-
In the days gone old, Amex offers would always post very quickly in my experience.
Recently I’m owed £75 of Morrisons and £12 Free Now that just never tracked.
If I try to raise this with online chat, they just fob me off and tell me to wait 90 days.
Waitings 90 days is completely pointless. If it hasn’t posted after a month, there is 0% chance it will post within 90 days.
I think the 90 days has to be a scam. To hope people forget about it and don’t claim. But I think it’s really unfair. They must rely on people not bothering to chase amounts after so long.
Just chased the Free Now cashback to be told:
“I have check the account and I see the charge was made through payment aggregator that is stripe. As per offer term Purchases made through “payment facilitators” are not eligible and will not count towards your spend for the purposes of the offer. A payment facilitator is an intermediary that accepts payments on behalf of the seller of the goods/services. Payment facilitators can include some online payment platforms/ marketplaces, and entities that provide certain card acceptance products (such as mobile card readers) to sellers of goods/services;”
This is a nonsense and a lie.
I made the purchase directly through the Free Now app, the statement transaction clearly shows ‘Free Now’, and it is impossible to have made the transaction via any other method.
I am quite saddened that Amex are trying to wriggle out of offers in such a way.
Some are taking a while to get credited to my account, but you’re saying if it hasn’t tracked it a month then it won’t, I’ve just had a Morrisons credit to my account this morning that was from over 60 days ago.
My free now transaction credited really quickly, two days after the trip.
I’ve been using free now a lot, and even thought I always book through the app, I do have different card transactions methods showing. Most of the time it’s freenow then the trip Id number, but sometimes too it shows as sumup then freenow, I’ve also seen 3c then freenow on the transaction, so I think it may be to do with the driver.
On a similar note, just checked out of a Hyatt the other day, and the transaction is showing 3c Hyatt, so I think that won’t track via the offer atm.
I have no problems with crediting. It’s taking a few days extra than usual, but I haven’t had to chase for 2-3 years. Pre-pandemic I always had to chase.
Surely if the client has no control over what payment arrangements the retailer is making, and yet the retailer accepts Amex, Amex should not be able to refuse credit on any promotion for spend?
If challenged I do not think this would hold up. For one thing, I suspect the Advertising Standards Authority might be interested to know that Amex is promoting then arbritrarily (from the point of view of the cardholder) refusing credit on transactions the cardholder had no way to identify or control, that to all appearances do qualify for Amex promotions.
Btw : I think Stripe can be used by online processors – I regularly buy from an online-only vendor and their transactions always have hook/stripe links showing as the payment is processed.
Agree, the offers now are a lottery, maybe they will pay out, maybe they won’t. Pre-Covid they used to work like clockwork but now they are so unreliable.
I have a Doubletree stay which was processed as 3C. I’m expecting Amex to say that’s why the credit hasn’t been triggered. It’s a fortnight from checking out and the offer still shows in my available offers. I just paid at the hotel. How was I to know they’d use a payment processor.
I’m also getting fed up with stuff like this. I have a Morrisons transaction from early April still outstanding as well.
I have a Doubletree stay which was processed as 3C. I’m expecting Amex to say that’s why the credit hasn’t been triggered. It’s a fortnight from checking out and the offer still shows in my available offers. I just paid at the hotel. How was I to know they’d use a payment processor.
I’m also getting fed up with stuff like this. I have a Morrisons transaction from early April still outstanding as well.
Relax.
Many of my Hilton stays over the past 4-5 years have been processed through 3C but I’ve always received the credit. Usually in under 5 days.
My stay from last weekend hasn’t had its cashback posted, but I’m not going to stress about it just yet.
Morrisons credit has also taken over a month to arrive and not just on Amex, on Curve and Barclays and Natwest too
One of the Deliveroo credit from end of last month is still waiting to be credited. Every other £5 credit since that one has been credited as well. Just seems hit or miss and have been told to wait the full 90 days.
Totally hit and miss and totally frustrating having to keep track of the triggered offers yourself. Especially as the emails confirming used offers are also sporadic now.
What I tend to do, if I wait more than a fortnight, is contact AMEX chat and get them to confirm in writing that the offer has triggered. Even if I get the normal “wait 90 days” guff, I get a chat ref so that, after 90 days, I can contact and quote that.
When I contact after 90 days, before even saying what my issue is I ask to be transferred to a Brighton-based rep. Anyone else will give the “send to back office, wait 7-10 days” guff. Brighton-based reps can normally issue the credit there and then. Don’t know if this is down to staff training or access/permissions. Perhaps AMEX doesn’t trust any reps based overseas with proper access to their systems…?
Just chased the Free Now cashback to be told:
“I have check the account and I see the charge was made through payment aggregator that is stripe. As per offer term Purchases made through “payment facilitators” are not eligible and will not count towards your spend for the purposes of the offer. A payment facilitator is an intermediary that accepts payments on behalf of the seller of the goods/services. Payment facilitators can include some online payment platforms/ marketplaces, and entities that provide certain card acceptance products (such as mobile card readers) to sellers of goods/services;”
This is a nonsense and a lie.
I made the purchase directly through the Free Now app, the statement transaction clearly shows ‘Free Now’, and it is impossible to have made the transaction via any other method.
I am quite saddened that Amex are trying to wriggle out of offers in such a way.
Stripe is the payment system used by FreeNow. You cannot pay otherwise.
I agree with @meta above. We use a lot of Amex offers and just don’t experience all the issues reported here. In the last two weeks we have used the spend £x get £y back offers from BA, Viator and Hyatt each x 2 and they all showed as used quickly and have now all also paid out – total £460.
90 days from the offer end date. I have a few Morrisons transactions from February that have been confirmed by chat. But they won’t be able to credit them manually until the end of July. My Hilton cash back was credited within 3 days after check out. So it’s all hit and miss
It’s a lottery. A lot post immediately. Some don’t. And this is a definite change over the years and must be deliberate my Amex.
Surely if the client has no control over what payment arrangements the retailer is making, and yet the retailer accepts Amex, Amex should not be able to refuse credit on any promotion for spend?
If challenged I do not think this would hold up. For one thing, I suspect the Advertising Standards Authority might be interested to know that Amex is promoting then arbritrarily (from the point of view of the cardholder) refusing credit on transactions the cardholder had no way to identify or control, that to all appearances do qualify for Amex promotions.
Btw : I think Stripe can be used by online processors – I regularly buy from an online-only vendor and their transactions always have hook/stripe links showing as the payment is processed.
Stripe is a ‘proper’ merchant acquirer (like worldpay) and not an intermediary (like PayPal) — or at least it was when my firm used them for payments. I’d go back and challenge this.
It’s a lottery. A lot post immediately. Some don’t. And this is a definite change over the years and must be deliberate my Amex.
Hanlon’s modern razor applies — never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity or IT issues.
It’s a lottery. A lot post immediately. Some don’t. And this is a definite change over the years and must be deliberate my Amex.
Hanlon’s modern razor applies — never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity or IT issues.
True say, however it worked perfectly and then stopped. Poor implementation is one thing, sudden deterioration of something that used to work absolutely fine is another.
It’s a lottery. A lot post immediately. Some don’t. And this is a definite change over the years and must be deliberate my Amex.
Hanlon’s modern razor applies — never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity or IT issues.
True say, however it worked perfectly and then stopped. Poor implementation is one thing, sudden deterioration of something that used to work absolutely fine is another.
Yes it worked like clockwork for nearly 10 years and then suddenly changed.
Complacency springs to mind, due to lack of competition in the UK credit card marketplace. It’s a fairly barren place at the moment.
Are we sure it’s down to Amex? Why are other offers not impacted? Is there a chance Morrisons is delaying confirming the transactions?
Are we sure it’s down to Amex? Why are other offers not impacted? Is there a chance Morrisons is delaying confirming the transactions?
Lots of offers are impacted, this is not restricted to Morrisons at all.
This 4 page thread is a good reference point
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/amex-offers-and-customer-service-gone-to-the-dogs/True say, however it worked perfectly and then stopped. Poor implementation is one thing, sudden deterioration of something that used to work absolutely fine is another.
Upgrade a database? Break a stored procedure in a way that means it sometimes fires when it should and sometimes doesn’t? Get some poor sap in India to manually reconcile the missing money some months later? Because it’s an inconsistent behaviour it’s difficult to reproduce and fix? maybe something like that.
I’d find it harder to believe they deliberately introduced a change to sometimes delay payment on money back offers. I’d be more likely to think it was deliberate if T&Cs were updated to suggest the money was coming in 90 days (a target not a maximum) and would be forfeit if the account was closed in that period. ie an intentional anti-churning measure, like the change in SUP qualification times a few years back.
Of course, I don’t know, and it might be an intended change and working as intended.
- This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .
Yes – very disappointed, and irritated.
We have 5 Amex accounts (BAPP x 2, Marriott, PRG x 2) across the family, with Supplementary cards. In particular have had Marriott offers on all of then – typically £50 credit on £200 spend across most of the portfolio; or £100 off £400 spend on luxury hotels. We used these extensively last year and had no problems. This added up to real money so I’m not minded to let it go.
Right now we have three stays outstanding (2 in Spain from mid-May and 1 in UK from last weekend) for 2 x £50 and 1 x £75 outstanding. All seem to have processed as 3C, although I’m pretty pretty sure the UK stay was initially just shown as Marriott when it first appeared as pending. Last year the credits would have shown up by now
I assume Marriott (rather than Amex) is paying for this. Is that right? If so why are Amex being so difficult and generating such significant ill-will?
I’m lucky enough to have a ticket to the HFP party on 21 June (and will be staying at the Renaissance that night), so I guess there will be a chance to tackle Amex/Marriott reps then.
Anyone have other suggestions about how to sensibly escalate this? Do the HFP team have any insights or feedback they can provide? I would much rather have a good time on 21 June than be moaning!!
Yes – very disappointed, and irritated.
We have 5 Amex accounts (BAPP x 2, Marriott, PRG x 2) across the family, with Supplementary cards. In particular have had Marriott offers on all of then – typically £50 credit on £200 spend across most of the portfolio; or £100 off £400 spend on luxury hotels. We used these extensively last year and had no problems. This added up to real money so I’m not minded to let it go.
Right now we have three stays outstanding (2 in Spain from mid-May and 1 in UK from last weekend) for 2 x £50 and 1 x £75 outstanding. All seem to have processed as 3C, although I’m pretty pretty sure the UK stay was initially just shown as Marriott when it first appeared as pending. Last year the credits would have shown up by now
I assume Marriott (rather than Amex) is paying for this. Is that right? If so why are Amex being so difficult and generating such significant ill-will?
I’m lucky enough to have a ticket to the HFP party on 21 June (and will be staying at the Renaissance that night), so I guess there will be a chance to tackle Amex/Marriott reps then.
Anyone have other suggestions about how to sensibly escalate this? Do the HFP team have any insights or feedback they can provide? I would much rather have a good time on 21 June than be moaning!!
Have you called amex (not online chat), I have had good luck getting offers paid out faster after others point me to calling and not chat.
Have you called amex (not online chat), I have had good luck getting offers paid out faster after others point me to calling and not chat.
this is helpful, will try calling them.
I have a few hotel offers (IHG, Hilton, SLH) not credited, raised in online chat, the online agents are useless.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
