Progress...
Benny got a credit card bill stating that he owed $0.00. He ignored it and tossed it in the trash... Next month he got same bill; did the same thing. The following month the company sent him a very nasty note stating they were going to cancel his credit card if he didn't send them $0.00 immediately. He called them, talked to them, they said it was "a glitch" and told him they'd take care of it. The following month he tried to charge a new pair of shoes and couldn't. He called the credit card company who again said they'd take care of it. The next day he got his bill for $0.00 stating that he was over 60 days delinquent and the matter was being turned over to the collection dept. Well, Benny figured the credit card company would take care of it, so he didn't worry. The next month he got a bill for $0.00 stating that he had 10 days to pay or his account was going out to a collection agency. Getting the idea that action was needed on his part, Benny mailed the credit card company a check for $0.00, and the credit card company's computer processed it, noting that his account was now paid in full. A week later, someone from Benny's bank called him asking him why he wrote a check for $0.00. He explained and they said, "Well, your $0.00 check has caused our check processing software to crash. We now can't process ANY of our checks from that day electronically because that $0.00 check is causing the entire system to abort." Benny, who had been considering buying his wife a computer for her birthday, bought her a typewriter and a new set of pens instead.
Originally published November 14, 2002.
