Great story, Carl E.
Bob wrote:
> WAITING FOR Y2K
>
> In March 1992 a man living in Newton, 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 canceled. 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 at 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 informed him
> 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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