Power55

Is the fee increasing to $6500??

nnjcafl

where did you hear that?

nnjcafl

that’s for Australia it looks like

Power55

It was for Australia, apologies for sounding alarm bells. It sounded like a very odd thing for the US to be doing at the moment given the current offering of benefits and service levels!

tangfish

This (thankfully) false alarm made me jump through all the VPN hoops to log in faster than ever before. Phew!

MiaNY

So it seems that AMEX made some changes to its phone system. I had a wallet & card stolen and needed to call in this morning to get the stolen card canceled. I had been avoiding calling recently because every time I was getting a recording telling me to wait at least six minutes and the few times I waited it ended up being much longer.

Now when you call you are given three options: travel, concierge or servicing. That's how the Canadian system was always set up, and it generally worked well (aside from the fact that travel was contracted out and they weren't great).

I don't if this system is new in the US or going back to the way it was done before, but the good news is that a representative picked up as soon as I selected 'servicing'. I'm hoping that this means they've made some positive changes to improve wait times and not an isolated positive experience! The representative told me that she was a servicing specialist and would not be taking calls for travel or other requests. Maybe this is to take some of the pressure off of the assigned teams, because she said that your assigned team members will still try to pick up if you select travel or concierge.

BeantownFlyer

I experienced the same thing recently and was scratching my head. Since they eliminated dedicated travel counselors (and they were not outsourced - they were experienced AMEX travel agents who were very seasoned) who do you get if you select “travel” versus “concierge”. I picked servicing and got the usual sub who couldn’t really help and said she would reach out to my team. So other than the recording I didn’t think anything had changed.

MiaNY

That's too bad, I was hoping that this was an indication of some improvement.

jem008

Anybody know / have experience with Amex dispute center re: large item purchases? Is there any upper limit of coverage for a singular purchase should you run into an issue with a merchant?

bubu-SNA

The days of AMEX backing a centurion card holder "to the bitter end" in a dispute are gone. It's the standard dispute resolution mechanism these days with no extra care given to examining the details of the dispute. If you are disputing something with one of AMEX's partners like Delta, Saks, etc...you will likely loose any dispute short of glaring fraud.

ironmanjt

Disagree. I had a major screwup which Saks refused to make right (ordered seafood from Saks site to use up my credit) and instead of the overnight shipping it should come with, it arrived 5 days later...in the summer heat....smelling foul. Saks refused to do anything bout it, AmEx went out of their way to give me an extra $250 statement credit valid in the next quarter. It was great service.

edit: Saks actually demanded I take the box of rotting, stinking seafood back to a FedEx store and ship it back to them first. I was really tempted...

ironmanjt

HUCA - I called yesterday to cancel and was offered a pro-rated refund, or a downgrade to platinum. (Though no retention offer)

DJ_Iceman

I would have, but I can be passive-aggressive like that sometimes. Glad to hear AmEx made it right, though.

ironmanjt

I was tempted.....but I didn't want to haul 20 pounds of rotten fish in my car to the FedEx store..,. #AlsoPassiveAggressve #MinnesotaProud

bubu-SNA

That was not my experience...

I bought a Rimowa trunk. Saks sends a beat up suitcase in used condition, clearly a used return. When contacting them thy first accused me of causing the damage but agreed to exchange it if I returned the original. They sent me a USPS mailing label. USPS looses the package in transit. Saks tells me to pound sand and to file a claim with the USPS. USPS informs me their label had no insurance (on a $2000 item) and that i can't even file a claim since I'm technically not the shipper. Saks washes their hands off it. Amex backs Saks in 2 back to back charge-back disputes under different categories and Centurion customer care shrugs about it.

It took filing a complaint with the BBB in New York to get Saks to send me a gift cad for the value of the lost item. Amex can 'eat' $250 as a courtesy...$2,000 in an actual charge back is a different story.