topic Re: AMEX Customer Service in Credit Cards

AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 07:33:35 GMT

In the world of customer service for CC's Navy Federal is Chik Fil A, so AMEX must be relegated to McDonalds on a really bad day.

As I am fairly new to AMEX, perhaps I'm just spoiled, and not accustomed to the rudeness; is this normal for AMEX?

After getting nowhere with chat rep for ten minutes (they simply quoted script it seemed). and couldn't answer specific questions.

The {Moderator Edit - these types of descriptions for other people are not permitted on these forums - Irish80} csr on the phone was even worse, attempting to interrupt and speak condescendingly to me until I cut him off and told him that he wasn't the only one 'recording the conversation for training purposes.'

So, question for all the long time AMEX customers: Is this normal behavior for AMEX, or did I just get lucky enough to communicate with two incompetant and rude csr's in one day?

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 21:49:41 GMT

I've had no issues with Amex reps. Maybe others have had a different experience.

Although it's also been my experience oftentimes I reap what I sow.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 21:52:35 GMT

I have only had wonderful reps when I have called or messaged. Maybe you got a bad one on a bad day as I rank them even high than NFCU from my experience.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

wasCB14 — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 21:53:29 GMT

There are four tiers of Amex customer service:

Centurion

Platinum

VIPs with other cards

Everyone else

A lot of the praise is from customers in one of the higher groups.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

CreditInspired — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 22:07:28 GMT

Hi OP and welcome

You may have gotten hold of a CSR who was having a bad day. We all have these kind of days.

It really depends on what your specific questions were. Sometimes CSRs must stick to the script. It’s their job and they shouldn’t be faulted for that.

Since you’re using words related to 2 different CSRs like incompetent and rude, and another as 3rd world, is it possible that this tone flowed over into your conversation with them? Could they have sensed it? I’m not saying it did, but there are 2 sides to every conversation. Is there a possibility that they thought you were being condescending? There’s a saying. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

So to answer your question, I have both NFCU and AmX,’and I’ve been more than happy with my CS experience with both of them.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

pinkandgrey — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 22:07:55 GMT

I have found Amex’s customer service to be excellent. ALMOST on par with Discover...

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 22:18:12 GMT

I had my share of frustrations, but they are generally polite and helpful. They may be from south Asia, but their speaking English is decent enough that I would not call that a problem generally. I think most large US company now hires people with reasonable language skills. They are much better than a decade ago.

If you think thats bad, try calling hertz CSR in Oklahoma, I guess they ran out of 1st world CSR in the 1st world country.

In absences of more details, I am not exactly sure what has led to your situation with them.

BTW, I never visited Chik-Fil-A, and frankly I don't think a fast food chain can really be that much better than any other fast food chain. Its all garbage anyway.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 22:26:43 GMT

Echoing what others have said, I’ve always had good experiences with them. I’ve found times that chat hasn’t been able to assist with my inquiry, but they’ve directed me to call in and the issue was solved quickly.

Just curious, what prompted you to call? I’m not saying this is true for your instance and just speaking generally, but often times incompetence or rudeness can be perceived when an issue can’t be solved by a CSR due to policy or procedure.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

UpperNwGuy — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 22:44:44 GMT

I agree with the OP. I had one excellent US-based Amex customer service rep who helped me out of a jam when I was traveling overseas, and it was the Green card, not the Platinum. Unfortunately, that was the exception, not the norm.

All my other interactions by phone with Amex (to correct rewards posting errors, of which there were a lot, or to close accounts) were pretty poor. Many of those poor interactions were with non-US personnel. Many of those interactions would have been unnecessary if Amex had a decent information technology staff. I've closed both my Amex accounts.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 23:38:43 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
I agree with the OP. I had one excellent US-based Amex customer service rep who helped me out of a jam when I was traveling overseas, and it was the Green card, not the Platinum. Unfortunately, that was the exception, not the norm.

All my other interactions by phone with Amex (to correct rewards posting errors, of which there were a lot, or to close accounts) were pretty poor. Many of those poor interactions were with non-US personnel. Many of those interactions would have been unnecessary if Amex had a decent information technology staff. I've closed both my Amex accounts.

What is wrong with having non-US perosonnel? Really every encounter I have had with Amex has been great. When I got an Amex Amazon Biz Prime card and they changed my default Amazon payment to the card without telling me. Didn't realize my Amazon Movie purchases had gotten charged there and were a month late. I chatted with them and they instantly refunded both my interest and my late fee and apologized profusely.

Had an rental car that the rental agency said there was damage to the car after I got back to the US. Even the it was obviously a scam on the rental car agency they went out of their way to make sure I was reimbursed for charges instantly. They had a lot of issues getting the information from the rental car company but were always extremely polite.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 23:40:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
In the world of customer service for CC's Navy Federal is Chik Fil A, so AMEX must be relegated to McDonalds on a really bad day.
As I am fairly new to AMEX, perhaps I'm just spoiled, and not accustomed to the rudeness; is this normal for AMEX?
After getting nowhere with chat rep for ten minutes (they simply quoted script it seemed). and couldn't answer specific questions.
The 3rd world csr on the phone was even worse, attempting to interrupt and speak condescendingly to me until I cut him off and told him that he wasn't the only one 'recording the conversation for training purposes.'

So, question for all the long time AMEX customers: Is this normal behavior for AMEX, or did I just get lucky enough to communicate with two incompetant and rude csr's in one day?

What was your issue that you were having?

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 01:26:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
In the world of customer service for CC's Navy Federal is Chik Fil A, so AMEX must be relegated to McDonalds on a really bad day.
As I am fairly new to AMEX, perhaps I'm just spoiled, and not accustomed to the rudeness; is this normal for AMEX?
After getting nowhere with chat rep for ten minutes (they simply quoted script it seemed). and couldn't answer specific questions.
The 3rd world csr on the phone was even worse, attempting to interrupt and speak condescendingly to me until I cut him off and told him that he wasn't the only one 'recording the conversation for training purposes.'

So, question for all the long time AMEX customers: Is this normal behavior for AMEX, or did I just get lucky enough to communicate with two incompetant and rude csr's in one day?

They are very incompetent. It still boils my blood whenever I think about the crap they put me through last March. Suffice to say, I probably won’t have an Amex for a long time.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Blackswizz750 — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 01:34:14 GMT

Since I don't have a Plat card, I get csrs from another land 90% of the time. I chuck it up as whatever and HUCA if needed. Amex cards to me are used and paid like my Cap1 and Synch cards.

I get much better service with Disco and Navy(outstanding when needed).

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Save-n-Invest — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:05:21 GMT

The customer service at American Express is not as good as issuers for my other cards. I think this is due to so many mstakes on the company's part. I had so many occasions to phone cs for info/resolution on American Express errors. The frequent errors were so annoying that my two Amex cards are in the SD presently.

My experience was that if you want three different answers to the exact same question talk to three different reps. I wonder is there is a script for some of the issues?

I've only encountered one rep who was consistently rude. My nick for her was the Punishment Lady, at home not when speaking with her. About four years ago a friend told me that the rewards on my MR card could be used to pay item(s) on a current statement. I called, was told that is correct and transferred to the rewards department. She was one of the rudest people I've ever dealt with on the phone.

Punishment Lady was hard selling gift cards instead of using the reward to pay a statement item. She sounded as if I was asking for her firstborn. At one point she got loud I KNOW YOU GO TO HOME DEPO. I KNOW YOU DO HOME RENOVATIONS. She was pushing a HD gift card. It took a lot of time but the reward was finally used to pay a statement item.

I had remaining MR rewards. I called a few more times. She was consistently rude. She made the redemption a hassle unnecessarily. Once I phoned ad a very nice person aswered. Thought I called a wrong number. He did the redemption quickly and cheerfully. I really appreciated that so much.

Whenever I talk to a phone rep at any company I try to be very courteous. Phone work can be very difficult. Customers may already be frustrated and sail into the voice on the other end of the call. I am carefull not to do that. My philosophy is that if the company is not treating me(revenue) well I would not like to be expense there.

Again, too many dumb mistakes at American Express for me. I'm on an indefinite break. The reps didn't cause this. American Express did.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Remedios — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:34:44 GMT

Disclaimer and preface : I have no experience with Amex customer service, cant make positive or negative claims.

With that said, all these references to "third world reps" are insulting and disdainful. If you cannot make a point without internet arrogance syndrome, maybe there really isn't a point to be made other than "5 min of my time gone". Dont they know who I am!!!

A lot of members on this forum are from those countries and/or moved here from overseas.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:39:36 GMT

This is the problem that you run into with companies when they offer different classes of service for different customers. The expectation should be excellence across the board, not just excellence for specific cardholders.

Even when you have customer service for specific types of cardholders, there will be times that they have to speak to a different department. Train all of your staff to treat all customers the same and you get a much happier customer base all the way around.

I also do not have a problem with foreign customer service as long as there isn’t a language barrier. I run into the language barrier with Comcast a lot and it drives me up the wall (the outsourced agents are from Convergys and they are horrible) but Synchrony and Capital One seem to do a decent job there. There is nothing more infuriating about having an issue and having to explain yourself five times because the rep you are speaking with must have just started their ESL classes.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 02:45:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
This is the problem that you run into with companies when they offer different classes of service for different customers. The expectation should be excellence across the board, not just excellence for specific cardholders.

Even when you have customer service for specific types of cardholders, there will be times that they have to speak to a different department. Train all of your staff to treat all customers the same and you get a much happier customer base all the way around.

I also do not have a problem with foreign customer service as long as there isn’t a language barrier. I run into the language barrier with Comcast a lot and it drives me up the wall (the outsourced agents are from Convergys and they are horrible) but Synchrony and Capital One seem to do a decent job there. There is nothing more infuriating about having an issue and having to explain yourself five times because the rep you are speaking with must have just started their ESL classes.

Importantly also, customers should be trained to treat CSRs with respect. You’ll get a lot further if you’re nice to them. They have zero desire to help people talking down to them or being rude, and I don’t blame them.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

CGeorge — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 03:01:58 GMT

I am not in the higher groups. I am everyone else. But, I do have a total of 6 American Express card. I am a "Member Since 1982". I have always experienced nothing short of outstanding customer service from American Express. They and Discover offer the very best of customer service, in my experience. However, I am very pleased that I have opened a Checking, Savings and a Credit Card accounts recently with Navy Federal. I anticipate that they, too, will be excellent!

Re: AMEX Customer Service

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 03:07:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
This is the problem that you run into with companies when they offer different classes of service for different customers. The expectation should be excellence across the board, not just excellence for specific cardholders.

Even when you have customer service for specific types of cardholders, there will be times that they have to speak to a different department. Train all of your staff to treat all customers the same and you get a much happier customer base all the way around.

I also do not have a problem with foreign customer service as long as there isn’t a language barrier. I run into the language barrier with Comcast a lot and it drives me up the wall (the outsourced agents are from Convergys and they are horrible) but Synchrony and Capital One seem to do a decent job there. There is nothing more infuriating about having an issue and having to explain yourself five times because the rep you are speaking with must have just started their ESL classes.
Importantly also, customers should be trained to treat CSRs with respect. You’ll get a lot further if you’re nice to them. They have zero desire to help people talking down to them or being rude, and I don’t blame them.

I worked in customer service so I always try to be courteous and respectful but its their job to help customers regardless of how they are treated. If you don’t have a thick skin, customer service is not where you want to be. When I worked at Comcast, customers were allowed to cuss us out and we had to give three warnings before disconnecting them and we weren’t allowed to disconnect for any other reason unless we obviously lost the customer. I can count on one hand how many customers I used the disconnect policy on and I got cussed out multiple times a day for something someone else did.

People get amped up about their TV, I bet they get very amped up when someone screws up with their credit card too. It isn’t the customer’s job to put up with poorly trained, overworked, and underpaid reps and tip toe around their feelings. Don’t make excuses for poor customer service and certainly don’t tolerate it.

Re: AMEX Customer Service

NRB525 — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 03:10:56 GMT

I am interested to hear what the specific questions are which the OP was trying to get answered.

As well, those who don’t like their response from AMEX could please clarify what they were trying to accomplish.