Just got through looking over my wifes Amex statement. Boy is it messed up ! Strange charges and credits. Things charged, then credited, then charged again. The date Jan 18 seems to be where a lot of the trouble is. After she contacted them, we get this letter saying things like "We have inadvertently posted duplicate transactions to your April 1999 statement. Therefore your new balance and/or the minimum amount due, as reflected on your most recent statement, may be incorrect" Anybody else having trouble with Amex ???

-- reed moore (reed_moore@postmaster.co.uk), May 02, 1999

Answers

My wife and I had dinner at a local restaurant last night, and charged it on my Amex card. After a long delay (and several offers of more coffee, etc.), the proprietor finally came back with a "manual" Amex charge form that looked about 10 years old. She had been completely unable to get through to the Amex charge-approval phone line, and she told me that she had been having similar trouble for the past several weeks.

I've gotten so sensitive about this sort of thing that I tend to over- react in the opposite direction. "Nahhh," I said to myself, "it couldn't be a Y2K-related problem. Nahhh..." But when combined with reed's note above, one can't help thinking "Hmmm... could it be?"

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), May 02, 1999.

My mother has been having some problems with American Express. In late January, she made a payment at the local Amex office and now the card office refuses to believe her despite our providing the identifying numbers on the payment receipt. I just made copies of the payment receipt, we've sent them in, and we are keeping our fingers crossed. Meanwhile, late payment fees are accumulating and nasty call continue.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), May 02, 1999.

Were the cards personal or corporate? I had problems with double- billing on my personal in October, but everything's been kewl with my corporate card so far.

Another experience: I went to pay by phone in late March, and for the couple of nights that I tried to use it, it was down. I went through their menu (press 1 for...yadda yadda yadda), options, and when I pressed the key to transfer my funds, I waited about 90 seconds, and then was told that "this option is not available at this time..."

Since I tried late in the evening, it's possible that I tried to access it while they were maintaining the system during non-peak hours. Y2k? Bad timing? Hard for me to tell.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), May 02, 1999.

A little of the AMEX. topic. Was just talking with a buddy of mind a couple of hours ago and he told me about the electric bill he got yesterday. Average is about $225.- per mo., this one was for $9,982.15. Maybe a view of things to come....

-- Capt Dennis (souza@ptialaska.net), May 02, 1999.

Corporate Amex gets refused at least once a month, even though it is not maxxed. Reason unknown.

-- Helen (sstaten@fullnet.net), May 02, 1999.

BigDog's Y2K Axiom #1:

"No problem is Y2K-caused, by definition, since Y2K has been fixed."

(Pollys will misunderstand this, as usual, to mean that I assume all problems are caused by Y2K. Wrong. For all I know, NO technical problems have ever or will ever be caused by Y2K. The above is a political, cultural, legal and PR axiom, not a technical axiom.)

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), May 02, 1999.

Had the same thing on my MasterCard bill about duplicate charges and subsequent credits.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), May 02, 1999.

And they also have the cheek to charge you $40 for fixing their systems - as if they don't make enough profit already.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 02, 1999.