American Express' service

I have been an American Express Corporate Card holder since 1996. On May 20, 2002, my finance supervisor made an inquiry regarding five transactions of equal value performed on the same day with the same merchant. AMEX's account officer agreed to put the transactions under "pending investigation", and the card is still active.

On May 26, I received a call from an AMEX security officer explaining that there was the possibility that my card had been duplicated. I agreed to cancel the card and asked to be sent a replacement immediately.

Ten days later, I had not received the replacement card, despite several reminders from my secretary. Every time she checked, the customer service representative always answered that the card had been issued on May 27 and sent to me by courier.

On June 4, I asked to speak to the manager and suddenly the customer service representative found that my replacement card was still with them. On June 5, someone from my office picked up the replacement card for me, using an authorization letter from me.

On June 6, when I attempted to use the new card to make a purchase the transaction was rejected because of the above "pending investigation".

After complaining, on June 7 the same AMEX account officer informed me that there was an error in their system and confirmed by e-mail that I could now use the card. On June 8, my card was rejected again. This time the reason was that AMEX never acknowledged that I had received the replacement card. On June 11, they suggested issuing me a new replacement card.

By this time, 24 days later, I have not received a valid replacement card. What happened to the promised "24-hour delivery" for replacement cards?

I am really disgusted with American Express' service and handling of customers.

GUNAWAN SETOKUSUMO

Jakarta