Good job of the State of Oregon getting Amex Assurance to pay, but we'll likely write the State and ask them about all the consumers who get Purchase Protection denial letters and just rollover and don't fight Amex.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Letter from the State of Oregon
Case closed, as American Express relented and paid?
Good job of the State of Oregon getting Amex Assurance to pay, but we'll likely write the State and ask them about all the consumers who get Purchase Protection denial letters and just rollover and don't fight Amex.
Good job of the State of Oregon getting Amex Assurance to pay, but we'll likely write the State and ask them about all the consumers who get Purchase Protection denial letters and just rollover and don't fight Amex.
American Express (Amex Assurance Company) Responds to the State of Oregon Inquiry
Probably just a case of "easier to pay than fight," but victory for us nonetheless.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Appears the Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease
We got an email notice from American Express today:
"We are pleased to inform you that payment has been approved for your Purchase Protection program claim. Your payment of $274.99 has been processed as a credit to your American Express Account."
This comes three days before the deadline for Amex Assurance to respond to the complaint we initiated with the State of Oregon.
My son learned a very valuable lesson (or lessons) from this:
1) Always empty your pants pockets before undressing and,
2) Fight for what you believe is right.
He learned the proper steps to take to get a large corporation to live up to what they advertise. He learned what constitutes unfairness and how to fight a corporate bully.
"We are pleased to inform you that payment has been approved for your Purchase Protection program claim. Your payment of $274.99 has been processed as a credit to your American Express Account."
This comes three days before the deadline for Amex Assurance to respond to the complaint we initiated with the State of Oregon.
My son learned a very valuable lesson (or lessons) from this:
1) Always empty your pants pockets before undressing and,
2) Fight for what you believe is right.
He learned the proper steps to take to get a large corporation to live up to what they advertise. He learned what constitutes unfairness and how to fight a corporate bully.
Monday, July 11, 2011
What's the matter American Express? Don't like negative comments on Facebook?
American Express posted a chest-thumping "we are great" message on Facebook today and we took the opportunity to comment on the post, asking Amex why they're not honoring their Purchase Protection promises.
Surprise! The comment was deleted almost immediately.
Here's the post: https://www.facebook.com/americanexpress/posts/10150236187027852
"The only thing better than 1 Million is 2 Million, 'Likes' that is! And because we 'like' our Cardmembers so much, we've got big things in store for you on Facebook...Stay tuned!"
Well, I guess it's their Facebook page and they can do what they want. Further posts were deleted also.
Surprise! The comment was deleted almost immediately.
Here's the post: https://www.facebook.com/americanexpress/posts/10150236187027852
"The only thing better than 1 Million is 2 Million, 'Likes' that is! And because we 'like' our Cardmembers so much, we've got big things in store for you on Facebook...Stay tuned!"
Well, I guess it's their Facebook page and they can do what they want. Further posts were deleted also.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Researching process serving in Oregon (on corporations)
If we end up taking this matter to small claims court, we have to serve American Express Company and Amex Assurance Company through their Registered Agent. The defendants have 14 calendar days to respond.
http://www.filinginoregon.com/pages/business_registry/research/registered_agents
American Express Company, Oregon data: http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=187078&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE
Their Registered Agent (and the services provided): http://ct.wolterskluwer.com/ctcorporation/representation-services/registered_agent
http://www.filinginoregon.com/pages/business_registry/research/registered_agents
American Express Company, Oregon data: http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=187078&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE
Their Registered Agent (and the services provided): http://ct.wolterskluwer.com/ctcorporation/representation-services/registered_agent
Oregon Insurance Division and Department of Justice: "Worthy of Investigation"
Good news today from the Oregon Insurance Division (after consulting with the Oregon Department of Justice): They've deemed our complaint against American Express "worthy of investigation," "within their jurisdiction" and advise that a letter has been sent to Amex Assurance Company in Green Bay, Wisconsin advising them of the investigation and requesting documentation and a written explanation of the matter.
We sent our complaint to the Insurance Division on May 26th. There apparently was a delay while they consulted with the DOJ about validity and jurisdiction and the letter to Amex Assurance was sent June 16th, 2011.
We sent our complaint to the Insurance Division on May 26th. There apparently was a delay while they consulted with the DOJ about validity and jurisdiction and the letter to Amex Assurance was sent June 16th, 2011.
What American Express advertises...
Here's a screen shot from the website of American Express.
"Items are protected against theft and accidental damage for up to 90 days..."
"Items are protected against theft and accidental damage for up to 90 days..."
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Okay, we'll try this also: a personal letter to the CEO of American Express
Maybe we can get somewhere with this?
What to do now? Oregon Insurance Commission to the rescue?
After receiving the second denial letter from Amex Assurance Company and our subsequent phone call with Brittany deSousa, we figured we had no other option that to file a complaint with the State of Oregon Insurance Division, the regulatory agency in the state we live in.
A quick perusal of their online database lead to the discover that Amex Assurance Company is registered with the Insurance Division and therefore, the Insurance Division has some clout in working for the consumer (us) and getting the insurance company to pay. After hearing our story, a wonderfully helpful lady by the name of Gail promised to process our complaint immediately and send an inquiry to Amex Assurance Company. We faxed the information to Gail and the Division on June 2nd and Gail explained the insurance company has 30 days to respond.
The information sent to the Insurance Division consisted of copies of all documentation and a chronological summary of what had happened. The documentation was referenced in the summary, referring to specific documents as "Exhibit A," "Exhibit B" and so on.
As close to a lawsuit as possible, which is the impression we wanted to give Amex Assurance Company. If we can't get anywhere with the Insurance Division, we're planning on just taking the documentation we sent the Insurance Division and filing a small claims lawsuit in our local county. Hoping we don't have to take it that far, but we're pretty upset with American Express and at this point, will take it the distance.
What's cool if we do have to go to court is that Amex Assurance Company is registered with the State of Oregon and American Express is as well. What that means is that we can easily name both companies in the lawsuit and serve them via Registered Agent CT Corporation System in Salem, Oregon.
Fingers crossed we don't have to go the distance, but we're prepared for it.
A quick perusal of their online database lead to the discover that Amex Assurance Company is registered with the Insurance Division and therefore, the Insurance Division has some clout in working for the consumer (us) and getting the insurance company to pay. After hearing our story, a wonderfully helpful lady by the name of Gail promised to process our complaint immediately and send an inquiry to Amex Assurance Company. We faxed the information to Gail and the Division on June 2nd and Gail explained the insurance company has 30 days to respond.
The information sent to the Insurance Division consisted of copies of all documentation and a chronological summary of what had happened. The documentation was referenced in the summary, referring to specific documents as "Exhibit A," "Exhibit B" and so on.
As close to a lawsuit as possible, which is the impression we wanted to give Amex Assurance Company. If we can't get anywhere with the Insurance Division, we're planning on just taking the documentation we sent the Insurance Division and filing a small claims lawsuit in our local county. Hoping we don't have to take it that far, but we're pretty upset with American Express and at this point, will take it the distance.
What's cool if we do have to go to court is that Amex Assurance Company is registered with the State of Oregon and American Express is as well. What that means is that we can easily name both companies in the lawsuit and serve them via Registered Agent CT Corporation System in Salem, Oregon.
Fingers crossed we don't have to go the distance, but we're prepared for it.
The Second Denial Letter: If we can't avoid paying using one exclusion, we'll pull another exclusion from our bag of tricks!!!
Shortly after sending our appeal letter (which pointed out that the exclusion they cited wasn't legally applicable to us), we received a letter from American Express citing a new Exclusion for our "Covered Incident" (jpg of their letter shown below).
All they did was rely upon another overly broad part of their exclusions! If we can't avoid payment using one exclusion, we'll pull another exclusion from our bag of tricks...
"Benefits are not payable if the loss for which coverage is sought was directly or indirectly, wholly or partially, contributed to or caused by: ....9. not being reasonably safeguarded by You..."
Talk about being able to apply Exclusions to any "Covered Incident!"
I think American Express could save people a lot of time and effort by just having one blanket Exclusion: "Benefits are not payable under this policy in the event you submit a claim."
The second letter was signed by "Brittany deSousa" and included a phone number to call. We called and chatted with Brittany about the second denial and after a few minutes, point-blank asked her "how were we supposed to safeguard the iPod anyway?"
She answered with "I can't answer that...."
I guess we erred by not "safeguarding" the iPod prior to immersion in water? Our bad, I guess, as there are waterproof containers available that could have safeguarded the iPod? Just as there are shockproof cases available to avoid damage from dropping devices. And, heavy safes available to avoid theft of devices.
My point is that "failing to safeguard" allows American Express to exclude any and all claims. Just as their "abuse" exclusion gives them an out also.
There's a saying that "insurance is only for those people who don't make claims" and it couldn't apply more in this case.
All they did was rely upon another overly broad part of their exclusions! If we can't avoid payment using one exclusion, we'll pull another exclusion from our bag of tricks...
"Benefits are not payable if the loss for which coverage is sought was directly or indirectly, wholly or partially, contributed to or caused by: ....9. not being reasonably safeguarded by You..."
Talk about being able to apply Exclusions to any "Covered Incident!"
I think American Express could save people a lot of time and effort by just having one blanket Exclusion: "Benefits are not payable under this policy in the event you submit a claim."
The second letter was signed by "Brittany deSousa" and included a phone number to call. We called and chatted with Brittany about the second denial and after a few minutes, point-blank asked her "how were we supposed to safeguard the iPod anyway?"
She answered with "I can't answer that...."
I guess we erred by not "safeguarding" the iPod prior to immersion in water? Our bad, I guess, as there are waterproof containers available that could have safeguarded the iPod? Just as there are shockproof cases available to avoid damage from dropping devices. And, heavy safes available to avoid theft of devices.
My point is that "failing to safeguard" allows American Express to exclude any and all claims. Just as their "abuse" exclusion gives them an out also.
There's a saying that "insurance is only for those people who don't make claims" and it couldn't apply more in this case.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Our Response to Amex Appealing their Denial
Here's the letter we sent to American Express to appeal their initial denial.
The Purchase Protection Policy
Here's a link to the various Purchase Protection Policies of American Express:
https://www.onlineclaim.americanexpress.com/Controller?selBox=false&selVal=&command=PD.GetPrdPage&productId=06
The policy that pertains to our loss (and subsequent claim):
https://www.onlineclaim.americanexpress.com/pdf/PP-DOC-CCSG1-02-07.pdf
https://www.onlineclaim.americanexpress.com/Controller?selBox=false&selVal=&command=PD.GetPrdPage&productId=06
The policy that pertains to our loss (and subsequent claim):
https://www.onlineclaim.americanexpress.com/pdf/PP-DOC-CCSG1-02-07.pdf
The Denial Letter
The denial letter was short and not-so-sweet (jpg of the letter shown below).
"Thank you for your recent claim submission. We regret to advise you that we found your claim to be ineligible for the following reason(s):
* Under the Exclusions section of the policy it excempts (sic) from coverage, "...the loss for which coverage is sought was directly or indirectly, wholly or partially, contributed to or caused by: (6) ...abuse..." Our records indicate your loss is a result of abuse."
HUH?
Doesn't abuse imply some type of intentional act?
I think a reasonable person would say this was an accident, pure and simple.
Our main concern over their logic is that any type of accident could be construed as "abuse." It's like saying, yeah, you're insured, but we can deny any claim we want to...
So here's the policy: https://www.onlineclaim.americanexpress.com/pdf/PP-DOC-CCSG1-02-07.pdf
Specifically, there are two parts of the policy that pertain to this claim: The definition of a Covered Incident and then the Exclusion they cite:
Covered Incident means the theft of, or damage, whether by accident or vandalism, to any one item of property purchased worldwide as a gift or for personal or business use and charged to Your Account.
Exclusion: (6) fraud or abuse or illegal activity of any kind by the Cardmember.
Well, later in the policy, there's this verbiage that pertains to residents of Oregon:
In the Exclusions section the following are removed:
4. violation of a criminal law, offense or infraction;
6. fraud or abuse or illegal activity of any kind by the Cardmember;
We wrote American Express a couple page letter and pointed out that the exclusion they cited was not valid for residents of the State of Oregon (where we live). Here's our letter to them: http://americanexpresspurchaseprotectionfail.blogspot.com/2011/06/our-response-to-amex-appealing-their.html
We figured that would put an end to this nonsense and they'd pay for our accidental loss ("Covered Incident").
"Thank you for your recent claim submission. We regret to advise you that we found your claim to be ineligible for the following reason(s):
* Under the Exclusions section of the policy it excempts (sic) from coverage, "...the loss for which coverage is sought was directly or indirectly, wholly or partially, contributed to or caused by: (6) ...abuse..." Our records indicate your loss is a result of abuse."
HUH?
Doesn't abuse imply some type of intentional act?
I think a reasonable person would say this was an accident, pure and simple.
Our main concern over their logic is that any type of accident could be construed as "abuse." It's like saying, yeah, you're insured, but we can deny any claim we want to...
So here's the policy: https://www.onlineclaim.americanexpress.com/pdf/PP-DOC-CCSG1-02-07.pdf
Specifically, there are two parts of the policy that pertain to this claim: The definition of a Covered Incident and then the Exclusion they cite:
Covered Incident means the theft of, or damage, whether by accident or vandalism, to any one item of property purchased worldwide as a gift or for personal or business use and charged to Your Account.
Exclusion: (6) fraud or abuse or illegal activity of any kind by the Cardmember.
Well, later in the policy, there's this verbiage that pertains to residents of Oregon:
In the Exclusions section the following are removed:
4. violation of a criminal law, offense or infraction;
6. fraud or abuse or illegal activity of any kind by the Cardmember;
We wrote American Express a couple page letter and pointed out that the exclusion they cited was not valid for residents of the State of Oregon (where we live). Here's our letter to them: http://americanexpresspurchaseprotectionfail.blogspot.com/2011/06/our-response-to-amex-appealing-their.html
We figured that would put an end to this nonsense and they'd pay for our accidental loss ("Covered Incident").
Monday, June 6, 2011
The Accident...
We live in a town where the pants of kids get dirty. Really dirty.
Such was the case for our nine-year-old. After playing outside for the better part of the day, he was equally as dirty. Mom ordered him to strip and hit the shower, which he did.
Mom immediately swept up the dirty clothes, combined them with the other dirty clothes in his hamper, and put them in the wash. We normally check pockets, but this time that didn't happen.
Our son exited the show a few minutes later and immediately started screaming!! Noticing the pants were gone to the wash, he realized that so was his new iPod (about 30 days old). $274.99 at Best Buy, now suffering water damage.
Mom stopped the washer, pulled out the iPod Touch and put it in a bag of rice to dry. We left it in that bag of rice for four days, but no luck. It was dead to the world.
The morning after the accidental washing, mom called American Express and put in a claim. American Express always advertised protection against "accidental loss" so we were relieved to know we'd bought the iPod with the Amex...
The claims people were great, even saying this shouldn't be a problem.
We got the denial letter from American Express a few days later... They said we "Abused" the iPod and they cited an exclusion stating that "Abuse" gave them the right to deny the claim.
Doesn't "Abuse" imply some type of intentional act?
Such was the case for our nine-year-old. After playing outside for the better part of the day, he was equally as dirty. Mom ordered him to strip and hit the shower, which he did.
Mom immediately swept up the dirty clothes, combined them with the other dirty clothes in his hamper, and put them in the wash. We normally check pockets, but this time that didn't happen.
Our son exited the show a few minutes later and immediately started screaming!! Noticing the pants were gone to the wash, he realized that so was his new iPod (about 30 days old). $274.99 at Best Buy, now suffering water damage.
Mom stopped the washer, pulled out the iPod Touch and put it in a bag of rice to dry. We left it in that bag of rice for four days, but no luck. It was dead to the world.
The morning after the accidental washing, mom called American Express and put in a claim. American Express always advertised protection against "accidental loss" so we were relieved to know we'd bought the iPod with the Amex...
The claims people were great, even saying this shouldn't be a problem.
We got the denial letter from American Express a few days later... They said we "Abused" the iPod and they cited an exclusion stating that "Abuse" gave them the right to deny the claim.
Doesn't "Abuse" imply some type of intentional act?
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Accident... or not?
Accidentally running a new iPod Touch through the washer... Accident, right?
Yeah, right. What they advertise and what they choose to cover are two different things.
A typical ad reads as follows:
"Pull a loose string on your sweater and you are left with a giant hole? Spill your morning coffee on your brand new cell phone? Good thing you have a Card that can protect your purchases."
Read it for yourself: https://www.onlineclaim.americanexpress.com/Controller?selBox=false&selVal=&command=PD.GetPrdPage&productId=06
Yet, American Express (actually, through their insurance company Amex Assurance Company) denied our claim for our new iPod Touch. I guess water damage to an iPod Touch isn't quite the same as water damage to a "brand new cell phone..."
This blog will detail (showcase, if you will), our fight with American Express to get them to cover the accidental damage to our iPod. We're doing the blog to help others and detail our fight against American Express and at the same time, teaching our nine-year-old how to stand up for what's right... Getting the "big guys" to live up to what they advertise. In the process, he'll learn how to blog as well.
You see, it was his iPod Touch that was accidentally run through the wash... He'd saved and saved for it.
Turning lemons into lemonade, right?
You see, it was his iPod Touch that was accidentally run through the wash... He'd saved and saved for it.
Turning lemons into lemonade, right?
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