90 day line, contacted on day 91 when it still hadn’t, they added manually and were adamant that it would’ve posted overnight if I hadn’t chased. I call bull on that claim, not a premium experience anymore with Amex in my recent experience.

Yes it was generally the case that if you were Plat they would just give you the credit anyway if you contacted them – they seem to be a lot tighter now.

[rum]

It has gone down hill for me as well.

Offers – these are definitely taking a lot longer to post for all my cards now. Deliveroo credit from the Gold card is the only offer that seems to have gone through in the typical, expected time frame. Fenwick, Shop Small, BP and Esso offers have all tracked but taken weeks to post to the account. Rather strangely, I got the email with the Fenwick and Shop Small purchases, but not the others. Not sure what’s happening with Amex, but this is clearly a change.

Customer Services – I agree that they have gone downhill at least since the pandemic began, if not before this. Off shore CS is bad as it is, so I tend to always ask to be put through to Brighton. But even Brighton have now been reluctant to apply any credits to offers. Sometimes it’s a matter of calling back later and hoping to get a more cooperative rep. But it isn’t always the case. Even for basic tasks, they seem a lot less knowledgeable or just reluctant to do things.

[Bill]

Gin club spend 40 get 20 cashback.
Did two transactions early November 22+25.
In the past cumulative transactions are eligible.
Up to now, no credit.

[Laura]

Half my Shop Small credits have come through, but the other half haven’t. One of the ones that has credited wasn’t even on the map, but then the three that I am waiting for all have.

Mariott Bonvoy credit came through just a day or two after the charge

[ringingup]

How do you ask to get put through to Brighton’s call centre? Simply by asking to whoever answers?

[Super Secret Stuff]

It’s gone down hill massively even over the last few years I’ve had a card. When they say “T&Cs say you need to wait 90 days” I want to scream at them

[can]

I completely agree. I am sick and tired of keeping track of all those deals and cash backs, and hope they will appear in my account in a month.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Aston100]

A few times this year I’ve been missing offers on various cards despite receiving emails notifying me of those offers.
Overseas agents have no knowledge of the offers and they request proof in the form of a screenshot of the Amex email to be uploaded.
That’s right, I have to prove to Amex that Amex have sent me an offer in order to be considered for the offer that Amex have emailed me about.
Ridiculous.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[alastairjam]

I’m in the same boat – Amex is refusing to consider my complaint unless I can provide a screengrab of their own offer.

Got the “Spend £400 at Amex Travel, get £100 credit” offer in November, on two of my cards. Fulfilled the spend on one, got no credit.

The agent has tried to fob me off with, in turn:
1. the offer was only for bookings on Middle Eastern Airlines (total nonsense, didn’t even mention them)
2. the offer excluded online transactions (total nonsense, no other way of booking with Amex Travel anyway)
3. the offer was for Amex Travel but transaction is for “Amex tl services” which is someone else entirely (lol)
4. the offer never existed and I’m making it up

Since I can’t disprove 4. I guess I’m stuck. £595 a year to be gaslighted while spending money with their own business.

And no, my Shop Small transaction didn’t credit either.

[davefl]

SteveJ wrote:

Yep, had an Esso spend 30 get 5, on one card credited in 5 days. Same petrol station another card still waiting a month later. CS spitting out the same tired “wait til 90 days” line.

It’s starting to feel like some of the c*shbk sites where they almost hope you’ll forget.

Likewise supplementary card bonus didn’t post. Contacted them, told the 90 day line, contacted on day 91 when it still hadn’t, they added manually and were adamant that it would’ve posted overnight if I hadn’t chased. I call bull on that claim, not a premium experience anymore with Amex in my recent experience.

There was a specific participating list of BP stations that the offer was valid for. My local was one but the name of the station is spelt wrongly on the statement transaction (P instead of an R, which butchers the name of the town). It hasn’t tracked after a week so I’ll have to argue it out with web chat and see if they will see sense when the postcode matches the PDF list of stations that was on the offer.

[Vish]

Total opposite for me. Everything has been tracked successfully and CS always done what i’ve needed/asked for.

[alexb]

I have also had a problem with shop small they are telling me it could be 90 days to get credits

[PIL]

So far, all offers tracked within 2-5 days from purchase. Only once I had an issue which was resolved with raising a complaint with AMEX

[Blindman67]

Bonus for Supplementary card.

Having had the run around on chat and the phone, Mrs B raised a complaint about the bonus points not posting.

1. Chat-Told wait 90 days
2. 92 days later-Phone- Agent says wait 28 days.
3. 28 days later-Chat -say must wait 28 days from the phone call!
4. Complaint raised- 3 days later agent rings back and compensates with 3000 Avios without prompting

Serious training issues with agents IMHO.

[Super Secret Stuff]

Blindman67 wrote:

Bonus for Supplementary card.

Having had the run around on chat and the phone, Mrs B raised a complaint about the bonus points not posting.

1. Chat-Told wait 90 days
2. 92 days later-Phone- Agent says wait 28 days.
3. 28 days later-Chat -say must wait 28 days from the phone call!
4. Complaint raised- 3 days later agent rings back and compensates with 3000 Avios without prompting

Serious training issues with agents IMHO.

I’ve had similar issues, serious and widespread training issues that sometimes make me wonder if it’s ever worth it and I should cancel the card. But still here, although with 4 retention bonuses since the start of covid 🤣

[ben10]

davefl wrote:

SteveJ wrote:

Yep, had an Esso spend 30 get 5, on one card credited in 5 days. Same petrol station another card still waiting a month later. CS spitting out the same tired “wait til 90 days” line.

It’s starting to feel like some of the c*shbk sites where they almost hope you’ll forget.

Likewise supplementary card bonus didn’t post. Contacted them, told the 90 day line, contacted on day 91 when it still hadn’t, they added manually and were adamant that it would’ve posted overnight if I hadn’t chased. I call bull on that claim, not a premium experience anymore with Amex in my recent experience.

There was a specific participating list of BP stations that the offer was valid for. My local was one but the name of the station is spelt wrongly on the statement transaction (P instead of an R, which butchers the name of the town). It hasn’t tracked after a week so I’ll have to argue it out with web chat and see if they will see sense when the postcode matches the PDF list of stations that was on the offer.

Similar here. I had a number of online chats about the location of the BP petrol station I used. I was told my local was ineligible when it was on the list of participating locations. I pointed out that, according to the BP website and Google Maps there was no BP station anywhere near the address they had for the station/transaction. On a follow up chat, the agent confirmed the case had been resolved against me, but Amex’s system had no way of letting me know this.

I submitted a formal complaint about the result and the lack of communication and got a response from Global Customer Research & Solutions: “Having considered all of the information available, I’ve been unable to establish an error on our part, so I’m unable to uphold this complaint in your favour.” I mean, how hard can it be? There is no option to reply and only option is to involve ombudsmen. They gave me £10 credit as gesture of goodwill and there is only some much time you want to put into fighting for £10.

[rum]

The incident highlighted below happened well before this forum was established. I can’t remember if I posted about it before in a comments section, but I thought it is worth mentioning in this thread given that it is on topic and shows how CS have declined over the years.

I think it was back in May 2020 (or could have been May 2021… I’ve lost my sense of time!), I called CS with a basic account question to upgrade/downgrade a card. Can’t remember exactly.

Cutting a long story short, I realised not that long after that my offers were disappearing, some expiring very soon and unexpectedly. After many battles with CS, I escalated this to the Executive Office. They investigated and concluded (having gone back to listen to the recordings of the calls) that the CS rep I had spoken to that previous May had “accidentally” hit a “button” which (incorrectly) marked my account as being on furlough, therefore resulting in no payment being required on any of my card accounts and also making me ineligible for any Amex offers. Received £50 compensation initially for my BAPP card, but I raised a further complaint with the same team after I was blocked from any offers on a newer Platinum card account (including the 100% cashback offers). I then received a further £200 back for that and the issue was rectified not long after.

All in all, there was a lot of going back and forward and this should never have happened. But there you go. Amex in 2020, 2021… and who knows what else we can expect from them in 2022 onwards.

[Youllnever]

rum wrote:

The incident highlighted below happened well before this forum was established. I can’t remember if I posted about it before in a comments section, but I thought it is worth mentioning in this thread given that it is on topic and shows how CS have declined over the years.

I think it was back in May 2020 (or could have been May 2021… I’ve lost my sense of time!), I called CS with a basic account question to upgrade/downgrade a card. Can’t remember exactly.

Cutting a long story short, I realised not that long after that my offers were disappearing, some expiring very soon and unexpectedly. After many battles with CS, I escalated this to the Executive Office. They investigated and concluded (having gone back to listen to the recordings of the calls) that the CS rep I had spoken to that previous May had “accidentally” hit a “button” which (incorrectly) marked my account as being on furlough, therefore resulting in no payment being required on any of my card accounts and also making me ineligible for any Amex offers. Received £50 compensation initially for my BAPP card, but I raised a further complaint with the same team after I was blocked from any offers on a newer Platinum card account (including the 100% cashback offers). I then received a further £200 back for that and the issue was rectified not long after.

All in all, there was a lot of going back and forward and this should never have happened. But there you go. Amex in 2020, 2021… and who knows what else we can expect from them in 2022 onwards.

Wow that sounds horrendous! How easy was it getting your case escalated to the executive level?

[rum]

Youllnever wrote:

Wow that sounds horrendous! How easy was it getting your case escalated to the executive level?

I just wrote an email to them after I realised I was getting nowhere with CS (actually, they were sending me round in circles).

[Supergers49]

I’ve recently been managing the procurement activity for overflow call centre capacity for a well known FS company. All UK contact centre providers and organisations running contact centres are struggling with high-levels of attrition, difficulty in recruiting and maintaining customer service levels. Wage rates are increasing but agents are finding alternative employment very easy to come by. The main driver appears to be a desire to WFH, which many UK FS organisations are generally uncomfortable with for contact centre agents due to perceived productivity and security concerns. I can only imagine AMEX Brighton are in the same boat, agent turnover means experience and skills are being lost. When agents are WFH they don’t have colleagues immediately beside them to seek advise from. All of this has an impact on call quality and service.