wahooflyer

I have two U.S. Amex cards (a Rewards Green and a Blue) and am generally satisfied with the level of customer service that comes with them.

However, it's become very irritating dealing with the telephone CSRs on my Blue account, who 9 times out of 10 are based in India. In most of my repeated calls to Blue's 1-800 number to resolve an issue that's really not all that difficult to look into (see below for details), several of the Indian reps I spoke to had little idea what I was talking about and answered with canned responses such as "well, there's nothing we can do; you'll have to contact the merchant." Not to mention the fact that there's a 1-2 second voice delay time on the international conversations. The Indian CSRs are fine for answering basic questions, but for anything more complicated I've had to ask specifically to be transferred a supervisor in the U.S.

Here's the issue: I try to balance my bank and credit card accounts as meticulously as I can, and noticed that my available credit didn't line up with the actual charges I had made. No one at AmEx could figure out what was wrong until tonight, when a knowledgeable account specialist in the Fort Lauderdale office finally explained things and found that a hotel I had stayed at more than a week ago was holding an $81 authorization on my card in addition to the actual $81 room charge, which had long since posted to my Blue account.

It's not the outsourcing itself that's the problem IMHO, but the Indian CSRs need to be better trained in resolving more than just the simple "what's my balance" or "when is my payment due?" questions.

billhar

Do you think those CSRs in India have AMEX Cards, or will be flying on Delta, or buying GE washer/dryers or Dell Computers ??? No ??? Well neither will those US based employees. their relatives and friends... that the companies let go...I wonder if the Companies thought of that.

meFIRST

Just keep trying. Or get yourself a centurion card, I hear all their calls are handled stateside.

In my experience, the CSR (if you can call them that) in India are no different than the automated system. They can't help you with anything that isn't pre scripted or readily available (like your account balance).

What is annoying is their reluctance to transfer you stateside when they can't fix the problem. Ever tried that before? - It's like trying to get blood out of a stone. My guess is their performance is measured on the calls that they take and supossedly get resolved.

XFed2001

Is there anything wrong with asking to speak with their supervisor or the next level up? It can't hurt...

slippahs

Is it only the Blue cards' customer service calls that get routed to India or are there others?

aloha

dlm

same problems encountered with trying to resolve a problemon our platinum account. frustration and awaste bof time for allinvolved and noreal resolution. amex should fix this problem before it is too late.

wahooflyer

Geez, even the Platinum cards are routing their calls to India? If I were paying $395 per year for the privilege of carrying a charge card, I'd want much better service than that!

The only reason I keep Blue is for FICO score purposes...I'm only 22 and it was my first ever credit card as a sophomore in college. Helps improve my limited credit rating as it is my oldest account. Next year I plan to cancel the card altogether because of Amex's poor customer service.

ironmanjt

Platinum does as well, at least at some times of day.

haveric

This drives me crazy. I have to basically raise my voice to get a US supervisor, who always resolves my problem in 30 seconds...

JohnMD

The unknowledgeable staff in India is outrageous. I have a Centurion card and all calls are answered by knowledgeable staff, based in the U.S., who are able to answer each and every question that I have. The Centurion calls aren't being directed to India at least!

What we have to understand is that these CSR read from a script / guidebook for all of the answers to your questions. If we ask a question that AMEX hasn't printed for them; then you're out of luck. I wish for everyone's sake (not including Centurion card members ) that they would improve this, simply pathetic. Don't get me started on Delta / Dell CSR's.

virtualtroy

Try asking My request to speak to a supervisor was steadfastly refused. In the end I rang back, got routed through to the CS team in the UK and problem solved. I also told them what had happened with the Bombay call centre... greeted with a knowing sigh.

If any of you think Amex is doing a bad job of this, write in, it's the only way you'll stop all the call centres in the US/UK from being contracted out to other markets.

slippahs

Seems like HH AMEX calls are being routed to India.

aloha

Mirage

When I tried to convert my Blue Rewards to Blue Cash, the cs rep. from India told me there is no formal way to convert. That I had to apply for the Blue Cash than cancel my Blue Rewards.

Knowing different, I made repeated calls and finally got a stateside Amex rep. who knew exactly what I wanted and did the conversion.

Recently I called to upgrade my Amex Green to Amex Platinum and once again a cs rep from India answered. This time the rep. seemed to know what I wanted and told me that the conversion was not a problem.

This is the first time that I actually had gotten a India based rep. that was able to help me.

plumbar

I just assumed that all customer service representatives are state side. I am shocked that only Centurion is state side. The Centurion CSRs are great, though.

willesmithus

I have not called the call center in years! but I have emailed them, via there web site. I would like to know where the emails are sent to, just curious.