American Express Purchase Protection Plan is a scam Golden, Colorado

You might have seen the television commercials that American Express has been playing lately stating that if your recent purchases are lost or stolen they will reimburse you the amount you payed for the items, trust me, it really is to good to be true.

When my house was burglarized last month we were lucky enough not to get hurt and didn't have anything too major stolen, just some electronics that were worth about $500. The burglar(s) entered my home after I let the dog out, and in the ten minutes the dog was outside the door was unlocked.

The next day a police report was filed and I now have a security system installed in my home. Some of the items that were stolen I purchased with my American Express card. I went online, read about this Purchase Protection Plan, and called them up to file a claim. The nice woman on the phone sent me all the paperwork, told me I needed to send a copy of this and that (37 pages later) and after 14 days I would be refunded the money.

I was ecstatic about being reimbursed and told almost everyone I knew about this program and how great American Express is to their customers. After all I have had this card since I turned 18 and have never missed or been late on a payment in all that time. A few days later, I got a letter in the mail saying my claim was declined because the police report did not show signs of "forced entry". After, I read through the entire Purchase Protect Plan discloser and the only thing it says in it about items that were stolen is, "a police report must be filed with your local police agency". It says nothing about signs of forced entry.

Now I understand people in this world probably do fill out false claims in order to make a few dollars, but this was a legitimate claim. The letter makes it sound like they think I made the whole thing up, using the phrase, the items "mysteriously disappeared". There was nothing mysterious about it, it was there when I went to bed, someone came in, stole it, and it wasn't there when I woke up.

I was a bit angry about the letter so I sent one of my own, and I also sent a copy of my newly installed security system agreement. I asked that my claim be given a second look because the reason it was decline was not supported in their Purchase Protection Plan disclosers.

I got a response letter back yesterday, they did give my claim a second look but declined it once again and said basically the same thing but this time added, "the items are not covered because when the items were stolen they were left unlocked and in public site". Can someone explain to me how something hooked up inside my house is in public site? And the items were not unlocked, my house was.

I can see that I am getting no where with this company, and they are choosing to deny my claim just because they can, they can't seem to give my a legitimate reason why, or show me where in their disclosers it states these things. I guess they think that the only way people get robbed it's by someone breaking a window or kicking down a door.

I guess they would have preferred someone came in with a gun and shot me in the face or stabbed me in the arm. But then they probably would have required me to send a picture of the stab wound, then they would deny the claim anyway because the cut wasn't big enough or they would have had to hit an artery or something crazy like that.

Well, rest assured American Express, as soon as my tax refund comes in, you will be paid off and I will be breaking up with you, no more love notes, no more phone calls. You charged me too much interest anyway