I was originally impressed with American Express and their customer service. When they get things right automatically, they are wonderful. But they are a huge bureaucracy full of red tape, and when they get things wrong, there is no power in heaven or earth capable of changing it. Regardless of your documentation, if they don’t follow through on their offers or promises, you won’t get them. And you can forget about the usual protections against shoddy or disreputable merchants - American Express is more concerned about businesses accepting their card (rarer than you might expect), than they are about you. And that’s what this is all about, really - even if you’re an American Express Platinum customer, they don’t care about you at all. They’ll say whatever to get you in the door and then treat you like garbage because they know you’re stuck with them and their ridiculously high annual fees.
