American Express Membership Rewards - Amex web site is buggy

Do not assume that the dates displayed on the Amex web site account information are correct. Specifically the account summary where closing and due dates are displayed. I thought something funny was going on when they made the closing date on my account December 25th. Usually my billing cycle closes on the 26 or 27 of the month. Evidently, this is the same info the CSRs see on their screens, too. But the bill actually dropped on the 27th of December. They even told me that my bill had gone past due since my payment wasn't posted on December 25th (I wonder why...).

Now today, it's showing that my statement closed January 26th and my recent activity is since January 27th. If I view my recent card activity, my next bill will close February 26th.

The posting dates for transactions don't seem to be affected by whatever flawed algorithm they are using to calculate dates.

From a professional standpoint (I do sites like this for a living), the programmer(s) who did this ought to be drawn and quartered. Date arithmetic is one of the simplest bugs to catch during testing. I wish Amex had a contact email for their site, I'd unload on them.

For reference purposes, here's the Amex disclaimer about their site:
THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF SERVICES PUBLISHED ON THE SITE OR A LINKED SITE MAY INCLUDE INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS, AND AMERICAN EXPRESS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY LIABILITY FOR SUCH INACCURACIES OR ERRORS. AMERICAN EXPRESS DOES NOT WARRANT OR REPRESENT THAT THE CONTENT ON THE SITE IS COMPLETE OR UP-TO-DATE. AMERICAN EXPRESS IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO UPDATE ANY CONTENT ON THE SITE.

I'm no legal expert, but I wonder how a company can attempt to absolve itself of all liabilities for publishing inaccurate information about your account. If this is the electronic version of my paper statement, why can they hold this to different standards.

[This message has been edited by GeorgeBurdell (edited 01-01-2003).]

I typically find that for 1-2 days after a given closing date, the amount due is not displayed correctly. Never ran into a 'past due' notice however.

AMEX account management website is the worst I have ever used (among Citibank, Chase, FirstUSA, and AMEX).

The information update is extremely slow. It takes a billing cycle to show the correct credit limit after transfers between accounts.

Available credit information not available online! Coupled with slow transaction updates and slow credit limit updates, absolutely a "winner"!

My MR transfer to HHonors still can not be done online after 3 calls (including 2 to the Website Tech support).

Wired codes and layout often appear on the webpage.

AMEX also has the worst customer service among all the credit card customer services I have called.

It's just hard to believe that such a big financial corporation can not hire some capable programmers to make their account management interfaces work better...

AmEx online services have always been like this, the site is nowehere near the elsuive five 9's for uptime http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The problem about account transactions and validity at statement cutoff date is a problem they have known about for over 2 years, they are trying to fix it.....

In answer to the 'how do they get away with this' question; simple, they put 'This is not a billing statement' across the top of the screen, and you are viewing unbilled charges. Until the statement is 'cut', and sent out do the charges actually 'stick' to your account.

Thanks,
Richard

This month even my "official statement" online was incorrect for a few days. This is why I would never trust Amex to give up paper bills and rely on the site alone.