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 apologized 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.
The man, who had been considering buying
his wife a computer for her birthday, bought her a typewriter instead.
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