Unpaid Bill

[Jamesyboi]

On Thursday, 24 January 2002, Derek Guille broadcast this story on his

afternoon program on ABC radio.

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

that 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

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 them 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. 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 gas 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 had 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 two hours to convince the clerks at the

local courthouse that he was not joking. They subsequently helped 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 computerized 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 processed.

[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.

And all this over $0.00.

This story can also be viewed on the ABC website.

Who employed these idiots??