The Art of handling American Express India with their inconsistent responses

By | July 31, 2021
amex supplementary card offer - September 2020

As you might know, there were a lot of confusion recently on whether this 2-day Reward Multiplier promo is eligible on eVoucher purchases or not.

I made multiple calls to cross-verify the same and updated the article accordingly on 25th July. But then, for some reason customer support seem to have given different responses to different cardholders and created a panic situation.

Poor handling by Amex India!

It’s quite important to have consistent answer on things like this, as many were spending high 5 digit purchases relying on this promo.

Finally Amex re-confirmed that eVouchers are indeed eligible for bonus points.

That’s good to know!

Shielding future conversations

But things like this may happen again in different form and you “can’t always rely on public info” especially when you deal with a higher value txn.

So what would you then? Simple, here’s what I usually follow and I hope it helps many.

  1. Call Amex phone line and get your confirmation. Hang-up and call again until you hear the info you want to hear.
  2. Ask the executive to add that as a “note” on your account.
  3. Ask the executive to email you the “reference number” for that conversation.
  4. You should get that email in ~10 mins.

Sit back & relax as you now have a proof of what you were promised. If you don’t get the promised benefit, you can always share this ref. number to get what you need.

I started following this ever since American Express went unreliable with their health insurance product. Once, they were not even able to track their so called “recorded” calls. So above tracking method is quite useful in such cases.

Note: You can also use chat option but that may not serve as a solid proof for various reasons.

Final Thoughts

Ideally American Express support is one of the best in the country and these kind of tracking is usually not required as most of their promos are super simple and easy to understand with limited T&C.

However, just incase if you rely on an offer or benefit that deals in high value, it’s safe to follow above to make sure you’re safe and to sleep with a peace of mind.

Author: Siddharth

Helping Indians to choose right credit cards, pick right offers and enjoy luxury vacations for less. Day & night exploring the spiritual reality of our human existence.

34 thoughts on “The Art of handling American Express India with their inconsistent responses

  1. Deepak

    Gone are the days when Amex was good in customer service.. Now they are the worst.

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Not as good as before – Yes
      But not that bad to call them “worst” πŸ™‚

      Reply
      1. whatsinname

        Others banks are improving too. I have seen a remarkable change in HDFC/AXIS. Amex CS is not that good anymore and getting a nice return is just more work now than before. Makes me wonder if AMEX is worth it for the hassle now.

        Reply
  2. Rushabh

    This is really great Sid!!

    Thanks for such priceless, not so easy to find information.

    May you be blessed with 10x rewards points all your life πŸ™‚

    Reply
  3. Piyush N

    Hi Sid,

    Can you do a review on Slice Card?
    I recently received my card (LTF) and they have some offers on their which change everyday. Good thing about these offers is instant cashback which can be seen on their App.
    A detailed review would be appreciated.

    Reply
      1. Santhosh

        Are Slice Cards any good? Have been seeing offers for Slice Cards since months but reviews for Slice and its card has been very very bad online. I have also read reviews where multiple people have reported that there has been huge impact on Cibil scores when using Slice Card.

        Reply
        1. Haris

          IMHO Slice cards are quite good in terms of online process, ease of usage, offers and referral benefits. If you are working where your pf is deducted, then it’s super easy to get the card in few clicks since it will detect PAN & ADHAAR instantly. Monies are credited instantly and 1% conversion is so far so good…. Upto 10k spends, got 100rs back into statement. Apart from 500rs referral benefit, which is awarded to both joiner & joinee, SPARKS feature is best to use. I have taken double discount from it on Swiggy 40% off as well as 30rs back to spice wallet. Amazon, Flipkart, tatacliq and other 10% off offers are regular. My referral code is – JOKER99279

          Reply
        2. Santosh Kumar

          I think i will wait for the review to come up here to get a real feel about the card.

          Things I have heard/observed.

          Slice-needs access to your contacts.
          Cards supported by credit line- a delay in reporting to cibil makes your score’s go haywire.
          Lot of comments online that mention that slice contacted family members

          Reply
  4. Beginner

    After completing the transaction, Is it possible to confirm or verify the purchase was made through reward multiplier itself ?

    Reply
    1. Santosh Kumar

      your voucher is delivered to you via email with a subject “our Amazon Gift Voucher worth INR XXXX from Reward Multiplier”. Confirmed indirectly.

      Reply
    2. Chaitanya

      They send an sms the next day. Not always though.

      “Congratulations, You have made a successful transaction on Reward Multiplier with your American Express card ending with XXXXX. You will earn 3X points on this transaction. Points will be credited within 120 days if the order is either not cancelled or is not a part of the exclusion list. To shop again, visit amex.co/2CnlHra. T&C?s apply.”

      Reply
  5. Arun

    Yes, Sid.

    You are absolutely correct.
    Their inconsistent information is leading to chaos.
    That’s the reason I ditched their Plat Charge card

    You won’t believe me, they confirmed me that there isn’t any Max cap of 25k for this 2 days πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

    So I asked them to confirm and provide me a reference number, I even recorded the call.

    Will complete 3L in these 2 days itself.

    Reply
  6. AAJ

    Plat charge coming up for renewal, they offered 2:1 points redemption covering fees, has anyone received better offers for renewal? Pls share

    Reply
      1. Siddharth Post author

        There are at-least 10 different offers for plat charge renewal and they are usually based on the profile. One may not get what others have got.
        However, you may request for a better one if you’re not happy with the given offer.

        Reply
          1. AAJ

            Yes, that’s the only hope to renew 😊

        1. AAJ

          Thank you Sid. They are stating they would deduct 2 points per Re1/- of the charge/60k+Gst . Out of 3 they suggested, I found this better. Others were 50k points / 25k Taj vouchers

          Reply
          1. Siddharth Post author

            2:1 without any additional points?

          2. AAJ

            No Sid πŸ™ they told from available points they just consume. No credit, I even asked to debit entire points , I’ve close to 180k to be redeemed at 2:1, even that they didn’t agree

          3. Siddharth Post author

            Sad. But let’s hope we get more 100% cashback’s this year too. πŸ™‚

  7. Kumar

    I see now they have added it officially on the reward multiplier link itself-
    “Limited Period Offer: Earn 20 rewards for every β‚Ή100 spent on participating merchants and purchase of
    e-vouchers. Offer valid from 26 July until 27 July 2021”

    Reply
    1. Ramasamy R

      Seems like they removed Amazon voucher now from the e-voucher portal.

      Reply
      1. Shalini

        Yes, yesterday they promised that reward promo is applicable on e-vouchers and today they removed all the e-vouchers. Amex is the biggest cheaters πŸ™

        Reply
        1. Manikanta

          Amazon GVs are back now in Gyftr portal, seems Amazon gone OOS in Gyftr itself, Amex don’t have any intention to remove them. I purchased Amazon GVs after Gyftr restocking them

          Reply
  8. Sagar

    And HDFC customer service for credit cards is worst than anyone else. I always end up not getting the rewards points as per the offers.

    Reply
  9. Sandeep

    any idea why they fulfill 2x/3x/5x points on rewards multiplier immediately but this 20RP offer only after 120days.

    Reply
  10. Shivi

    Does this “note” and “reference” tag work with other credit card issuers too or only AmEx?

    Reply
    1. Siddharth Post author

      Not any that I’m aware of Shivi. Amex has amazing salesforce integration, hope others will catch up in a decade.

      Reply
  11. Komal preet

    You know so well about them ! Their products!
    How many cards do u hold!!
    I love their Reward multiplier!!
    Its so rewarding!
    Gyftr update came later i believe! Too much chaos!

    Reply

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