Amex refused in Shop Small promotion?

pingles

Hi,

Yesterday I went for lunch at a place listed in Amex's Shop Small website, when I went to pay the waitress said that she was sorry but they didn't accept American Express.

I complained to Amex through their online messaging. Interestingly, they replied to say that all merchants listed on their Shop Small website had agreed to be part of the promotion so my card shouldn't have been refused. They issued me a goodwill £5 credit and said they would let their marketing team know that the merchant had refused.

Anyway, wanted to let people know that if they'd had problems with acceptance it might be worth sending Amex an email.

reclusive46

pingles wrote: »

Hi,

Yesterday I went for lunch at a place listed in Amex's Shop Small website, when I went to pay the waitress said that she was sorry but they didn't accept American Express.

I complained to Amex through their online messaging. Interestingly, they replied to say that all merchants listed on their Shop Small website had agreed to be part of the promotion so my card shouldn't have been refused. They issued me a goodwill £5 credit and said they would let their marketing team know that the merchant had refused.

Anyway, wanted to let people know that if they'd had problems with acceptance it might be worth sending Amex an email.

Probably someone who wasn't trained very well. Many of the shop small merchants are brand new Amex merchants and staff aren't even aware they take it. Just insist that the merchant put in the card. Its either that or they have stopped taking it in the last month or two.

bikeman17

pingles wrote: »

Hi,

Yesterday I went for lunch at a place listed in Amex's Shop Small website, when I went to pay the waitress said that she was sorry but they didn't accept American Express.

I complained to Amex through their online messaging. Interestingly, they replied to say that all merchants listed on their Shop Small website had agreed to be part of the promotion so my card shouldn't have been refused. They issued me a goodwill £5 credit and said they would let their marketing team know that the merchant had refused.

Anyway, wanted to let people know that if they'd had problems with acceptance it might be worth sending Amex an email.

Once I have logged in where do I click to access the messaging service. Yesterday I was denied my card even though the merchant was listed on the shop small web site.

reclusive46

bikeman17 wrote: »

Once I have logged in where do I click to access the messaging service. Yesterday I was denied my card even though the merchant was listed on the shop small web site.

Press contact us in top right hand corner then choose Email messaging centre.

pvt

reclusive46 wrote: »

Probably someone who wasn't trained very well.

I recently paid for tea and stickies at a branch of Cafe Nero with my AmEx, no problem. But the customer behind me in the queue tried to offer his AmEx for payment and a different assistant told him they didn't accept it, and when challenged was very adamant. When the customer pointed to the AmEx in my hand that I had just paid with, his server then bizarrely told him that he would accept it this time only because they had accepted mine, but that their policy was not to accept AmEx.

Go figure....

That can probably be put down to ignorance, however, I am sure in many cases with small businesses the owner will refuse AmEx hoping the client has another card that will cost them less to process. And if nothing else is forthcoming then they'll suddenly find they can accommodate AmEx!

richard734

watch the marketing - not naming names, but I understand Amex are about to partner with a large payment clearing service that will reduce the merchant fees down to Visa/MasterCard levels for merchants that use this particular company for their payment services (Chip & Pin machine etc)

bikeman17

reclusive46 wrote: »

Press contact us in top right hand corner then choose Email messaging centre.

Thanks mate after contacting them via the messaging option online, they got back to me within couple hours and applied full credit of £10 on my account.

dzug1

Not sure how accurate the Amex list is - there's shops that have closed on it. (Well at least one.....