I have to give Mr. Points Traveler credit. He recently surprised me with a nice box of clothes from RueLaLa out of the blue. I’m not sure what prompted his nice gesture, but it sure felt good knowing that he spent time picking out outfits for me.
When the box came, I was super excited to go through everything and try it all on.
But… nothing fit.
I was bummed that I would have to send it all back, until I saw two dreadful words on the packing slip: final sale (this is what IÂ absolutely hate about these sample-sale boutiques).
Crap, I felt terrible that he just dropped several hundred dollars on clothes that I definitely can’t use.
I started googling possible solutions and remembered that he had used The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN. American Express is pretty good with a lot of things, so I figured there would be a way for them to save the day.
I came across a phenomenal AmEx benefit that I never knew existed – Return Protection.
Return Protection is a benefit that is available to 43 American Express cards (what bubble have I lived in?), and this is how it works:
If you try to return an eligible item within 90 days from the date of purchase and the merchant won’t take it back, 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.
All you have to do is file a claim, send in supporting documents… and wait… and wait some more… until finally:
The statement credits appeared!
In the points and miles world, we often focus on all of the major credit card benefits and ways to earn points, but some of the less talked about benefits can be just as valuable (especially when I broke my new iPhone twice). Goes to show you that it pays (literally) to really understand what your cards have to offer.
Have you ever taken advantage of the AmEx return protection benefit before? If so, feel free to share your experiences.
I bought a MacBook Pro Retina from the apple store. 3 days later it fell out of my messenger bag. I reached out to Amex and instead of taking the return, they paid for the repair (~$800). I guess thats better than eating the whole cost of the laptop!
I tried to return a fridge I purchased from Sears. However, Amex declined my claim! any suggestion on how to proceed? And it was only under $300….
I used it with RueLaLa and Zulily quite often!
I assume you also got to keep all of the non-fitting clothes, too?
You did not specify if you had to return the merchandise to Amex or not..
In my instance, I was not asked to mail the merchandise to AmEx.
I’ve used AmEx Extended Warranty 4 times & have been paid every time. 3 cell phones after 1 yr warranty expired broke down. Amex paid me the cost of what I had paid. My HP Laptop had problem after 1 yr warranty expired. I had to get a written repair bill & submitted to Amex, They paid the $ 300+ cost of the repair. Great benefit.
Angelina,
You mentioned Mr. Points Traveler bought you the item, but how did you submit the claim when he paid for it using his credit card?