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 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
o 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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