My children are adults. Not just legally — they’re mature and responsible. They’re also pretty self-sufficient. They’re also living in constrained spaces: my oldest will be moving out-of-state at the end of the school term, and my youngest is living in a small dorm room. In other words, they don’t really need stuff, as much as they need money. So, for Christmas, I was planning on sending them each an Amex gift card. Simple, right?
So I went to the web site, filled out all stuff on the form, carefully composed little holiday greeting messages, and went to check out. All was well until I got to “billing address.” I tried to enter the address, but when I got to the “state” popup, mine (Hawai’i) was missing. It seemed that every other state was there, as well as Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, another non-continental state (Alaska). But there was simply no Hawai’i. Leaving it blank got me an angry error message about how the state was required.
I thought that warranted a phone call. After the usual voice jail menu (but minimal on-hold time) I reached “Jim,” though from the accent I suspect it might have been “Jimuta.” Nonetheless, he was kind and forthright, but said “you cannot buy a gift card with a billing address in Hawai’i.” I asked him why. He said he didn’t know, but you simply couldn’t do it. This wasn’t explained or noted anywhere on the site.
I thought that, perhaps, there was some local consumer protection law that was unpalatable to Amex. But I found the relevant law and I find nothing that seems out of line.
So there you have it. Paradise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You have to live with not being able to send Amex gift cards.
—2p