How not to run a company
Dec. 6th, 2010 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksSo, I received a letter from AmEx today. Despite its tatty marketing look, it said on the outside "this contains important information". So I opened it and read it.
As you may recall, I tore up my Amex Platinum card in July, mainly because I could see no justification for paying 300 notes a year for not very much.
Before I had the Amex Platinum I had an Amex Green Card. I basically had this card because, in 1997, it was just about the only piece of plastic that my shot-to-shit credit rating could get (that itself going back to the Birks financial crisis of 1990). Within a year or so I had a Visa card, and a year or so after that I had a Mastercard, and a year after that I actually had a functioning bank account again. before I could blink I was looking at a Schwab debit card as well and, the rest is history.
Anyhoo, one day around 1999 AmEx decided to send me a Green credit card. I never used it, although I continued to receive statements every year or so telling me that my credit limit was x gazillion pounds and that my balance was £0.00.
Then, this morning, a letter informs me that the Green Credit card (the one I never used, and whose whereabouts I could not establish -- so I assume that I have cut it up and thrown it away) is being discontinued and that from Feb 2011 I would have a Gold Credit card. The major differences would appear to be that the interst on the card is 30% a year rather than 19.9%, and that there is an annual fee of £36 instead of zero. A double whammy indeed.
"If you wish to cancel this, please call the number on the back of your card", the letter said, or go to www.americanexpress.co.uk/optout.
Since I had no idea of the number of my card, let alone the telephone number on the back of it, I just phoned my old Platinum card number and waited until it got fed up with me not entering any codes. I finally got through to a person, and by some miracle I remembered my Platinum Card telephone ID pin (not the same as my ATM pin, but the same as my old Mastercard Pin) which enable me to cancel the whole shebang.
But it's all a bit rich, isn't it? AmEx sends you a card that you haven't ordered (but which is "free") and then, a decade later, send you a letter that could easily be ignored, telling you that a £36 fee is going to be introduced so that (if you ever use the credit line) you can pay 30% APR instead of 19.9% APR. What if I'd not even bothered to open the letter (I'd completely forgotten about that credit card, TBH)?
I think that American Express is losing clients for its cards on both the retail and the customer side of things. I don't think that it will be too long before it goes the way of Discovery and Diners.
____________
As you may recall, I tore up my Amex Platinum card in July, mainly because I could see no justification for paying 300 notes a year for not very much.
Before I had the Amex Platinum I had an Amex Green Card. I basically had this card because, in 1997, it was just about the only piece of plastic that my shot-to-shit credit rating could get (that itself going back to the Birks financial crisis of 1990). Within a year or so I had a Visa card, and a year or so after that I had a Mastercard, and a year after that I actually had a functioning bank account again. before I could blink I was looking at a Schwab debit card as well and, the rest is history.
Anyhoo, one day around 1999 AmEx decided to send me a Green credit card. I never used it, although I continued to receive statements every year or so telling me that my credit limit was x gazillion pounds and that my balance was £0.00.
Then, this morning, a letter informs me that the Green Credit card (the one I never used, and whose whereabouts I could not establish -- so I assume that I have cut it up and thrown it away) is being discontinued and that from Feb 2011 I would have a Gold Credit card. The major differences would appear to be that the interst on the card is 30% a year rather than 19.9%, and that there is an annual fee of £36 instead of zero. A double whammy indeed.
"If you wish to cancel this, please call the number on the back of your card", the letter said, or go to www.americanexpress.co.uk/optout.
Since I had no idea of the number of my card, let alone the telephone number on the back of it, I just phoned my old Platinum card number and waited until it got fed up with me not entering any codes. I finally got through to a person, and by some miracle I remembered my Platinum Card telephone ID pin (not the same as my ATM pin, but the same as my old Mastercard Pin) which enable me to cancel the whole shebang.
But it's all a bit rich, isn't it? AmEx sends you a card that you haven't ordered (but which is "free") and then, a decade later, send you a letter that could easily be ignored, telling you that a £36 fee is going to be introduced so that (if you ever use the credit line) you can pay 30% APR instead of 19.9% APR. What if I'd not even bothered to open the letter (I'd completely forgotten about that credit card, TBH)?
I think that American Express is losing clients for its cards on both the retail and the customer side of things. I don't think that it will be too long before it goes the way of Discovery and Diners.
____________
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-12-06 07:46 pm (UTC)I always pay off my cards on time so don't worry about interest rates...
I always pay off my cards on time so don't worry about interest rates... <fx: smug>
no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 03:19 pm (UTC)Oh well, that's another card to cut up with extreme prejudice!
no subject
Date: 2010-12-08 07:07 pm (UTC)But that isn't what the bosses want to hear, so the middle-to-senior managers (most of whom wake up every morning mainly afraid that they will be found out) resort to the only thing that they know - putting up prices and promising their bosses that this will mean more income. What it in fact means is less income, because demand becomes more price-elastic in a recession.
And AmEx had already made their first mistake, by diluting the one real strength that they had -- an air of exclusivity. Surely even the thickest person in marketing would realize that if you start hawking the platinum card to virtually anyone, then the people who already have the platinum card will be less keen to fork out the 300 notes a year required?
All a typical company cock-up from the real weak link in global industry -- middle management promoted beyond their level of ability, solely because they are (a) good at brown-nosing and (b) are promoted because they are seen as less of a threat than someone who is actually competent.
PJ
Piggies in middle management
Date: 2010-12-11 12:07 am (UTC)The first thing to note is that he started off as a techie (basically a software designer on flight reservations) and got moved into middle management. At this point, certainly in Amex, you are doomed: there is no way back. Whatever you once did is irrelevant. You are now firmly in the politics game, and Amex politics are a particular bitch-fest.
The second thing to note is that even what you (now in middle management) did yesterday, or even today, is also irrelevant. Gus started off signing promising dot-com startups up for Amex (yes, there were such things). God knows what he's doing now, but it's bound to be futile. Actually, once you get into this mindset, it's oddly comforting. The upside is that you can fuck up as much as you like, and tomorrow it will all be forgotten.
The third thing to note is that Amex have run out of other things to outsource, so they're turning their hand to outsourcing middle management. (I believe BT have the same idea.)
And none of it, and none of your complain, matter worth spit. You are only a collateral part of Amex' market. Their real market is in the business cards -- that is where they make their money. And it also explains why they chuck out platinum cards to every Tom, Dick and Harry. If you're some piddling little sales exec in Podunk, and you own $300 annual worth of plastic, for free (ish), then you're going to be very anxious to get the exact same thing as your company card.
Never underestimate the stupid power of affinity.
American Express customer services telephone number
Date: 2010-12-20 10:35 am (UTC)Whazzup)
Date: 2011-09-22 04:36 am (UTC)My name's Randy.
Today i had joined in your portal. There are very nice! ))) I hope we will be friends.
Amazing video [url=http://videodisc.tv/search.php?query=%CF%E0%E2%E5%EB+%C2%EE%EB%FF+%EF%F0%EE+%F1%EE%E1%E0%EA]Павел Воля про собак[/url]
[b]Sincerely, Randy[/b].