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Amex. I am just a huge, huge fan of Amex Customer Services. Whatever your issue, a real person will politely listen to you with sensitivity, and provide a helpful solution. There’s no long wait on the phone (because you’ve “called at a busy time”), no complex menus to navigate, just a user-friendly interface and a helpful human being at the end of it.
In short, it’s everything you hope for from a customer service experience, and often a bit more.
Whether it’s adding statement credits you thought you should have received, loading bonus points that haven’t appeared on your account or even politely cancelling your card for a pro rata refund, American Express does it with pure class.
So what’s my point?
Well, Amex are almost certainly the very best cards for good travel hacking. However, there is still a degree of nervousness around them from some (“but few places accept them” – not true, “but they’re a soulless American mega-corp” – possibly a bit true but certainly not reflected in the customer experience).
The key fact is that when you sign up to an Amex card in the UK such as the Amex Preferred Rewards Gold or the BA Amex, you can rest entirely assured that your experience will be backed up by a first class customer service experience.
Recent examples of great service from Amex Customer Services
Statement credits
I booked an advance purchase stay at a Hilton hotel and a couple of days later a £50 credit for doing so appeared in my cardmember offers. Amex credited me the £50.
Pro rata refunds
I regularly cancel and then churn my cards for the sign up bonuses. Amex have never, ever given me the hard sell to stay, and have always refunded the pro rata card fee without the need for me to chase them up or explain my cancellation in any detail.
Missing points
I recently hit a spend threshold on the Gold credit card (not to be confused with the Preferred Rewards Gold, which is a charge card). The 3,000 bonus points I was promised did not materialise, but 5 minutes after a 2 minute call with Amex, they were in my account.
Amex customer services – bottom line
Unlike so many other customer service desks, Amex genuinely appear to care about you and seek to sort things out to your, rather than Amex’s benefit.
American Express may not work for everybody, but if you do opt for an Amex card (and we love the Amex Gold), rest absolutely assured that any issue you have will be dealt with speedily, effectively and helpfully.
Clearly the above is based on my experience. Anyone disagree?
Got to agree, Amex Gold preferred rewards is a great start, £10 TCB, no annual fee first year and 20k miles bonus for hitting 2k spend.
Calling up can be hit and miss affair, I had a not particularly helpful operator when I was cancelling my previous gold card whereas others I know have been offered bonuses for staying with them.
I’ve always found Amex customer service to be superb. The Brighton phone agents are competent and empowered to do what it takes to keep customers happy. I don’t remember ever having a negative or unreasonable response to a request that I’ve made. Recently calls have started to be put through to the Philippines call center and they are also very good with excellent English but don’t have quite the same edge that the Brighton call center has.
The messaging option has also recently been removed from online accounts. Questions or requests have to made via the chat option which often just isn’t working. Even when it does work it takes a long time to complete a simple request which could have previously been done with one message.
In summary, Amex customer service has been superb, the best I’ve experienced. However they need to be careful, there are signs that it is slipping, presumably due to cost savings.