Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway
From: bill@toto.UUCP (Bill Cerny)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Caller ID at American Express
Message-ID: <telecom-v09i0460m07@vector.dallas.tx.us>
Date: 18 Oct 89 15:03:51 GMT
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X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 460, message 7 of 8

In article <telecom-v09i0454m03@vector.dallas.tx.us>, John R. Levine writes:

> By the way, I called American Express last week to argue about my
> bill.  Amex has been reported to have an 800 version of Caller ID that
> looks up the phone number of each call and translates it to the
> caller's card number.  When the person who answered asked me for my
> card number, I asked whether she could tell it from my phone number
> and she said she couldn't.  Either she was lying or they've turned it
> off.

When American Express starting routing their Megacom traffic over the
primary rate interface (PRI), they also subscribed to Calling Number
Delivery (no monthly, just 3 cents per number delivered).  When the
agents answered, "Good morning Mr. Goldberg, how may I help you?" the
customers were awestruck, and wanted to know how they knew their
identity before answering the call.

This resulted in much more time wasted than was saved thru
auto-retrieval of the account with CND.  I was told that AmEx changed
the script for their agents: greet, ask for the acct. number (verify
it with what's already on the screen), and say, "Yes Mr. Goldberg, I
have your records right here..."  The agents are discouraged to
discuss any of the wizardry of the new system, since AmEx's purpose
for subscribing to CND is to save time.


Bill Cerny		"The cost of living just went up another $1 a fifth."
Internet: bill@toto.cts.com					- W. C. Fields