In response to an article filed on Tuesday and written by me in which I said American Express will deliver a new consumer service for cardholders called Purchasing Portal that aggregates shopping catalogs and offers to obtain for cardholders American Express's discounted price on items, AmEx is not pleased. First, let me say I stand by what I said. I know what they told me, and I have the notes to prove it. Neve In response to an article filed on Tuesday and written by me in which I said American Express will deliver a new consumer service for cardholders called Purchasing Portal that aggregates shopping catalogs and offers to obtain for cardholders American Express’s discounted price on items, AmEx is not pleased.First, let me say I stand by what I said. I know what they told me, and I have the notes to prove it. Nevertheless, in response to their impassioned pleas and in an effort to show them what a nice guy I am — and in the hopes that they won’t take away my AmEx card — herewith is their response to my article. “American Express needs to make a correction and clarification concerning the article you wrote, ‘American Express Plans Business, Consumer Buy Site,’ and posted this week on www.InfoWorld.com, May 15, 2007. The just-released American Express S2S solutions CatalogPro and Contract Audit and Recovery are designed to help large and mid-sized companies manage and streamline their supply chain and save millions through increasing control and compliance, reducing maverick corporate spending, and recovering losses due to purchases above negotiated pricing. They join our suite of S2S solutions, which includes eInvoice&Pay, an EIPP offering. In addition, CatalogPro is a complement to enterprise eProcurement systems. The other solution mentioned in the story, purchasing portal, will also be a B2B solution but is designed for enterprises without eProcurement systems. An availability date for purchasing portal has yet to be determined. None of these solutions are available to consumers.“Thank you for clarifying this important point with your readers and other media outlets that have picked up your story.”Okay, I let them have their say thanks to the wonderfully interactive world of blogs. But to repeat, this is not what I was told. In fact, where they say no date has been set, I was specifically given a date of the fourth quarter. But as is their wont, as it is for most large companies, they claim what I wrote is inaccurate. I believe either the executive who gave me the details is either in trouble or is wrong or they just don’t want this announced early. Let’s wait until the fourth quarter to find out. Technology Industry