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there are some companies out there, where everything is automated. Capital one for example. From approvals to CLI's. They don't have a recon department, you can't speak to an under writer, etc. if you call for a recon, the rep simply just re submits the same exact request you just tried. Nothing changes.
with Amex, if their computer sees sometbing it doesn't like, and slaps you with a hard limit or a financial review. And you call customer service, they say there's nothing they can do once the computer applies a hard limit. You have to go through the process even if the computer made a mistake.
how is it that these companies don't have the ability to over ride their own computers? Shouldn't there be a contingency plan in place?
It starts to seep into other aspects as well, like when you request a CLI but it hasn't been 6 months so the computer auto declines you only because of the length of time. Even if the company likes you and your profile, and even if they wanted to give you an increase they couldn't. The computer is given all the power a lot of the time.
the technology is there, Amex's system is able to change your internal limit extremely quickly, I'm not sure exactly how fast but I'm pretty certain it can change every day. Probably even more often than that, I'm sure their system can change your internal limit mid day as well. So why can't that sort of autonomy be applied to credit cards?
Even if they give the computer the ability to over ride it's own policies. where the system says, "okay even though it hasn't been X amount of time since your last increase, I like what I see and I'm going to allow this increase to go through"
it's just not worth it to them, if they wanted to implement those systems to allow for human intervention, they could, but they're choosing not to.
imagine if you had a state of the art computer that was right way more often than it was wrong, and now you need to justify paying people (smart people who speak english, live in the US, understand the nuances of credit reports and underwriting), to go against what the super smart computer said.
seems dumb, doesn't it?
I'm quite sure they have the ability to do anything they want to do. The issue is the people you're given access to just don't have the authority... and probably for good reason... well, they're good reasons for them. It's their game, and their rules when it comes to their money.
@JoeRockhead wrote:I'm quite sure they have the ability to do anything they want to do. The issue is the people you're given access to just don't have the authority... and probably for good reason... well, they're good reasons for them. It's their game, and their rules when it comes to their money.
Ok ... what you said is: "... the man who has the Gold rules ... " got it
@TrapLine wrote:
@JoeRockhead wrote:I'm quite sure they have the ability to do anything they want to do. The issue is the people you're given access to just don't have the authority... and probably for good reason... well, they're good reasons for them. It's their game, and their rules when it comes to their money.
Ok ... what you said is: "... the man who has the Gold rules ... " got it
re·al·i·ty: The world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic, or entitled idea of them.
I should clarify,
I didn't mean to say that they should do these things, it was more a discussion about how they implemented a system in which they gave computers 100% of the control, with no ability to over ride them.
im on the boat where I think computers have too much power over our daily lives. Don't get me wrong, computers are great, they make daily life much easier. But if you stop to think about the technology we have today.
someone can take a 2-3 second recording of your voice, and then extrapolate that out into a 5 minute conversation, and they can make you say whatever they want.
they can make a recording using your voice in which they make you confess to murder, and all they need is a 3 second recording of your voice.
they can take a video of you and input it into a computer and photoshop/fake a video of you doing things. You ever heard of deep fakes?
and now everyone is going crazy abojt electric and self driving cars. Many countries want to make it illegal to sell gas powered cars by 2030. Yet there are accidents in which self driving cars killed people because they didn't operate correctly. We are trying to force technology to a point it isn't ready for.
@Cblough93 wrote:
and now everyone is going crazy abojt electric and self driving cars. Many countries want to make it illegal to sell gas powered cars by 2030. Yet there are accidents in which self driving cars killed people because they didn't operate correctly. We are trying to force technology to a point it isn't ready for.
As far as I know, no country is planning to make it mandatory to have self-driving cars only, yes, the tech isn't there yet. The 2030 gas to electric is to combat [phrase deleted in current political thingy!]. Often the infrastructure (charging points) isn't really ready, but that is sort of fixable.
Going back to the CSR question, which you have now told us isn't quite what you mean anyway. From my knowledge of cell phone customer support.
If you have standard procedures (e.g. "I don't care if you are moving overseas. Unless it is official Armed Forces deployment, and you can provide the orders, if you wish to cancel the plan you will have to pay an early termination fee") :
a) it is cheaper and easier to train, just learn or look up the standard questions
b) potentially avoid accusations of corporate bias, you treat all people equally badly
c) A CSR is less likely to make expensive promises we do not wish to fulfil (e.g. waiving the ETF because of a sob story)
A high enough supervisor might be able to deviate, but that wouldn't be encouraged (policies are there for a reason. Not necessarily a nice reason, but usually profit-related!)
Cell phone customers are commodities, with relatively few alternatives (the MVNOs still provide income to the big 3) and I suspect credit card customers are regarded similarly.
Credit card customers are no more than assets or liabilities. Respect the assets, terminate the liabilities.
AMEX thanks me for my 41 years of green card membership but, my $55 annual fee and limited use classifies me as a nuisance customer. So, they keep pushing POT activation and converting to a high AF platinum card.
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:Credit card customers are no more than assets or liabilities. Respect the assets, terminate the liabilities.
AMEX thanks me for my 41 years of green card membership but, my $55 annual fee and limited use classifies me as a nuisance customer. So, they keep pushing POT activation and converting to a high AF platinum card.
They also try to terminate the likely "new liabilities" from their "asset" sheet when the macroeconomic environment is deteriorating.
So far, no lender has taken a negative action against us yet, I don't know why they would. We pay everything in full every month. No interest payments. If you're going to pay someone interest, cut up the card yourself.