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Moving Decimal Bug Loses Money

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the test-your-code-people dept.

mario.m7 writes "Poste Italiane, the Italian postal service, suffered yesterday from an abnormal computation in ATM and credit card operations, since the decimal comma was not taken into account. The whole sum was therefore multiplied by 100, resulting in a 115,00 Euro transaction being debited as 11.500 Euro! Thousands of accounts are deep in the red and locked (link pumped through translator), so that no more operations are possible. Poste Italiane is gradually recovering the problem, fixing the error and re-crediting the sum debited in excess. Consumer associations have offered support to clients in case this lasts longer and causes damage."

13 of 420 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory Office Space by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Funny

    I always do that, I mess up some mundane detail!

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    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
  2. God Bless the USA! by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Our Comma to separate numbers and periods to indicate decimal are far superior to your backward period to separate numbers and comma to indicate a decimal number!

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    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:God Bless the USA! by benwiggy · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think you mean "God Save the Queen". We (the British) gave you the correct method for decimals before we decided to let you have the place. You've managed to pick up a few bad habits from the French, such as driving on the right.

      But apart from that, you're doing quite well.

      (For the benefit of Australians, this is humour, not flamebait.)

    2. Re:God Bless the USA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think you mean "God Save the Queen". We (the British) gave you the correct method for decimals before we decided to let you have the place. You've managed to pick up a few bad habits from the French, such as driving on the right.

      But apart from that, you're doing quite well.

      (For the benefit of Australians, this is humour, not flamebait.)

      Oh be quiet, you whinging pommy bastard.

    3. Re:God Bless the USA! by domulys · · Score: 4, Funny

      It is obvious to the most simple minded that Loki is of an inferior breed.

      I am black on the right side. Loki is WHITE on the right side, all of his people are white on the right side!

    4. Re:God Bless the USA! by Kartoffel · · Score: 4, Funny

      Australians seem to be doing even better than Americans, then. They still drive on the proper side of the road, although they measure distances in kilometers rather than miles as god and the queen intended.

      Well at least Australia is doing better than Canada. Those poor sods drive on the wrong side *and* use the metric system on their roads.

    5. Re:God Bless the USA! by haruharaharu · · Score: 4, Funny

      India drives on the left? I thought they just drove down the middle.

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      Reboot macht Frei.
    6. Re:God Bless the USA! by IrquiM · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think I read somewhere that the Australians would change from left to right in 2012. They would start with all the bigger vehicles like buses and lorries and if that turns out OK, it'll be mandatory for all motorized vehicles from 2015

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      This is blinging
  3. 1,00st post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    1,00st post!

  4. Re:For the most part. by qwijibo · · Score: 4, Funny

    They got it backwards. They're supposed to take fractions of a penny from many thousands of people, not many thousands of pennies from each person.

  5. Re:You mean 11,500 Euro by Kartoffel · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's still a decimal point. Europeans just put a little tail on it to be fancy.

  6. Re:Happened to me recently by eallanjr · · Score: 5, Funny

    I made a similar mistake recently... I made a (.NET) data entry software

    Don't you mean ,Net?

  7. Re:You mean 11,500 Euro by julien+dot · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hope you realize you still got the spelling wrong... it is "voilà" not "voilá".

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    Julien C.