Computer Problem

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.