AmEx Small Business Saturday

[menachem_m]

I'm not so sure.

I also got confirmation emails.

There is seems to be a two stage process, first being the initial run of the card, at this stage your purchase will be declined if no credit, and than a second stage were they "release the batch" so I'm guessing both have to be done on Saturday.
Anyone who knows wanna share how the process works?

[milechazzer]

The GC registry processed them at night around 7:30pm (i got amex emails then) there seams to be an issue with receipt. But the merchant did it right.

As I understand, Menachem_M is correct. When the merchant initially enters or swipes the card, the information goes to Amex, and Amex registers a "pending" charge and confirms whether the charge is authorized. At the same time, you will see a "pending" charge show up in your account online. The pending charge may be for just $1 or for the full amount. At that point, there will be no "actual" charge reflected yet in your account. The actual charge will ony be reflected once the merchant submits the charge for processing. Most merchants will submit charges in "batches" either once daily or at multiple scheduled times daily. It is up to the merchant to pick a time when the "batch" is processed every day. In this case, it appears that Amex emailed confirmations as soon as the cards/accounts were submitted by the merchant, but the Merchant did not schedule its batch to be processed until sometime the next day (i.e. after midnight).

[syp5]

I would highly doubt that most merchants are aware of the second processing stage of when the batch is processed. They most probably go with the default setting. I asked several merchants and they had no idea about this.

[DoGo]

As I understand, Menachem_M is correct. When the merchant initially enters or swipes the card, the information goes to Amex, and Amex registers a "pending" charge and confirms whether the charge is authorized. At the same time, you will see a "pending" charge show up in your account online. The pending charge may be for just $1 or for the full amount. At that point, there will be no "actual" charge reflected yet in your account. The actual charge will ony be reflected once the merchant submits the charge for processing. Most merchants will submit charges in "batches" either once daily or at multiple scheduled times daily. It is up to the merchant to pick a time when the "batch" is processed every day. In this case, it appears that Amex emailed confirmations as soon as the cards/accounts were submitted by the merchant, but the Merchant did not schedule its batch to be processed until sometime the next day (i.e. after midnight).

I would highly doubt that most merchants are aware of the second processing stage of when the batch is processed. They most probably go with the default setting. I asked several merchants and they had no idea about this.

I agree with syp5. I highly doubt AMEX was expecting merchants to send the batch immediately, since that is almost never done, (track your account after any purchase, it will usually be around 2 days).

[milechazzer]

I called that direct # - 800-297-7500 - and they manually credited all my cards in one phone call (they have the GC registry flagged for what happened, since it was spent on saturday you get the credits).

BTW rep told me 1.7 mil cards were used (thats $17,000,000 given out by AMEX - thank you!)

was just told that around 5000 cards were processed at the lkwd GC registry

What does that mean that "they have the GC registry flagged"? Does that mean that they are proactively crediting all of the accounts? Or they have a note on the accounts with those charges? If they know about the issue, why are we still waiting for credits to post?

[DoGo]

What does that mean that "they have the GC registry flagged"? Does that mean that they are proactively crediting all of the accounts? Or they have a note on the accounts with those charges? If they know about the issue, why are we still waiting for credits to post?

they told me it is a flagged merchant as to what happened (that as a consumer you spent it on Saturday) I don't know how things work, just huca with that #

[bubbles]

they told me it is a flagged merchant as to what happened (that as a consumer you spent it on Saturday) I don't know how things work, just huca with that #

looks like that number is working for me, thanks. I got through right away and he said he'll post them immediately for all the au's.

[A European]

Toys 4 U charges went thru on December 3 !
That's a tuesday!
Was pending till then.
Is there any chance of me getting the $ ?

[Shmulyg]

Toys 4 U charges went thru on December 3 !
That's a tuesday!
Was pending till then.
Is there any chance of me getting the $ ?

PUTPAC and tell them you have a receipt for the Saturday purchase. Worked for me last year.

[theduke]

I just spoke to an intelligent representative who told me that close to a million cards joined small business saturday!
Also he said that at the end of december AMEX is doing an Audit on all the their merchants since only about 95% of the SBS credits posted right away, the reason is that some small businesses are over whelmed by the promotion and not all the charges posted immediately.
Basically by the beginning of January they should post the rest of the credits, hopefully that will include all the Gift Crd Registry ones.

[milechazzer]

They seem to be steering every to call their "technical team" or "digital assist team". When I chatted with customer service, I was first told not to worry, since "it typically takes 6-8 weeks" for the credits to be processed. When I said that's ridiculous and everyone else seems to have been credited already, they told me I have to call the Technical Team.  When I called the Techinical Team, they were happy to credit me right away. But then I asked about credits for the rest of my authorized users, he told me that each of the authorized users would have to request their own credit. Heh heh heh. I told him that's ridiculous, since I'm the primary. Then he went off to get it authorized  by his supervisor, and came back and said he got it approved.

At DoGo's suggestion, I called  back the "Digital Team" during regular business hours, and got to speak to someone far more competent, who understood the issue right away, and said she would take care of it for all of my accounts and authorized users. Hopefully she won't get "spooked" by all of my authorized users.

[Shmulyg]

I just spoke to an intelligent representative who told me that close to a million cards joined small business saturday!
Also he said that at the end of december AMEX is doing an Audit on all the their merchants since only about 95% of the SBS credits posted right away, the reason is that some small businesses are over whelmed by the promotion and not all the charges posted immediately.
Basically by the beginning of January they should post the rest of the credits, hopefully that will include all the Gift Crd Registry ones.

And hopefully they will re-credit the ones done manually

[Miracle]

At DoGo's suggestion, I called  back the "Digital Team" during regular business hours, and got to speak to someone far more competent, who understood the issue right away, and said she would take care of it for all of my accounts and authorized users. Hopefully she won't get "spooked" by all of my authorized users.

LOL

[milechazzer]

LOL

The reactions from the cust service representatives when they look at my accounts, are always precious

[joeberg]

Are you the one who gave in 300 CC#s to GCR?

[shidduch]

Wow someone gave in 300 ccs.  I thought I was bad, I did 116. 

On a side note, did anyone have luck with citi or fidelity crediting them the points.  They are giving me a whole hassle.

[milechazzer]

Wow someone gave in 300 ccs.  I thought I was bad, I did 116. 

On a side note, did anyone have luck with citi or fidelity crediting them the points.  They are giving me a whole hassle.

Wow, I'm not there yet but I'm close. What's the most # of cards per account?

[shidduch]

Probably about 30 maybe 35

[BigDanFan]

PUTPAC and tell them you have a receipt for the Saturday purchase. Worked for me last year.

would be cool if one of these years they can give us Sunday (pref) hours
bec. Jews have only 5 hours, from 7pm-12am to do SBS... everyone else has all day long...
16+ hrs

[milechazzer]

I just spoke to an intelligent representative who told me that close to a million cards joined small business saturday!
Also he said that at the end of december AMEX is doing an Audit on all the their merchants since only about 95% of the SBS credits posted right away, the reason is that some small businesses are over whelmed by the promotion and not all the charges posted immediately.
Basically by the beginning of January they should post the rest of the credits, hopefully that will include all the Gift Crd Registry ones.

All of this confusion provides for a great opportunity to be double-credited for a lot of the SBS charges. I've seen some double credits posted in some of my accounts already.