Comments on: Platinum Concierge (American Express vs VISA)

By: Experienced Concierge

Experienced Concierge — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:29:21 +0000

I found this very interesting, but I must say that Visa Infinite Concierge is not located in Australia, it is located in the United States. I know this because I work there. From the post and several comments (which I passed on to my colleagues) it would appear that we’re doing a pretty good job.

By: ongl

ongl — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:28:08 +0000

I would most of the time do-it-myself. However, there are times where you’d need someone to do it for you. Language issues, or when you’re in overseas.
I was recently in Bangkok and would need to reserve a restaurant table at Vertigo, Banyan Tree Hotel. I called Visa Infinite local number and within 15 minutes, it’s done. I don’t bother calling American Express at that point.

Concierge service costs money to banks, and banks got the cost covered by our transactions and membership fees. How the concierge motivates their employees, it’s their issue but it has to be done. It’s not a free service IMHO.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:27:58 +0000

So just what information was the ex-AmEx concierge rep giving out? Staff home phone numbers? Addresses? Nope, didn’t see any of those…he didn’t even give out the name of the subcontractor. Frankly, I appreciated the information. All these companies want to offer all these “benefits”, but yet want to farm them out to bottom-feeder subcontractors for whatever they are willing to do it for and their customers have to deal with it. This particular company’s way of doing business explains why our host had such poor results.

As a VISA cardholder who noticed that his card had the VISA Concierge Service as a benefit, I wondered how this service differed from simply going online and doing it yourself. As the first commenter stated, it doesn’t. Plus, I would expect that there is some incentive for the representatives of the subcontractor to steer someone towards particular products because of commissions or other rewards.

So, yeah, this type of service only works if somehow you are unable to do for yourself. Not quite the at-your-beck-and-call impression that they would like you to think the service is.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:03:56 +0000

Hi Ex Amex Concierge Rep:

I really believe it was shady for you to publicize all of Amex’s business like that. Okay, there are people out there who don’t really care how they get the reservation… We simply do not have the time to scour the internet and find seats / tables.

Also, your message gives me the impression that you didn’t get the shift you wanted and they fired you for some reason (probably for being mouthy). This gives you no right to disclose their information in this way.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:43:52 +0000

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

By: Ex Amex Concierge Rep

Ex Amex Concierge Rep — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:57:17 +0000

Hi,

1. I worked for Amex Concierge for roughly about 1 year. Amex actually only has 2 concierge offices. 1 in Burlington, Ontario Canada and 1 in Boston, MA. I will tell you as well, that the hiring staff and Management in both concierge offices are extremely bad. I won’t say the company Amex outsources to. I will respect there policy even though i’m sure plenty of people know since it says it at the bottom of all the concierge emails!!! LOL.

2. The employees are treated like dirt. Nobody has 2 consecutive days off and upon hiring you are given your hours after 5 weeks of training so you might be stuck with an overnight shift. Great!.. you couldn’t tell me this before wasting my time!

Let me tell you. Concierge is nothing more than doing what we can all do but JUST PLAIN DOING IT FOR US. They use Ticketmaster, Playbill, Frommers for recommendations, Open table to resturant reservations and best of all… That hard to find item you were looking for…. GOOGLE… YES… GOOGLE… NOTHING MORE THAN WHAT WE CAN DO. Sold out tickets you say??? TICKET BROKER. But you called the resturant and they were fully booked? Nooooo way they got you in??? Did you forget to mention you are a platinum card holder and AMEX has arrangements with certain resturants to hold seats for there card holders. (*cough*). Ticketmaster has a code to get presales… only concierge can do that… NOOOOOOOO… read the fine print… the code is the customer service number located on the back of your Amex card LOL!!!! or just type Amex… oh and guess what… they google pre-sale codes. You can do that can’t you?

3. Staff diversity???? hmmmm… didn’t see too much of that there. I mean we had a token spanish guy lol…. Maybe thats why it was hard to get reservations in France or Italy!!!

4. Think about this for a minute. You just spent 20 minutes on hold then waiting for someone else to search TICKETMASTER for show tickets. They tell you, “I’m sorry, that show is currently sold out, can I find an alternative show for you?”…. 20 MINUTES PRIOR THERE WERE PROBABLY 100 TICKETS LEFT!!!!

5. Amex needs to keep that type of service on-site. Outsourcing call centers when it comes to something so sensitive (Centurion Concierge is in the same building). I won’t put AMEX in hot water, but company “A” that they hired does not havegood security management at all. Credit card numbers have left that building just as much as fired employees have. Need I say more?