NEWSBYTES - Glitches of the Week...

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Title: Glitches of the Week By Leonard Lee, Newsbytes MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 01 May 2000, 5:33 PM CST

This is a weekly column from Newsbytes featuring the latest in the weird, bizarre, and unfortunate when it comes to technology.

COMPUTER PROBLEMS HURT EARNINGS AT DEPARTMENT 56

Department 56, a manufacturer of collectible miniature villages, reports its corporate earnings have been hurt for the past few quarters because of problems with a company-wide computer system. The relatively new Enterprise Resource Planning system controls the company's shipping and general ledger tasks.

According to Tony Ishaug, Department 56's treasury and investor relations spokesperson, the ERP system created duplicate orders for customers during the order taking and shipping process.

"Customer documentation was not error-free and the invoices did not go out on time," said Ishaug. "Because the invoicing was delayed and had errors, accounts receivable still has some issues to work through." Currently the system has been fully integrated in the company, and the previous technical problems have been corrected, but the financial problems created by the ERP still need to be cleaned up.

"The issues with the computer system began in early 1999," when the bulk of the new system was installed, said Ishaug. "And, although the problems with the computers themselves have been solved, the residual affects they have had on the company are still being fleshed out."

DATABASE COMBINATION CAUSES MULTIPLE EMAIL ADDRESSES

Some customers of Netscape's free email service, WebMail, have been locked out of their accounts by a software glitch. The problem occurred at a time during when many users of the service have been asked by Netscape to change their email addresses. As a result of the merging of the email services provided by Netscape Netcenter, CompuServe Interactive Services Inc. and America Online Inc., some 480,000 users of Netscape's WebMail are being forced to change their account information.

Users of the service were asked to choose new usernames and passwords to avoid duplication in the database. The members were notified of the change in an email, but some customers were unable to read this notice because a software error prevented them from logging on to their account. In a letter posted on the WebMail log-in page, Jim Martin, general manager of Netscape, wrote to users, "We recognize that some of you have experienced some problems changing your user name and accessing email over the past few days and we apologize for any inconvenience. We are fixing these problems, but realize that some of you have been greatly frustrated and we apologize."

FREE TICKETS ISSUED

Thousands of tickets for events held at Cheltenham Town Hall in England were issued without charging the recipients as reported by The Western Daily Press of the United Kingdom. A computer error involving the banking terminal was the reason for the lack of billing. The automatic banking credit system failed to download specifics about the customers buying the tickets. Because of the problem, it is estimated that the venue lost almost 8,000 British pounds.

After it was discovered that some customers were not being charged, officials began gathering information on the customers who purchased the tickets via telephone. By piecing together information what information they have on the unbilled customers, Cheltenham Town Hall officials have been able to regain some of their loss. The faulty system has since been replaced.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com

17:33 CST (20000501/WIRES TOP, BUSINESS, NETWORK, PC/GLITCHES/PHOTO) http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/148306.html

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