So much for "Platinum Service"

[aschmid]

I've been thinking why they are so bad in customer service and I believe it has to do with how they are setup which screws everything up.

So far nearly every time when I called Platinum service I got to talk to a different person. Occasional you get somebody you talked before but that might have been ages ago and unrelated to the current issue you are calling about. The problem with that is that each time you get somebody's opinion about how the rules are applied and that differs sometimes widely.

When I think about it I have the same situation with my local bank that if I call their call centre the outcome is unpredictable, depending on the person you get. So if I really want something done I call my local bank manager or home loan manager and they sort it out for me.

Here is an idea for AMEX to improve their customer service: Assign an account manager to your Platinum/Centurion account holders. You still call the call centre for day to day things but if there is a stuff up have a name and phone number to call who knows you and can sort things out for you.

Seems like a good idea to me, in fact that how most companies operate that for their major customers they have designated account manager exactly for the reason to sort out problems for those customers dealing with the organization.

Hope somebody from AMEX might be reading this threat and has an open ear to suggestions - I know I want get far telling this a call agent!

 

[lovestotravel]

Their 'credit department' has quite poor customer relations practices. When they put my cards on hold last year (due to their own ineptitude), the notes on my file apparently said they had spoken to me before the hold happened.

Absolute cough! If they had rung me they would have known it was their own mistake, cause I would have told them!

Had a VERY similar thing here, the credit department had notes saying they had spoken to me about putting my cards on hold, yet I never received such a call.

Nothing but excuses when I questioned it.

It does help getting annual fees waived though :mrgreen:

 

[aschmid]

I finally have reached the end of this journey and called today to cancel my Platinum cards with AMEX which they did after asking me about why - told them the service is unacceptable.

I also told them that I expect a pro-rata refund of my annual fee as I only had it for 4 months but paid for 12 months.

Guess what - they said they would not refund the annual fee pro-rata after 30 days and as mine was charged in February that would not be possible. :evil:

This is in my opinion outrageous. In my experience every time you pay an ANNUAL FEE and canceled within the year you get a pro-rata refund.

Does anybody on here know if that's even legal? Isn't there any consumer credit card protection that would deal with such things?

Would appreciate any advise what I can do about this?

 

[AnonymousCoward]

And just to add had another "conversation" with them today. Have a Platinum Charge Card (also Credit of course) and a Corporate card. Had them all linked up to the Accent Premium rewards program - at least until today when I checked my accounts and interestingly there was a new "Corporate Accent" program linked solely to my Corporate card.

Didn't you have this same conversation with them two month ago? :-|

http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...rporate-card-platinum-charge-chard-16798.html

 

[aschmid]

Didn't you have this same conversation with them two month ago? :-|

http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...rporate-card-platinum-charge-chard-16798.html

Nope. As the title says the threat two months ago was about rewards program. This entry just now was about refund of the annual fee.

Thanks for your attention and tracking of my posts! :mrgreen:

 

[nlagalle]

Guess what - they said they would not refund the annual fee pro-rata after 30 days and as mine was charged in February that would not be possible. :evil:

This is in my opinion outrageous. In my experience every time you pay an ANNUAL FEE and canceled within the year you get a pro-rata refund.

Does anybody on here know if that's even legal? Isn't there any consumer credit card protection that would deal with such things?

Would appreciate any advise what I can do about this?

OK, when I got my plat charge card, they did the following:

paid out the Plat credit card pro rata for the 6 months it had remaining on it

Paid out the Gold Charge pro rata for the 10 odd months it had left..

 

[Flashback]

OK, when I got my plat charge card, they did the following:

paid out the Plat credit card pro rata for the 6 months it had remaining on it

Paid out the Gold Charge pro rata for the 10 odd months it had left..

The main difference there being that you upgraded, rather than cancelled ...

 

[Dave Noble]

I finally have reached the end of this journey and called today to cancel my Platinum cards with AMEX which they did after asking me about why - told them the service is unacceptable.

I also told them that I expect a pro-rata refund of my annual fee as I only had it for 4 months but paid for 12 months.

Guess what - they said they would not refund the annual fee pro-rata after 30 days and as mine was charged in February that would not be possible. :evil:

This is in my opinion outrageous. In my experience every time you pay an ANNUAL FEE and canceled within the year you get a pro-rata refund.

Does anybody on here know if that's even legal? Isn't there any consumer credit card protection that would deal with such things?

Would appreciate any advise what I can do about this?

Why would there be any law that says that if you want to cancel that they must refund pro-rata. When you signed up, you agreed to the annual fee

Dave

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Nope. As the title says the threat two months ago was about rewards program. This entry just now was about refund of the annual fee.

Thanks for your attention and tracking of my posts! :mrgreen:

You might want to reread your recent post that I quoted. There isn't a single thing about requesting a refund. The entire conversation seems to be exactly the same questions you were asking a couple of months ago. A thread that I replied to (which is why I remember it, as I was in the same situation). Now you're having the same conversation, which seems a bit pointless to me. Maybe I'm just confused.

Of course, if you're asking for a refund and getting a run around, then please post your experiences about that, as we're all here to learn.

 

[aschmid]

You might want to reread your recent post that I quoted. There isn't a single thing about requesting a refund. The entire conversation seems to be exactly the same questions you were asking a couple of months ago. A thread that I replied to (which is why I remember it, as I was in the same situation). Now you're having the same conversation, which seems a bit pointless to me. Maybe I'm just confused.

Of course, if you're asking for a refund and getting a run around, then please post your experiences about that, as we're all here to learn.

Ooops, that's where we crossed. I was thinking you refer to my more recent post in this threat about the annual fee refund issues I have, not the rewards issues I posted a while ago.

Yep, you are right I had two months back and issue where I wanted to link my corporate card to my accent premium and they said cannot be done. Posted back them to get advise what's people experience and if others got the same answer.

Posted about the same situation in this threat recently as there was a change to the situation that they initially agreed to link it to my accent and then suddenly changed it to a standalone program without telling me about it.

Hope that clarifies the sequence and reason for the post on the same topics!

 

[one9]

Well I have to say after my recent experience with Amex i will never again recommend them to anyone. And this is on top of the everyday spend debacle.

I have been a card member for 15 odd years. Started with a green, then was upgraded to gold, open a business card when they complained i was using the gold card for "business transactions" Plat credit card, and was recently upgraded to the business plat and charge plat. All my accounts are in good order too nothing overdue. I suspect this was caused by 1 card being paid the incorrect amount. Mind you this was fixed as soon as it was discovered, but the statement had already run so it was overdue.

Anyway without warning last Monday they put a hold on ALL of my cards. I got off the plane in CBR with a message to call them. I rang and they said they were doing a review of my account and the hold would remain in place until it was completed. They wanted things like bank statements, BAS statements, P&L, pay slips etc. I told them to get stuffed as i was away and after 3 phone calls during the day, i finally got the cards put back, And they would phone me on thursday to discuss it further.

There was no phone call on thursday (surprise surprise), and they put thr hold on my cards on friday. After more phone calls they claimed i was supposed to call them - when in fact they were meant to contact me.

So for the best part of a week my cards were useless, personal and business. I sent them a P&L and some pay slips on Tuesday and I received a phone call later that day saying a P&L was insufficient!!!!! They wanted bank statements and/or BAS statements to complete the enquiry. I spoke to the accountant who said no way, so I phoned up and said i wasn't going to supply them and to please cancel my business cards.

I have demanded back my membership fees on the business cards and ask them is this how they treat their "valued customers". Unfortunately the credit department has the final say on lifting hold on accounts etc so no one apparantly can do anything. And it seems that even if you are there for 15 years it counts for nothing, trying to explain what happened with the payment doesn't matter either. So stuff them. I would never get another business card with them ever again, and would be strongly advising anyone not to either. I told them this but they didn't seem too concerned.

I've also been hearing a few horror stories from other people with Amex just placing holds on cards and not informing people, changing credit limits, and even placing theoretical limits on charge cards. My business card turned over in excess of $600k per year. so I will send it to someone else now.

/end rant

Nick

Thanks for the heads up. I have always had a feeling that Amex can't be trusted. Despite having had mainly positive experiences with them as a cardholder, I have heard a couple of stories worse than yours about how Amex have treated people. It seems moral standards are lacking in some areas of Amex.

I will continue to use Amex for my personal credit card due to the points program, but after your experience and another experience I have heard about with the business card, I will not ever apply for a business card with them.

 

[Keith009]

Used the concierge service twice now - first to search for a rather specific Payot Paris hand cream. They located a few options, both in Hawthorn and the city. All good.

2nd time - used it to make a last minute reservation at The Press Club for party of 8 for dinner the same evening. No can do as they're all booked up. I asked if their concierge service is as good as they say it is - can't they pull some strings? Woman on the phone stuttered something then apologised, so i said never mind and hung up. I then had a brain wave and rung up a mate who used to work the concierge desk at the Westin and we got a table 30 mins later.

So I should only use the AMEX concierge service for simpler things in future... I note simongr's success with getting into Tetsuya's though so I might try again in future.

 

[Keith009]

Rang up to track down retailers in Melbourne and Wellington that sell Cassius Eyewear. Lady on the phone hmmed and hawwed over it, until I discovered that she's using Google and not some magical concierge tool that I imagined that they'd have. Whilst on the phone, my partner and I jumped on Google and we managed to beat her to finding the addresses............

 

[straitman]

Rang up to track down retailers in Melbourne and Wellington that sell Cassius Eyewear. Lady on the phone hmmed and hawwed over it, until I discovered that she's using Google and not some magical concierge tool that I imagined that they'd have. Whilst on the phone, my partner and I jumped on Google and we managed to beat her to finding the addresses............

Sounds like a wonderful service

 

[dee2]

Do you get charged extra for using the concierge?

 

[simongr]

No charge directly for the service - but you do pay for the ultimate products/services you get - and you might not get the best price...

 

[Chicken]

Rang up to track down retailers in Melbourne and Wellington that sell Cassius Eyewear. Lady on the phone hmmed and hawwed over it, until I discovered that she's using Google and not some magical concierge tool that I imagined that they'd have. Whilst on the phone, my partner and I jumped on Google and we managed to beat her to finding the addresses............

If you pay $900 a year to have AmEx concierge, what is your annual fee for Google? $3000 a year?

 

[Keith009]

If you pay $900 a year to have AmEx concierge, what is your annual fee for Google? $3000 a year?

Um no I pay $900 ($600 in my case actually) per year for a whole costellation of services provided, chiefly amongst which are the insurance for myself and supp cardholders as well as the flexibility a charge card provides. The concierge is just an incidental part of it, and is still handy (just) when I'm away from the puter. Just don't expect hotel concierge style services!

 

[Chicken]

Um no I pay $900 ($600 in my case actually) per year for a whole costellation of services provided, chiefly amongst which are the insurance for myself and supp cardholders as well as the flexibility a charge card provides. The concierge is just an incidental part of it, and is still handy (just) when I'm away from the puter. Just don't expect hotel concierge style services!

Yes, I know that.

My question is, because Google is better than AmEx concierge, so if AmEx is $900 a year for card + concierge, how much does Google charge???

 

[simongr]

My question is, because Google is better than AmEx concierge, so if AmEx is $900 a year for card + concierge, how much does Google charge???

Google can't get me a table at Tetsuyas on the day that I want...