At what point do you escalate false advertising beyond the company (Amazon)?

[ender]

I recently was making a purchase on Amazon and saw this advertisement:

1. Limited Time Offer Details. Upon approval of your Amazon.com Store Card application, an Amazon.com Gift Card with the value described above will be loaded into your Amazon.com account. Amazon.com Gift Cards are issued by ACI Gift Cards, Inc., a Washington Company. See Amazon.com Gift Card Terms and Conditions for complete terms and conditions.

Realizing I haven't applied for a card in a while, I figured "what the heck, I'll apply." I was naturally immediately approved (using this link).

However, I did not receive any gift card (nor have I so far). I have also not received any email confirmation for the card application, either - not even in my spam folder. I have reached out several times already to both Amazon and Synchrony (who manages the card) to confirm:

• I was approved for the card as reflected in the UI when I applied
• My email on file with Synchrony was correctly filled out
• Amazon thinks that it is Synchrony's responsibility (3/3 CSRs said this)
• Synchrony says it's Amazon's responsibility (1/2 said this)
• A different CSR at Synchrony also said it might take 1-2 billing cycles for the gift card to appear (?)

At this point, it feels like either the CSRs are completely incompetent and/or the page which contained the information about the card was blatantly lying to me and misleading.

When or where should I escalate this further? I am 0/3 on talking with Amazon customer service and 0/2  with Synchrony so I'm not really sure continued conversation with either will be productive.

[Jon Bon]

You are going to fight this hard for 60 bucks? How much time have you invested with these CSRs already? Personally its one of the worst possible ways to spend my time.

I'd just send an email and move on with my life. 

[FIRE47]

You may just be screwed - have had something similar before with a phone company, and also a bank amazon may be one of the few companies even bigger and more difficult to deal with than the telecoms and banks - good luck. Eventually you just have to cut your losses and hope maybe it will sort itself out on it's own (not likely unfortunately).

My guess is that it is not false advertising just incompetence or something wrong with their system.

I know full well it is a matter of principle but this can go on for months if you let it.

[iwanttobelive2]

I'd keep following it up with Amazon, escalate it past the CSR's if needed.

[Paul der Krake]

What a terrible offer to spend a credit card slot on.

That being said, if you feel like you've already been patient enough with them, you should file a complaint with the CFPB:
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

That is guaranteed to get the lender's attention.

[ender]

What a terrible offer to spend a credit card slot on.

That being said, if you feel like you've already been patient enough with them, you should file a complaint with the CFPB:
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

That is guaranteed to get the lender's attention.

I know it's a terrible offer but I don't really travel much and have already worked most of the cashback ones ;)

[FindingFI]

1. Limited Time Offer Details. Upon approval of your Amazon.com Store Card application, an Amazon.com Gift Card with the value described above will be loaded into your Amazon.com account. Amazon.com Gift Cards are issued by ACI Gift Cards, Inc., a Washington Company. See Amazon.com Gift Card Terms and Conditions for complete terms and conditions.

Have you checked in with ACI Gift Cards, Inc. to see who they think they are supposed to get the order to issue the gift card from? They may be really helpful in breaking the tie between Amazon and Synchrony, but they may also know nothing.

[ender]

Well got the $60 "shitty churning" Amazon giftcard balance that I didn't think I would get... 11 days later.

Quite the "instant" award of the money!

Amazon just recognized the card at that point and awarded the gift card. So the advertising was absolutely misleading and false in this case. Meh.

[FIRE47]

Well got the $60 "shitty churning" Amazon giftcard balance that I didn't think I would get... 11 days later.

Quite the "instant" award of the money!

Amazon just recognized the card at that point and awarded the gift card. So the advertising was absolutely misleading and false in this case. Meh.

I hear you man - this sort of stuff really gets me going as well - I've had to learn to start letting some of it go though.

It really is amazing how bad customer service has gotten these days.

[albireo13]

I would cancel the card.