Did a Macy's employee manipulate me into getting a AMEX card?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I would like to describe an event that occuered that may should of never happened.

I went to Macy's to purchase an item. I wanted to purchase the item with my Macy's store credit card. He asks me what status I was in. I let him know that I was a Gold status and asked if I wanted to be upgraded to Platinum for free, and I said sure why not.

He then prompted me to hand him over my license and credit card to make sure the identity was correct. I then had to do some stuff on the electric pad and put in my phone number. The first red flag was that it asked me for my annual income. I asked him "Are you sure I'm not applying for a credit card?", he replied with you are not applying for a new card, just applying for the upgrade. So I entered in my income and then it asked me for my social security number. I was getting a little worried that I was applying for a brand new credit card and asked him why it was asking me this. He replied with it is for security purposes that to make sure I am actually the one authorizing this "upgrade". I told him I didn't want a credit pull for applying for a new card and he said they won't pull it, they usually just look at the score rather than doing a hard pull on it and go off by that. So I entered in my social security and pressed Enter. Some other screen popped up and without me having a chance to look at it, the employee took the pad from me and pressed something on the pad without me looking at it and put the pad back. Next thing I see is that the screen said I got approved for a Macy's American Express card.

About 2 weeks later I get mail with my new American Express Macy's card with a $7k limit. I got an alert from my Discover app that a new account has been opened through Macy's also. To make matters worse, the American Express card I recieved was not even in the "Platinum" status that he told me I would get. It's in Silver status (one below my Gold status).

I plan on going to Macy's and planning on speaking with the manager and speak about the whole event that took place. I feel like I was easily mannipulated and mislead to me upgrading me to Platinum status. I should of known better and stopped the process. I do not have any audio recording of the event but I think Macy's could go back and look at their cameras from a couple weeks ago and see the employee taking the pad from me.

I am just wondering what actions I may have to take if opening up that new card will do a hard pull on my credit? I did not authorize a brand new credit card, I just wanted the "upgrade" that he told me I would get.  I do not see an hard pull inquiry on my account yet, but it could still be too early.

Thank you.

[AverageJoesCredit]

If you hsve not received a hard pull in 2 weeks, your credit was not pulled and indeed your account was upgraded to the Macys Amex. Your card history should still be the same only the card number will change due to it being the Amex version. Easy to verify. Check your reports to see if your original card account still has the original opening date but now says Macys Amex. Ive been upgraded recently and my account stayed same but changed name and card number. Also no hard pull. Its possible because card is new your status level changed but you might be able to talk to customer service about that. Seems shady but it might just be misleading misunderstanding. Now if you now have 2 Macys accounts reporting, then most likely he got you to apply for another account. No hp is what is telling me not.

[Anonymous]

If it's been 2 weeks and you still don't have a HP then it's not going to happen.  Chances are it was just a SP to upgrade.  If you didn't want the upgrade to Amex + Store then rescind the approval by closing the Amex side of it.  As for the "status" portion... can't say.  I dumped Macy's a couple of years ago because I couldn't really find a use for the card any longer and dealing with the split accounts was annoying.

[Anonymous]

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
If you hsve not received a hard pull in 2 weeks, your credit was not pulled and indeed your account was upgraded to the Macys Amex. Your card history should still be the same only the card number will change due to it being the Amex version. Easy to verify. Check your reports to see if your original card account still has the original opening date but now says Macys Amex. Ive been upgraded recently and my account stayed same but changed name and card number. Also no hard pull. Its possible because card is new your status level changed but you might be able to talk to customer service about that. Seems shady but it might just be misleading misunderstanding. Now if you now have 2 Macys accounts reporting, then most likely he got you to apply for another account. No hp is what is telling me not.

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I checked the new AMEX account and it has a opening date of May 12, 2019. My original Macys store card was opened on January 7, 2018. I did not activate the new AMEX card yet. Still glued to the paper.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Oh, wow. Yeah you might have gotten it on sp which is rare. Is having the account really something you would rather not have? What does your current profile look like?. Its actually a very good limit they gave you, is a bank card and can be used everywhere. If you dont want it you could close it and maybe try and contact Macys to dispute it. That seems shady on their part but unfortunately by giving all your info it allowed him to do it. I hope you can find a solution to this if you decide to chalk it up to life lesson and keep the Amex thanks for sharing with us and welcome to the forum.

[kdm31091]

If you shop there anyway, the Amex is superior to the store card, and it's already been approved. The damage is done and the account is reporting. Closing it really doesn't benefit you at all, unless you really think you'll never use it, in which case close away.

It's shady the way they are pushy, but you have to really read everything as you do it and unfortunately you provided the info which gave them permission. For that reason there's not much you can do about it.

[CreditCuriosity]

I would certainly be very ticked off even if it was a sp approval and reporting as a new account vs. the account with the original open date of the card like associate stated.  i would be having a talk with management at macy's if that wasn't your intention and raising all kinds of stink and if you don't have the need for amex making them work it out with cbna or whomever the creditor is on the card and having it removed.  Really you choice, but i would be causing a stink personally if indeed those dates indicate a new account.

[Anonymous]

I would be at that store demanding answers if it were me. It sounds like that employee did indeed push you into a new credit application and then actually took the pad away so that you couldn’t see the terms and decline them. Chances are good this isn’t the first time that person has pulled that trick on a customer if they knew exactly when to grab the pad too. Macy’s needs to step up and fix this. 

[Anonymous]

While I feel for anyone who feels pressured into applying, the decision is still ultimately theirs. It's really no differnt that the pushy car salesmen of old, the store associate gets commision for every credit product they sell.  A person has to stand firm on these matters. Once they ask for my SSN I'm out, and I'd tell them so!

That aside, this is probably no differnt than when Amex would upgrade from gold to Platinum or BCE to BCP, it would still require a SP.

So if you didn't receive a HP, and got a simple upgrade. I don't see the harm. However, the new account thing would definitely upset me a little.

If anything you should have just said no, and did more research on the matter. Then just apped online if it were something you wanted.

[Anonymous]

At the point of putting in your SSN is where you should've gotten suspicious and said no. At this point what's done is done regarding how it impacted your credit, but I would still go back and speak to a manager to see if any compensation can be provided on the store's end for how the situation was handled. As someone who's worked in retail, cashiers are pressured to get credit card applications pretty heavily, but that's no excuse for taking the pinpad from the customer.