Y2K bug bites early in Bellevue [Washington state]
by Chris Solomon
Seattle Times Eastside bureau
BELLEVUE - It's hardly the collapse of world financial markets or jet planes corkscrewing into the ground, but the Y2K bug has claimed a victim in Bellevue.
Because of a contractor's computer-related goof, about 6,000 water-and-sewer-utility customers served by Bellevue received bills printed with a due date of Jan. 6 - of the year 1900.
"It's just a printing error," stressed a weary-sounding Bellevue city spokeswoman, Colleen O'Grady, fielding questions from the media. Some asked if residents were panicking. They weren't.
"There's no problem in the utility system and services. . . . They've all been tested," O'Grady said.
The vendor that prints the forms for the city did not have a "Y2K patch" to correct a computer from mistaking the "00" in 2000 for the year 1900 on one portion of the bill, O'Grady said.
The correct due date - Jan. 6, 2000 - did appear on the bill's remittance portion, but that didn't stop several customers from calling to point out the error.
The city plans to send letters to customers explaining what happened.
The federal government and many experts around the nation agree that the country has prepared its major computer systems for the date change. Foul-ups, they have said, are likely to be relatively minor - such as the printing error - and cause inconvenience, not pandemonium.
Those who received the misprinted bills can relax for another reason, too: 100 years of late fees won't apply. |
