Hello everyone,
Last week I wrote a short story comparing Visa's concierge to Amex's. Today I have another comparison; customer service. Both my friend and I called Amex for service. He holds a Zync while I hold a Platinum. I had my card for a week and he had his for 6 months. He called to check his spending and I called for SPG status. I really wanted to see if paying a higher AF means better/faster service. First ill start with his experience.
He first called them, gave them all the info (card number, pin, name) and was put on hold for around 5 minutes. The rep came back and said he would have to be transferred. 7 minutes later another rep came on the line and asked for the personal info again. After giving his name, card number, and pin a second time, the rep put him on a brief hold and came back saying you need to be transferred again. After a 12 minute hold a 3rd rep answered. He was asked to enter in the info for a 3rd time and by now quite frustrated. She then could/would not tell him if he would be approved for a charge he was inquiring about and asked if he had any other questions. All of the reps were overseas and very hard to understand. My friend walked out of this very dissatisfied.
My turn. I figured requesting SPG Gold would be much harder then checking if a charge would go through or not. Prepared for the worst, I called platinum service. Within 2 rings I had an American who asked how can she help me. All she needed was my name. I told her I would like to be upgraded to SPG Gold. She said sure and brought me on the line with a SPG rep. She then thanked me for my membership and hung up. The SPG rep was fast and efficient. Overall I had everything I requested within 3 minutes of the call. Safe to say, I came out very happy and satisfied.
To make it fair I did inquire about spending limit as he did. This is a charge I did the next day and was quite high compared to what I normally charge so the inquiry was valid. WIthin 30 seconds I was told it will be approved. No transferring, no holding, just a straight answer.
After seeing this, my friend checked his accounts eligibility to upgrade to platinum but he hadn't held zync for 12 months yet. Just thought id share our experiences as real life can be different then what the banks promise.
