MY WIFE just told me the lead story on CBS News was a Major Y2K Failure at HBVC? Bank in London. 20,000 customers without access to ATMS or accounts.

Anyone else provide info?

-- Paul L. Hepperla (paulhep@terracom.net), December 29, 1999

Answers

Sure thing. Looks like the BOE will have to step in and stop all the problems. Trying to get word from CNN. ABC has yet to report. This could really be trouble. It could send shock waves here. I hope not.

tim

-- tim (clark4578@aol.com), December 29, 1999.

Are we confusing this with the HBSC problem where they just cant do credit card swipes ??

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), December 29, 1999.

The CBS Report may have indicated a larger problem discussed in this article.

Link

Date-change software bug delays U.K. shoppers By Reuters Special to CNET News.com December 29, 1999, 6:05 a.m. PT LONDON--Credit card swipe machine maker Racal Electronics and bank group HSBC Holdings were scrambling today to exterminate a Y2K-type software bug causing delays for thousands of U.K. shoppers.

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More from CNET Investor Quotes delayed 20+ minutes A date change recognition problem in the software of as many as 20,000 swipe machines made by Racal and supplied to merchants by HSBC was behind problems that started on Dec. 26, causing long lines at checkout counters.

"It is a software time- and date-related issue, which will be resolved, and we're entirely confident that terminals will revert to full functionality at the start of the new year," said Nicholas West, spokesman for Racal. "Naturally, we're sorry for any inconvenience caused, but we've got the mechanisms in place to sort it out," he said.

The glitch caught more than 10,000 U.K. merchants by surprise after they opened their doors to throngs of Boxing Day (traditionally the day after Christmas) shoppers.

"On Boxing Day we had the first alert that there might be a problem...Yesterday we were advised by Racal that a number of terminals were affected," said HSBC spokesman Richard Beck.

Merchants trying to swipe charge cards through Racal machines for credit authorizations have found cards being improperly rejected, forcing them to go through time-consuming telephone authorizations instead.

The Racal machines supplied by HSBC can be made to work by pressing a combination of numbers on the keypad, but most retailers do not know the combination, Beck said.

"It's not as though the terminals don't work at all. But under normal key strokes that a retailer would use, they will be rejected," he said. "We think it's typically small businesses."

The problem is that the swipe machines are polled periodically by central computers for four-day diagnostic checks. During those checks, the date change from 1999 to 2000 is not recognized, said Racal's West.

"We would describe it as not necessarily a millennium-, but a century- related issue," West said. "I wouldn't describe it as a Y2K bug, but it's very difficult trying to convince someone that it isn't."

He added, "Retailers are being helped. Transactions are all entirely secure and statements are unaffected. So customer confidence should not be dented by this at all."

Story Copyright ) 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

-- Paul L. Hepperla (paulhep@terracom.net), December 29, 1999.

We wouldn't describe it as a Y2K bug

Sounds like this guy was a recent graduate of the Bradley Sherman semantics school.

;-)

-- cgbg jr (cgbgjr@webtv.net), December 29, 1999.

but it's very difficult trying to convince
someone that it isn't."

he he

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), December 29, 1999.