10,000 bonus points per 20 transactions

[nlagalle]

Has anyone confirmed the "change of plan"? I've seen and heard nothing except some talk on here. perhaps people are jumping the gun?

 

[oz_mark]

IMO this is a very generous promotion and I think that the marketing gurus at Amex might have been spooked by talk of rorting, hence their poorly thought out change of plan. I think they're making policy on the run so let's just take a chill pill, sit back and wait to see what transpires.

Agree entirely, and maybe they have discovered they are working through the weekend Until we get an official notification, we only have the reports of people that have spoken with CSR's.

To my mind, trying to get people to change their card useage in a meaningful way would have been by putting some sort of minimum transaction limit. Limiting the bonus when people would have already met the hurdle anyway soes not seem to achieve this.

 

[rodgerbranch]

ColinP

ColinP ... As I Said, people was going to try to stretch the purchases as much as possible... Mainly by buying in small amounts and not by trying to force WesternPower or AlintaGas or the Chinese take away to get AMEX facility....

 

[lovestotravel]

Re: Ha ha ... Didnt I said too good to be true

:mrgreen:

Well, That makes sense now. At last we have an idea of what the deal is about... May I say that is not a bad deal at all ... Remember these are Bonus Points (points on top of our normal points). Com'n is something for FREE... amex customers didnt loose anything but a crazy dream they could make 1,000,000 by buying 1000 $2 items LOL :mrgreen:

....


Remember all promotions have to be balanced... Customers Get something and give something and Amex Get something in return.... Unlimited uncaped points was Un-realistec

The deal was made VERY clear both in print, on the website and on the phone

5,000 points for every 5 tranasctions

NO LIMITS
NO RESTRICTIONS

Simple as that

Anything that is changed now is because the fools at AMEX didn't think this through and put a maximum limit on the number of bonus points that can be earned, or a min $ amount for each transaction.

As for you saying "Unlimited uncaped points was Un-realistec"

AMEX were the ones promotiing the "NO LIMIT TO THE AMOUNT OF BONUS POINTS THAT CAN BE EARNED"

If this 40,000 cap is indeed true, then who was the complete moron that approved/thought up of saying "NO LIMIT TO THE AMOUNT OF BONUS POINTS THAT CAN BE EARNED"

 

[futaris]

Anyone else having problems accessing americanexpress.com ???

Pinging www.americanexpress.com [12.29.100.148] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

And Membership Rewards AVR Telephone isn't working either: 1300 363 276

"Please enter your card number"
"Your entry is not available"

 

[lovestotravel]

Re: ColinP

ColinP ... As I Said, people was going to try to stretch the purchases as much as possible... Mainly by buying in small amounts and not by trying to force WesternPower or AlintaGas or the Chinese take away to get AMEX facility....

Not true, I have previously submitted requests for various large companies to accept AMEX, never heard back from AMEX about this.

 

[lovestotravel]

Has anyone confirmed the "change of plan"? I've seen and heard nothing except some talk on here. perhaps people are jumping the gun?

No - Just a few people on here quoting CSR's.

No doubt there will be an official response soon, and then at that stage I will be taking matters further.

 

[zig]

Anyone else having problems accessing americanexpress.com ???

Pinging www.americanexpress.com [12.29.100.148] with 32 bytes of data:
 
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

And Membership Rewards AVR Telephone isn't working either: 1300 363 276

No, I can access the site without any problems.

 

[lovestotravel]

Anyone else having problems accessing americanexpress.com ???

Pinging www.americanexpress.com [12.29.100.148] with 32 bytes of data:
 
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

And Membership Rewards AVR Telephone isn't working either: 1300 363 276

No and No

Not even sure what your trying to imply with that

 

[rodgerbranch]

Oz_Mark

Hey Oz_Mark... The situation is worst for amex if the carry on with an unclear offer that could see amex customers making millions of transactions costing Merchats BIG $$ in Fees and producing no points for Amex customers... Remember? the last we knew from Amex was that purchases had to be Reasonable and spliting was not allowed... BUT, how do you define RESONABLE does that have a $$$ value attached to it? or SPLITING?... how can they tell if I was going to buy meat tat woolworth and Milk at IGA or it was just to split the bill?

As I said .... Finally the Promotion Makes Sense


:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

 

[futaris]

No, I can access the site without any problems.

Sorry all. Problems were due my Three Mobile Broadband. Works fine on iinet though. Not sure why the voice system isn't working. Sometimes doesn't want to go through to the automated part... Worked fine yesterday.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: Oz_Mark

Hey Oz_Mark... The situation is worst for amex if the carry on with an unclear offer that could see amex customers making millions of transactions costing Merchats BIG $$ in Fees and producing no points for Amex customers... Remember? the last we knew from Amex was that purchases had to be Reasonable and spliting was not allowed... BUT, how do you define RESONABLE does that have a $$$ value attached to it? or SPLITING?... how can they tell if I was going to buy meat tat woolworth and Milk at IGA or it was just to split the bill?

As I said .... Finally the Promotion Makes Sense


:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

Indeed defining Resaonable would be a task.

If push comes to shove they could rely on section 14.4 of the Membership Rewards and Conditions.

"14.4 Fraud and abuse relating to the earning of points in the program or
redemption of rewards, including transfer of points to participating frequent
traveller programs, may result in forfeiture of points as well as cancellation
of the program account."

 

[kamchatsky]

Re: Oz_Mark

Indeed defining Resaonable would be a task.

If push comes to shove they could rely on section 14.4 of the Membership Rewards and Conditions.

But the problem is that in their promotion they did Explicitly say that there is no limit of points, no limit on bonuses. That is the one which they will have problem to deal with. If they didn't say it in their promotion, then there is some leeway for argument for capping. But they intentionally say no limits on bonus points spend, so there is no way that they can argue that there is a miscommunication in promotion. To pull it back then we do have a good case for it .....

Don't get me wrong I think Amex did a fantastic job on this promotion, very generous indeed, but since they made this offer explicitly then they must also wear the costs. This is simply business ......

Actually I think they should do like every 10 or 20 transactions (with minimum spend) you can get 1000 points or something like that, and people would still be happy. However now that they made this offer of 5 transaction for 5000 points with no limits (explicitly) then they must also wear it as well.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: Oz_Mark

But the problem is that in their promotion they did Explicitly say that there is no limit of points, no limit on bonuses. That is the one which they will have problem to deal with. If they didn't say it in their promotion, then there is some leeway for argument for capping. But they intentionally say no limits on bonus points spend, so there is no way that they can argue that there is a miscommunication in promotion. To pull it back then we do have a good case for it .....

Don't get me wrong I think Amex did a fantastic job on this promotion, very generous indeed, but since they made this offer explicitly then they must also wear the costs. This is simply business ......

What I meant was that they could stick to the same conditions, and deal with people that abuse it under the existing terms of Membership Rewards.

 

[rodgerbranch]

Make them Pay? How?.... Com'n its a Free to Join Free to Exit Free Points Promotion

Its all for free... and If they made a judgment mistake by wording it wrong I dont think Anyone could Make them Pay If they decide to clarify he Terms and Conditions... Pay What by the way.... Remember that according to the definition of Reward Points, Points have not Dollar Value. So, what would you be suing them for? and Its a AMEX mate you against Amex... The ACCC may give them a slap in the wrist for making corrections to their Terms and Conditions (Which they have the right to Change by Law) and thats it. As I Said Legally its worst for them to keep the promo running and Change rules too late... Merchants could be left with the BIG Bill and Amex Customers with no points.... there Would be a lot of angry people by then

:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

 

[Tiki]

Re: Make them Pay? How?.... Com'n its a Free to Join Free to Exit Free Points Promoti

Its all for free... and If they made a judgment mistake by wording it wrong I dont think Anyone could Make them Pay If they decide to clarify he Terms and Conditions... Pay What by the way.... Remember that according to the definition of Reward Points, Points have not Dollar Value. So, what would you be suing them for? and Its a AMEX mate you against Amex... The ACCC may give them a slap in the wrist for making corrections to their Terms and Conditions (Which they have the right to Change by Law) and thats it. As I Said Legally its worst for them to keep the promo running and Change rules too late... Merchants could be left with the BIG Bill and Amex Customers with no points.... there Would be a lot of angry people by then

:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

I don't understand how merchants would be left with a big bill. The fee is a percentage of the purchase so if a person spends $5 or $500 it is a percentage of whatever it is, maybe 2 or 3%?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Well, we knew all along that Amex was going to be reading the thread. Here is the problem:

1) They have a great promotion, not too many conditions.
2) People take the p!ss with it (and of course this may be happening on other boards as well)
3) They need to find some way to bring things back under control.

Unfortunately it may affect future promotions.

With the greatest of respect. It is not people taking the p!ss with it at all.

It is simply that AMEX basically stuffed up big time with the calculations and with a lack of "normal" terms and conditions. I supsect when someone was crunching the numbers there that they got their decimal place wrong!

AMEX is a multinational and the fact that they did not think through their promotion sufficiently means a lack of professionalism on their part

AMEX promotions are normally very well run with reasonaable t&C. In this case they have offereda promotion which is shall we say more than generous.

 

[Tiki]

Wasn't the SPG bonus rate also a mistake on Amex's part? They didn't intend to offer that rate but someone on their end stuffed up and that is why they are honouring it until the end of Sept?

I just hope they do the same thing for this promotion, at least for those who signed up with the current T&C. I am sure I am not the only one who changed their spending pattern the last two days to exclude any merchant who doesn't accept Amex.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

When something is too good to be true......it is not.

The interesting bit is going to be how Amex tries and gets out of it's deal (contract)....

I daresay the T&C of the MR Program will get a lot of reading...as it was one of the few things referred to on the Postcard.

Also people that have rung up "pretending" to have a postcard should not think that just because they have bluffed the phone operator into thinking that they had one and entered the code in hat this may not be reversed (Amex would argue fraud and hence that the deal was invalid). Amex will know who they mailed the cards too.


Amex may accept it, or it may not.

I suspect tht the company rep that came on the site may not have talked with her legal eagles first.


Were any QF Card holders sent postcards? It would seem not and so it is quite surprising that Amex has been accepting QF Cardholders for a Membership Rewards Promotion...as they clearly are not members of Membership Rewards. Another sign of Amexes internal systems not being good.


I suspect that quite a few Amex senior managers wil be working this weekend trying to unravel the mess that they have created!!!!!

1/ In a not well thought out promtion (ie point earn)
2/ In a not well executed promotion:

*** as they have accepted people who were not sent the promotion, and more surprisingly yet have accepted to give MR bonus rewards to people that are not even members of the MR Program!!!!! Quite stunning really.

*** that the f&C issued were lacking and slipshod.

All in all this is a large mess for Amex.

 

[codash1099]

*** as they have accepted people who were not sent the promotion, and more surprisingly yet have accepted to give MR bonus rewards to people that are not even members of the MR Program!!!!! Quite stunning really.

I think that may be the real nub of their problem. We don't know how many people were targetted in their mail outs but I would guess that many multiples of that number have managed to register. Their main fault was in not restricting registration to their targets.