American Express - furious at double payment of bill due to their system issue!!!

westy_1981

I am absolutely furious with AMEX.

I paid the balance owed on my AMEX credit card last night using my debit card. On paying I was greated with an error message saying thet there had been an issue and the payment was unsuccessful. I tried again and was greated with another error message that "no further payments can be accepted by this account." On ringing AMEX customer services I was told, oh yes the payments were both made and accepted by us - instead of the expected £800 I now have £1600 pending to leave my account to go to AMEX.

I am furious. I said to them cancel one of the payments - they cannot do that, my bank cannot cancel either. My bank have given me the authorisation codes for the payments for the AMEX merchant providers to delete - AMEX cannot do this either!

The payment won't clear onto my credit card for another day, and then to top it off it will take 5 to 7 days for them to repay it!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have had to move money from my ISA to cover the extra £800 taken from my account. The AMEX rep was very apologetic as expected, and when pushed said that they knew about the issue but did not inform any customers to not attempt payments and that they estimate over 10,000 people have been affected!!!

Has anyone else been affected? Bit of a rant, but what are my options? What would anyone do? Can I do anything or do I just have to smile and take it?

agrinnall

Moving money from your ISA was a bad decision, that can never be replaced and you have lost the tax free interest benefit from that money forever. You can try to get Amex to compensate you for that but it will be difficult to come up with a reasonable figure.

Better would have been to either arrange a temporary overdraft with your bank, or if they wouldn't do that then let your account go into unauthorised overdraft, in either case making Amex pay any charges incurred and confirming to your bank their responsibility so your credit report is unaffected.

westy_1981

Spoke to AMEX today regarding the OP.

Very apologetic etc etc, they are working with Lloyds who apparently are the only customers affected - maybe the post above shows that Natwest were more on the ball and cancelled any second payments.

The second payment will be refunded . . . . in a week at the earliest!!!!! I asked how they intend to a) keep customers after this monumental !!!! up and b) compensate those affected. The reply was that they couldn't comment but I would be receiving a letter in a few days that would explain things . . . .

westy_1981

i would give your bank a ring. AMEX told me that only Lloyds customers were billed twice - if there are 2 seperate authorisation codes, which i had, then there are 2 seperate payments.

When i looked online my bank balance had dropped by double the expected amount ie £1600 instead of £800 and the adisors i spoke to could see 2 payments on their system both at amex and at lloyds

meer53

If you get an error message saying payment unsuccessful, it is always best not to attempt it again without speaking to whoever you are paying first. This can prevent the issue you have experienced. The second authorisation should drop off your account in the next few days. Authorisations can't be removed by your bank, they disappear eventually if they're not completed by the beneficiary which is what will probably happen in your case. I know it was a system problem that caused you to make 2 attempts at paying but the system simply recognises that you made 2 transactions which is why they've both gone through. It happens a lot, even when there aren't major problems like there have been this weekend with Natwest and HSBC.

myright

believe it or not, I used to work for AMEX as a customer service agent in their call centre . They focus highly on custoemr service. They don't even have set 'targets' on call length, as long the customer feels that they're query has been dealt with.

IIRC, if I handled you're call I would have asked you to contact the bank you're holding the debit card with. This is because it would be HIGHLY impossible for Amex to stop a payment you have made, even if it had an error. The bank will be the only people who can. the second payment ill show up as Credit on your account. So I would advice to ring back, unless a request has been made to send you a cheque.

chattychappy

westy_1981 wrote: »

I asked how they intend to a) keep customers after this monumental !!!!

Many Amex users (not you!) are convinced that there is something superior about Amex service and will go on thinking that way whatever happens.

I had a plat chargecard for years. Found them no better and in some cases slightly worse than most other providers. Worth it (at the time) for the tangible benefits rather than anything else.

I think they'll survive!

birney83

I seem to be in the same position as the Natwest banker but my bank is Nationwide. I made a payment of around £500 to Amex on November 2nd and it has only came out of Nationwide once (available balance is as expected) but Amex is showing two identical payments on that date so my credit card balance is about £500 less than it should be. I keep checking my bank balance in case an extra payment is deducted but as yet it has not been.

This mistake obviously benefits me but I assume they will notice at some point soon and the balance will go up? I usually pay my balance in full every month and I now have the funds to pay off the amount my balance should be but I don't want to make another payment until the balance goes up - can they charge me interest on the full amount even if my statement showed a smaller balance?

I suppose ethically I really should be contacting them and pointing out the error rather than hoping that they dont notice! :rotfl:

Bossworld

Was in a similar position however they must have done an internal audit today, as although both 'payments' are showing on the Amex, there is now an additional manual debit transaction on there too, thereby raising my amount owed again

si1966

You are not alone.

I am a Barclays customer and tried to pay my bill on 4th November 2011 using the AMEX website. The payment did not go through and I was advised by the site to contact AMEX customer services. I was assured by cust services that the payment had not been taken and they took a payment from my debit card for the sum owed. Lo and behold 10 minutes later two separate payments of £481 had left my account.

I have had 8 separate conversations with Amex CS since then with no refund forthcoming. On 4 occasions between 4th Nov and 17th Nov I have been promised by Amex CS that a refund is in progress but nothing has been cleared in my account of yet. On 12th November i spoke with a supervisor at Amex who admitted they had problems and could not tell me when a refund would be forthcoming.

I have reported the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman who said they would forward a letter of complaint. This gives Amex 8 weeks to resolve the problem before they will take official steps.

I am expecting my next credit card bill dated 26th November. The next step I am sure will be Amex ignoring the double payment and wanting full payment of account!

I have given them all chance to resolve the matter and next step will have to be legal action.