Gawd Love America … n Express !
Lately I’ve been in the process of changing my name on some of my identifiers …
And have been making calls here and there,
Really not encountering any problems at all in the least.
But then I called American Express …
My personal card of choice.
Yeah, I know …
I pay a premium every year for the cost of membership …
Which some might say is dumb,
But I do get the following benefits …
1.) Americans working the customer support lines.
2.) Americans working the customer support lines.
3.) Americans working the customer support lines.
Whatever premium I pay each year,
For the privilege of membership …
Is well worth it !!
Seriously … it is such a pleasure to deal with someone that isn’t an outsourced drone who doesn’t speak American, English or Australian as a first, second or third language.
Recently I spoke with my American Express customer service representative Stacie …
“Hello Mr. Hairdy, how may I help you today?”
“Well, this is a bit of a unique request … I’m in the process of transitioning from living as a male to living as a female, so we need to finally take care of some paperwork there and get my primary card changed into my new name, but I also was wondering if I could ….“, and I proceeded to describe what I wanted to do with my AmEx card accounts, nothing unique, nothing odd … but a tad bit different.
“Well, we definitely need to take care of this for you and your requests certainly make sense. I’m just trying to think how we can accomplish it the fastest. I can easily take care of your first request, though it’s going to get bogged down in the system … your turn around time is a few weeks. Your second request, no problem, I’m doing that right now … Let’s see, now your third request … hmmmm … I don’t have the authorization to do that, but Customer Service does … and they could do it really quickly … but there’s a bit of a problem because well, the same social security number could create a problem and you’d end up getting re-routed back here and we could still accomplish the task for you, but … it’ll take a few weeks … soooooo …..”
“What you’re saying is that if I’m asked, I don’t know the social security number?”
“I didn’t say that … but that would certainly accomplish our objective here. May I put you on hold while I contact someone from Customer Service?”
“Sure, thanks ! 🙂”
She then placed me on hold. A few minutes later she came back, telling me she had Julie on the call and that she’d take care of my request … and then proceeded to tell me, as if she was confirming a prior discussion, exactly what I needed to say to Julie …
Two minutes later after repeating what I was told to say to Julie …
My task was more than successfully completed.
Yes dear viewers,
Membership has its privileges.
Especially if you’re using Mr. Underhill’s card ! 🙂
Plus … they’ve got some really kickass commercials with Seinfeld and Superman. The new one, Hindsight, just came out last week. Give it a look see if you’ve got the bandwidth, but if you don’t, skip it. It’s okay, but not nearly as funny as the first one.
woops…sorry.
When I was in high school, we raised money by handing out “sample packs” of a multitude of products (things like Right Guard, Gilette Speed Sticks, Razors, toothpaste Tampax)…Great way to build brand loyalty. Get em young! Give it to them for FREE and see what happens.
I got good and hooked on them too. But when I changed genders, I had to get a whole NEW personal care product lineup….
Actually made me think long and hard about my preferences…
Sometimes the things in life that are the least hassle stay constant forever. Too much of a PITA to change.
‘Kenna..
LOL When did you start putting your last name’s initial in your name when commenting … you’re a one name chica here ‘kenna … get it right ! 🙂
Yeah, I know … I’m not disputing that in any sense … it’s totally stupid to use the Amex from a financial perspective … be we’ve been together for oh so long … it was my second credit card (my first was a Sears) … I got it back in like 1984 … we’ve got a lot of memories together !! 🙂 LOL
Ok…some counterpoint to the “yea Amex!” thread…
Basically the problem with Amex is that they make you pay for the ability to wait 30 days to pay a bill. Makes no sense to me. I worked for them in the early 80’s and it was an organization from hell.
I had no problems with any of my cards, not mastercard, Bank ATM Card, Drivers license, probate court. Everyone was extremely courteous to me.
And everyone was very understandable…
But hey…thats a rant, isn’t it!
Makenna
It’s funny, but 16 years ago when I did all of this, I had a very easy time of it. I guess I was just lucky. I had a nice letter I wrote up, and a copy of a letter from my psych confirming it, and they all did it quickly and nicely. Not one turn down. Now, I did have a nice 10 year timeline of being a customer with many of these companies, so I guess they were being very Ferengi about it, but, nevertheless, it worked!
Hope you continue to have that good luck!
And, may this week be a nice quiet, or very positive one!
Hugzz,
iMom
Nice to hear about American Express.
It is my card of choice, and I would hate to lose the long term relationship I have with them, if and when I ever get to transition. One of the few (maybe only?) long term relationships that gets better with time.
Like you say, very kewl people!
Lisa
Location … location … location !! 🙂
Yeah … you know, it’s not about the Amex, it’s about the fact that this lady on the other end of the line was so phreaking kewl in helping me accomplish what I wanted to accomplish … it almost felt like she had a family member or friend who was T, because there was never any doubt that as soon as I explained my situation and what I wanted to do, she was going to make it happen. It just felt so nice to have someone go out of her way to help for a change in a situation like that rather than being cordial, but distant like many others … it was an incredibly great feeling ! 🙂
a lot like the three rules of real estate…
amex is that good, huh?
what a question!
🙂