verbatim from flier sent with recent bill:

Our Customer Service systems will be available 24hours per day, seven days a week until 8:00 pm EST onFriday December 31, 1999 when we will "chill" the system overnight. The system will be up and running by noon on Saturday, January 1, 2000. During the "chill" period, we will not be able to accept paymnets by phone or make changes to your policy.

We ask that you plan ahead and make any requests of our Customer Sevice are before December 31st and after January 1se.

http://www.progressive.com

[End Quote}

Questions:

1. What is a "chill" period?

If this a time for transferring legacy code over to a new database can it be done in 24 hours? My experience with an SAP cutover took 10 days to load and test legacy data for a mdeium sized $400 million sales outfit.

2, If this is to block non-compliant data, why start at 8:00 pm 12/31/1999 and expect to be back online by noon 01/01/2000. Is this just a coincidence that 8:00 pm EST closely follows 12:00 GMT?

This gives me a chill and I hope I dont need to make an insurance claim in early 2000.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), October 19, 1999

Answers

Bill,

I think these means that if you have an emergency claim to make, just "chill" out for a while to give them time to shut down the company, take your money, and head out of the country.

-- @ (@@@.@), October 19, 1999.

There are quite a few places taking this approach. This is a little longer than most though. We're shutting ours down (quiesing) at 11:45pm - 12:15am.

There are some billing systems that simply cannot handle the rollover.

Don't be suprised to see 2 bills in January. One for December, up 'till midnight on the 31st and one for January, right after midnight on the 31st.

Our wireless phone company is doing this also.

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), October 19, 1999.

1) Sounds reasonable to me.

2) Per my bride, who temped in their IT Personel Dept for a while, the guys in the Y2 department AIN'T TYRO'S!

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), October 19, 1999.