10,000 bonus points per 20 transactions

[snufl]

Strange, everything is working fine for me...
No bonus points.

 

[Mal]

No problem accessing the site today - but no bonus points accruing.

No bonus points posted. I think they're still accruing somewhere

The broken part is the Membership Rewards areas (not from personal account, but directly on the homepage or through older weblinks to the promo). Eg clicking on "MEMBERSHIP REWARDS & BENEFITS" on the front page of the Amex site breaks.

 

[file51]

[Mod hat on]Gentlemen, please refrain from making further personal comments about one another. If one doesn't have anything meaningful to add...[/Mod Hat]

[Mod Hat]While many of us have differing points of view in relation to this and these can be discussed freely, abuse of one member by another is frowned upon. Posts that cross the line will be deleted and the members' continued posting rights may be denied.
[/Mod Hat]

Apologies, attacking someone is not usually my game, apologies to JohnK for the comments made and now removed.

(note - original post in question has been edited)

 

[kpc]

Looks to me like Amex has been closely monitoring the discussions that been taking place in this thread.

On FlyerTalk, there is now a 'secret' list of members who are emailed when there is a great promotion out there, less the company finds out about all the plans some members have to abuse the program if the promotion is posted on an open forum, and then withdraws the offer; alternatively, members just PM each other and not discuss it on an open forum. That would be a shame really....whilst this is a generous promotion by AMEX, there have been much more generous promotions by otherr companies in the past.

 

[colcha]

For those having difficulties accessing the Amex site, here are the revised T&Cs:

Membership Rewards Everyday Spending Bonus Points Offer

The Everyday Spending Offer provides Cardmembers who received the invitation in the mail to participate with the opportunity to earn bonus points for simply using their American Express Cards for their everyday purchases.

Please find below all the information you need to know about the offer.

If you tried to enrol in the offer in the last few days you would be aware that we have had a few operational issues which prevented new enrolments. The offer proved to be so popular that we needed to redirect additional resources and review our processes to meet the unexpected demand. Unfortunately this required us to suspend enrolments for a short period. We apologise if this has caused you any inconvenience.

To ensure that as many Cardmembers as possible could benefit from the offer we have amended the terms and conditions to better reflect the original intent of the offer.

The amended terms and conditions apply to all Cardmembers who enrolled in the offer from Saturday, 20 September.

The main change is that we have introduced a maximum of 10,000 bonus points per month.

Please allow 8 to 10 weeks for the bonus points to be credited to your account.

To enroll in the offer please call our call centre teams on 1300 307 493 between 8am-8pm (AEST) weekdays or 9am-5pm AEST weekends with your Card.

Terms and conditions
The terms and conditions below came into effect from 20 September. Please take the time to read them if you enrolled after this time.

To qualify for this promotion, eligible Cardmembers must register with American Express before12pm (AESDT) 31 December 2008 An eligible Cardmembers is one who has received a personally addressed direct mail invitation, and registers in the program. Only one registration per Cardmember account is permitted.

Once registered, the total transactions on an eligible American Express Card must reflect the required number of transactions stipulated in the direct mail invitation in any given month of the promotion period in order to receive the bonus points. A transaction becomes ineligible if a purchase is returned and a credit is refunded and or as defined in Clause 5 of the Membership Rewards Terms and Conditions. Transaction counts will be reset to zero at the beginning of each month. Please allow 8-10 weeks for Membership Rewards Bonus Points to be credited to your account.

A maximum of 10,000 Membership Rewards Bonus Points will be awarded to eligible Cardmembers each month during the promotion period. American Express reserves the right to change or modify this promotion at any time. All American Express Corporate Cards, Qantas American Express Cards and David Jones American Express Cards are excluded from this promotion.

Membership Rewards Bonus Point offers are valid for purchases made in Australia and charged to an eligible Australian dollar American Express Card. Enrolment in Membership Rewards is required (an annual fee applies). Subject to the Terms and Conditions of the Membership Rewards program. 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.

Entry into this promotion is deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.


​

 

[Mal]

For those having difficulties accessing the Amex site, here are the revised T&Cs:
Membership Rewards Everyday Spending Bonus Points Offer

I can almost hear the Ambulance chasers salivating...

 

[kpc]

The offer proved to be so popular that we needed to redirect additional resources and review our processes to meet the unexpected demand. Unfortunately this required us to suspend enrolments for a short period. We apologise if this has caused you any inconvenience.

This is bull**** from AMEX....this was to stop the masses from signing up!

 

[straitman]

I can't access the Amex website at present
hopefully because they are using soo much bandwidth to add bonus points to my account

You've got to love an optimist.

 

[file51]

To ensure that as many Cardmembers as possible could benefit from the offer we have amended the terms and conditions to better reflect the original intent of the offer.

The amended terms and conditions apply to all Cardmembers who enrolled in the offer from Saturday, 20 September.

Interesting, so when I spoke to the CSO early on Sunday the 21st and registered (with promo card in hand) he clearly stated that the T&C on the card stood, for which as previously posted on here I had verified with a supervisor on duty. Aside from confirmation, they both stated there is no limit to the bouns points that could be earnt each month.

Other members here have posted the same thing over the next few days, it wasnt until the 23rd/24th that cardholders were being told there may be changes and things were on hold.

If this is the case, how can the T&C changes be made retrospective to a date where clearly the wrong information was still being given out.

I would think from a legel perspective that Amex havent thought this through very well, having the change date reflect when things were really put on hold would be a safer bet IMO, and it is clear that bodies such as the ACCC and DFT frown upon such changes as there needs to be a clearly defined position in regards to such changes, i.e. as per previous, when the promotion was put on hold.

Anyways, as per wat Mal just said, the ambo chasers will be salivating, personally I will just send a well worded letter to the appropriate people in Amex and see what hapens, and that will include Luisa Megale.

 

[oz_mark]

On FlyerTalk, there is now a 'secret' list of members who are emailed when there is a great promotion out there, less the company finds out about all the plans some members have to abuse the program if the promotion is posted on an open forum, and then withdraws the offer; alternatively, members just PM each other and not discuss it on an open forum. That would be a shame really....whilst this is a generous promotion by AMEX, there have been much more generous promotions by otherr companies in the past.

I can't say I know anything of the secret group (but if it really exists, not so secret now!), or what these more generous promotions are, but in general the FT and AFF communities are only a small subset of a companies market. Any form of abuse a member of these forums can come up with is also probably thought of by multiple people not on these forums.

Even when you look at this thread, one of the stated methods of abuse - buying something and then returning it straight away, was not even discussed as far as I could see. And the returns thing was written into the amended T&C's.

Having said that, I do respect that discussions on these threads can point companies towards holes in their T&C's that they can go investigate to see the extent of the issue. Also, it can cause issues, as in the case of this promo, that your opt-in controls aren't as good as they should be.

(Are the new T&C's on the same URL's as before?I just get 404's trying to go to those pages, but the rest of the Amex site seems to be wroking for me)

 

[straitman]

:evil: Still no points showing in my account :!: :shock:

 

[snufl]

(Are the new T&C's on the same URL's as before?I just get 404's trying to go to those pages, but the rest of the Amex site seems to be wroking for me)

Same for me, oz_mark.

 

[snufl]

file51, from the information in your post, I believe you have a very strong case. The fact that you were targetted and have a card with the original T&Cs should weigh in your favour. Good luck and please let us know how you go.

 

[cardiology]

For those who enrolled before the 'date' for the new T&C, what will be our fate??
Are we the lucky ones that can stick to the old T&C (with or without the postcard)??
:?::?:

 

[simongr]

I believe so but we have no way to verify this at the moment.

 

[futaris]

If nothing else, Amex have reduced their cost by delaying the posting of bonus points. If bonus points aren't processed until at least October, then those who wanted to transfer them to SPG may find it is no longer worthwhile at the 1000:330 rate. If this isn't anti-competitive conduct, I don't know what is.

 

[Flashback]

If nothing else, Amex have reduced their cost by delaying the posting of bonus points. If bonus points aren't processed until at least October, then those who wanted to transfer them to SPG may find it is no longer worthwhile at the 1000:330 rate. If this isn't anti-competitive conduct, I don't know what is.

Great, so I wasn't the only person to pickup on that I was just too lazy to put thoughts to text....

 

[file51]

Are we the lucky ones that can stick to the old T&C (with or without the postcard)??
:?::?:

I would say you need to have a card based on the revised, AND retrospectivly dated T&C

To qualify for this promotion, eligible Cardmembers must register with American Express before12pm (AESDT) 31 December 2008 An eligible Cardmembers is one who has received a personally addressed direct mail invitation, and registers in the program. Only one registration per Cardmember account is permitted.

 

[snufl]

If nothing else, Amex have reduced their cost by delaying the posting of bonus points. If bonus points aren't processed until at least October, then those who wanted to transfer them to SPG may find it is no longer worthwhile at the 1000:330 rate. If this isn't anti-competitive conduct, I don't know what is.

The T&Cs always said allow 8-10 weeks for bonus points to post. They may not take that long but Amex are well within their rights if they do.

 

[futaris]

The problem is that Membership Rewards have already set a "precedent" by providing bonus points instantly.