In March 1992 a man living in Newt0n near Boston,
Massachusetts received a bill f0r his as yet unused credit
card stating that he 0wed $0.00. He ignored it and threw it
away.
In April he received an0ther and threw that one away too. The
f0llowing month the credit card company sent him a very nasty
n0te stating they were going to cancel his card if he didn't
send them $0.00.
He called them, talked t0 them, they said it was a computer
err0r and told him they'd take care of it.
The f0llowing month he decided that it was about time that he
tried 0ut the troublesome credit card figuring that if there
were purchases 0n his account it would put an end to his
ridicul0us predicament.
H0wever, in the first store that he produced his credit card
in payment f0r his purchases he found that his card had been
canceled.
He called the credit card c0mpany who apologized for the
c0mputer error once again and said that they would take care
0f it. The next day he got a bill for $0.00 stating that
payment was n0w overdue.
Assuming that having sp0ken to the credit card company only
the previ0us day the latest bill was yet another mistake he
ign0red it, trusting that the company would be as good as
their w0rd and sort the problem out.
The next m0nth he got a bill for $0.00 stating that he had 10
days t0 pay his account or the company would have to take
steps t0 recover the debt.
Finally giving in he th0ught he would play the company at
their 0wn game and mailed them a check for $0.00. The computer
duly pr0cessed his account and returned a statement to the
effect that he n0w owed the credit card company nothing at
all.
A week later, the man's bank called him asking him what he was
d0ing writing a check for $0.00. After a lengthy explanation
the bank replied that the $0.00 check had caused their check
pr0cessing software to fail.
The bank c0uld not now process ANY checks from ANY of their
cust0mers that day because the check for $0.00 was causing the
c0mputer to crash.
The f0llowing month the man received a letter from the credit
card c0mpany claiming that his check had bounced and that he
n0w owed them $0.00 and unless he sent a check they would be
taking steps t0 recover the debt.
At that time, the man had been c0nsidering buying his wife
a c0mputer for her birthday. He bought her a typewriter instead.
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