10,000 bonus points per 20 transactions

[anat0l]

I received a 3rd batch of 5,000 points yesterday (so far this month). My account now appears to be getting the bonuses on a regular basis. I'm curious as to why only a few others have reported similarities...

Ditto here - just checked this morning and another 5k has been put in.

Again, I'm just watching the flowers grow....

 

[holo]

Who are Amex? Well Amex are the ones organising the promotion and they are the ones setting the terms and conditions we have to abide with for the promotion.

Likewise so do they. Everyday legitimate spend includes going to Woolies twice a day if needed. ie Sarnie for lunch and perhaps dinner later.

like the person who purchased 9-10 beers individually with Amex one night, of how to take advantage of this promotion and some of these could be construed as abuse. The challenge has been set by Amex and now it is up to the individual(s) to prove otherwise.

nothing wrong with buying rounds of beer with Amex, that is the whole point, something that has been explained ad nauseam.

Also, the onus of proof is the other way round. Amex need demonstrate a breach if they intend to rely on it.

 

[vet]

Holo, I agree.

PS FOS has complaints saying amex reps told them bill splits were ok. Also small bills avoiding fights over bar and meal tabs were a feature peddled by Amex to businesses. (We have lots on people living in staff accom buying single drinks and single meals at the same table for lunch, happy hour and bar dinners, so why can't they pay small amounts and often). A public company with bars is sending me the terms Amex offered them and they sound far more favourable than Amex offerred to small fry businesses. (I think lots of small places would like the same rates and immediate payment as Mcard and Visa).

Oh, the plugs been pulled on Amex by one public company. Board meeting with co-director of a well known Scientologist is next week.

 

[JohnK]

nothing wrong with buying rounds of beer with Amex, that is the whole point, something that has been explained ad nauseam.

I am a little slow so I do need most things explained ad nauseam.

By the way I did say that some of these transactions may be construed as abuse not all of them. It's also reassuring to know that most people posting in this thread are experts at interpreting the terms and conditions and what Amex should or should not do. I don't know why Amex bothers with marketing and legal deaprtments when all they need to do is hire the people that have been posting in this thread....

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I don't know why Amex bothers with marketing and legal deaprtments when all they need to do is hire the people that have been posting in this thread....

A bit or irony here as Amex in rolling out this promotion could be said to have not made the best use of these departments as the implementation was clearly flawed in many many ways...with Amex then going into "panic" mode for at least several weeks with a flurry of different and ill-considered messages given to anyone that contacted them.

So I would hardly hold this promotion up as an example of marketing and legal departments working well.

Indeed this promo smacks of having being rolled out by "work experience students" rather than true professionals.

Given the large number of normally well run promos that Amex conducts on a virtually continuous basis....that they could get this promo so badly wrong I continue to find truly stunning.

 

[js]

Sounds like to me JS that you will get back in then.

I think it's likely I'll be able to show the transactions to the date of AMEX's letter were legitimate, so although time-consuming I am not so worried about that.

What actually annoys me more is that it appears regardless of the outcome of that (and they say to allow 30 days to consider it), my reading of the letter is that everything from here onwards is not going to count ("We have also suspended you from further participation in the promotion").

It does say "suspended" which implies it could be "un-suspended", but given the time periods involved my feeling is that is unlikely. That part is quite disappointing, particularly given how hard we have worked to move direct debits and all sorts of regular purchases over to AMEX, and I feel quite let down by the whole thing.

 

[QF WP]

Well, they haven't started to credit me any "missing" bonus points, but perhaps it's alphabetical again



I think most people who get a "please explain" letter like js and others should be able to explain most transactions. I had a couple of examples on my trip to Adelaide:

• A meal at night where they had already produced the bill. I left a tip. They were posted as separate transactions.
• I went to a cafe with a client at 10am and had coffee over a meeting (90 minutes). By that stage, I was hungry so I picked up a takeaway sandwich and drink to take back to my hotel room before my next meeting.
• Checked out of Hotel (Holiday Inn) and then had meeting with clients in the foyer bar area. It went 2.5 hours, so about 90 mins into the meeting, I ordered drinks for us (my throat was dry from our discussions).

These are classic examples where there is a plausible explanation.

I'm sure that js and others have the right to ask which of their transactions are considered "suspect", they shouldn't be required to justify all transactions surely (that is a lot of wasted time from both parties).

 

[Iza]

Hi Iza,welcome to the forum. I was in a very similar situation. My maximiser card is up for renewal in November and I am on the MYREWARDS bonus.

I called them last week and told them I am considering my card options now (i didn't explicitly say i am cancelling as no way in the world would I cancel during such an awesome promo!).

I told them that the card fees are high, benefits are shrinking (1.25pt/dollar from Apr), etc... the CSR recognised my perfect payment records and has been a member for 8 years, he then said he's happy to waive my $192 annual fee. But I still have to pay for my supplementary card.

So I think your have reasonably good chance if you have a good payment record and have a reasonable spending record.

Good luck

Thanks for sharing your experience petertwister. I hope I achieve the same result.

 

[Iza]

Iza, I don't know that us thinking amex will waive your fee would do anything to help. Are you going to call amex and say that frequentflyer.com.au thinks you should waive your fee? I don't think that'd work well.

WOW – that’s great advice gl cough! I’m gonna get on the phone to AMEX and say exactly as you suggested. Geez, why didn't I think of that...

 

[lovetravellingoz]

where there is a plausible explanation.

I may be wrong....but my guess is that the ones that Amex will be querying is where there are multiple on-line payments to a single organistation.

These are the ones where an individual may easily have been tempted to "split".

Transactions where there are third party people involved...such as your hotel example...as less likely IMO to be queried as they would be hard to rort and are muh more likely to be genuine seperate tx.

 

[vet]

Regarding Amex's recruitment of new businesses,there were posts of a few small places that bore new amex merchandise but refused it. I know I walked out of a local cake shop who refused amex despite having new amex signage.

A business manager of an accom building with 150 beds at up to $1,000 a night, she's still waiting on amex to fulfil its side of the bargain. Hello: this promo is half way gone. Surely Amex wants to pay out bonus points to people, booking regular accom for summer school holidays, Easter, Queens Birthday, June & Sept school holidays, Interschools week, and every weekend til the end of Sept 2009.

I'll be asking her and other managers at the Geebung Hotel meeting on Monday night if Amex fulfilled its deal with them. Amex might need to explain to regulators why they're slow giving the public, and directors of public companies, the chance to run up very big bonus points on early-bird booking deals

And Amex is being pulled from serviced apartments too. The family weren't getting their bonus points and went to the Ombudsman: every unit is separately metered and separetly invoiced so I wonder if Amex is being too revisionist.

Memo: must buy a new guillotine on amex.

 

[simongr]

Interesting - all points have disappeared from my MR accounts - not deducted just no accounts showing at the moment...

 

[Flashback]

I've just checked my account, and the same has happened.

Note, I've not been POC'd or anything like that; so could just be a maintenance thing.

 

[holo]

I can't get in at all, system down for maintenance.

 

[oz_mark]

Over the past few years, I've seen this before on Sunday Mornings.

IMHO, it's not the points are being pulled. It is, I believe, an update/housekeeping process.

I would expect normal (?) service to resume in the near future ...

While I agree this is normal for a Sunday, I do note that last Sunday my account was pretty much inaccessible all day. Everything about the account said "Unavailable", I had been a member since "0" and so on.

At the moment, I can see my MR total, but can't get to the transaction page.

I would not, at this point, read too much into not being able to see the MR information. Normal service does resume in time!

 

[Masonic Phantom]

I may be wrong....but my guess is that the ones that Amex will be querying is where there are multiple on-line payments to a single organistation.

These are the ones where an individual may easily have been tempted to "split".

Transactions where there are third party people involved...such as your hotel example...as less likely IMO to be queried as they would be hard to rort and are muh more likely to be genuine seperate tx.

The assumptions!! :shock: that are posted on this thread are really amazing,keep it up great reading.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

The assumptions!! :shock: that are posted on this thread are really amazing,keep it up great reading.

Which is why of course why I wrote it as a "guess" rather than as a "fact".

However my "guess" is based on various facts some of which I have not posted and some of which were clearly stated by Amex in the FAQ or revised T&C....and yes I still very much doubt that Amex would query someone with say 2 or 3 Safeways tx in a single day.....but would strongly suspect that they would query someone with say a dozen on-line tx to a single company of the one day.

Furthermore if Amex did query say 2 or 3 Safeways purchases then as long as they are from different times, or departments then they would be legitmate spend and not able to be "knocked" back by Amex.

Amex cannot invoke arbitrary rules....unless they further amend the T&C. Just as we the cardmembers have to abide by the T&C, then so do Amex.

ie I can buy bread for the kids Sandwiches in the morning...and then meat for dinner on the way home. Both are clearly valid seperate tx.


However just to be doubly sure I must admit that if I do for example vist a Safeways twice in one day that I normally visit two different Safeways just to make sure that Amex cannot say that they should have been one tx!!!!!!

 

[oz_mark]

Amex might need to explain to regulators why they're slow giving the public, and directors of public companies, the chance to run up very big bonus points on early-bird booking deals

Could you explain what you mean by "directors of public companies", as distinct from the public?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

. Surely Amex wants to pay out bonus points to people, booking regular accom for summer school holidays, Easter, Queens Birthday, June & Sept school holidays, Interschools week, and every weekend til the end of Sept 2009.

. Amex might need to explain to regulators why they're slow giving the public, and directors of public companies, the chance to run up very big bonus points on early-bird booking deals

.

I cannot follow your logic at all.

The original offer quite clearly stated that points would take upto 10 weeks to post.

Just because some did early on does not impinge on Amex's right to take upto 10 weeks to post the bonus points.

ie Amex have not been slow to post at all.

What people want to do with their points is also quite clearly not a concern or responisbilty of Amex.

 

[JohnK]

I would not, at this point, read too much into not being able to see the MR information. Normal service does resume in time!

Why? I love it when paranoia sets in then you start to get really good conspiracy theories....