is due next month. Cha____________ is a large mail order firm. Of course this is not Y2k. They like to send 2 rings to people who go through the inconvenience of waiting for the backordered item to arrive and only charge them for one. How many companies are doing this and do not even know it?

The other non y2k glitch is my local city owned utility. I filled up the swimming pool last month. The bill came and was for 3592 galons, 3573 previous month and 3507 the month before that so they do not appear to be estimating the bill and reading it every 3 or 6 months. So this is an undercharge of roughly $80. Of course, they knew that the pool full of clean water was an emergency supply that would be available for the neighborhood so they did not charge me for it. This utility had proudly announced last summer that they had gone to windowing to solve the Utility billing program. I never heard them mention embedded systems in all of the BS that they put out on how they had fixed the systems. Curly was wondering if we should thank them for the free water? Well they will make it up soon on speeding tickets that run $187 for doing 45 in a 30 mph zone where the limit should be 40 mph to start with.

-- Moe (Moe@3stooges.gom), January 30, 2000

Answers

I think you should ask Curly some VERY pointed questions as to whether or not HE ordered that second ring for your wife. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), January 30, 2000.

Moe --

I have a friend who works as a mail order clerk for a LARGE upsacale cataolguye company headquartered in Portland, Or. She says that while their computers are still p, the rates of error in their filling orders and tracking deliveries has gone thourhg the roof. It has become common inthe processing of orders that the computer now simpoky loses the order -- whooof -- vanishes without a trace. It has also become too common, that the computer will mangle the units or the item ordered, so the man who ordered the 3 benedictine fruitcakes for Christmas, gets 8 pairs of socks, shipped in two duplicate deliveries of 4 pair. The lady that orders a Baygen lantern or a bathrobe finds the box delivered to her doorstep is ......EMPTY. And the next day another emmpty box arrives! AAAGH!

At her office -- customer service -- she is on the phone now -- not conitnaully, but too too frequently, and many many times a day -- trying to soothe her customers and correct computer-initiated errors that did not happen six months ago, or even 3 months ago. To make matters worse, the common carrier -- in this case, UPS, is having comparable problems with their tracking service. So that when a customer cllas to complain about the late non-arrival of an order, and whn my friend contacts UPS to track the shipment, UPS will say that they have no records of the package. Chaning their name to OOPS. So she sens out lots of gift certificates adn freebie items.

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-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelaytower), January 30, 2000.

Squirrel Hunter - Yes, noted, very expensive for the bottom line. Tough to make a profit that way. Y2K may be weeding out the underprepared.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), January 30, 2000.

Free stuff? Hmm...the devil on my shoulder said we need to start a forum just for passing on such tips, heh.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 30, 2000.

Hokie,,,,

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-- consumer (shh@aol.com), January 30, 2000.

WOW>> something keeps deleting my post, its like it goes into space somewhere..What I tried to post was, DID you send the other ring back? Also, I attempted to smack that devil off Hokies shoulder, then I realized I had 2 on mine...lol. Trying this again...

-- consumer (Shh@aol.com), January 31, 2000.