I have a Visa Signature Card and I have always wondered what the concierge service is all about. So, today I decided to try it. I didn’t want to do anything significant, in case things didn’t go well. I didn’t even know if it costs me money. So, I decided to start small.
I called the number in the back of the card 1-800-953-7392. I thought that I could ask a person first how much the service costs. I was on hold for about 14 minutes when I hung up. That was disappointing. I never got to talk with a real person. While I was on hold, the recording message said that i could do this online. I finally gave in and went online on my smart phone.
Sign-up Could Be Better
I went to my bank’s web page online and followed the links to the concierge service. In fact, I did it twice because the page doesn’t look official. If you go to http://usa.visa.com/personal/visa-signature/concierge.jsp you can see the phone number to call to, but no obvious links to the service. If you click on any of the “Talk to a concierge” links, it will take you to https://www.visasignatureconcierge.com/login.asp. I was expecting something like http://concierge.visa.com. So, I double-checked that I wasn’t on some scam page. I think they could improve the perception. The site look a bit bare and I was skeptical.
after verifying the page, I registered to the concierge service. Soon i received a confirmation email:
Making My First Request
OK, so now it was time to actually request them to do something. I wanted to go fishing with my boys today, and I needed some worms, so I thought I would ask the Visa Signature Service to find out where I could buy them in Lehi, UT. It was not opera tickets or a reservation in a fancy restaurant. I wanted night crawlers. I set my maximum price on the form to $5. I wouldn’t pay more than that for worms. I couldn’t request the information for today, I was promised the information tomorrow, the earliest. Oh well, I might have to find the worms on my own.
Soon I received an email confirming the request:
Very informal again. They promised the information within 24 hours this time. However it says that “If your request is urgent…” I could email them or call to expedite. I decided that finding worms wasn’t that urgent.
The Response
To my surprise I received a response after exactly one hour:
Only Cabela’s is close, the two others are too far for me to drive to because I wanted to go fishing. I started to wonder if they just looked these up in the phone book. Harmon’s? I called all three places and they told me that they have worms for bait for less than $5. The person at Harmon’s sounded intrigued. I bet the Charles from the concierge called them before I did. Maybe the lady at the customer service thought that this was a prank. Two people calling for worms within one hour.
What Do I Think About it?
I think that the presentation has room for improvement. It looked a bit informal or even suspicious at times. Also, the phone service was sub standard. If i really wanted to by opera tickets, I would have to be on the phone for 15+ minutes with the opera. In many cases it would be faster to do it myself. however, with a bit of planning I can submit the request before hand online and save time. You can even have them buy the tickets for you.
There might be some cultural issue too involved. I would have gone to a gas station to buy night crawlers, but the places I got from the Concierge Service were all big places. There are a lot more gas stations around. Charles the Concierge probably didn’t think of that. Maybe he doesn’t know how enough about the culture.
Overall I was surprisingly satisfied with the service. They took my request seriously and found reliable information. I think this is a great service, specially when traveling. I will definitely use the Visa Signature Concierge Service again.
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