AMEX Return Protection: Did They Make You Return The Item?

[FlyingBoat]

What percentage of spending can I return?
Is there any risk of returning too many items and getting shut down or anything?
I have amex amazon card so I have a bunch of different users and im spending like $500 a month on other things and returning $1000 a month. any tips?

No one has been shut down due to returns that I am aware of. Of course I am not saying it couldn't happen.
I am probably at 90%+ of spending having return protection.

It is unclear from your message if you are truly doing $1K/month returned items, or if you meant $1K/year for return protection.
This thread is about return protection, not normal returns where you return something to the store and are credited for it.

[kickballrubber]

1) - seems that happens when you are closer to the last $75 from the $1000 limit vs the 1st $75
2) - post extended holiday return season. Claims taking quite some time now

Yep, claims are taking up to 10 days to review additional documents submitted--very slow at the moment in AMEX Assurance department it looks like.

[yudawils]

No one has been shut down due to returns that I am aware of. Of course I am not saying it couldn't happen.
I am probably at 90%+ of spending having return protection.

It is unclear from your message if you are truly doing $1K/month returned items, or if you meant $1K/year for return protection.
This thread is about return protection, not normal returns where you return something to the store and are credited for it.

Thank you, for the reply. I'm doing 1k per month in return protection and $500 a month on gas/groceries. I have a business card, and so with the additional users, of which I have a few, the benefit is per user

[xedex08]

Anyone been asked to provide a screenshot showing no returns, specifically for Amazon?  What did you submit?  I buy a lot from Amazon, and I don't know of anything other than the order page indicating the "return window closed on x date" that would be responsive.

[HoKo]

Anyone been asked to provide a screenshot showing no returns, specifically for Amazon?  What did you submit?  I buy a lot from Amazon, and I don't know of anything other than the order page indicating the "return window closed on x date" that would be responsive.

Yes that's what I usually provide

[iluv2travel]

Thank you, for the reply. I'm doing 1k per month in return protection and $500 a month on gas/groceries. I have a business card, and so with the additional users, of which I have a few, the benefit is per user

How are you doing return protection for more $$ than you are buying 🤔?

Also, terms state "American Express may refund the full purchase price excluding shipping and handling, up to $300 per item, up to a maximum of $1,000 per calendar year per Card account, if you purchased it entirely with your eligible American Express® Card.", so how are you reading that it's $1k per user per month? To me it sounds like $1k per account across all users per year.

[yudawils]

How are you doing return protection for more $$ than you are buying 🤔?

Also, terms state "American Express may refund the full purchase price excluding shipping and handling, up to $300 per item, up to a maximum of $1,000 per calendar year per Card account, if you purchased it entirely with your eligible American Express® Card.", so how are you reading that it's $1k per user per month? To me it sounds like $1k per account across all users per year.

its 1k per year per account, however some of the business cards get 1k per user, and im spending 1500/month 500 that im not using rp for and 1000 that i am using rp for

[iluv2travel]

its 1k per year per account, however some of the business cards get 1k per user, and im spending 1500/month 500 that im not using rp for and 1000 that i am using rp for

Why are you buying stuff for $1k per month that you already know you're going to return? This is not how this benefit is supposed to work. You should be using the benefit if you bought something you fully intentioned to use and keep but for whatever reason didn't work out for you in the end and the store won't take them back, such as a pair of pants that don't fit and were final sale.

Unless you're just out to get $12k in freebies a year...

[yudawils]

Why are you buying stuff for $1k per month that you already know you're going to return? This is not how this benefit is supposed to work. You should be using the benefit if you bought something you fully intentioned to use and keep but for whatever reason didn't work out for you in the end and the store won't take them back, such as a pair of pants that don't fit and were final sale.

Unless you're just out to get $12k in freebies a year...

my intentions arent the subject matter here, the question is, has anyone ever gotten shutdown for using this benefit too much

[iluv2travel]

my intentions arent the subject matter here, the question is, has anyone ever gotten shutdown for using this benefit too much

Your intentions is what will cause this benefit to go away for everyone, period, never mind a shut down.  This benefit was always ripe for abuse and this just takes it to the next level and makes it that much worse.  Return protection used to be a benefit available to all American Express cardholders - all types of Amex cards across the board had it.  A couple of years ago because of abuse they stripped it from most/many cards and now it is mostly cards with (high) annual fees that have the benefit with the exception of the Amazon Business cards (and the Preferred cards on the personal side).

All that aside, have you gotten more than $1k in return protection refunds on your account and definitively know that it's $1k per user and not per account?  That's not what the terms on the Amazon Business card is showing either but if you've done it and you know for sure that it works for $1k per user then good for you.  (Just for the record, I don't have that card and am not planning to get one any time soon as all my Amex slots are taken.)

[jl75]

Yeah, the purchase is technically made in the US, but being shipped from outside the US. That is why it wasn’t clear to me.

It's probably a case of YMMV, but I've twice now successfully claimed items I purchased from Amazon.fr (Amazon France), which I ordered while physically located in America and had shipped to a U.S. address. It would be great to hear if anyone's ever (especially recently) successfully claimed an item that was either (1) ordered from a U.S.-based retailer (like Amazon.com) but shipped it to an address outside the U.S., or (2) purchased something at a store in another country (e.g., went into a store while vacationing in Europe or Asia and purchased an item and then tried to claim it on a U.S.-issued card). I can't recall seeing any reports of anyone having experienced either type of situation.

[jl75]

All that aside, have you gotten more than $1k in return protection refunds on your account and definitively know that it's $1k per user and not per account?  That's not what the terms on the Amazon Business card is showing either but if you've done it and you know for sure that it works for $1k per user then good for you.  (Just for the record, I don't have that card and am not planning to get one any time soon as all my Amex slots are taken.)

Others have reported here in the past that at least for some cards, it really is $1,000 per user. I've never tried this myself, and like you, all my AmEx "slots" are full so I won't be applying for any other cards anytime soon. However, it might be nice to know exactly which cards people here have DPs for that allow $1,000 per year per user (so potentially over $1,000 on that account per year if you have one or more authorized users), not just $1,000 total per account per year. For starters, for the OP on this topic, which specific business card are you referring to?

[jl75]

my intentions arent the subject matter here, the question is, has anyone ever gotten shutdown for using this benefit too much

It seems like the answer to your question, at least according to this board and other publicly-available discussion boards about RP spanning back about a decade, is "no". What some of the others here seem to be pointing out is that other than one individual being "shut down" for overuse of a benefit like return protection, it only makes sense that these companies must do periodic cost analysis on things like this, and if they feel like they're losing more money on a benefit like return protection than they're making, then they may decide to further trim down the list of cards on which they offer the benefit, or they may do away with it altogether. What point that would be at is anyone's guess, of course, and we have no idea how many people use AmEx cards and how many people use RP, and how much AmEx loses on the RP users. But it only makes sense that there IS a point at which they'd say, "we'd still make 99.99% of our profit even if we eliminated this benefit...". Of course, if it's just one or two people using RP as much as you say you do, then it would seem to me that they'd notify you of the suspension of your benefit, instead of punishing (tens of?) thousands of cardholders, but who knows. But you're asking a question publicly, so of course you're going to get people sharing their opinions as well as musing that it may not lead to the "shutting down" of just a few individuals but instead to the shutting down of the benefit for all of us. In all fairness, though, there's also the possibility that with all of the fraud that goes on in the world involving banking and credit cards, the last thing that a company like AmEx has time to worry about is one or two people who get $10,000 or so per year in free merchandise by basically legitimately following the rules of a benefit that the company freely offers and advertises?

[iluv2travel]

Others have reported here in the past that at least for some cards, it really is $1,000 per user. I've never tried this myself, and like you, all my AmEx "slots" are full so I won't be applying for any other cards anytime soon. However, it might be nice to know exactly which cards people here have DPs for that allow $1,000 per year per user (so potentially over $1,000 on that account per year if you have one or more authorized users), not just $1,000 total per account per year. For starters, for the OP on this topic, which specific business card are you referring to?

The OP I was responding to was referring to the Amazon Business card which to my knowledge is the only free card that offers this benefit.

[yyz_barista]

my intentions arent the subject matter here, the question is, has anyone ever gotten shutdown for using this benefit too much

Amex probably won't shutdown your cards, but I think the more likely thing is that Amex Assurance Corp will effectively take away your ability to use the benefit. It's been reported in here and on FT that people with an abnormal claim history will get asked more questions and have to submit more documentation, may be subject to a recorded interview with Allied Universal, and have a personal adjuster who'll sit and wait for your claims, only to go over them with a fine tooth comb and request that the items are sent to them.

I don't think I've seen reports of anyone facing insurance fraud charges from Amex Assurance Corp, but I'm sure they could do that too.

[majet]

Are claims still taking longer than usual? I think I am at close to 10 days from the time I sent in the documents. Very unusual at Amex RP.

[yudawils]

people have gotten designated to a specific adjuster for all their claims? thats absurd and scary

[yyz_barista]

people have gotten designated to a specific adjuster for all their claims? thats absurd and scary

If the system can determine when they'll automatically pay out claims without further documentation, they're just as capable as directing your account and claims to a specific adjuster.

Whether you like it or not, that's how insurance manages risk.

The original replies have been deleted on FT, but they were quoted and the breadcrumbs are there. You're evidently not the first to broadly use Amex RP, nor will you be the last.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-express-membership-rewards/753900-amex-return-protection-program-consolidated-9.html

[HoKo]

If the system can determine when they'll automatically pay out claims without further documentation, they're just as capable as directing your account and claims to a specific adjuster.

Whether you like it or not, that's how insurance manages risk.

The original replies have been deleted on FT, but they were quoted and the breadcrumbs are there. You're evidently not the first to broadly use Amex RP, nor will you be the last.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-express-membership-rewards/753900-amex-return-protection-program-consolidated-9.html

That FT thread is basically inactive. How long ago do you recall hearing about this?

[yyz_barista]

That FT thread is basically inactive. How long ago do you recall hearing about this?

I linked the relevant page from that thread. The offender posted in Aug 2020, so halfway down page 9, and the convo continues into page 10.