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  On Thursday, 24 January 2002, (True Story)

  Posted by Shane Drew on September 25, 2005 at 1:05 pm

  If you ever doubted that some of our banks and companies are run
  by morons, read this… On Thursday, 24 January 2002,Derek
  Guille broadcast this story on his afternoon program on the ABC.

  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 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 the bill, 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 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 has 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 2 hours to convince
  the clerks at the local courthouse that he was not joking but
  convince them he did and they subsequently assisted 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.

  [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.

  This story was copied from the ABC website.

  Shane Drew replied 18 years, 7 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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