In March 1999 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 beat the company at their
Own game and mailed them a cheque 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 cheque for $0.00. After a lengthy
explanation the bank replied that the $0.00 cheque had caused
their cheque processing software to fail. The bank could not now process ANY cheque from ANY of their customers that day because the cheque 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 cheque had bounced and that he now owed
them $0.00 and unless he sent a cheque 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
Enjoy !
[This message has been edited by Chumma Fun (edited June 04, 2001).]
