COMPUTERS: You can't beat them. (Unless you have a big stick handy.)
In March 1992 a man living in Newtown near Boston Massachusetts
received a bill for his as yet unused credit card stating that he owed
$0.00. He ignored it and threw it away. In April he received another
and threw that one away too. The following month the credit card
company sent him a very nasty note stating they were going to cancel
his card if he didn't send them $0.00 by return of post.
He called them, talked to them, they said it was a computer error and
told him they'd take care of it. The following month he decided that
it was about time that he tried out the troublesome credit card
figuring that if there were purchases on his account it would put an
end to his ridiculous predicament. However, in the first store that
he produced his credit card in payment for his purchases he found that
his card had been cancelled. He called the credit card company who
apologised for the computer error once again and said that they would
take care of it.
The next day he got a bill for $0.00 stating that payment was now
overdue. Assuming that having spoken to the credit card company only
the previous day the latest bill was yet another mistake he ignored
it, trusting that the company would be as good as their word and sort
the problem out. The next month he got a bill for $0.00 stating that
he had 10 days to pay his account or the company would have to take
steps to recover the debt. Finally giving in he thought he would play
the company at their own game and mailed them a check for $0.00. The
computer duly processed his account and returned a statement to the
effect that he now owed the credit card company nothing at all.
A week later, the man's bank called him asking him what he was doing
writing a check for $0.00. After a lengthy explanation the bank
replied that the $0.00 check had caused their check processing
software to fail.
The bank could not now process ANY checks from ANY of their customers
that day because the check for $0.00 was causing the computer to
crash.
The following month the man received a letter from the credit card
company claiming that his check had bounced and that he now owed them
$0.00 and unless he sent a check by return of post they would be
taking steps to recover the debt.
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