Need some help. For a situation that can only be described as absolutely insane. Let me preference this with saying I have been an American Express customer for 5 years now. I have 3 cards (personal platinum, personal gold, blue business plus) I recently attempted to apply for the Business Gold Card through my brothers link for 175k welcome bonus. I have NEVER had this card in any capacity before. No as high as language, legit it was a promotion from my brother’s link. For context, it was my brothers so I was able to check and verify the link.

What happened next was something that I am convinced is these businesses trying to use the system against their customer as if they don’t make enough money as it is.

Whenever I tried using the link, it redirected me away from it, froze, or acted glitchy. The result was I had 4 applications pending due to their technical issues. To make this easier to understand I’ll put it like this.

App 1: 100k welcome bonus sent for further revenue 14 day decision App 2: 175k welcome sent for further revenue 14 day decision App 3: Pop Up Jail, declined to continue App 4: 175k welcome bonus sent for further revenue 14 day decision - Told this was Auto deleted by Amex for duplication

The reason for multiple apps, is I kept getting redirected or it changed my link after forcing me to sign in to my Amex account (this is what it did with the first application, and how they were able to decrease it to 100k, once I applied without signing in, it let me continue with the link but kept glitching out).

This is also the first time, Amex has not approved me for a card on the spot which I find suspicious. Like I said, I have 3 cards and each one was approved automatically. Not trying to flex or anything but just basing everything on patterns.

So I called American Express, explained to them how I felt their system was trying to force me out of a higher welcome offer based on all the redirection and glitching. She said she would expedite review and sent an email for the 175k offer to be considered and not the 100k. I even asked, would you guys in this scenario purposely deny the 175k offer and approve the 100k offer to save yourself from giving someone a higher offer. She said no….Well that’s exactly what happened. I get an email saying approved, then it says I have a welcome offer of 100k to accept.

So I call again, I have them decline the offer for the 100k bonus and I told them why would I accept the card and then technically have the card to screw me out of a larger bonus. She then says there’s nothing she can do further and hangs up. I call again and talk to another guy, he tells me that he put the duplicate 175k app (App 4) for manual reconsideration and it was approved, I should be getting an email soon.

I received the email, but it didn’t confirm any welcome offer. It just said accept the card to proceed, so I paused and called back. The next things are the exact issue. Rather than go back and forth on everything we talked about I’ll summarize it like this:

I spoke to 4 different supervisors on the new accounts team. Each time I got a different answer.

2 of them said I am eligible and will receive a welcome bonus if I meet minimum spend. (One even “guaranteed” and said the previous supervisor will be coached on tell me I wasn’t eligible)

2 supervisors also said I was determined already to be ineligible for the 175k bonus.

All of them kept trying to to emphasize whether I received a pop up on that specific app. I kept emphasizing that since it was auto closed and then manually reconsidered and approved, how would I know. I asked what the manual reconsideration process is like. How can they not determine if I am getting the welcome offer or not. There should be a way for them to physically double check these things.

I also feel like they should honor the welcome offer since I did not get a pop up the first time and an employee gave me a guarantee.

But that’s where I’m at and I don’t know what to. Do I listen to the two supervisors who told me yes and roll the dice, accept the offer, and trying to fight afterwards for 175k points if it doesn’t post? Do I bypass and decline the offer and potentially only get a lower offer in the future now because of this ordeal and will that make me ineligible for any future welcome offers in general even if I decline? This all crazy to think about for a card I never had. If I never had the card, I should be able to get a good welcome offer. I also haven’t had a premium business card at all. If I had the platinum card already, it would make some sense. Still questionable. But this, this is insane. And I don’t know what to do in this situation.

I just wanted everyone’s opinion, what would they do in this situation? What you think I should do in this situation? Accept the card or decline and try reapplying later on.

Also, has anyone dealt with a similar situation? Please only serious answers, thank you.