Any You Think You Have Computer Problems ?

[ZAP]

On Thursday, 24 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) 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 hm 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 employed these idiots??

[RHR]

Gold

[Blonk]

I still have two cheques sitting in the desk that came from floptus when I cancelled my service, one being for 1c the other for 3c.....

Must have cost them at least 50c to post out to me....

[tab]

Can't find it on ABC - but found it here instead:

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

[Guest FatBAt]

I heard a similar storey to this where a guy was receiving heaps of bills for $0.00 for an account at his bank.

Tired of it all, he wrote a cheque for zero dollars made out to his bank and when it was presented, and (cleared??), it sent the banks computers into melt down.

Apparently their computers could not divide or add zeros and it sent it into a huge loop.

Don't know whether it's true or not.

Cheers

[XR06T]

hahahahha wtf..

[YPURV4]

WTF the company would be kicking them self now $1500 a month for 5 months over $0.00, just show how much big companys couldnt give a stuff about looking into matters deeply about there clients.

[ZAP]

I have been receiving a phone bill for some 1900 competition my wife called. It was for $2.75 from Tel$tra and I have been getting it for 6 years, every month with DO NOT PAY UNTIL NEXT INVOICE

It makes me happy knowing that Tel$tra are paying to have this sent to me, and wasting their money.

[Iconic Bionic]

I heard a similar storey to this where a guy was receiving heaps of bills for $0.00 for an account at his bank.

Tired of it all, he wrote a cheque for zero dollars made out to his bank and when it was presented, and (cleared??), it sent the banks computers into melt down.

Apparently their computers could not divide or add zeros and it sent it into a huge loop.

Don't know whether it's true or not.

Cheers

←

[Skooby]

We have a similiar dilemna going on..

We used to have STD and mobile phone calls with a second carrier called Your Telecom. All local calls were through Telstra. When we moved houses though Telstra offered us a better deal to come back to them on all calls. So we took the offer and Telstra disconnected us from Your Telecom.

Anyway 2 months after we moved we received a bill from Your Telecom for $48. Thinking it was our last bill from them we paid it and thought nothing more about it. 2 weeks later we had a ban placed on our phone for local calls. So we called Telstra and asked what the deal was. They said they hadn't placed a ban on our line and it was showing as active on their end. After 90 minutes on the phone to them they agreed to re-activate the line even, even though in their opinion, there was nothing wrong with it.

All was fixed until a week later we received another bill from Your telstra and the phone was barred again. Knowing that we no longer had an account with them we rang them and asked what their deal was. They told us that we no longer had an account with them . We told them we know that but how can we receive a bill if we have no account ? This stumped the operator and he passed us onto a supervisor. The supervisor told us that he had fixed the problem and within the hour the ban would be lifted from our phone. Once again, it was explained that there was a glitch in the system. The funniest part was that they tried to get us back as a customer

An hour later there was no change, except that our phone was no longer able to make ANY phone calls. Due to the holiday season down here we didn't have days off and couldn't call from anywhere else. We were without a phone for over a month!!

Finally my wife got in touch with them from work and they said we hadn't paid our last bill. We told them we didn't have an account with them any longer and that they owed us $48. They told us the phone wouldn't be unbarred until we paid. So we called Telstra again (from work mind you) and explained what was happening and they agreed to overide Your Telecom for us. Telstra explained what they had done was to take back the std and mobile phone accounts without approval from both Telstra and us and recommenced billing us, which is highly illegal.

After 6 weeks of no phone we finally got our phone back. Telstra are taking legal action against them, reimbursing our line rental for 3 months and wiping our account of any owed monies. We are also seeking legal action against Your Telecom to see where we stand, on advice from Telstra.

I've knocked Telstra in the past for shoddy customer service but the technicians that helped us were brilliant. They even gave us their direct number (not the 13 numbers you always have to use) should we have any other problems.