10,000 bonus points per 20 transactions

[serfty]

I have noticed financial debiting and points crediting has tended to slow down towards the end of recent months, maybe the punters are putting many transaction through.

I would suggest people not expect purchase transactions after Friday to post into MR before the end of this month.

Anyway, I am up to 42 eligible now showing, some six are not ... and another 5K in bonii have now posted.

(Now need another 2 transactions this month ... or was that 12? :?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Again your example is flawed. In your case the offer was withdrawn by the time that Mr B tried to avail themselves of the offer.

In this case up until the point at which Amex withdrew the webpage they should honour the open offer .

That is what I have said. Those that actually saw it on the Amex Website should get it.

- even if people registered without seeing the open offer as the offer was still being made.

There we disagree..as I do not believe it was a genuine open offer.

But yes...as to which offer a person should be entitled to up until the T&C was amended is a different question.

What I raised was that people learning about the web offering after the fact, but raising it now as a reason as to why they should get the most generous rate, when it did not actually playa role.

 

[NM]

Ok...so lets say a butcher shop puts a sign in it's window for 30 minutes:

T-Bone Steak $2.39 /kg.

Butcher then realises it was a mistake (was meant to be$23.90).

Butcher serves anyone in the shop who asks for it at $2.39......

One of those people (Mr A) tells a mate of the unbelievable deal he got on T-Bone steak at Bill the Buthers.

So Mr B goes in that afternoon for hois $2.39/kg T-Bones and is said sorry. That deal price is not available.

Now Mr B never actually saw the sign...but demands the cheaper price and tells the butcher he saw the sign and so wants the cheap steak.

Can Mr B get the price of $2.39 just because Mr A saw the original sign?

If you are trying to correlate this to the Amex promo, then the situation is quite different. People who came to purchase the steak after the sign was taken down were not told the deal was over, but were in fact allowed to place their orders and told their order was successfully placed and would be fulfilled.

Now if the Amex members had gone to the web site and were given a message that the prmo had been withdrawn, cancelled or even suspended (as did happen later), then that's quite different from them being accepted and then later told "oops, sorry we made a mistake and you don't qualify for this promo".

Common Sense would dictate that with Amex having sent out 3 different postcarded offers that to post the most generous offer on it's website was clearly a stuff up on it's part as why would you have the two less generous offers?. It clearly should not have been there.

The unknown is how binding should a genuine mistake be?

Indeed that is the question, and neither of us is able to definitively answer it.

I went into Target the other day....and at the register there was a small sign stating that mistake had been made in their recent catalague and the the price should be xx rather than yy.

Now the original catalgoue was a public offer widely circulated via post.
I regularly see such retractions post newspaper ads, tv ads and other catalogues.

Are those stores acting illegally?

Again, there is a huge difference here. Any people who went to the Target store before Target noticed they had a problem and published the error notice would have been able to purchase the product for the advertised price. Target would not go back to them later and say "sorry you did not qualify for that price, here is the new price for which we have decided you should have qualified".

Anyone turning up to the Target store to purchase the item would have been notified BEFORE the transaction that the price was a mistake, not notified after they have paid the lower price and left the store.

I suspect that until they notify in some way of the mistake that they are hnour bound, and probably legally obliged to sell the item at that price. But once they have notified of the change then I would imagine they are not.

Exactly, and Amex did not notify people of their mistake until well after the customers had "left the store".

With this promo I would imagine the nub of it will be when did it notify of the change for those that it had accepted into the promo by internet or phone registration.

Now that is the point. The notificaiton came after they accepted the customer into the promo, not before they accepted them. If when someone signed up for the 5T/5K promo, they were presented with a "Sorry, you don't qualify for this promo, but we will instead register you for the 10T/5K version", or "sorry, we made a mistake when we advertised the promo - here are the new details" then it would be similar to your Target example.

Amex has drawn one date. Some might succesfully argue that this a bit before the actual amended T&C (and hence notification) appeared.

The other big question for me is that for those cardmembers whom Amex registered for more than one bonus, does it have the legal right put them onto a bonus which is not the most attractive of the 2 or more that they signed up for?

exactly.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

OK - having a system glitch that did not prevent people joining is a blunder. .

Agree

Advertising it on the website was a deliberate action that opened up the promo..

Well yes deliberate as in someone did it.

But I cannot believe that it wasa genuine INTENDED action.

It was not a good business decision but Amex put the advert there to everyone..

100% agree
but Amex put the advert there to everyone..

Yes. But does that make it binding for those that never actually saw it on their site?

You will note that targetted BP promotion was not on the website - further enforcing that at one point Amex intended this to be a public offer.

I do not follow the logic.

Personally I think it is more lilkey that this promo was meant to be like the BP one with no offering on the web.



I might be entirely wrong, but IMO someone at Amex stuffed up by putting the Promo on the website...or at the bare minimum stuffed up by putting the most generous rate on the website.

Maybe just maybe one could argue that they meant to put up the least generous rate. But the most generous?

 

[glass]

Plenty of reasons to cry foul mostly for those of us who signed up for a promotion and were then put on another and then had points taken of us.

well yeah, for you, but there are lots of angry ppl who have not been POC'd or
put on another etc but just want to ring up and complain 'just in case' it happens to them too

either way the more complaints the more likely amex will back down (?) but also delays any replies.

 

[simongr]

All points, bonii and transactions updated a few mins ago

 

[QF WP]

Month      Transactions      Points Credited      Points Owed 
September^      23                5,000               5,000
October         70                    0              35,000
November#       74                    0              35,000

^ from date of registration (18/9)
# up to and including 23/11, with at least 2 transactions to post from yesterday/today (plus any from my wife). Goal is 90, so I'm ahead of target

Still no bonus points but I'm a patient man.

 

[nlagalle]

All points, bonii and transactions updated a few mins ago

no call back from Amex yet about your letter?

 

[QF WP]

All points, bonii and transactions updated a few mins ago

Well done simongr . I presume that this means they have accepted you at 5T/5K and have refunded the "withdrawn" points from your MR account

 

[JohnK]

I think it is up to Amex to prove that you did not see it on their web site. I do not believe any judge or arbitrator would ever expect every person to take screen shots of every web transaction ever undertaken just in case they have to prove that it existed.

Totally agree although I think as we have seen in previous promotions from other companies, like HHonors, Qantas, Avis atc, if you sign up for a promotion on the internet then it is very wise to actually capture and keep a copy of the sign up screen....

 

[AnonymousCoward]

I went into Target the other day....and at the register there was a small sign stating that mistake had been made in their recent catalague and the the price should be xx rather than yy.

Now the original catalgoue was a public offer widely circulated via post.
I regularly see such retractions post newspaper ads, tv ads and other catalogues.

Are those stores acting illegally?

No, they aren't. That is why you see the "EOE" (Errors and omissions excepted) disclaimers in those catalogues. These are legally permitted.

Secondly, under contract law, a price advertised on a sign/catalogue etc is merely an invitation to treat (Boots Pharmaceutical case), not an offer. Some stores have a policy of honouring advertised prices, but there is no requirement to do so. Certain things (like deliberately misleading conduct - advertising something deliberately that you never intend to honour) are outlawed under statute, but in general there is no requirement to honour an advertised price.

I suspect that until they notify in some way of the mistake that they are hnour bound, and probably legally obliged to sell the item at that price. But once they have notified of the change then I would imagine they are not.

You suspect incorrectly

With this promo I would imagine the nub of it will be when did it notify of the change for those that it had accepted into the promo by internet or phone registration.

This promotion has nothing to do with selling goods or services. And therein the trail of reasoning ends.

 

[JohnK]

Can Mr B get the price of $2.39 just because Mr A saw the original sign?

No. As the sign may have been there yesterday or last week.

I went into Target the other day....and at the register there was a small sign stating that mistake had been made in their recent catalague and the the price should be xx rather than yy.

Now the original catalgoue was a public offer widely circulated via post.
I regularly see such retractions post newspaper ads, tv ads and other catalogues.

Are those stores acting illegally?

As far as I understand, and I am certain I read an article on this recently, if a store has made a genuine mistake then it is not entitled to correct this mistake without suffering losses under the original.

The latest is the Dell debacle, that happened twice recently, offering PCs for around ~$250. How about the Air Canada mistake airfare earlier this year where Air Canada chose not to honour the mistake and cancelled itineraries and refunded money.

I think a company is entitled to make mistakes and then should be able to retract the offers if they realise the mistake was genuine and not misleading advertising. Why should a company have to honour genuine mistakes? Let's say you drive past one of the Holden frnachises and you see a sign "Brand New Statesman $7000". Drop in and see how many Statemans you can buy. Don't be disappointed if you are told that the sign is a mistake and the price is actually $70000!

Now Amex is in exactly the same situation. Any of the 3 promotions are clearly a mistake. Now it would be realistic if the promotions offered were something like 20 transactions for 1,000 bonus points, or 10 transactions for 500 bonus points or 5 transactions for 500 bonus points. It is our greed that is not allowing us to see clearly or think logically

 

[simongr]

Well done simongr . I presume that this means they have accepted you at 5T/5K and have refunded the "withdrawn" points from your MR account

Sorry to misrepresent things - all bonii as defined by Amex as due have posted. I am now "out of pocket" 111K based on the offer I accepted.

no call back from Amex yet about your letter?

Nada, nothing, zip, ixnay on the etterlay...

 

[nowork]

Has anyone else noticed how long the bonus points are coming through. They told me i was on the 5 transactions/5000 points, but they dont seem to be coming through.......

 

[straitman]

Has anyone else noticed how long the bonus points are coming through. They told me i was on the 5 transactions/5000 points, but they dont seem to be coming through.......

Aaaaaah :!:

nowork,

This has been covered to death in the last few pages so please go back and look through the thread.

I don't mean to sound cynical BUT you appear to be living up to your handle

 

[Masonic Phantom]

Is there an Amex promotion going on???!!! [relax just kidding]

 

[oz_mark]

I'm guessing straitman is still on a par with me on the number of bonus points received

 

[baz123]

Now Amex is in exactly the same situation. Any of the 3 promotions are clearly a mistake. Now it would be realistic if the promotions offered were something like 20 transactions for 1,000 bonus points, or 10 transactions for 500 bonus points or 5 transactions for 500 bonus points. It is our greed that is not allowing us to see clearly or think logically

I think most people agree that this wasn't a mistake on Amex's part - it wasn't an inadvertant typo that created the Amex offer. Unusually generous offer on Amex's part, sure, but not a mistake

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I think most people agree that this wasn't a mistake on Amex's part - it wasn't an inadvertant typo that created the Amex offer. Unusually generous offer on Amex's part, sure, but not a mistake

I am in the minority then.

For I believe it was a right royal stuff up.

....and no it was not a typo that created it....but someone grossly miscalculating the bonus rate and then no-one at Amex realising it to somtime around Sep 20 when the **** hit the fan!!!!!!!! when there was a huge "oh what have we done moment" somewhere in the Amex Management Team, wherepon panic and confusion rule the roost for many days.

Allowing non-postcarded ones in IMO only compounded the original mistake, and if the bonus rate was only a little bit generous (rather than extremely generous)would not have mattered (ie with a well calculated bonus rate extra people would just of helped to achieve the originally intended marketing purpose).

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Anyway...lets the Points Run continue

As an avid Points Runner I am now starting to suffer from shopping fatigue from the daily "Groundhog Day" cycle of shopping. Some of the shop assistants I now see more of than my mates :shock:

A number of shop assistants now also give me quizzacal looks as I yet again appear....no doubt the source of speculation of being a shoppaholic.

My socks and jocks draws are overflowing and resplendant with new items.

The pantry is overflowing...as are the laundry and bathrooms with various soaps , shampoos and cleaning chemicals!!!

The beds have new sheets and our tired pillows replaced.

Xmas shopping normally a last minute rush, is now all complete and it is not even December yet!!! Santa also seems to have been unusually generous this year to my three duaghters and for some strange reason Santa seems to have been biased to many items rather than justa few more expensive ones

Summer the family is now already equipped for with new bathers all round, t-shirts and shorts.................and an ample supply of sunscreen and insect repellant.

Fortunately two of my daughters have birthdays in Nov and Dec and that has made a few Point Running trips a bit easier....and yes also compared to previous years, present purchasing was completed a record period ahead of time!!!

Various bills have been converted over to Amex..but not all as I do not see the sense in swapping from my preferred insurers etc.

But yes many bills are now being paid monthly rather than quarterly or yearly!


But there is still just over a month remaining in this particular point run.....and I must admit now that finding items to purchase, apart from normal groceries from the supermarkets, is starting to be a real challenge!!!!!!!!!