Is American Express for real?

[RaiseMyScoreASAP]

Discover has bested AMEX in the JD Power ratings. I have both, Discover's benefits are not particuarly good. However, their customer service is the best. Having 100% American based call centers sets them apart. However, my Barclays cards sometimes go to Nevada and so on. 

[RaiseMyScoreASAP]

The AMEX of the 1990's moved to India. Sorry about that. Discover is clearly the best now. It's benefits are not, but the service is.

[RaiseMyScoreASAP]

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@creditguy wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

To me, much ado about very little.  Every week we seem to have a post that states "so and so bank is the WORST EVER!!!!" because of some horrible transgression against the poster.  No different than dealing with any company in life, you'll have some good experiences and some bad ones. The only true horrible company out there is Comcast, as they are run by the Devil.

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As someone who has had to deal with 6 of their CSR's 2 supervisors, 3 technicians and one visit to their store in the last two weeks I could not agree more, however I do think that the devil has demoted, there is something far worse running that place. 

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I don't remember the specifics about the bad service I had with Comcast. I just had a note that read: "35th call to Comcast not yet resolved!!" However, that was before I had the electroshock therapy. I am not sure if the Comcast contributed to that, but I can't imagine it helped.

[galahad15]

The customer service that I received from Discover has, for the most part, been either average or slightly below-average; not really sure what everyone is so excited about them for, as the CSRs I have spoken with virtually no real power at least IME.

The best CS I have received from banks and CUs, in order from best to worst, would prolly be:

(1)  FNBO

(2)  [tied] Unify FCU, and thus far with them, Premier America CU

(3)  Citi

(4)  Cap1

(5)  BoA

(6)  Discover

(7)  Chase

[Anonymous]

That is so strange. I was pre-qualified for the blue cash card.... I always like credit card companies who have the option to check if I'd be pre qualified *sigh*

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
In what way has discover "overtaken" Amex?

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Customer Service!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

You literally have to be kidding me, lol. 

I thought American Express had great customer service. I guess I was wrong, no wonder Discover overtook them. 

A chat from a few minutes ago on the next post. 

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Discover overtook but Amex is still a close 2nd right?    So yes, your chat isn't great, but you can find much worse examples for every issuer, and the point of surveys like JD Power is to get big samples to look at overall performance.     This just sounds like terminology, CSR didn't understand what you meant by pre-qualify page (and he/she should have asked rather than telling you there wasn't one.)   But at least, as far as we know, they didn't open 5 accounts for you without your knowledge as WF might have done!

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If a customer service rep doesn't understand what a pre-qualification page is, then why are they even working there? I mean it's the most basic thing they should know... How can you trust this particular person to solve more difficult problems? 

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You can't! I know I wouldn't trust anything else he typed.

[Anonymous]

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@galahad15 wrote:

The customer service that I received from Discover has, for the most part, been either average or slightly below-average; not really sure what everyone is so excited about them for, as the CSRs I have spoken with virtually no real power at least IME.

The best CS I have received from banks and CUs, in order from best to worst, would prolly be:

(1)  FNBO

(2)  [tied] Unify FCU, and thus far with them, Premier America CU

(3)  Citi

(4)  Cap1

(5)  BoA

(6)  Discover

(7)  Chase

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Citi's customer service is God awful. 

One time I had a payment returned from Discover due to bank error, and I was on the phone with someone who spoke English and acted like they have a brain, and then we did a three way call to fix this thing and of course, like always, there's someone from India with 1/4 of a brain who picks up from Citi. Myself and the Discover rep almost wanted to just laugh because then it hit me how much better Discover's customer service is superior to Citi's. 

If I ran a business the customer would always be #1. Shareholders are always happier when their company can be trusted by their customers because customers who are treated well remain loyal... Trust me I'm a shareholder, just not in bank stock. We want customers to stay so profits don't dip and the share price winds up falling. It's harder to win back customers you've burnt than to find new customers. Do you know how to really keep your customers happy? Don't outsource you customer service to any other country but Canada. 

[Anonymous]

I can't explain how important local, English speaking customer service reps are. If it means charging $1 more on your product to every customer it's so worth it to keep the help domestic.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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That's why you ask your boss or a co-worker a question if you don't know what's going on. 

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And what if due to lack of training you think you know what's going on, but don't?  In that situation you wouldn't feel the need to ask a question.  Some people think they know the answer, even if they haven't been taught it. 

All I'm saying here is that the answer isn't always black or white.  Having trained literally 1000+ over the past 15 years I can say that a large majority of the time there are simply bad hires, but there are also plenty of times that they aren't trained to the company standards.