Wrong advice about bonus eligibility – what to do?

[1A]

Signed up for a Plat during the big bonus last year (60k MR / £200 travel credit). Before applying, I asked their chat agent when I last held an MR card for the purposes of bonus eligibility. They advised me that I had cancelled a Gold card exactly two years prior, so if I applied the following day would be eligible for the bonus.

Noticed no bonus towards the end of last year, despite hitting the spend requirements within a few weeks of getting the card, and was told to ‘wait another month’. Contacted them again this week and now told:
– Not eligible due to a Rewards CC that I had forgotten about (never used, not on my online account, auto-cancelled for dormancy last year).
– Will not offer goodwill credit of the bonus because “it’s huge”.
– Will not offer full fee refund (only usual pro-rata) if I cancel as have used the card.

From my POV – yes technically not eligible, and had I realised about the other MR card would not have applied, but that was the reason I checked with their representative prior to applying and was given inaccurate information about my eligibility from an Amex representative who reviewed my account history. As they say the bonus was ‘huge’, and this was a significant factor in choosing the product, therefore I feel I was essentially missold the card.

There was also a missed opportunity to inform me of the error when I contacted them last year, and instead I continued to use the card and accrue months of card fee that they now say they will not refund. I’ve put decent spend through the card, nearing 3x the bonus spend requirement now, but no budge on the goodwill whatsoever.

For now I’ve stopped using the card and raised a formal complaint, but anticipate they’ll initially come back with another ‘not eligible, get stuffed’ response. Anyone got other suggestions / thoughts / think I’m being unrealistic by hoping for a satisfactory resolution?

[NorthernLass]

You probably won’t get the bonus; unfortunately you just can’t rely 100% on what the chat agents tell you, you have to keep your own records and be prepared to produce them if necessary. I was in a similar position recently – I was told to close my gold card to improve my chances of being accepted for a new BAPP. This turned out to be nonsense – all I had to do was wait 3 months and reapply but in the meantime I was left without any Amex. I got £100 compo for the inconvenience so you may get the same.

[Carlos]

Lesson to learn is always keep a spreadsheet of your applied cards (used or not used) as this is the golden source.
Amex have deep records of the same and looks like the CS agent only looked as deep as your cancelled Gold card – it would have been a chance for you to enquire about other card types during that point. Unfortunately the chances are slim in getting anything sorted here.

Furthermore, your 24 hour clock will have to restart

[Harrods]

Carlos wrote:

Lesson to learn is always keep a spreadsheet of your applied cards (used or not used) as this is the golden source.
Amex have deep records of the same and looks like the CS agent only looked as deep as your cancelled Gold card – it would have been a chance for you to enquire about other card types during that point. Unfortunately the chances are slim in getting anything sorted here.

Furthermore, your 24 hour clock will have to restart

I too wish it was a 24 hour clock.

[Carlos]

I mean 24 month haha

[alig4th]

NorthernLass wrote:

unfortunately you just can’t rely 100% on what the chat agents tell you.

Similar experience: asked chat agent explicitly date of closure of last Avios earning card in my account. They quoted a date that was very wrong. I asked you confirm this was an Avios card in my account. I asked again if it wasn’t some other card. They said it was a Nectar card. So I asked them to re-check for an Avios card in my name. They gave another date. I checked this was definitely my account and not a additional card. They realised it was an additional card.

I gave them the rough date I thought it was. They checked. They confirmed the exact date. I asked them to check one more time to make sure that was the date and there were no other Avios cards on my account after that date. They confirmed.

Ugh

[1A]

Thanks all, also wish it was only 24 hours…!

Surely if asked an explicit question about eligibility, the chat agents should be expected to provide accurate information, have access to the same source subsequently used to advise of my ineligibility (or escalate to someone who does), etc.? Especially when the advice they give will influence decisions about applying for credit products from the company they are representing.

I’d argue it’s different from being told “you might have better chances of being accepted” – I have the chat logs that say along the lines of “this is when you last held a relevant card… apply tomorrow and you will get the bonus”. Yes I should have my own records, but why would I even check when I have this confirmation from the horse’s mouth?

Even without the bonus, will still chase a full fee refund / escalate to FOS as applied for product on dodgy advice.

[memesweeper]

If you applied on the basis of ‘misrepresentation’ then you have the basis of a legal as well as a customer complaint.

Write a letter to HQ and insist on the bonus, and ensure it is treated as a formal complaint for good measure. Point out you were misrepresented about the product, specifically bonus eligibility, and make it clear you will take the matter further if Amex don’t relent.

[Harrier25]

I’m struggling to accept that you were missold anything. Nobody at Amex sold you the Platinum card, they just supplied you with inaccurate information. Which I think is the route you need to take with your complaint to achieve a possible small goodwill gesture.

[JDB]

It’s difficult to see the ‘misrepresentation’ here and certainly not one to found any sort of case, particularly when as @Harrier25 says, no product has been sold to you and on application you will have signed a document confirming that.

It’s also difficult to understand how you had a dormant account without realising and additionally you would have received a number of communications from Amex advising you of impending closure if you didn’t use the account plus a final closing statement.

Yes, the chat agent may have made a mistake but nor necessarily did they have all the facts from you or understand the purpose of your enquiry. You will probably get a small bung for the inconvenience but that’s about it.

You talk about pursuing the matter to the FOS which is your right, but they are completely overrun with non-cases such as this which is why on other threads people are complaining of the lengthy delays.

Maybe I’m very old fashioned but I feel people need to accept responsibility for their mistakes rather than rushing complain and for someone to pay compensation. Basic admin really is down to each of us.

[1A]

I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

I fully accept that I should do more to personally keep track of the accounts I have held, but as foolish as I have been, a large financial institution has equally not been able to keep track and communicate accurately about the accounts I have had held with them.

I also dispute the challenge of the relevance and specificity of the chat agent’s advice. If you saw the transcripts, you’d see my question to them made it unmistakably clear that the accounts query was in relation to eligibility for the Platinum welcome bonus, and their response was equally unambiguous and provided a suggestion of when to apply for the card to ensure I received this bonus. I don’t know how that can’t be taken as advertising, advice, whatever, about the features I can expect from a product they are selling with a £600-odd annual fee.

Anyway, surprisingly they have now come through quite quickly with a very satisfactory resolution (I guess from reviewing transcripts themselves) so I will thank you all for your input and leave it there.

[StanTheMan]

well that was the fastest moan-to-resolution i can remember. 4.5 hours !

[Carlos]

1A wrote:

I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

I fully accept that I should do more to personally keep track of the accounts I have held, but as foolish as I have been, a large financial institution has equally not been able to keep track and communicate accurately about the accounts I have had held with them.

I also dispute the challenge of the relevance and specificity of the chat agent’s advice. If you saw the transcripts, you’d see my question to them made it unmistakably clear that the accounts query was in relation to eligibility for the Platinum welcome bonus, and their response was equally unambiguous and provided a suggestion of when to apply for the card to ensure I received this bonus. I don’t know how that can’t be taken as advertising, advice, whatever, about the features I can expect from a product they are selling with a £600-odd annual fee.

Anyway, surprisingly they have now come through quite quickly with a very satisfactory resolution (I guess from reviewing transcripts themselves) so I will thank you all for your input and leave it there.

What was the satisfactory resolution from Amex?