Subject: [permaculture] What2K?

From: Keith Johnson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 1999 08:19:51 -0400

In March 1992 Andy Mikula living in Dickson City near Scranton,
Pennsylvania, 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 Andy 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
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 Andy 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

canceled.

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 check 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, Andy Mikula'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 Andy 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.
Andy, who had been considering buying his wife Eileen a computer for her

birthday, bought her a typewriter instead.

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