Save Print Copies Of Credit Card Special Offers

A customer called to claim that there was a major discrepancy between the rewards program that she had agreed to, and the rewards program she was getting.

She was supposed to be getting a 5% cash back reward on certain purchases, but she was only receiving the rewards on a limited amount of these purchases. Her credit card company was putting a cap on the reward so that she was only getting this deal on the first $2500 of the purchases.

CUSTOMER CONTENDS OFFER HAD NO CAP

It was her adamant contention that she had a paper copy of the promotion in her hand, and it made no mention of a cap on this reward.

Furthermore, she said she had called in to verify this deal before she agreed to it, and was assured that the offer was as it had been presented to her: unlimited 5% cash back reward on all purchases.

SYSTEM SHOWS OFFER INCLUDED CAP

The description of her rewards program recorded in the system, however, (and as I saw it on my computer screen) said that there was a $2500 cap on the rewards.

There was no discrepancy, as far as I could see,  between the record of what she had been given as a promotion, and what the program was showing she was receiving. 

SO WHAT HAPPENED?

My guess is that this credit card company never intended to give her or anyone unlimited 5% cash back on purchases. That really would be too good a deal to be true. Probably that little detail, about the $2500 cap, was left off the actual, physical promotional materials she received, and no one caught the omission.

It is interesting to consider that bad communication, sloppy proofreading skills, and lack of attention to detail can cost a company a lot of money.

For instance, should a customer have paper proof of such a deal, the company would be required to honour it.

My advice to this customer was: fax in the promotion and if it says XYZ, then XYZ is what you will get.

Credit card companies make a lot of mistakes, many of which cause misery and annoyance for customers.

Yet some of those mistakes can work very much to the customer’s advantage, but only when you have hard proof of the mistake.

SUMMARY: SAVE A PHYSICAL COPY OF TERMS

So save any and all documentation that describes the terms of your various agreements with your credit card companies, whether they are for credit card rewards programs, cash back cards, balance transfers, or whatever.

Keep them all organized and filed away where you can lay your hands on them quickly. Should your copies of agreements that are still in place begin to fade, make new copies.

Whatever you do, don’t expect your credit card company to provide you with some piece of promotional material that you remember getting, and that you need to prove your case. That’s the last thing that will happen.