[Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada]

Computer glitch hits Saskatoon billings

WebPosted Jan 20 2000 7:40 PM EST

SASKATOON, SASK - It's the sort of computer glitch Y2K watchers were afraid of. But bungled bills in Saskatoon are the result of new software, not old.

"We ask our customers to bear with us" ...city official The city forked out nearly 3 million dollars software to replace the old program that wouldn't be able to cope with the year 2000. But new one has problems of its own.

Bills have been going out late, and wrong.

City Hall has been swamped with complaints. One was from Viola Akin. "We sent in cheques in the mail and now they're telling us we didn't get them, or you owe us money for this and that and we have no idea what they're talking about."

The city's trying to sort out the problem. It's put the Acting Treasurer on the job. For now, Kerry Tarasoff is urging patience. "It's been long stressful hours for everybody on the team. We just ask our customers to bear with us.", he says.

City officials say if you suspect something wrong with your bill, there's no point in going down there. You're better off faxing or e-mailing, and waiting for a response. The e-mail address is finance@city.saskatoon.sk.ca

Source: CBC News, Ontario, Canada http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/01/20/glitch000120

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), March 04, 2000