American Express Promotion Or Just Self Promotion?

Many people are aware of the My Wish List Promotion that American Express has going on right now. They do this about twice a year. They offer some really cool stuff to the lucky few who can claim them. These are popular items offered at drastically reduced prices. A new twist added this time around is that some of the items can be claimed via text message from your cell phone.

Last Thursday the text message option seemed to be a good choice for me since they were offering a Microsoft Zune right at the same time that I was going to be at an appointment with the doctor. After trying to claim one of these via the web site it seemed like a good idea to try and send a few text messages in to be sure that at least one got through. At 10am (MDT) I sent about 15 or so messages. At 10:37am (according to my phone) I received a message back that I'd won one of the Zune's and that I'd be contacted within 2 hours to complete my claim. If AmEx couldn't reach me within two hours the Zune would become available to another card member for purchase.

I called a few times. First to find out what number they would call. Then to find out why they hadn't called, etc. The call center was in St. Louis which was hit with sever weather and I was told that they were behind and all after the bad weather and not to worry. This assurance was common Thursday and Friday. I gave them the weekend off since I was tired of worry about it and usually these things aren't dealt with on weekends.

I called this morning and this seemed to be the first they'd heard about this and they'd have a supervisor call me back in 24 to 48 hours. If I end up getting this I'll be happy if just a little less impressed with AmEx's ability to deal with their own promotions. If they try and let themselves off the hook for something I was promised I have a couple of ideas.

First, I know a guy who is related to a reporter on the local news. I might try to enlist his help to get me in contact with their consumer advocate reporter. He's done this for others so I'm hopeful this would help.

Second, I might consider taking it to small claims court if only for the fact that I'm sick of my concerns falling through the cracks of concern of large corporations.