sydneyracquelle

Just went through an overly aggressive phone conversation with an Amex agent. These guys are highly trained in persistence to grind you down so you finally give in.

I called this afternoon to cancel my DL Platinum as I received the companion cert a few weeks ago and the $250 annual fee came through. The recent changes were a complete coincidence as I was waiting for that 30-day window after the statement cycled and my companion cert was safely in my DL wallet to cancel.

I spoke with 2 representatives. Both were either in India or somewhere else with very thick Indian accents.

The recording first tried to push me to text with an agent but this would be too risky. I wanted to make certain that the $250 annual fee would be reversed and I don’t trust text when agents are handling multiple customers at once.

The first agent was in basic customer service who transferred me to a “cancelation specialist”.

It took me 6 separate repeated requests to cancel my card. First he insisted on downgrading me to the Gold for only $99. Then he aggressively insisted that I take the free blue card with no annual fee to “protect my credit score”. He wouldn’t let me get off the phone with a simple cancelation and that I would miss all the benefits including free checked bag, earlier boarding, 15% discount, etc. After 6 times saying I’m not interested he finally relented.

For those of you planning to cancel a DL Amex card due to the recent changes be prepared for a highly aggressive, highly trained agent pushing you to accept an alternate DL Amex product instead of an outright cancellation.

Overall an extremely unpleasant experience.

emma dog

I cancelled my Amex plt, DL PLT, and Mariott Amex as part of a whole card realignment. (And BOA AS). The Amex reps were aggressive on all of them. It’s not DL specific.

The best rep allowed me to start the convo that I wasnt interested in a retention offer. That one left me only with “are you sure???”

DrMilano

As I mention in a previous post the airport cobranded hawkers are also encouraging downgrading to the Gold cobranded card.

Just tell the AmEx rep your bankruptcy attorney suggested that you cancel the card, as your credit score is irrelevant. I’m certain the ‘cancellation specialist’ salary is highly dependent on how many customers he can avoid flat out cancelling.

david55

If he was really a "highly trained agent "you would not have canceled.

cfischer

My experience has been the exact opposite. Contacted Amex to cancel a $650 fee card (and not insignificant spent). Only response I got was: Confirmed - account is closed. Not even trying to retain or offer a downgrade. Honestly, was surprised by that

sydneyracquelle

It probably wasn’t a DL Amex card where the agents (who all signed NDAs) have been in school over the past month learning how to object to every possible reason for cancellation.

dw

This is why I find chat so much easier- you don’t really need to read everything they write back to you, just keep typing, “thanks but I’m not interested; I would like to proceed with cancelling”, eventually once they have exhausted all their options on their script they’ll move forward

notquiteaff

OP is a highly skilled FTer and the Amex/Delta agents met their match.

I will soon cancel my Delta Blue card. No reason to keep it; I don’t know what argument they would find. Perhaps they would get creative and offer me an upgrade to a card with AF for 10,000 worthless Delta miles

TerryK

How do you use your DL Companion cert as it can only be charged to a DL Amex card?

Centurion

Do you think you called a Amex contracted call center that whose monetary compensation is based on how many card members they keep?. Or do you think you hit a Amex owned call center where bonus money is also based on how many members they keep?

mia

There is no need to provide a reason, unless fishing for a retention bonus. Just say, "I have decided to close this account. There is nothing to discuss." Then periodically ask, "Have you closed the account?"

moe8555

I'm not so sure this is the wisest idea. I believe they have the right to sanction or close other accounts if they become aware of adverse circumstances which may pose a risk for default, such as a bankruptcy.

awayIgo

Cancelling anything today is very hard. Not a card but my cable TV service! What I ended up doing as some agent rattled on about all the reasons I shouldn’t cancel was say, “ cancel my service effective Sept 5” over and over and over and over again! Occasionally I responded to his question. i.e. as I’m repeating I heard him ask if I wanted to money, so my next response was “no! Cancel…. I would do the same thing for any service.

moe8555

For cable, the easiest way is to say you are moving to a new rental that includes cable and internet in the monthly payment

BearX220

I've cancelled an Amex or three in my day. Like clockwork, the agents would all suddenly claim their computer had crashed. "I'm so sorry," they'd say mournfully. "Do you want to wait on hold until the system comes up again?" They were counting on you to say no and give up. Saying yes meant waiting 30 to 60 minutes listening to Musak. The agents would invariably be irritated to find you still there being patient, but eventually we wore them down instead of Amex wearing us down. It was a sort of staring contest.

It was such an obvious, cookie-cutter, quasi-fraudulent Amex playbook response to cancellation requests that Mrs. BearX220 and I made a joke out of it -- when one of us wants the other to do some tedious household thing, the other says, "Sure ... oh, I'm so sorry, my computer just crashed. Do you want to wait?" -- that persists years later.