A redundant French teaching assistant was going to pay it all off:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19908095 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19908095)
Quote
French phone bill waived after 12qn-euro blunder
A woman in south-west France, who received a telephone bill of nearly 12 quadrillion euros, has had the real amount she owed waived - after the company admitted its mistake.
Solenne San Jose, from Pessac outside Bordeaux, said she received a huge shock when she opened the bill for 11,721,000,000,000,000 euros (£9.4qn).
This is nearly 6,000 times France's annual economic output.
She had requested her account be closed after losing her job last month.
The former teaching assistant said she "almost had a heart attack. There were so many zeroes I couldn't even work out how much it was".
The phone company, Bouygues Telecom, initially told her there was nothing they could do to amend the computer-generated statement and later offered to set up instalments to pay off the bill.
In the end, the company admitted the bill should have been for 117.21 euros only, and eventually waived it altogether.
It has also apologised for the gaffe, which it says was down to a printing error and a subsequent misunderstanding between the client and staff at their call centre.
Yeah, I saw that.
I like how the call centre was going to offer her an instalment plan to pay it off. That and that the bill was 6000 times the annual GDP of France.
Quote from: Jacob on October 11, 2012, 06:18:11 PM
Yeah, I saw that.
I like how the call centre was going to offer her an instalment plan to pay it off. That and that the bill was 6000 times the annual GDP of France.
Yeah, I love the stupidity of someone in a call centre following the script and insisting the customer pays the equivalent of the next century of the world's GDP.
It might not be that long until that many euros is pocket change. :P
Quote from: mongers on October 11, 2012, 06:14:44 PM
A redundant French teaching assistant was going to pay it all off:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19908095 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19908095)
Quote
French phone bill waived after 12qn-euro blunder
A woman in south-west France, who received a telephone bill of nearly 12 quadrillion euros, has had the real amount she owed waived - after the company admitted its mistake.
Solenne San Jose, from Pessac outside Bordeaux, said she received a huge shock when she opened the bill for 11,721,000,000,000,000 euros (£9.4qn).
This is nearly 6,000 times France's annual economic output.
She had requested her account be closed after losing her job last month.
The former teaching assistant said she "almost had a heart attack. There were so many zeroes I couldn't even work out how much it was".
The phone company, Bouygues Telecom, initially told her there was nothing they could do to amend the computer-generated statement and later offered to set up instalments to pay off the bill.
In the end, the company admitted the bill should have been for 117.21 euros only, and eventually waived it altogether.
It has also apologised for the gaffe, which it says was down to a printing error and a subsequent misunderstanding between the client and staff at their call centre.
I wonder if these two things are related.
Hey, maybe I'm being a bit harsh on the call centre employee, perhaps they've come up with The solution, rather like that girl sitting in a small café in Rickmansworth did, to the world economic crisis.
As things stands it makes as much sense as quantitative easing does.
They probably didn't understand her. They don't speak French very well in India.
Quote from: mongers on October 11, 2012, 06:20:48 PM
Quote from: Jacob on October 11, 2012, 06:18:11 PM
Yeah, I saw that.
I like how the call centre was going to offer her an instalment plan to pay it off. That and that the bill was 6000 times the annual GDP of France.
Yeah, I love the stupidity of someone in a call centre following the script and insisting the customer pays the equivalent of the next century of the world's GDP.
:lol: A lot of people just don't understand numbers.