Is American Express for real?

Anonymous · ‎09-28-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
Well, I would think, AMEX is still one of the best out there and one way they hang on to this allure is by this mindset: If you are trying to be one of our customers, you'd better have good credit. If you think you might not have good credit, shoo, go away, we're not here to hold your hand while you get on your feet.

I've personally used phone and chat with AMEX and received nothing less than top-notch service.

Perhaps if this was still the 1990's I would agree. I don't, however, now. You see people on here with 630's getting approved for their Delta Gold Card.

Anonymous · ‎09-28-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
I think one of my points is why does a guy like this still have a job with American Express? If I owned the company (or am the CEO), this guy is fired in two seconds. That rep not only hung up the chat on me, but also proved that they had no idea what they're talking about, AND they weren't pleasant to deal with.

I'm not really sure it's fair to make that judgement. What if the employee wasn't properly trained? Maybe training is supposed to be X and he only received one third X. Do you still fault him in that case? Should he be held accountable if he wasn't taught properly, or should the people that are supposed to ensure he is properly trained be held accountable. If it's those people, should they be fired in two seconds?

Anonymous · ‎09-28-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I think one of my points is why does a guy like this still have a job with American Express? If I owned the company (or am the CEO), this guy is fired in two seconds. That rep not only hung up the chat on me, but also proved that they had no idea what they're talking about, AND they weren't pleasant to deal with.
I'm not really sure it's fair to make that judgement. What if the employee wasn't properly trained? Maybe training is supposed to be X and he only received one third X. Do you still fault him in that case? Should he be held accountable if he wasn't taught properly, or should the people that are supposed to ensure he is properly trained be held accountable. If it's those people, should they be fired in two seconds?

Not being trained properly is a poor excuse. As another poster has said, AMEX workers get 3 months of training before they're allowed to take phone calls, etc.

Besides, if you feel like you aren't trained correctly, why not ask for more training? Why not ask a supervisor if you have a question instead of looking like a doofus in front of a potential customer?

It's also not AMEX's responsibility to teach the rep how to act like a grown up.

elim · ‎09-28-2016

Do AMEX Plat holders get the same CSR's as the lower tier cards?? Chase has never failed me but JPM is frikin' awesome. :]

Anonymous · ‎09-28-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
Not being trained properly is a poor excuse. As another poster has said, AMEX workers get 3 months of training before they're allowed to take phone calls, etc.

Besides, if you feel like you aren't trained correctly, why not ask for more training? Why not ask a supervisor if you have a question instead of looking like a doofus in front of a potential customer?

It's also not AMEX's responsibility to teach the rep how to act like a grown up.

And what if this rep didn't get that training? You nor I have any way of knowing that. Why not ask for more training? Simple, because new employees don't always have the balls to stand up to their boss, or don't want to look weak in asking for something so soon. I'm not saying it's right, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Have you ever run a business where you've had to train a bunch of employees? I run one and have 85-100 employees working for me at any given time in an industry where 100% turnover annually is common. We have strict training programs that we are able to adhere to 95% of the time. But, there is that 5%. There are times when we are in a pinch and corners get cut on training due to staffing issues or other influences. It's never my plan or intention, but there are times when new employees are pushed into the deep end of the pool too early. When they have a CS issue, if they weren't training 100% to our standards, I take the blame for it and I don't hold them completely accountable; it's simply not right to do so.

I'm not saying I don't agree with some of what you're saying, I just feel it's ill-advised to say something as blunt as an employee should be fired in 2 seconds when we may not even have close to all the information to make that call. I've fired hundreds of employees over the course of my career based on sound information, but I can assure you that number would be in the thousands had I made my calls based on extremely limited information. Again, not saying that this is certainly the case in this example, just offering a different perspective to consider.

Anonymous · ‎09-28-2016

@elim wrote:
Do AMEX Plat holders get the same CSR's as the lower tier cards?? Chase has never failed me but JPM is frikin' awesome. :]

That's a good question that's come up a few times so far in this thread, but I have not seen a concrete answer.

It's very clear from the screen shot posted at the beginning of this thread that the OPs chat screen is quite different than the one I see. I'm sure others recognize this as well.

CreditCuriosity · ‎09-28-2016

@elim wrote:
Do AMEX Plat holders get the same CSR's as the lower tier cards?? Chase has never failed me but JPM is frikin' awesome. :]

Different CSR's stateside guranteed with Platinum. Not as good as JPM, but better than most.

Anonymous · ‎09-28-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Not being trained properly is a poor excuse. As another poster has said, AMEX workers get 3 months of training before they're allowed to take phone calls, etc.

Besides, if you feel like you aren't trained correctly, why not ask for more training? Why not ask a supervisor if you have a question instead of looking like a doofus in front of a potential customer?

It's also not AMEX's responsibility to teach the rep how to act like a grown up.
And what if this rep didn't get that training? You nor I have any way of knowing that. Why not ask for more training? Simple, because new employees don't always have the balls to stand up to their boss, or don't want to look weak in asking for something so soon. I'm not saying it's right, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Have you ever run a business where you've had to train a bunch of employees? I run one and have 85-100 employees working for me at any given time in an industry where 100% turnover annually is common. We have strict training programs that we are able to adhere to 95% of the time. But, there is that 5%. There are times when we are in a pinch and corners get cut on training due to staffing issues or other influences. It's never my plan or intention, but there are times when new employees are pushed into the deep end of the pool too early. When they have a CS issue, if they weren't training 100% to our standards, I take the blame for it and I don't hold them completely accountable; it's simply not right to do so.

I'm not saying I don't agree with some of what you're saying, I just feel it's ill-advised to say something as blunt as an employee should be fired in 2 seconds when we may not even have close to all the information to make that call. I've fired hundreds of employees over the course of my career based on sound information, but I can assure you that number would be in the thousands had I made my calls based on extremely limited information. Again, not saying that this is certainly the case in this example, just offering a different perspective to consider.

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

Themanwhocan · ‎09-28-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
I think people are perhaps over-reacting (maybe due to the OPs presentation style) This is hardly the first post here where one bad experience with something leads to a strongly worded post (X is the worst ever.....)

You have to decide on what sources to trust. I remember years ago a report on Senate hearings on gas mileage. While the senators had huge quantities of detailed data from federal agencies and other sources, apparently if one senator said something like "My friend has one of those and it only gets 10 mpg" that was quite sufficient to override all the objective data.

So while JD Powers ranks these companies, it's certainly POSSIBLE to dismiss it, with something like "the people responding don't have my sort of concerns, such as how do the companies repsond to CLI and APR reduction requests. Cap One #3??? I'll go with what myfico thinks." Whether it is plausbile is another question.

Well, after we found out that VW was rigging teh emissions tests AND the fuel consumption figures, maybe the friend of a senator was more accurate. http://www.autonews.com/article/20151104/COPY01/311049927/vw-scandal-widens-to-fuel-consumption-figu...

But in regards to the poor customer service on a chat, it appears to me that the chat occured rather late in the evening, since this thread was started at 11:18pm. I think if you want knowledgeable csr's, you should really be talking or chatting during regular business hours. All the knowledgeable trainers and supervisors are probably sleeping at that time...

TU-8: 804 EX-8: 805 EQ-8: 788 EX-98: 767 EQ-04: 752
TU-9 Bankcard: 837 EQ-9: 823 EX-9 Bankcard: 837
Total $443,800