• French Woman Received 11 Quadrillion Euro Phone Bill
    37 replies, posted
A French woman who received a telephone bill for an amount equivalent to nearly 6,000 times the country's annual economic output has had the real amount she owed waived -- after finally convincing the company they must have made a mistake. Solenne San Jose, from Pessac in the Bordeaux region of southwestern France, could not believe her eyes when she opened the bill to discover she was being asked to pay 11,721,000,000,000,000 euros to close her account. "There were so many zeroes I couldn't even work out how much it was," she said. San Jose's alarm mounted when operators at Bouygues Telecom told her they could not amend the computer-generated statement or stop the balance from being debited from her bank account. Only after a series of frantic calls did the company finally admit the bill should have been for 117.21 euros. Bouygues Telecom told AFP the mix-up had been due to a printing error and a subsequent misunderstanding between the client and staff at their call centre. [url]http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/frenchwomans-alarm-trillion-euro-phone-bill-130646818.html[/url]
This is why I distrust computers having complete control over our financial sectors.
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;37984356]This is why I distrust computers having complete control over our financial sectors.[/QUOTE] It's not that I distrust computers, I distrust bad programmers from creating software for the financial sector.
I assumed the phone company was like this when they sent it. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfUM5xHUY4M[/media]
Check for overflow goddammit!
Dammit EU, you can't solve your financial problems this way!
With that amount, we can bail out [I]the entire world![/I]
[QUOTE=Megafan;37984454]With that amount, we can bail out [I]the entire world![/I][/QUOTE] And fuck the Economy a few-10-times over.
[QUOTE=Megafan;37984454]With that amount, we can bail out [I]the entire world![/I][/QUOTE] If only that evil bitch paid up we'd all live the life of luxury!
Luckily it was a mistake. There were several times when people got an unexpected high bill which they had to pay in the end because they used an expensive service by accident.
[QUOTE=tdnoob;37984327]A Bouygues Telecom told AFP the mix-up had been due to a printing error and a subsequent misunderstanding between the client and staff at their call centre. [/QUOTE] What so the problem was due to a [i]printing[/i] error, so that must mean that somebody keyed this value back into a computer at some point?
"Sorry, there is really a mistake, lady. Let me fix that for you." *Adding a zero to the number*
[QUOTE=Mattz333;37984692]What so the problem was due to a [i]printing[/i] error, so that must mean that somebody keyed this value back into a computer at some point?[/QUOTE] Obviously, someone fell asleep on the 0 key.
[QUOTE=Mattz333;37984692]What so the problem was due to a [i]printing[/i] error, so that must mean that somebody keyed this value back into a computer at some point?[/QUOTE] obviously it was Gordon Frohman
So how many companies and countries' assets are represented by some number on a computer? Would it be possible to slowly erase the debt of every country without the actual exchange of currency?
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;37984356]This is why I distrust computers having complete control over our financial sectors.[/QUOTE] Except the computers don't have complete control because the staff were (eventually) able to amend the error with no problem Or, we can do it your way, and get rid of all the ATMs and put ourselves at risk of human error instead
[QUOTE=Krinkels;37990404]So how many companies and countries' assets are represented by some number on a computer? Would it be possible to slowly erase the debt of every country without the actual exchange of currency?[/QUOTE] No.
Reminds me of the time my university mailed me a notice that they had refunded $0.00 into my account.
My mom was without Internet for a few weeks so she used the mobile hotspot on her phone. Apparently there was a 5gb data cap and going even 1gb passed that was $10. Unaware of the cap, I used the internet like I always would, and ended up going 169gb over the cap in a few weeks. That's a $1690 phone bill I told her the neighbors must've stolen our internet :v:
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;37984356]This is why I distrust computers having complete control over our financial sectors.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure humans fuck up more often and severe than this one extreme case.
[QUOTE=jeimizu;37990557]Reminds me of the time my university mailed me a notice that they had refunded $0.00 into my account.[/QUOTE] Reminds me of this: [quote] In March of 1992 a man living in Newton, Massachusetts, received a bill on his as yet unused credit card stating that he owed $0.00. He threw it away. In April he received another and tossed that one, too. The following month the credit card company sent him a nasty note stating they were going to cancel his card if he didn't send them $0.00. In retrospect, he probably should have let them do that. Instead he called the company and was informed that (are you ready for this?) the problem was the result of a computer error. They told him they'd take care of it. The following month he reasoned that, if other charges appeared on the card, then it would put an end to his ridiculous predicament. Besides, they assured him the problem would be resolved. So he presented his card for a purchase. It was declined. Once again he called. He learned that the credit card had been canceled for lack of payment. They apologized for (here it is again) another computer error and promised they would rectify the situation. The next day he got a bill for $0.00 stating that payment was now overdue. Assuming that this bill was yet another mistake, he ignored it. But the following month he received yet another bill for $0.00 stating that he had ten days to pay his account in full or the company would take necessary steps to recover the debt. He gave in. He mailed in a check for $0.00. The computer duly processed it and returned a statement to the effect that his account was paid in full. A week later, the man's bank called him asking him why he wrote a check for $0.00. He explained the problem at length. 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 caused a computer crash. The following month the man received a letter from the credit card company claiming that his check had bounced, that he still owed $0.00 and, unless payment was sent immediately, they would institute procedures to collect this debt. [/quote] Not sure if true, but it's entertaining
Few months ago Germany got rid of like 1/3rd of it's debt for a few hours because some dude swapped a + and a -
[QUOTE=SgtCr4zyGunz;37990306]obviously it was Gordon Frohman[/QUOTE] Still have a surplus of explosive barrels thanks to that idiot
reminds me of [url=http://imgs.xkcd.com/verizon_billing.mp3]this[/url]
[QUOTE=Cjmax;37990580]My mom was without Internet for a few weeks so she used the mobile hotspot on her phone. Apparently there was a 5gb data cap and going even 1gb passed that was $10. Unaware of the cap, I used the internet like I always would, and ended up going 169gb over the cap in a few weeks. That's a $1690 phone bill I told her the neighbors must've stolen our internet :v:[/QUOTE] Even if you haven't confessed, I hope you've been trying to make up for it ever since. I would hate myself for putting my mother in that situation.
Yea, her and I have a great relationship so hopefully it will blow off in time. I've always helped out though.
Inflation's that bad, huh.
- Excuse me, but my phone bill states that I owe you 11,721,000,000,000,000 € and I think there might be something wrong with your system due to this demand. - Non! - But! - Non! - May I speak to your manag-. - BAGUETTE!!! *hangs up* ~ France
[QUOTE=Sunday_Roast;37995433]- Excuse me, but my phone bill states that I owe you 11,721,000,000,000,000 € and I think there might be something wrong with your system due to this demand. - Non! - But! - Non! - May I speak to your manag-. - BAGUETTE!!! *hangs up* ~ France[/QUOTE] I saw a TV Show about France one time and this is totally how it is.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;37995487]I saw a TV Show about France one time and this is totally how it is.[/QUOTE] not really
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