You may have seen this one... (fwd)

[Le Phu Binh <lpbinh@csd.uwm.edu>]

A Credit Card Nightmare
     --------------------
     In March 1992 a man living in Newton 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.
     
     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 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 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 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.