The perils of misplaced decimal places

[Rhino]

I just came across this article:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/13042006...mpany-says-218-trillion-bill-mistake-its.html

I'm reproducing it below in case it doesn't stay at its current location for
very long:

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysia's largest telephone company blamed a
debt collection agency Thursday for a misplaced decimal point that resulted
in a $218 trillion US phone bill being sent to a dead man.



Telekom Malaysia said the agency mistakenly sent out a notice demanding
payment of 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit ($218 trillion) instead of the
actual 80.640000000000001 ringgit ($21.80). The notice threatened court
action if the bill was not paid.


"It is a mistake," Telekom spokeswoman Mariam Bevi Batcha told The
Associated Press. "It's clearly not Telekom Malaysia's fault . . . we have
given a stern warning to the debt collection agency because they sent out
the notice."


She declined to name the debt collection agency.


She said the mix-up had been explained to Yahaya Wahab, who received the
bill on behalf of his late father.


Yahaya said earlier this week that he had disconnected his late father's
phone line in January and settled an 84 ringgit ($23) bill then. Yahaya said
he nearly fainted when he saw the inflated bill.


Mariam said the company was waiting for a full report from the agency on the
matter, and was not able to say whether any apology would be made to Yahaya.


Government-linked Telekom Malaysia Bhd. is the country's largest
telecommunications company.

 

[Thomas Hawtin]

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Telekom Malaysia said the agency mistakenly sent out a notice demanding
payment of 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit ($218 trillion) instead of the
actual 80.640000000000001 ringgit ($21.80). The notice threatened court
action if the bill was not paid.

My normal reaction is that software bugs that move decimal points are
unlikely. The more likely culprits are data entry clerks, where
integration is so poor data needs to be retyped from one system into
another. In the case of a 1 appearing in the 18th significant figure, I
have to say don't use floating point for decimal values. Not even doubles.

Tom Hawtin