One cardholder wanted to locate and purchase the horse ridden by Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves. The horse was located in a stud ranch in Mexico, purchased and delivered to Europe by the concierge (from http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/blackcard.asp)

I haven’t thought of much to ask my concierge for yet, I only called in twice but so far they haven’t done anything I couldn’t do. The first time I called them I asked them to find me a local store that carried Pantherella Cashmere Socks, or a store that could ship them to me. This is the response I received:

I was not able to locate anything local or any physical stores for that matter, near you or in the US. Below I have listed 2 links that do sell the socks and ship to addresses in the US. I was able to find some places in the UK that will ship to the US but they are not partnered with us, so I cannot recommend those for you. Please look over these links below.

http://www.customshirt1.com/Socks_Mens_Cashmere.htm 

http://www.dann-online.com/pantherella_socks_from_dann.htm

I was expecting more, like an offer to order them and have them hand-delivered but I couldn’t find anything better myself so I’ll say they did OK on this.

Today I wanted to go to the Detroit Tigers game and sit behind the Tigers dugout, American Express is supposed to have access to the best tickets around. I told them I was willing to sit anywhere in the infield box behind the Tigers dugout or in the dugout itself if they were really good. They knew I was joking about sitting in the dugout but they did offer to call up and ask (I told them they should but I don’t think they did). They were unable to get me any tickets in the sections requested through the ticket department but they did offer to go to third party brokers for me, I declined. I was able to find the tickets I wanted on Stubhub for about $30, I’m sure they would have found those for me if I asked but the bottom line is that in this case it was easier and faster for me to look myself than to call the concierge.

In another case, Daniel asked his concierge to get him a limo on a saturday night at about 2AM (actually sunday morning) to take him to the Casino. The Concierge said there were none available and that they couldn’t call the Casino for us to ask them to send a car. It took me two phone calls to find a limo that was available. That was pretty disappointing.

I’m not saying that the Concierge is useless, I do still think there are things they can help with, especially when traveling. What I am saying is that if you think that when you get a Black Card you can get whatever you want with a single phone call, you are mistaken.