One of the advantages of being active in this hobby of miles and points is that many of the premium and ultra-premium credit cards we carry come with a multitude of benefits that can save us time or money or come to the rescue when something goes wrong. Last year, I wrote about my experience with Chase cell phone insurance when I broke a phone screen and then I had occasion to test out Amex purchase protection when I….broke another phone screen. I’ve recently had the opportunity to test out yet another credit card consumer protection: Return protection on my Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite card. Unfortunately, this experience didn’t work out well: my claim for return protection was denied based on the item being damaged / not working (though it certainly was working and was not damaged when I returned it). I intend to appeal, though I don’t know how I’ll prove that the item is indeed working. Overall, I am underwhelmed with the experience and intend to stick with Amex for purchase protection benefits in the future.
My purchase
I bought a piece of exercise equipment from Amazon in April. A few days later, Amazon put the same item on sale for about 10% less. I contacted customer service to see if they would offer a price adjustment, but I knew that Amazon did not offer price adjustments and they did not bend on that. I ultimately placed a second order intending to return the first order. Unfortunately, I lost track of time and missed the Amazon 30-day return window.
However, knowing that I had purchased this item with my Chase Ritz-Carlton card, I figured this would be the right opportunity to try out return protection. I had purchased this item on the Chase Ritz card on purpose, knowing that Amazon would only accept a return for 30 days and being unsure as to whether I would have my mind made up on keeping it by that point. I thought I might not like it and didn’t want to get locked into a ~$400 decoration, so I accepted a poor return on spend by purchasing with my Ritz card in exchange for the extended return period.
Claim process
The easiest way to start a claim is to go to cardbenefitservices.com and create an account there for your card number. This is the same claims administrator that handled my Chase cell phone insurance claim a few months ago. Just like with my broken phone screen, I had to start with “file a claim”. Note that neither that broken phone nor this return item was registered before making a claim (you don’t need to start with “register a product”, just go right ahead to file a claim).
This time around, I chose to file a claim for something else.
On the next page, I had to select that I was dissatisfied with the product for it to determine that the right fit was return protection.
At the end of the claim process, it prompts you to upload supporting documentation. Note that based on my read of the requirements, I initially only sent a sales receipt.
The fine print under “credit card statement” says that you need the statement “if sales receipt does not reflect last 4 digits of account”. However, my Amazon receipt (printed from my order history) did show the last 4 digits of the Visa card I had used to pay.
It further has a section to upload a copy of the retailer return policy “if within 30 days of purchase”. Since I was making my claim more than 30 days after purchase, I didn’t bother including this. It would have only taken a second to take a screen shot of the Amazon.com return policy, but I figured I’d stick to the way things are written for the purposes of writing this post afterward. My assumption was that Card Benefit Services expects most retailers to have a 30-day return policy, so they only need you to prove that the retailer has a tighter return policy if you’re trying to make a claim sooner than 30 days from purchase.
However, I was wrong. A few days after submitting my claim, I received a request asking for me to provide a copy of the merchant’s return policy. That felt designed to cause breakage since the claims adjustor could obviously easily go to Amazon.com to find the return policy (and you can’t tell me there is someone in this line of work who doesn’t already know that Amazon has a 30-day return policy). I took the screen shot immediately on my phone and uploaded it within an hour of receiving the email. Next time I’d just submit that at the beginning and save a few extra days of waiting.
A couple of days later, I received an email alerting me to the fact that my claim had moved to adjudication and that I should have an outcome within 5 business days of uploading documentation (at this point, it had already been a couple of business days since uploading the return policy).
Sending in my item
A few days after my claim moved to adjudication, I received an email requesting that I send my item to the Card Benefit Services warehouse. That’s certainly fair — if they were going to refund me for the item, it makes sense that they would ask for it back (card issuers apparently don’t always ask for the item to be returned, but it makes sense that they sometimes do). Unfortunately, it was at my expense. Again, that’s not unfair, but it certainly made me wish that I hadn’t missed the Amazon return window.
Somewhat oddly, the email instructions sent me to www.returnmyitem.com/CardBenefitServices to enter my claim number and print a label but then the email also went on to give me a shipping address. While the address itself was the same both in the email and at that site, the email said to send it to Card Benefit Services at an address in Irving, TX and the address label generated by my claim number addressed the return to “Anew Business Solutions” at the same address. Based on a quick Google, it looks like Anew collects returns from various companies (it looks like mostly tools) and sells them by the pallet to resellers (some Google reviews of Anew mention buying pallets of used tools. There is another company operating at the same physical address that lists tools individually and by the pallet as well).
I was instructed to send the entire package in like-new or working condition. They would then evaluate it and get back to me.
Upon receipt at the warehouse, our team will inspect the item to ensure that it meets the terms and conditions of the benefit. If your product meets all terms and conditions you will receive a check within 7-10 business days after inspection. If your product is not eligible, we will contact you within 5 business days of inspection and return the item to you.
I sent my item in a couple of weeks ago and have been waiting for reimbursement.
Claim Denied
A month after starting the process and about a week after they received my item, I received an email indicating that they had received my “documentation” and that my claim had been assigned to a Claims Adjustor who would begin adjudication. A few business days later came the denial email. Here is the meat of it:
Dear Nicholas Reyes:
Thank you for submitting your completed Return Protection program claim application. Unfortunately, we are unable to honor your claim due to the following:
- Damaged, or non-working, items are not covered.
Although this particular claim is ineligible for payment, we thank you for taking the time to file your claim and hope you will continue to take advantage of the Return Protection Program.
Your feedback is an important part of our continuing efforts to provide excellent customer service. If you have provided your email address to us during the claims process, a survey will be sent to your inbox and will arrive shortly. Please take a moment to complete the survey.
If you would like this claim decision reviewed by our internal appeals panel, please submit your request in writing to: bsg@eclaimbenefits.com or to Card Benefit Services, P.O. Box 110889 Nashville, TN 37222. Please explain your reason(s) for appeal and provide any additional documentation you may have for consideration. Should you wish to take this matter up with the New York State Department of Financial Services, you may file with the Department either on its website at http://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/fileacomplaint.htm or you may write to or visit the Consumer Assistance Unit, Financial Frauds and Consumer Protection Division, New York State Department of Financial Services, at: One State Street, New York, NY 10004; One Commerce Plaza, Albany, NY 12257; 1399 Franklin Avenue, Garden City, NY 11530; or Walter J. Mahoney Office Building, 65 Court Street, Buffalo, NY 14202.
If you have any questions regarding your claim or the Return Protection Program, please call our Customer Service Department at 1-888-565-8472. Representatives are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For customers with hearing or speech disabilities, we accept telecommunications relay service calls.
Oddly, I received the same email twice (about 12 hours apart and dated on consecutive days). Guess they wanted to be thorough in telling me “no return protection for you!”.
Since the item I returned certainly wasn’t damaged, I intend to follow up. The earlier email requesting that I mail the item to their warehouse indicated that the item would be returned to me if it were found to be ineligible, but nothing in the denial email addressed returning it to me. At the very least I’d like to get it back. However, I would obviously prefer to get this sorted with return protection and be done with it.
The difficulty here is how they would test it. The item in question is a smart bicycle trainer that connects to a an app or software on your computer. It essentially turns a regular bicycle into an exercise bike with a motor that provides resistance on the rear wheel. I’m not sure it would be clear to someone that it works without putting it together and placing a bicycle on it and connecting it to something like Rouvy or Zwift where the trainer will automatically adjust resistance with the course you’re riding (yes, I’ve essentially turned my bicycle into a Peloton). I could certainly imagine being confused if I received it as a warehouse employee and didn’t really know what it was and I wouldn’t be shocked if they didn’t happen to have a bicycle and laptop lying around with which to test it. I don’t think there was any malicious intent in denying my claim by saying that it wasn’t working, I just think the person checking it likely wasn’t familiar with it (neither had I been before researching it and buying one). Unfortunately, explaining that and getting this resolved seems challenging at best. I intend to push back and hope I can get this resolved (or at least returned, hopefully not at my expense again), but I expect that I’m fighting an uphill battle at this point. To large extent, that’s my fault: I should have just returned this to Amazon within the 30-day window. However, I did buy it using the Chase Ritz card in case I wanted to return it after 30 days and I had hoped this process would be more seamless than it has been.
Bottom line
I filed a claim using Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite Return Protection and my claim was denied. I think this is likely a case of the warehouse staff being unfamiliar with how the item works and being unable to easily verify that it does work / is undamaged. I intend to push back, but ultimately I am disappointed that this process wasn’t more seamless. I’ve always read about positive experiences with Amex return protection (which it is worth noting is only available on some cards) and at this point I am wishing that I had used an Amex card for this purchase. I don’t know for sure that the outcome would be different, but based on my previous purchase protection claim with Amex I wouldn’t be surprised to find a smoother claims process. I believe that Amex handles its insurance services in-house rather than contracting out and that might make a difference in getting something like this resolved. At the end of the day, I might use my Ritz card for purchase protection in the future, but I’d stick to using it for items that wouldn’t require any effort to test if I needed to send them in. I’ll probably use Amex for purchase and return protection on anything remotely technical and probably on more expensive items in general rather than take my chances with the Chase protection in the future. This might have been a smooth experience if I were returning a shirt or blender or something easier to verify, but I am nonetheless disappointed that the coverage didn’t work when I needed it. Hopefully I can at least get the item back and it arrives in the same (undamaged) condition in which I sent it.
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Worst service from chase ever – they suck. It should not even be a service at all. I am a chase customer for over 12 years now and a sapphire preferred customer for 2 years now and I have lost my baggages since august 14th 2022 and today we are January 24th 2023 and they still haven’t taken care of my case yet. It is still pending. Status keeps on going back and forth from final decision stage to more documents is needed. I have uploaded all the required documentations they needed and they keep telling me that someone is reviewing my case and I should wait. I have spoken to countless agents and supervisors and still nothing. Case # 0008578970 has been opened since 10/03/2022. On 10/29/2022 an agent named Akemi called me on a 3 way call with American Airlines to confirm that the bags were lost and we ended up contacting JetBlue and Aer lingus for verification ( Aer lingus was one of the flight company I traveled with from France to Ireland for a layover of 16 hours & Jet blue is the company they claim took my bags from JFK to DFW – Just a mess) – They confirmed that bags were lost but eclaimsline keep on telling me to contact those companies to make sure they confirm that bags were lost. ( I guess being on the phone with one of their own agent does not count) but at this point I don’t know what other language I should use to communicate with them so that they understand that my bags are gone, they probably have new owners now. I am tired of them trying to re-assure me that the issue is being taken care of by one of their claim examiner and they will get back to me within a week and nothing happen. Please y all need to take care of your customers like you say . My email is Jobsuccess89@outlook.com just in case someone working there is reading this review wants to take care of this issue for me . We getting closer to 6 months to fix a simple issue. Y all needs to put yourself in others shoes to understand our pain – you wouldn’t want any other service to treat you like that.
Any update?
Chase’s return and extended warranty protection policies and practices approach fraud. Doesn’t matter which card, they will find a reason to deny. Recently they had to dig deep for my appealed claim on under $20 item that was confiscated at entrance to a sports stadium as prohibited neck gaiter, only masks allowed. First, they denied because “lost.” Then upon appeal, found some other policy indicating confiscation isn’t covered. Sad sad practices, and overly narrow covered events.
On the flip side, probably about 5 claims over 30+ years with AMEX, always issue free settled without question and no notion of having to ship back the item.
I feel sorry for you, but I also want you and your readers to know that Amazon’s return window is not set in stone. I once bought a barcode scanner from Amazon, and the speaker of the scanner stopped working about a week after the return window ended. I complained to Amazon and they allowed me to return it and paid for the return shipping as well. In another instance, I missed the return window by one day for a tripod. This time, it’s entirely my fault. It’s just a buyer’s remorse and I didn’t pay attention to the deadline. Again, I chatted with Amazon’s customer support, and I was allowed to return the tripod (of course, shipping was on me this time).
The conclusion is, as long as you did not miss the return window for too long, you can still try to convince Amazon into letting you return the product.
Thanks. I do know that. See similar comments above – I tried and they said no dice I was outside the window and nothing they could do.
I haven’t needed to use Amex Return Protection, but it’s nice to know it’s there. As of today, all but two Amex cards with Return Protection have an annual fee. The cards without the annual fees are the Amazon Business and Amazon Business Prime. The Return Protection terms for the Amazon cards are the same as the ones for the Platinum.
Was the 40$ difference worth the time and aggravation?
Obviously not.
So, the same question had been floating around in my mind, but in the end I have answered it a bit differently… different even from Nick’s response:
It was worth it… to me.
Some of the stuff that I think I understand from the miles-and-points game, and related activities (including the actual benefit of various credit cards) comes from person experience — my own trial and error, my own discoveries, my own enjoyment of a “win” etc. But a lot of it comes from reading this blog, and the very few others that give honest, exhaustive renderings of how things really work, or have worked, or might not work. I think that FrequentMiler strikes a very good balance between making calls based on what makes sense for “regular” people, and occasionally pushing the envelope to see what happens.
To the specific point, I now see that when I am tempted by a price drop, I had better not count on this guaranteed return hocus-pocus, unless we are talking about a bigger difference making it worth the potential time and aggravation.
Two things wrong with this:
-spending hours to chase pennies
-being completely unethical instead of just owning that YOU made a mistake
Greg, articles like this drive me away from your site. You should just delete this one. There’s plenty to be gained from miles/points playing by the rules. There’s no need (especially now in this country) to be a role model for slimy unethical lying behavior.
How is it unethical to file a claim that is covered by the benefits on the card? This doesn’t make any sense. The cards COVER mistakes like this.
Huh? I was using one of the benefits that the card provides. I wrote about the experience because I know that many readers pay the $450 annual fee on this card or others like it and one of the benefits advertised on many of such cards is return protection, so I thought it would be helpful for readers to know how that works in practice rather than just as a bullet point in a list of advertised benefits. I don’t understand what you think was slimy or unethical. One of the benefits this card provides (i.e. one of the selling points for a card with a high annual fee like this) is return protection. As stated in the post, one of the reasons I chose to use this card rather than a card that would earn a better return at Amazon was for this card’s purchase protection benefit in case I wanted to return the item outside of 30 days (Amazon’s return window) but inside 90 days (indeed I do put purchases like this on the card from time to time for this protection, this is just the first time I’ve used it). The benefit provides 90 days from purchase date to file a claim and I did. There are no lies there — what about it is slimy or unethical to you?
I had to appeal an amex denial within the last year (which is obviously different, for the reasons you note in your post). I had an extended warranty claim, and I filed it more than a year after the warranty had expired, even though the item had broken within the one year period. Was denied because they used the claim date, not the date that I put that the item actually broke, but then I went back and pulled chats showing I had been trying to locate the card that the charge had been on for months (within the one year period) and amex paid out right away.
Hi Nick,
I had an item rejected for return by RC also. I had unfortunately mentioned in my description of the blazer that I was returning that it had 2 tiny blemishes in the collar, probably from someone trying it on. I didn’t notice it when I bought it, and didn’t want RC to think I had worn it. They denied the claim as not in new or near new condition. I appealed it and won. I sent pictures of the collar in which the tiny blemishes barely showed up. It was a pain to appeal because if I had never mentioned the blemishes, the item would have undoubtably sailed through the process. For sure, the paperwork with RC is a pain with back and forth emails, especially compared to Amex insurances. But, I encourage you to appeal and expect a positive result. You are in the right!!!
How much did you have to pay for shipping the item to the warehouse? As I understand, you weren’t reimbursed for that?
It cost me about $35 — which is why I’m hoping it doesn’t end up costing me that two ways,
Wasn’t the original price difference ~$40? Once the shipping cost reduced your net gain to $5, I’d have expected you to just can the whole thing and send back the newer purchase.
My speculation is that they’ll charge you return shipping for the item, unless you get them to agree with you that it’s not broken. But in that case, they’d probably just approve the claim.
Otherwise, in their view, you sent them a “broken” item, so it wouldn’t make sense for them eat the shipping cost when you want your “broken” item back.
I have had Amazon take/exchange things when they are over 30 days and some things not. Finding their chat function helps.
Yeah, I asked. They didn’t in this case.
I just looked at Amex policy and it has a $300 limit per item so you’d be out $100 unless they exclude anything over $300. It also has a number of exclusions, many are based on people abusing stuff (i.e., buy expensive clothes and then want to return them) and even medical stuff.
Years ago Amazon was great where they would match price changes (I think within 30 days) and I used it a few times. That ended a while ago.
No, they dont exclude. They just pay out up to the $300. Just filed a claim for a $1,000 oven store woudlnt take back this week.
Thanks. And sorry to hear about the oven. Ouch $1000.
While $300 is better than nothing, it stops the benefit being that useful IMO (and presumably stops it being abused). Not worth the hassle for say $10, and for some quite a bit more. I would like something to protect against “expensive” stuff where I really care when things go wrong. But again, better than nothing if it works easily, unlike the case here!
Okay so file a purchase protection claim since it’s broken.
My typical strategy with Amazon price changes is to order a new item at the lower price, request return at Amazon on the higher priced item, and then I return the unopened new item as the old item to Kohl’s in person. Fortunately, Kohl’s is only about a 5 minute drive from my home.
I think this is technically fraud. I wouldn’t do this. It’s dumb because its better for everyone if you return the actual unopened item, but many items are tracked by serial number, etc, and this could create issues.
Most items are actually tracked by UPC, not serial number. UPC numbers are identical for identical items. It’s certainly possible that a piece of exercise equipment may have a serial number but if you actually bought from Amazon (not FBA) the item is almost assuredly never checked. Additionally, by returning in person at a Kohl’s once they take possession of the item…whatever happens to the item is on Amazon.
To each their own. I won’t do it, because I do think it is technically fraud (you are representing the item to be a different item that it is not) and in my view its not worth it.
I’ve had great experiences w Amex return protection. Paid 2 out of 3 with no hassle. Both of the successful ones were for small purchases. The one denied was for around 200 and for that they contacted the company. The Amex report said the rep there stated they had a 90 day return policy which was false (I checked the web site) but maybe the company was thinking in case of problems/defects. I didn’t press it bc this was for custom blinds which could have triggered a denial for other reasons, but if I had a legit claim I think I could have gotten that too. I always use Amex premium card when I buy something that may need this insurance.
Amex does have a $300 per item limit, which I didnt realize until recently (bought an oven, store wouldnt take it back when I hated it, amex paid out without issue but only up to that limit). Still great, but doesnt cover high ticket items.
You know, I thought the limit varied based on which card you used, but you’re right — it appears to be a $300 limit on all of the Amex cards offering return protection. Good to keep in mind.
IME, Amazon is flexible on the 30d return window. Obviously too late for this case, but in the future just open up a chat and ask – worst they can say is no.
I did. No dice.
I had amazon extend a return window for me, due to a price drop, and when I returned my product, they charged a $52 “restocking fee” without telling me. I filed a return protection claim with amex, but they denied it bc it was an amazon warehouse purchase (I guess they dont cover those).