I think Richard's response was quite comprehensive. I have only been a serious user of Amex since early 98 (serious in terms of loyalty if not spend) and so find it difficult to put ups and downs in client service into perspective.

However, I make some comments.

I do wonder if basic service levels have dipped in the last year. I was recently surprised by the speed of response to an incorrect charge of £2,500 (small fry I know for some but big big fry for me!).

Some elements of the service remain outstanding, namely the willingness to deal with incorrect charges themselelves and card replacement.

I think the big increase we saw in the past years of business taking Amex has slowed down. Mostly the improvements seem to be micro billing, for instance Bristol City Council now take the card in their car parks.

I do see more and more reluctance among small retailers to take the card. My only complaint here is that if they don't like it why do they sign up for teh service? I don't mind them not liking it: it's a free country but it just seems strange to put an Amex sticker in the window and then not want to take the card. Strange because how many people are enticed into a store because of the cards it takes?

I would love to know what the strategy is for Platinum and Gold. If Centurion is the strategy to deal with the me too platinums of this world I don't see how there are enough people out there with the lifestyle that makes Amex Platinum a good idea but not Centurion. As for Gold, what on earth is this for? What sort of lifestyle makes Gold a good idea?

If I were Amex I would ditch Gold and Platinum as cards you could apply for in their own right and keep them only for corporate cards (to allow companies to differentiate between classes of employees). I would also keep Platinum as an option for the supplementary cards for Centurions. This would allow me to build a retail strategy around Centurion as a super premium product and Green as funky alternative (in terms of marketing and unusual, genuinely valuable benefits) to me too platinums with their highly limited extra benefits. I could then manage my front line customer services better and give greater consistency of service delivery between what would effectively be two retail product lines. For instance there is no doubt that if an organisation is promising to return calls to customers and then failing to do so it has serious control problems that probably need to be addressed by better processes and reduced complexity for customer facing staff