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The one company that hasn't totally sucked for me in this regard is AmEx. Every time I've called I've gotten a native English speaker located in the US who act

The one company that hasn't totally sucked for me in this regard is AmEx. Every time I've called I've gotten a native English speaker located in the US who actually has the power to reverse charges within a matter of minutes.

kingnothing 9y ago
Counterpoint: I haven't received a native English speaker in years from Amex. Chase, on the other hand, has always provided support in English and without the need to navigate a phone tree. I'll probably move most of my purchases to them once I spend my stockpile of Amex MR points.
- Qub3d 9y ago
  Counter-counterpoint: I keep getting random notifications that "my card has been removed from android pay" from Chase and always have to navigate a phone tree. What's this secret shibboleet code[1] you've found? [1]: https://www.xkcd.com/806/ https://www.xkcd.com/806/
  - ubernostrum 9y ago
    Several of Chase's credit cards come with that as an advertised feature. But not all of them, which means that it's not "Chase in general" but "Chase, if you have one of these specific cards with them".
phil21 9y ago
This used to be the case - until I talked to them last time. Definitely not a US-based CSR, and completely unwilling to help in a very frustrating situation I had done almost everything right on. I don't charge back often (first time on this card ever, after close to a decade) - so it's not like I have a flag on my account for "shitty customer" or anything. Basically they utterly refused to chargeback, or even block future charges to a specific vendor that had been charging me monthly for a service I could not use due to moving. The vendor said their policy was I had to cancel in person, and refused to do anything else. Amex absolutely did not have my back, and I have one of their higher-tier cards. Absolutely have been looking around at alternatives now though, after basically being told they'll let a vendor continue charging me against my will forever and there was nothing they would do about it. They said take the vendor to court. I ended up canceling the card entirely and having it re-issued, since even changing the number on your card these days isn't enough to stop monthly recurring billing - of course that feature is for your "convenience". All in all it was a pretty horrible experience that they resolved in the favor of a vendor that was quite obviously playing the "make cancelation super hard so we can collect monthly payments from people who continue to put it off" game - Amex literally could not have cared less one of their merchants was essentially engaging in barely-legal consumer fraud. Utterly horrible customer service, and this was via many reps and a couple low-tier CSR managers. It's quite obvious to me why Chase and the like are eating steadily away at the once-stalwart Amex customer base. Prior to that experience I would not have remotely considered a different card due to them always being stellar whenever I needed them, and they usually went above and beyond any expectations I had for customer service. That trust built over the decades with me is now completely gone, and it's obvious they are simply yet another card issuer these days.
- rtx 9y ago
  I don't see them being at fault here. You willing entered into a contract.
  - lovich 9y ago
    Vendors who allow online or over the phone sign ups, but only in person cancellation don't tend to be relying on the quality of their product or service to keep customers. ISPs are one where if you are not a savvy consumer you wont realize that when they say up to X megabits a second that its not only a different unit from megabytes, but that anything 0 <= (actual service) <= X is considered meeting the terms of the contract. ISPs are also the type of company where you call to cancel the service, as the contract allows because you are not locked in, and instead of letting you cancel they give you the run around and send you to person after person to try to keep you online. While we don't know if OP was in the right here from this story, you must have at least _some_ ability to see where they could be at fault
  - phil21 9y ago
    I agree, them allowing me to chargeback would have been nice but I certainly understand why they would say otherwise. I was hoping to charge back and then meet the merchant in court when they sued, so I could also collect attorney fees in this case. It was egregious. But, I also understood that Amex may take your point of view. I didn't have a problem with this. Them stating I can't stop future payments though has nothing to do with any third party contract that may or may not exist. It's not up to them to enforce that, and in any case I can assure you said contract did not list American Express as a payment method anywhere on it. They enabled a merchant to extort me because I had at one time years before made the mistake of giving them my Amex account number and the merchant purposefully made it impossible to remove.
- pmiller2 9y ago
  That "you must cancel in person" level of shittiness is typical for things like gyms. California actually has a specific law dealing with these situations for gyms.

kingnothing 9y ago

Counterpoint: I haven't received a native English speaker in years from Amex. Chase, on the other hand, has always provided support in English and without the need to navigate a phone tree. I'll probably move most of my purchases to them once I spend my stockpile of Amex MR points.

Qub3d 9y ago
Counter-counterpoint: I keep getting random notifications that "my card has been removed from android pay" from Chase and always have to navigate a phone tree. What's this secret shibboleet code[1] you've found? [1]: https://www.xkcd.com/806/ https://www.xkcd.com/806/
- ubernostrum 9y ago
  Several of Chase's credit cards come with that as an advertised feature. But not all of them, which means that it's not "Chase in general" but "Chase, if you have one of these specific cards with them".

phil21 9y ago

This used to be the case - until I talked to them last time. Definitely not a US-based CSR, and completely unwilling to help in a very frustrating situation I had done almost everything right on. I don't charge back often (first time on this card ever, after close to a decade) - so it's not like I have a flag on my account for "shitty customer" or anything. Basically they utterly refused to chargeback, or even block future charges to a specific vendor that had been charging me monthly for a service I could not use due to moving. The vendor said their policy was I had to cancel in person, and refused to do anything else. Amex absolutely did not have my back, and I have one of their higher-tier cards. Absolutely have been looking around at alternatives now though, after basically being told they'll let a vendor continue charging me against my will forever and there was nothing they would do about it. They said take the vendor to court. I ended up canceling the card entirely and having it re-issued, since even changing the number on your card these days isn't enough to stop monthly recurring billing - of course that feature is for your "convenience". All in all it was a pretty horrible experience that they resolved in the favor of a vendor that was quite obviously playing the "make cancelation super hard so we can collect monthly payments from people who continue to put it off" game - Amex literally could not have cared less one of their merchants was essentially engaging in barely-legal consumer fraud. Utterly horrible customer service, and this was via many reps and a couple low-tier CSR managers. It's quite obvious to me why Chase and the like are eating steadily away at the once-stalwart Amex customer base. Prior to that experience I would not have remotely considered a different card due to them always being stellar whenever I needed them, and they usually went above and beyond any expectations I had for customer service. That trust built over the decades with me is now completely gone, and it's obvious they are simply yet another card issuer these days.

rtx 9y ago
I don't see them being at fault here. You willing entered into a contract.
- lovich 9y ago
  Vendors who allow online or over the phone sign ups, but only in person cancellation don't tend to be relying on the quality of their product or service to keep customers. ISPs are one where if you are not a savvy consumer you wont realize that when they say up to X megabits a second that its not only a different unit from megabytes, but that anything 0 <= (actual service) <= X is considered meeting the terms of the contract. ISPs are also the type of company where you call to cancel the service, as the contract allows because you are not locked in, and instead of letting you cancel they give you the run around and send you to person after person to try to keep you online. While we don't know if OP was in the right here from this story, you must have at least _some_ ability to see where they could be at fault
- phil21 9y ago
  I agree, them allowing me to chargeback would have been nice but I certainly understand why they would say otherwise. I was hoping to charge back and then meet the merchant in court when they sued, so I could also collect attorney fees in this case. It was egregious. But, I also understood that Amex may take your point of view. I didn't have a problem with this. Them stating I can't stop future payments though has nothing to do with any third party contract that may or may not exist. It's not up to them to enforce that, and in any case I can assure you said contract did not list American Express as a payment method anywhere on it. They enabled a merchant to extort me because I had at one time years before made the mistake of giving them my Amex account number and the merchant purposefully made it impossible to remove.
pmiller2 9y ago
That "you must cancel in person" level of shittiness is typical for things like gyms. California actually has a specific law dealing with these situations for gyms.