<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dnw:
That Guardian thread made me giggle... heres a little personal history on it, you judge for yourself why they ask you to put your account number in first (even on dedicated card lines):
Back when I had a Platinum card and a healthy monthly spend, I used to get answered within three rings, each and every time. A colleague also had a Platinum but didnt use it much and hadn't had it long- it was he that first told me about the pre-clearing story as stated in the guardian. Once we ran a test, both dialled at the same time, I wa answered within three rings, he waited a minute or two...
When I first had Centurion, again they would answer straight away. Recently I transferred all my monthly spend to my BA Amex card and havent levelled a penny on Centurion for three months. I called Centurion the other day, and waited AGES... but when I call the BA Amex number, gues what? they answer within three rings. Judging by the level of CS I've received from them recently over a few fraudulent transactions, I'm beginning to see a patern... your card determins your published benefits, your spend determins the real ones...
dnw</font>
This is interesting. I never knew that average speed of answer was determined by use of card. I always thought it had to do with the type of card one has (green vs gold vs platinum etc..).