10,000 bonus points per 20 transactions

[QF WP]

According to the rep I'm not enrolled at all, ... but I've got...a $80 amex fee on my card on 18th Sept for, I thought, joining a 5k/5t promo

Maybe that means that you weren't a member of MR and the rep enrolled you (nobody else to my knowledge got charged a fee for joining the promotion). Joining the promo (once a member of MR) was free...

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Guess this thread will start to take off if points arent posted in 8-10 weeks time.

Yes...so far this thread has not had much interest

 

[rodgerbranch]

Original Promo Was from 10Th SEP to 31DEC

Anyone ever ask whether it counts from Sep1 as advertised, or from enrollment as it seems?

The Invitation cards were sent earlier but the original promo states "Purchases made from the 10th SEP to 31DEC"

It may be good if we could Keep a list here of people who gets confirmation from Amex for their situation:

E.G.

People Who enroll befor 20th with Card, without card, QFamex, Corporate
People who enroll after 20th with and without card, QFamex, Corporate

And of course if some one gets a written confirmation of Unlimited points enrollment and rules that apply to him, such as Min-purchase value

In my view... it could be worst to get just verbal confirmation from Amex that we are in the unlimited Promo. After all we already have verbal confirmation ... and that verbal confirmation was wrong, but we realized what happened when the Bonus points stopped coming IN.... Now having Bonus points posted after 8 Weeks we may go Bananas using our Cards and find out after 2 Months that the verbal confirmation was wrong again ...

Amex please do the Right thing and send us a B&W CleanCut confirmation saying Points will be for sure added to our Accounts, and any Min-spending expected or Max transaction per month expected....

 

[ColinP]

Re: Original Promo Was from 10Th SEP to 31DEC

we may go Bananas using our Crads and find out after 2 Months that the verbal confirmation was wrong...

Amex please do the Right thing and send us a B&W CleanCut confirmation saying Points will be for sure added

It's not in Amex's interest to clarify the situation for the pre-20th Sep group. Whilst we're unsure about whether we're likely to get points or not we're less likely to "go bananas".

I intend to use my Amex card as much as possible in a sensible way and see what happens in 8 - 10 weeks.

My average no of transactions for the few months preceding the promo was a tad under 3 per day. When I "went bananas" for the five days that I had bonus points posting to my MR account, my average went up to 4.8 transactions per day. Hardly "going bananas" but I suspect, exactly the sort of behaviour Amex envisaged when they instigated this promo.

The people who "went bananas" (or suggested how to) are the ones who panicked Amex and ruined it for others.

 

[js]

Or say someone who has two cards - one they use a lot and another they don't use more than once every two months who might have got the 5 for 5000 offer like me.

On this topic of targeting, I was surprised to read early on in this thread about the different offers and low/medium/high spend range.

The main reason for the surprise is I got the 5 for 5000 offer but routinely do around 80 transactions a month (before the promo). It seems I've been classified as a "low" transactor, despite this, and despite spending in the order of $200k a year on AMEX.

Is this an anomaly, or are there really people in the "high" volume range that are spending considerably above this (in $ and/or number of transactions).

EDIT FWIW I am a 1A(i)

 

[mistado]

hmm have had about 10 transactions since teh 24th ..with no further bonuses added..bonus to date 15000. ..called amex their system is down son not able to confirm my opt in bonus status yet...well will just wait and see..

 

[snufl]

Re: Original Promo Was from 10Th SEP to 31DEC

The Invitation cards were sent earlier but the original promo states "Purchases made from the 10th SEP to 31DEC"

I agree with you and the printout when registering online said 1st Sep but I am happy to accept transactions from my registration date.

I'm don't want to go into another battle over pre-registration transactions and risk losing the war (or complicating it further).

 

[kyle]

While I haven't received any more bonus points, I did get some 'accelerator' points since 26 Sept when I logged into my MR account on the plat cc. Instead of 1.5 points per $, I'm getting 2 per $.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Re: Original Promo Was from 10Th SEP to 31DEC

The people who "went bananas" (or suggested how to) are the ones who panicked Amex and ruined it for others.

I would disagree....any promo runs the risk of people abusing it....or in this case just using it.

This promotion was clearly meant to increase transactions (and remember that Luisa invited us all to go out and visit all the thousands of new businesses who now accepted Amex.)...and yet the amended T&C would now only reward many cardholders for a portion of their normal spend with no change in normal spend action is needed to achieve the bonus. ie it will not increase transactions for many, if not all. Amex have now moved to a "face-saving" campaign to try and minimise aggravation.

To me Amex is just putting out Corporate Spin trying to shift blame away from themselves while simulataneously trying to get people to accept their amended T&C. Painting "abusers" as the villains, rather than just admitting that they got it wrong.


Any of the various muted scenarios for abuse and/or fraud should have been thought throught and countered in advance. And indeed if say bill splitting had not been thought of...thgis should have been easily countered by Amex "clarfying" that it was against the general provisions of MR (though even then the lawyers may argue it is not...)



What panicked Amex was not abusers...it was just Amex realising that :

• they had got their numbers wrong (ie the bonus's are shall we say extremely generous). Do the maths..it is pretty obvious that Amerx got their decimal point in the wrong place....and stupidity that no one there picked it prior to offering it.
• that they had executed it poorly:
  • no minimum spend
  • no maximum limit (again stupidity as any business should always know in advance what it's maximum liabity would or could be). Indeed they made it worse by emphasisng that this wasa no limits promotion. This is clearly shown now as thethe monthly limit can be reached depending on your offer in only one or two cycles of transactions. Hardlya "No Limit" promotion!! A person who already did 100-200 transactions anyway as some have said they did...would only receive bonuses ona fraction of their normal spend. Again clear evidence that Amex got their numbers wrong.
  • virtually no proper T&C
    • clearly mentioning that splitting of bills would not be accepted...and indeed a definition of what an eligible transaction is (in the offer it was only Australian purchases in $Ays)
  • allowing people to register for concurrent bonuses (with no T&C) to exclude it.

• • allowing non-Maximiser targetted cardholders to register including allowing QF and Corporate Cradholders to register. This meant that to many people were registering (However this could have been quickly closed off as it was....and the numbers accepted themselves I am sure would not have been a significant problem to Amex if they had used the corrct bonus award rate which IMO they did not).
  • not briefing their won staff properly all the way through the process (ie answer should always have been to caller, that you need to have received the postcrd to be eligible.
  • somehow allowing what was meant to be a postcard only offer to appear on their main splash screen (for no way in the world would any competent marketer want to let thos targetted know that there were better deals offered...and what was on the splash page was the most generous offer offered).

So again IMO what panicked Amex was the Penny Dropping with them of their own mistakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sure that there was a significant Oh ****, what have we done moment!!!! That is when the panic started.


So in conclusion do not lay the blame at the people that received, or even heard about the offer, but rather at Amex itself.

Yes there may still have been some abusers..but proper T&C would have taken care of the vast majorty of them and such abuse and or fraud.

Irony...
There is a also a large dose of irony in this thread. For if it had not been started then I think it is most likely that Amex would not have been made aware of their mistake, and hence problems, till much later in the piece.

This thread (like a few other forums, but it would seem ones without active Amex lurkers) while alerting non-postcard holders to the bonuses also alerted IMO Amex to their own blunders.

Thus it was quickly **** off....witha few extra no-postacrd people registering, but I am sure many many more valid postcard receipients now capped at 10,000 and unable to get in.

IMO Amex would have had a much bigger problem and liabity if all the postacrd holders had had time to register before the amended T&C had been issued.

 

[Alanslegal]

Re: Original Promo Was from 10Th SEP to 31DEC

What is with the red highlighting Rodgerbranch?

Now give yourself a left-right combination uppercut

.....

 

[mistado]

Just checked my MR points and realised i too now for some reason am getting double points for every transaction as opposed to the original 5000 pts. This is getting added under the heading platinum points accelerator.

 

[file51]

IMO Amex would have hada much bigger problem and liabity if all the postacrd holders had had time to register before the amended T&C had been issued.

What a lot of people keep overlooking and forgetting is the new T&C were made available on the 27th, pre-dated effective the 20th.

Sorry, but every check I have done with several government bodies state this is not allowed and illegal.

Changes can be made as of current time, or in the future, with notification given, however you cant say that as of 1 week ago we had new rules, but only decided to tell you now.

If anything, that is what will get Amex in a lot of hot water, as per the 2004 ACCC ruling against them, and the warning made personally by the ACCC chairman regarding a similar blunder.

 

[vet]

Amex tell me they've deregistered people from the 5k/5t promo., and put them on a $1/1 point deal, yet they've wiped off my points for petrol, and pre-lunch drinks yesterday and lunch yesterday. Now that'll be litigated.

 

[snufl]

Just checked my MR points and realised i too now for some reason am getting double points for every transaction as opposed to the original 5000 pts. This is getting added under the heading platinum points accelerator.

mistado, if you were originally getting 5K bonuses, I wouldn't worry. Amex are now taking 6-8 weeks to allocate 5K bonuses. Mine haven't gone through since 24th and that seems pretty common here.

 

[simongr]

Further confusion and misinformation seems to abound...

My points are accruing as normal - no bonuses of course.

 

[oz_mark]

Further confusion and misinformation seems to abound...

My points are accruing as normal - no bonuses of course.

Same here, on my plat credit card just getting the normal 1 point + 0.5 bonus point. Nothing else appears to be happening (although the supp card holder must be out shopping this morning!)

 

[deploy]

Hi Guys

I'm new to this forum - very interesting.

My wife just called AMEX CSR (today 29/9), and got the following response.

• if we were sent the offer in the mail and registered before 20th Sept - then no cap.
• everyone else has the cap - even those who got the offer in the mail but registered on or after 20th Sept - will still have the cap.

Obvoiusly the response from AMEX CSR is different to the one posted (Post # 267) by Luisa Megale, VP for Public Affairs & Communications

Our situation:
We enrolled online on the 19 Sept for the 5k/5T promo - we didtnt get mail notification prior.
We have received 15k bonus points so far, but nothing else since 25th sept..
We just want written confirmation of our original T&C.

I'm aware of the new T&C online, but which catergory do I fall in.

AMEX should be professional and confirm correct information.

 

[glass]

yeh, when I called, they said it'd count all stuff from 1st Sep.

all this is causing issues, cuz I'd now eg spend $1 on the same product if one store doesn't take amex, of course if I don't get bonuses then I'd be that $1 worse off.

anyway, the posts here are quite clear and consistent in the last 2 days about the new T&C, awaiting a letter from amex soon.

 

[pwanda]

I have been following this thread for quite some time. Having enrolled in the MYREWARD (5000points/5 transactions) promotion from the 17th September, I too have stopped receiving bonus points as of 24th September. Note, that I did not receive a written invitation, and only found out by accessing the AMEX website.

Today, I called up AMEX and was told my enrollment in the promotion still stands, as the new T&C only came into effect from the 19th September. Further, it was confirmed that the original T&C - i.e. NO LIMIT point - would continue to apply due to my participation prior to the changed T&C.


So, in summary:

--> if enrolled MYREWARD before 19th September: original T&C apply

--> if enrolled after 19th September: see AMEX site for new T&C


Finally, despite the reassurances from AMEX, we will only truly know once the bonus points are applied - and that may not be known for another 8-10 weeks.

 

[simongr]

all this is causing issues, cuz I'd now eg spend $1 on the same product if one store doesn't take amex, of course if I don't get bonuses then I'd be that $1 worse off.

I do not understand this statement at all. If you spend $1 at a store that takes Amex but you dont get the bonus you still get the $1 worth of product that you bought. The only issue arises if you either buy things that you dont need to get the bonus or change time f purchases to get the correct number of purchases in the right period.

I you making general buying decisions based on this promo then Amex are not at fault - they clearly said that points would post in 8-10 weeks (even though they posted ahead of time).

If you are choosing where to buy based on this promo and with price parity between stores you are better to buy from the Amex friendly store as you will earn normal points.