Bar BQ Grills

By Steve Sikes

I am going to tell you a true story about my American Express Blue Sky Credit Card from American Express and the Purchase Protection Plan and how the benefits really paid off in real time.

This story starts out at Wal-Mart near our house in Florida where I was looking in the garden center for a gas grill. I was going to have a party at my house that night and had about eight people coming over and wanted to have a new gas grill with some space on it to barbeque pork steaks and salmon.

I have a smaller Weber Kettle type grill that we have been using for about five years and decided to break down and buy a nice stainless steel grill with propane. The one I picked out was beautiful and had three main turn on valves that like with auto ignition and also had another burner for a side dish

I was really excited and it was early morning so I decided to buy this grill. I basically use my American Express BlueSky card for all of my personal purchases because it builds air miles for me at a rate of 1 point per dollar spent. The BlueSky credit card also allows you to use those points on any airline and has no blackout dates.

The American Express BlueSky credit card also has great benefits like automatic car rental insurance and one I was unaware I would ever use and that was the purchase protection plan.

I called my friend who has a truck as this grill was not going to fit in either of my cars as it was completely assembled. I hate to assemble anything and was glad it was all together and ready to start up when I got it home. I paid for the grill and propane with my American Express Blue Sky credit card and proceeded outside to wait for Bob to show up with his Dodge Ram 1500 to take this beautiful gas grill back to the house.

Bob showed up a few minutes later and we lifted everything into the back of the truck and put bungy cords on the grill to make sure it would not fall over and be secured. He followed me in my wife’s little Toyota Scion and we proceeded to drive back to our house. I was imagining how great our barbeque was going to be with this new gas grill.

We got all the way into my neighborhood and drove back in along the two mile road leading into my section of the neighborhood. Bob was driving slow and we got closer and closer with one street to go to turn onto and get the grill into my back screen patio. I knew my wife was also excited about getting the grill and was wanting to see it and what it looked like.

I made the final turn and could see our house up on the right side when all of the sudden I here this loud clanging noise and could hear metal pieces hitting the ground. I looked back and saw Bob had stopped the large Dodge pickup truck and was out in the street looking down which was not a good sign.

I walked back and the stainless steel grill was all bent up and the handle broken. It was completely ruined. Bob was very upset and so was I. The bungy cord had actually held the grill but it had come off of the bed of the truck and was hanging on the side of the truck. We knew there was no way Wal-mart would take this bent up gas grill back and I really didn’t want to use a damaged grill after paying so much money for it.

I then remembered something I had read in my benefits package with my American Express BlueSky credit card. It was the Purchase Protection Plan and remembered examples they used about the program and thought it was such a great idea.

So I got on the phone and called American Express and spoke to one of the customer service representatives. He told me this was a separate department that handled the Purchase Protection Claims and gave me the phone number. I called the number and they took down all of the information on what had happened. They told me to hang on to the damaged grill for a couple of weeks while the claim was being processed and told me I could go down and get a replacement grill. I got a claim number and that was all I had to do.

I then drove down with Bob and picked up the new gas grill replacement. We had our Barbeque that night and the gas grill worked great and everyone had a fantastic time at the party. The American Express BlueSky Purchase Protection Plan had saved the day.

Two days later I had my refund on my American Express BlueSky Card as I verified it with my online account.

I will always recommend to anyone the Amex BlueSky Credit Card for all of the reasons I have just mentioned. If you would like to order your own just click here at Blue Sky from American Express

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