Million Dollar Mistake
In last week's Yahoo! News, an Ohio man gets a $16.4 million cable bill. When Daniel DeVirgilio attempted to make a payment on his Time Warner cable bill which normally runs around $80, he discovered that it was rejected because the company had calculated his past due amount at more than $16 million. DeVirgilio told the Dayton Daily News, "All I want to do is watch March Madness." Instead he got a different kind of madness to deal with.
The paper says DeVirgilio did the math and concluded that he'd have to order 1.6 million on-demand movies or a pay-per-view fight 400,000 times to accumulate $16.4 million in charges. But at least he's maintaining a sense of humor about the whole thing.
"Had I known this I would have bought Showtime," DeVirgilio said. For its part, Time Warner issued a statement apologizing for the error and said that they're "going to work with the customer to get this resolved."
While the dollar amount of DeVirgilio's billing ordeal makes it among the more flagrant in recent memory, the kings of all billing mishaps were several people in July 2009. They all received a charge on a mundane purchase on their VISA for 23 quadrillion, 148 trillion, 855 billion, 308 million, 184 thousand and 500 dollars. That's almost more than 2,000 times the national debt. One was a man in Dallas who purchased a meal at a restaurant. Another is a man in New Hampshire who bought a pack of cigarettes at a gas station. A teenager was charged this same amount for a purchase at CVS and then was slapped a $20 negative balance fee.
Fortunately, all these mistakes got resolved. Mistakes do happen, and we all make mistakes. As long as we are humans and live on this corrupted planet, we will make mistakes. We will say something that hurt another person's feeling. We may throw an April fool joke at someone only to hit their sensitive spot. We may do something not knowing that it may offend someone. Mistakes will happen. Relational mistakes often time are more costly than these system errors when go unresolved and unforgiven. What mistakes caused by someone or caused by you need to be resolved today? We work hard to resolve a billing mistake, why not work hard to resolve relational mistake?
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Matt. 5:23-25
The paper says DeVirgilio did the math and concluded that he'd have to order 1.6 million on-demand movies or a pay-per-view fight 400,000 times to accumulate $16.4 million in charges. But at least he's maintaining a sense of humor about the whole thing.
"Had I known this I would have bought Showtime," DeVirgilio said. For its part, Time Warner issued a statement apologizing for the error and said that they're "going to work with the customer to get this resolved."
While the dollar amount of DeVirgilio's billing ordeal makes it among the more flagrant in recent memory, the kings of all billing mishaps were several people in July 2009. They all received a charge on a mundane purchase on their VISA for 23 quadrillion, 148 trillion, 855 billion, 308 million, 184 thousand and 500 dollars. That's almost more than 2,000 times the national debt. One was a man in Dallas who purchased a meal at a restaurant. Another is a man in New Hampshire who bought a pack of cigarettes at a gas station. A teenager was charged this same amount for a purchase at CVS and then was slapped a $20 negative balance fee.
Fortunately, all these mistakes got resolved. Mistakes do happen, and we all make mistakes. As long as we are humans and live on this corrupted planet, we will make mistakes. We will say something that hurt another person's feeling. We may throw an April fool joke at someone only to hit their sensitive spot. We may do something not knowing that it may offend someone. Mistakes will happen. Relational mistakes often time are more costly than these system errors when go unresolved and unforgiven. What mistakes caused by someone or caused by you need to be resolved today? We work hard to resolve a billing mistake, why not work hard to resolve relational mistake?
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Matt. 5:23-25