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In March 1992 a man living in Newtown near Boston, Massachusetts, 
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 he 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
of 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 he 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 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 the credit card company only the previous day, the latest bill
was yet another mistake and 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 ten days to
pay his account or the company would have to take steps to recover the
debt. Finally giving in, he thought he would play 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, the man'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 the man 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. The man, who had been considering buying his
wife a computer for her birthday, bought her a typewriter instead.


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[From the personal archives]

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