10,000 bonus points per 20 transactions

[alemdohorizonte]

here is an extract from the amex website i referred to earlier recommending paying with your amex card instead of cash or cheques to increase the amount of points earned.
i have the whole page if anyone wants it. i had to cut down the physical size of the picture to make the file size small enough to fit here.

thanks beardoc, for telling me how to post it.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

. Somehow I think we are all going to end up paying for this mistake - not Amex.

I disagree.

Well run promos is clearly a valuble marketing tool that they have been using worldwide for years.

What we will see IMO is that future promos will just be as this one should have been. That is issued with appropriate and sufficient T&C and with Amex having done it's homework properly on what it's liability will be in calculating the right size of carrot.

We have already seen other promos.

If one looks back at promos by Amex prior to the Everday one they had appropriate wording and T&C. Sure there were sometimes loopholes to exploita bit.....but not anywhere near the blackhole size one that Amex had in the Everday Promo.

Ditto for the promos since (BP, Colorado, Dining etc).

How the Everday Promo got to Cardmembers without propper T&C, and so blatently wrong it's reward bonus rate, is just quite amazing and slipshod work on Amex's part.

The Amex team that put the promo out is at fault and not we the Cradmembers, who are onlya tiny slice of their worldwide cardmember base and other businesses.

I am sure by now that their senior mangement would be of this viewpoint as well.

IMO what we will see is:

• more promos (properly run...and with the FF team trying to maximise the rules to suit us still)
• Amex trying to m inimise their liabilty in the Everday Promo as much as they can. This will include trying to bluff many members out of their full entitlement

 

[drewbles]

Anyway..back to points.

Is anyone still being awarded bonus points?

Or have they basically dried up with that surge on Dec 31?

That there was a surge on Dec 31...adds support to what some CSR's have indicated...that more points will be awarded on (or near) Jan 31.

( Even though I am currently in limbo...my deduction is that if Amex pays out most people then they will have to pay my points too, for my tx were all legit...just lots of them)

I got my 30k from October on DEC31. For various reasons, I couldn't use my card much in NOV/DEC so only have another 15k of bonuses due to me (10+5). Will wait and see what they do, but it's on-track so far (for the 8-10 week window).

 

[vet]

When I was settling, the lass manually counted every single transaction. Regrettably I didn't have a kerzillion points, but they honoured reams of tiny (way less than $3) phonelotto tixs (or whaterver they were) at the 5/5 rate and and un-suspended everything and 'banked' lots in qff and V. A cash credit also helped buy things on 5/5. I think Amex are just understaffed.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

I disagree.

Who do *you* think will be paying for this?

IMHO it will be whoever Amex can pass the cost onto, and that will be card holders and merchants (and Amex shareholders)

Well run promos is clearly a valuble marketing tool that they have been using worldwide for years.

Not disagreeing with you about the value of promotions.

I'm asking who is going to pay for the $10/20/50/100 million (or whatever) Amex is going to have to shell out for this promotion.

 

[Mal]

I'm asking who is going to pay for the $10/20/50/100 million (or whatever) Amex is going to have to shell out for this promotion.

Whatever amount it is, it is likely the US taxpayer will end up paying it ....

 

[straitman]

Who do *you* think will be paying for this?

IMHO it will be whoever Amex can pass the cost onto, and that will be card holders and merchants (and Amex shareholders)



Not disagreeing with you about the value of promotions.

I'm asking who is going to pay for the $10/20/50/100 million (or whatever) Amex is going to have to shell out for this promotion.

It will simply come out of the budget that the promo was meant to come out of :!:

Instead of costing say $10 million it will cost say $25 million, Amex will adjust the books accordingly and then ensure that they get it right in the future.

The profit will then be down the extra $15 million and the US tax payer (current circumstances) will pay for it.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

It will simply come out of the budget that the promo was meant to come out of :!:

Instead of costing say $10 million it will cost say $25 million, Amex will adjust the books accordingly and then ensure that they get it right in the future.

The profit will then be down the extra $15 million and the US tax payer (current circumstances) will pay for it.

The US tax payer is paying to buy securitised assets or corporate paper from Amex, not giving Amex free money. So, glib answers about US taxpayers aside...

There isn't a $15 million dollar pot of extra money to fund this promotion. It might be crystallised as a loss this year. But I'd expect feature cut backs or increased charges, or lower service, or whatever Amex can get away with to help pay for this type of thing.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Not disagreeing with you about the value of promotions.

I'm asking who is going to pay for the $10/20/50/100 million (or whatever) Amex is going to have to shell out for this promotion.

Well I would hazard a guess out of their total marketing budget.

While this promo will most likely go over budget....it will mean that others will be allocated a bit less.

Going by the number of Amex mailers I have received since this promo started I would assume that they are not too cash-strapped just yet.


Thing is only Amex knows how many people are in this promo...it could be a very large number....or it could a lot less.

Of the ones who are in it....the distribution of those with huge point earns is not known.

Yes some will gain a million plus...but many on the forum have indicated 500K or less.

If the vast majority are only scoring a few hundred K then the liability will not be that large in the scheme of things.

Personally I would have thought that Amex would have pulled the pin after a few weeks (when their mistakes would have been obvious)...just stated that the promo was a mistake on their part in it's execution (ie bonus rate size)...but that as goodwill that Amex would honour the points already earned.

ie one sees companies withdrawing "mistakes" all the time. Wrong prices in catalogues etc etc.

There would have been a little grizzling by some, but most would have been delighted to have earnt at the "mistake" bonus rate while it lasted.

That Amex did not withdraw the promo (or rather withdraw it from the pre-Sept 20 registrants as the later registrants were capped) means to me one of two things:

• Amex were stupid
• Amex decided that "paying" out the promo was affordable and the preferred option to canning it to the early registrants.

 

[straitman]

The US tax payer is paying to buy securitised assets or corporate paper from Amex, not giving Amex free money. So, glib answers about US taxpayers aside...

Not a glib comment :!: If Amex have a black hole then by crossing over funds the tax payer gets to foot the bill.

There isn't a $15 million dollar pot of extra money to fund this promotion. It might be crystallised as a loss this year. But I'd expect feature cut backs or increased charges, or lower service, or whatever Amex can get away with to help pay for this type of thing.

The $15 is just an example. I believe the real amount is just a drop by comparison.

As lovetravellingoz states "While this promo will most likely go over budget....it will mean that others will be allocated a bit less." :shock:

Not really as dramatic as some want to believe.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Not a glib comment :!: If Amex have a black hole then by crossing over funds the tax payer gets to foot the bill.

Amex is selling (a) commercial paper (which they pay interest on) or (b) securitised assets (at a deep discount) to the US government. There is no "free money". The US tax payer only pays if either (a) Amex goes bust and can't redeem its own paper or (b) the collateral behind the securities fails (i.e. someone fails to pay their Amex bill through bankruptcy or similar).

So, losses that Amex makes on a promotion are not paid for by the US government.

Whilst I appreciate that Amex can juggle a few things around, from what I can see here and on other places, this promotion has been a huge mistake. Capping late entrants limited their liability to around $100-200 or so, but even recouping $100 or so requires ~$10k in spending to pay for these additional benefits.

Even a $10m extra cost probably wipes out the entire non-core marketing budget for a medium sized financial institution.

 

[simongr]

Boo yah!

Just had a call from [insert name here] from Amex from the Executive group as a response to the query from the Ombudsman. The facts:

- Confirmed thatthere was an online offer for 5/5
- Confirmed I am on 5/5
- I will be recveiving points fully (including reversal of adjustments) under 5/5
- Sep/Oct points to credit soon
- Nov/Dec points to credit by 31/1
- Reconciliation of points will be provided on request
- Letter advising this to be sent to me and the Ombudsman

This I would call a result

Note I am confident that this is genuine as the person is who I spoke to a long time ago and advised me to complain to them in writing - not a CSR and they called me

Looks like my parents are flying to SYD in J...

 

[creeno]

great outcome simongr, well done

 

[simongr]

For the record given that they confirmed full payout on 5/5 and they have already paid out 180K I do not intend to push for all three promos.

 

[JakDac]

- Confirmed thatthere was an online offer for 5/5
- Confirmed I am on 5/5
- I will be recveiving points fully (including reversal of adjustments) under 5/5
- Sep/Oct points to credit soon
- Nov/Dec points to credit by 31/1
- Reconciliation of points will be provided on request
- Letter advising this to be sent to me and the Ombudsman

Re abusive letter response to American Express one formed on a whole (joint action) may be advisable with input advise from FO
worked out on this forum

 

[simongr]

- Confirmed thatthere was an online offer for 5/5
- Confirmed I am on 5/5
- I will be recveiving points fully (including reversal of adjustments) under 5/5
- Sep/Oct points to credit soon
- Nov/Dec points to credit by 31/1
- Reconciliation of points will be provided on request
- Letter advising this to be sent to me and the Ombudsman

Re abusive letter response to American Express one formed on a whole (joint action) may be advisable with input advise from FO
worked out on this forum

Sorry JakDac I am not sure what you are saying. Did you get a similar call or are you suggesting some other action?

 

[edman]

For the record given that they confirmed full payout on 5/5 and they have already paid out 180K I do not intend to push for all three promos.

I presume you signed up on all 3 then was put on 10t/5k, and your request was to go back on 5t/5k? Did you sign up prior to 20th September and did you try and cancel your other registrations for 20t/10k or 10t/5k? Just to save searchoing through all the posts

 

[Iza]

An awesome result simongr . Let's hope that this result repeats itself many times over!

 

[JakDac]

Re abusive letter response to American Express one formed on a whole (joint action) may be advisable with input advise from FO
worked out on this forum

A template letter formed by all on forum in response to Amex's abuse letter using suggestions from fos.org.au

As your symbol suggests solidarity

 

[moa999]

Unfortunately I had neglected to read this thread (for the months of Oct, Nov) I was busy getting free money on my Woolworths card (no interest until Feb 1).

Got my first signup offer in early Dec with a bill for my Plat Credit card - the 10/20 promotion and signed up for it. Interstingly when I go and look at my online points balance, the points have been applied against a charge on my Corporate Card - unfortunately only did 25 txns on the Corp and 35 on the personal, so no real difference, but undoubtedly another error on Amex's behalf.