Recently, Mrs. Weekly Flyer cashed in her Amex Membership Rewards points for some Home Depot gift cards. We are doing a small renovation project at home and she wanted to use the gift cards to buy some of the supplies for the renovation to save some cash. Maybe not the best value of points, but it worked for us in this particular situation.
American Express Has Rock Star Customer Service
She cashed in her points earned on her Business Platinum Card® from American Express to get some gift cards. The gift cards were then emailed to her linking to her Amex account to log in to get the serial numbers and pins to be used. Well, she used some of them and then unrelated, decided to cancel her card when the annual fee was due because she wasn’t really using the card to the full benefit of the annual fee and was planning on getting a different Amex card. I also have The Business Platinum Card® from American Express and keep it for the amazing benefits. So, she has access to my benefits such as Centurion Lounge access with my card.
Now, to the point of the story. When she canceled the card, the agent advised her that she needed to have used all her points (which she had) before closing the account or she would lose her points. Two weeks later, when she went to use the rest of her Home Depot gift cards, they were gone from her account. She wasn’t able to access them at all and knew that some still had money on them ~$95.
When she called Amex, she was pleasantly surprised that the first agent she talked to was very accommodating. The agent advised that the gift cards do disappear from the account when you close the card so, that Mrs. Weekly Flyer should have either used them up or printed them out prior to canceling her Business Platinum Card® from American Express. But, not only did the agent take the time to research the serial numbers for the gift cards but, went as far as accessing Home Depot’s website to see which of the gift cards had money on them and which had been used. Then, she sent the unused gift cards free of charge via UPS/Fedex!
Mrs. Weekly Flyer was so happy with the way that Amex handled this, as it was her error in not printing the gift cards out before closing her card. So often these days when you call a company, they are so quick to say, “sorry, that’s your problem,” whether it’s their fault or yours. This experience with Amex customer service was quite the opposite.
Bottom Line
American Express really is awesome! Their customer service is top notch and their product offerings have some of the best benefits! Some of my favorite reasons to have Amex cards besides the rock star customer service are Amex Offers for You and Small Business Saturday.
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About The Weekly Flyer
The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way. Feel free to reach me at theweeklyflyer@gmail.com
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I’m sorry, but I’ve never ever heard the words “American Express” and “awesome (or good, or great, or any positive word) customer service. My experience has been the same as most people I’ve read who write blogs or comment on blogs about Amex.
I politely disagree with the above poster. I have nothing but good things to say about American Express customer service. Every time I’ve called, the agents have been cordial, friendly, and so accommodating with any request I have.
I recently called about a Conrad Hotels AMEX offer that was something like $75 off a $400 purchase. I spent that at the Conrad Dublin, not knowing that the offer was only valid for hotels in the US. I called customer service after some time had elapsed and the credit still had not posted, and the agent read the fine print to me stating the error on my part. After, he still manually applied a $75 credit and some Membership Rewards as an act of goodwill and to make up for the inconvenience.
Completely unnecessary as it was my error, but made me feel truly valued as a cardholder. I have had other experiences with AMEX where the agents try to make things right to the best of their ability.