OT: billed for $0.00

[Malcom "Mal" Reynolds]

Unbelievable story



On Thursday, 24th January 2002 , Derek Guille broadcast this story on his
afternoon program on ABC radio:



In March 1999 a man living in Kandos (near Mudgee in NSW, Australia )
received a bill for his as yet unused gas line stating that he owed $0.00.

He ignored it and threw it away. In April he received another bill and
threw that one away too.

The following month the gas company sent him a very nasty note stating
that they were going to cancel his gas line if he didn't send them $0..00
by return mail.

He called them, talked to them, and they said it was a computer error and
they would take care of it.

The following month he decided that it was about time that he tried out
the troublesome gas line figuring that if there was usage on the account
it would put an end to this ridiculous predicament.

However, when he went to use the gas, it had been cut off.

He called the gas company who apologised 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 them 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. This bill also stated 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 gas 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 gas
company nothing at all.

A week later, the manager of the Mudgee branch of the Westpac Banking
Corporation called our hapless friend and asked him what he was doing
writing cheque for $0.00.

After a lengthy explanation the bank manager replied that the $0.00
cheque had caused their cheque processing software to fail. The bank
could therefore not process ANY cheques they had received from ANY of
their customers that day because the cheque for $0.00 had caused the
computer to crash.

The following month the man received a letter from the gas company
claiming that his cheque had bounced and that he now owed them $0.00 and
unless he sent a cheque by return mail they would take immediate steps to
recover the debt.

At this point, the man decided to file a debt harassment claim against
the gas company. It took him nearly two hours to convince the clerks at
the local courthouse that he was not joking.

They subsequently helped him in the drafting of statements which were
considered substantive evidence of the aggravation and difficulties he had
been forced to endure during this debacle.

The matter was heard in the Magistrate's Court in Mudgee and the outcome
was this:

The gas company was ordered to:

[1] Immediately rectify their computerised accounts system or Show
cause, within 10 days, why the matter should not be referred to a higher
court for consideration under Company Law.

[2] Pay the bank dishonour fees incurred by the man.

[3] Pay the bank dishonour fees incurred by all the Westpac clients
whose cheques had been bounced on the day our friend's had been processed.

[4] Pay the claimant's court costs; and

[5] Pay the claimant a total of $1500 per month for the 5 month period
March to July inclusive as compensation for the aggravation they had
caused their client to suffer.

And all this over $0.00.

This story can also be viewed on the ABC website.

Who employs these idiots??

Remember, these "people" walk among us and breathe the same air we do.
What is worse , they breed !

This is a true story.

















No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version:
2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2411/4954 - Release Date: 04/23/12

[Percival P. Cassidy]

On 04/24/12 07:11 pm, Malcom "Mal" Reynolds wrote:
>
> Unbelievable story
>
>
>
> On Thursday, 24th January 2002 , Derek Guille broadcast this story on his
> afternoon program on ABC radio:
>
>
>
> In March 1999 a man living in Kandos (near Mudgee in NSW, Australia )
> received a bill for his as yet unused gas line stating that he owed $0.00.
>
> He ignored it and threw it away. In April he received another bill and
> threw that one away too.

<remainder snipped>

I don't class it as "unbelievable": I've read similar stories concerning
various utilities in various countries.

Perce

[Bob F]

Of course it is true. Because you said so.

Totally unbelievable! unless you actually check. Then it is unbelievable.

http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/zero.asp

[gregz]

Should have kept sending 00 checks. !!

Greg

[Vic Smith]

Probably just BS.
If it were true, why no mention of the added overdue penalty of $0.00?
Bank computer systems can routinely zero sum checks.
When I started on-line banking, I sent a check to myself to see what
it looked like.
10 bucks. Then I deposited it to the same account at an ATM.
It was mailed back to me, uncashed,
Dashed my hopes of a perpetual motion cash machine.
When I was in college taking computer courses, one of the students in
a class was already working in IT for Walgreens.
In a break room he told some of us a useful story.
Seems the main Walgreens batch processing program had "blown up" one
night while processing hundreds of thousands of transactions.
Massive program, thousands thick card deck.
It had been running for years with no problems.
They had about 4 guys working all night to debug, and find the
problem. This guy spun a good yarn, but I'll keep it brief.
They finally found that there had been no transaction errors.
Program couldn't handle no rejects.
That had never happened before.
Best part of the story was how they fixed it.
Everybody started talking code checks and such to put into this
massive program, and this guy said,
"Nah, we punched a zero sum transaction card that would reject, and
instructed the operator to always put it at the front of the
transaction deck."

--
Vic

[EXT]

"Percival P. Cassidy" <Nob...@NotMyISP.net> wrote in message
news:jn7c8m$qek$1...@dont-email.me...

> On 04/24/12 07:11 pm, Malcom "Mal" Reynolds wrote:
>>
>> Unbelievable story
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thursday, 24th January 2002 , Derek Guille broadcast this story
>> on his
>> afternoon program on ABC radio:
>>
>>
>>
>> In March 1999 a man living in Kandos (near Mudgee in NSW,

>> ustralia )
>> received a bill for his as yet unused gas line stating that he owed
>> $0.00.
>>
>> He ignored it and threw it away. In April he received another bill
>> and
>> threw that one away too.
>
> <remainder snipped>
>
> I don't class it as "unbelievable": I've read similar stories concerning
> various utilities in various countries.

I used to work for a gas utility, and we heard the story over 30 years ago,
the bank computer system has been added as an embellishment.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

On 04/24/12 08:19 pm, EXT wrote:

>>> Unbelievable story
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thursday, 24th January 2002 , Derek Guille broadcast this story on
>>> his
>>> afternoon program on ABC radio:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In March 1999 a man living in Kandos (near Mudgee in NSW, ustralia )
>>> received a bill for his as yet unused gas line stating that he owed
>>> $0.00.
>>>
>>> He ignored it and threw it away. In April he received another bill and
>>> threw that one away too.
>>
>> <remainder snipped>
>>
>> I don't class it as "unbelievable": I've read similar stories
>> concerning various utilities in various countries.
>
>
> I used to work for a gas utility, and we heard the story over 30 years
> ago, the bank computer system has been added as an embellishment.

That's probably around the time I first heard the story. I can't
remember where it was alleged to have happened.

Perce

[dpb]

On 4/24/2012 7:47 PM, Percival P. Cassidy wrote:
...

> That's probably around the time I first heard the story. I can't
> remember where it was alleged to have happened.

...

It's "happened" in/for every company that ever went to computerized
billing...just as it did in this case.

--

[cl...@snyder.on.ca]

I have recieved a utility invoice for $0.01 when I made a mistake on
my cheque. Cost them over $3.00 in postage plus untold book-keeping
and printing expense to keep hounding me every week 'till the next
bill came, which I promply OVERPAYED by $0.01 just to see what would
happen.

[Dan Espen]

Really?

I've written (sometimes with a team)
multiple billing systems over the years.
None of those systems would do anything like that.

Besides, we'd already heard that story.


--
Dan Espen

[Attila.Iskander]

<cl...@snyder.on.ca> wrote in message
news:hsmep7pnvqo962e1a...@4ax.com...

> On Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:55:07 -0500, dpb <no...@non.net> wrote:
>
>>On 4/24/2012 7:47 PM, Percival P. Cassidy wrote:
>>...
>>
>>

>>It's "happened" in/for every company that ever went to computerized
>>billing...just as it did in this case.
>
> I have recieved a utility invoice for $0.01 when I made a mistake on
> my cheque. Cost them over $3.00 in postage plus untold book-keeping
> and printing expense to keep hounding me every week 'till the next
> bill came, which I promply OVERPAYED by $0.01 just to see what would
> happen.

I always round up to the nearest $.
Really bothered some of the utilities and government bodies.

I would tell them to roll it into the next bill, and fix the acounting
system
Took a while before they got that fixed.

[Doug]

You're mean <g>.... ok, what happened?

[DerbyDad03]

On Apr 24, 10:07 pm, cl...@snyder.on.ca wrote:

Back before computerized billing/payment was the norm, I worked for a
bank. One of my responsibilities was to process the checks that
customers sent in to pay for their Safety Deposit Boxes.

These are the rough numbers for a situation I ran into:

Monthly fee was $15.10
Client sent in a check for $15.00
Postage at the time was $0.18

My manager had me mail the check back to the customer and request a
new one. It cost the branch eighteen cents to recover a dime. The
explanation was that the money came from 2 different budgets. The
Safety Deposit Box numbers had to balance, stamps were just overhead
and not tracked.

[Bob F]

Except for the part about it never did happen.

[cl...@snyder.on.ca]

On Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:42:25 -0500, "Doug" <noemail...@msn.com>

They didn't care when they had MY penny.

[Randy333]

On Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:11:05 -0700, "Malcom \"Mal\" Reynolds"
<atlas-...@invalid.invalid> wrote:

>
>

I'll say it was true, happened to a friend of mine, I forget who the
bill was from, but they were not happy until he sent a check for $0.00
then all was happy.

I would guess with millions of computers doing accounts receivable,
even if 0.1% of the programmers forget a zero balance check line,
there will be alot of that. With a utility bill who would think
there would ever be a zero balance, even if you do not use any
gas/electric/water there are still minimum charges incurred.

Remove 333 to reply.
Randy

[gregz]

For a while I was getting billed 0.0 . It stopped after a few months.
Credit card.

Greg

[The Ghost In The Machine]

On Apr 24, 7:11 pm, "Malcom \"Mal\" Reynolds" <atlas-

OMG HOW CRUEL...HE MUST HAVE SUFFERED SO MUCH.
TO THINK.......IF HE HAD JUST SENT THEM A CHECK FOR $0.00 WHEN HE
FIRST GOT BILLED NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.

BOOWAHAHAHAHAHA !
TGITM

[dgk]

On Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:02:11 -0700 (PDT), The Ghost In The Machine
<prote...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Apr 24, 7:11ápm, "Malcom \"Mal\" Reynolds" <atlas-
>bug...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> á á Unbelievable story
>>
>> á á On Thursday, 24th áJanuary 2002 , Derek Guille broadcast this story áon his
>> á á afternoon program on ABC radio:
>>
>> á á In March 1999 a man áliving in Kandos (near Mudgee in NSW, Australia á)
>> á á received a bill for his as yet unused gas line ástating that he owed $0.00.
>>
>> á á He ignored it and threw áit away. áIn April he received another bill áand
>> á á threw that one away too.
>>
>> á á The following month the ágas company sent him a very nasty note stating
>> á á that they áwere going to cancel his gas áline if he didn't send them $0..00
>> á á by return ámail.
>>
>> á á He called them, talked áto them, and they said it was a computer error áand
>> á á they would take care of it.
>>
>> á á The following month he ádecided that it was about time that he tried out
>> á á the troublesome gas line figuring that if there áwas usage on the account
>> á á it would put an end to áthis ridiculous predicament.
>>
>> á á However, when he went to áuse the gas, it had been cut off.
>>
>> á á He called the gas ácompany who apologised for the computer error áonce
>> á á again and said that they would take care of áit. áThe next day he got a
>> á á bill for $0.00 ástating that payment was now overdue.
>>
>> á á Assuming that having áspoken to them the previous day the latest bill áwas
>> á á yet another mistake, he ignored it, trusting áthat the company would be as
>> á á good as their word áand sort the problem out.
>>...
>> á á This story can also be áviewed on the ABC website.
>>
>> á á Who employs these áidiots??
>>
>> á á Remember, these "people" áwalk among us and breathe the same air we do.
>> á á What is worse , they breed !
>>
>> á á This is a true ástory.

>>
>> No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG -www.avg.comVersion:
>> 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database:2411/4954- Release Date: 04/23/12
>
>OMG HOW CRUEL...HE MUST HAVE SUFFERED SO MUCH.
>TO THINK.......IF HE HAD JUST SENT THEM A CHECK FOR $0.00 WHEN HE
>FIRST GOT BILLED NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED.
>
>BOOWAHAHAHAHAHA !
>TGITM

Mostly incorrect TGITM. The evidence is that much of the same problems
would have occurred, just quicker. He still would have crashed the
bank system, and that would have caused the same problems with their
customers. Like them, he would have had a bounced check situation.

But I think the court was wrong to rule that the gas company had to
pay for all the bank's bounced checks. The banks system should have
been able to cope with a zero amount without dying. I certainly test
my software for conditions like that.