Sorry, more looking for than posting.

[flying dog]

Folks,

 

Dunno if I did post it here, but I am looking for the story.

 

It is a true story about how stubborn a company is and makes someone write them a cheque for ZERO dollars to complete something.

 

He writes the cheque and this causes the whole banking system to fail.

 

The bank was fined.

 

Can anyone remember if it was here? I have tried looking, but can't find it.

 

 

[Admin]

Haven't heard of that one before so it doesn't ring a bell here FD

 

 

[flying dog]

Found it:

 

This is a true story with an excellent outcome............

 

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) 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 computerized 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??

 

 

[JIMMYTWO]

Classic

 

 

[winsor68]

Funny... but obviously a load of baloney. Still... wouldn't it be nice if you could get companies such as lets just say... Telstra.. to compensate for mucking us around the way they do.

 

 

[flying dog]

Windsor,

 

Apparantly not.

 

Although anyone can say it is true, check with other sites and it WAS broadcast on ABC radio.

 

They aren't (usually) that gullable.

 

 

[winsor68]

The story first came to light in the late 70's... and referred to a man in Boston. Been doing the rounds since then with some details changed... The one big factor that proves it is baloney is the $0.00 check... the idea that this could shut down a computer system is pretty far out.

 

Its a well known urban myth.

 

 

[Admin]

Was it broadcast on the 1st of April?

 

 

[turboplanner]

That reminds me of the argument in a pub between two mates. They couldn't agree and finally one said "I'll bet you 200 million dollars to a dollar that I'm right"

 

He was wrong, and the mate called in the bet.

 

Thinking the mate was having a practical joke, he decided to play it, and wrote out a cheque for $200 milion.

 

The cheque bounced, and he recveived fees of $185,000.00

 

His mate was laughing, but the bank didn't see the joke and came after him for the money.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

I just googled snopes $0.00 and found :play_ball:

 

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

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Its an urban legend - you can read about it on snopes (I can't get the link to work - the link icon is greyed out so you'll have to copy & paste ...) http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/zero.asp

 

I also had a search of the ABC archives. Derek Guille was a radio presenter based in Melbourne working on the ABC Local radio Afternoon timeslot, broadcast over Victoria and southern NSW. I checked the archived news for the date and nothing like that story turned up. However, it would not be the first time a lazy journalist rehashed an old email story without checking the background - Media Watch is full of examples. As Snopes points out, if simply writing a cheque for $0.00 could bring the banks to their knees then every scammer would be doing it. And according to Snopes the email has been doing the rounds from at least 1998.

 

Sue

 

 

 

[flying dog]

Drats.

 

Oh well.

 

 

[Yenn]

If anyone as had dealings with BOC they will have had the same problem.

 

I let them get the debt collector onto me the second time they harassed me, I got a letter from the debt collector to say I owed nothing, but no apology. As someone else noted telstra are not backward in coming forward either.