American Express Complaint - American Express Gift Card Charge - Gift Card

Posted by old fart on 2008-04-06:

Alley.... When you receive a gift card that clearly says $50 bucks and you can only use $45 of it, something is just plain haywire...
If I'd have tried to buy a car or computer with 15 bucks left on it I could understand, but $15 dollars?

Amex just plain screwed us out of 5 bucks..

Posted by Nohandle on 2008-04-06:

That was a generous birthday gift from your son and I know when he purchased it expected you to be able to use the entire sum. As a side note, a number of businesses do not accept American Express because their fees to a merchant are a great deal higher than Visa or Mastercard (I don't know about Discover). At one time a gift card was a really neat idea and insured the receipent could buy what he liked. I used them myself but don't anymore. The companies continue to love them. Why not, it's to their advantage.

Posted by Principissa on 2008-04-06:

Old Fart, I had the same exact problem with a $50.00 Amex gift card my mom sent us for a housewarming gift. It said 50.00, but I only got to spend 45.00. We used it to buy a throw rug from Lowe's. The price of the rug came out to a total of 49.03. It declined the entire purchase. Suffice to say, I wrote a scathing letter to Amex demanding an explanation as to why they falsely advertised the gift card being worth $50.00 when it was only worth 45.00, and kindly reminded them that if in fact the card is only worth 45.00, they should let the consumer's know before they purchase them. I told my mom about it and she was mortified and told me she'd never send us another one.

Posted by old fart on 2008-04-06:

Princi... I didn't want to do that to my son because he'd feel bad but I bet that there is something in the terms of service pamphlet they sent with the card that "explains" it in "very" fine print. When I say fine, I mean "microscopic".. I tossed that little fine print pamphlet out assuming that $50 meant $50...

It just proves the old adage, "When you assume something, you make an a$$ out of U and ME.."

Posted by Slimjim on 2008-04-06:

Ridiculous. The idea of selling the gift card is Amex just guaranteed a $50 purchase using their services. These services make them money by charging a fee to the merchant and that's suppose to be the reasoning of offering gift cards to start with. A fee that is higher than Visa, Mastercard and Discover may I add, who have no such user charge. A $5 user fee is nothing more than a creative way to obtain additional questionable revenue. Based on this, I would never buy Amex gift cards with this premium in force.

Posted by CrystalSword on 2008-04-06:

That's why I like the walmart gift cards...you get to use the whole thing! Granted, you can only use it inside wally world, but that's okay too!

Posted by old fart on 2008-04-06:

You're entirely too kind calling the fee questionable Slim... A more appropriate word is THEFT...

Posted by *Brenda* on 2008-04-06:

I think those credit card gift cards are a rip off.

Posted by JohnInSoCal on 2008-04-06:

Old Fart is right. $50 should mean $50. I am voting this post helpful because I had never heard of this fee before. I hope Amex checks these posts to see that I and others will never purchase one of their gift cards. I'll also use my "word of mouth" advertising against Amex and their gift card services. Like Crystal, I like getting store gift cards. . . only my fave store is Target. I know, I know. . . I am going to get a wrath of cr*p for that one. :)

Posted by old fart on 2008-04-06:

When everything was said and done, I had an available amount of $5.87... I took a chance that I wouldn't be screwed over again and put $5 worth of gas in the car which brought the available amount to 87 cents... the gal at the service station found 2 packs of gum for 70 cents and reduced the available balance to 17 cents, whereupon I told her to keep the rest, gave her one of the gum packs and pitched the card.
(I'm the last of the big spenders).....

Posted by DebtorBasher on 2008-04-07:

Those CROOKS .... they should be tarred and feathered!

Posted by cherpep2 on 2008-04-07:

I did not know that they charged that fee for using the card. Last year, I purchased Amex gift cards for my employees. I certainly won't do that again. Great post!