This American Express stand has been outside one of our shops for at least two weeks. I’ve bee harassed every time I walk past – and I do mean harassed. They ask, I say no thanks and they usually come back with what, you don’t want to save money or how can you know you haven’t even looked. If I walk past and ignore them they usually call after me with a smart-alec comment. Do they not notice that I walk past several times in a day? It’s a hard sell and it upsets our customers. I have heard three people complain at our counter about the Amex people out the front. The last thing retailers in a centre need is American Express and their aggressive recruitment tactics getting customers offside. I wish they would go away and be banned from shopping centres.
Which shopping center is it? What is the person’s name who is harrassing you if you don’t mind me asking. I work for Amex here and would like to bring this to someone’s assistance. The kiosks are intended to help people with American Express applications and information.
Forest Hill, Victoria. These folks were aggressive and harassing. Certainly not assisting with forms.
I would also say they are the same at Chirnside Park in Victoria.
I’m happy for them to stay within the bounds of their kiosk and spruik from there but to have them “block your path” in the arcade is not on. It’s very intimidating and does not endear the product to me.
Heres the thing. Amex outsource their sales to a company called “the cobra group”. Or at least they used to, unless things have changed.
Cobra have a terrible reputation and are hard core door to door sales people. They sell AAPT stuff, Foxtel (I think) and other things. They are basically subcontractors and Cobra actually subcontracts the business to their reps. these reps have territories, which they make a lot of money from. They also do collections for some of the charities (red cross i think). They keep 80-90% of what they take in the first year!
Just ask one of these guys. Do you work for Cobra?
Cobra itself is a very interesting business. It’s an Australian company that has taken this aggressive outsourced door to door sales strategy around the world. The owner would be one of Australia’s ruichest people, yet no one knows anything about them. I have heard that they turn over BILLIONS globally.
Carroboblin, As one who is regularly assaulted by these folks I’d say it’s nothing to do with the contractor. It’s the Amex brand on the stand and Amex which they are pushing. Amex is therefore responsible for the rude intrusions for me and my customers. This is an Amex problem to fix.
Mark
Mark,
that is exactly my point! It is the outsourcing of sales to these hyper aggressive sales people that damages the AMEX brand. It is quite frankly symptomatic of the way big business push their sales. The people outscourcing these sales at AMEX would hae sales targets to meet. And friankly Cobra allow them to meet those targets. Do you really think that these big companys care about the cusomer? They’ll give it lip service, but they need their bonuses at the end of the day. Ever heard of a bank exec having their renumeration tied in to the happines of their customers? Neither have I.