Steady Ned,
By CAROLINE BYRNE, Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) - Thousands of British bargain hunters were
stranded at the cash register after their credit cards were
improperly rejected by store swipe machines infected with
the millennium bug - one of the most serious Y2K glitches to date.
Some 20,000 credit card machines malfunctioned Wednesday, causing delays and disorder
across Britain during the post-Christmas crush. Retailers claimed they have lost $5 million in
sales and were reportedly threatening to bring a class action lawsuit against HSBC, one of
Britain's largest four banks and the largest supplier of the machines.
It wasn't the first time Britons experienced Y2K problems. In August, thousands of London
residents lost power for days after the city's main utility distributed faulty smart cards
designed to be year-2000 ready. The microchip-embedded cards caused customers'
electric meters to shut down until they could be manually repaired.
The so-called Y2K bug stems from programming that expressed years in two digits. Left
uncorrected, the bug causes computers and microcircuits to mistake the year 2000 for
1900. Faulty fixes are also a problem and can cause system failures or corrupt data.
On Wednesday, the credit card machines, manufactured by Racal Electronics, failed to
approve the credit cards because of a software problem, a HSBC bank spokeswoman
said.
The bank's new swipe card terminals were programmed to look ahead four working days
in processing merchant transactions to ensure they are registered within that time period,
HSBC spokeswoman Nicolette Dawson said.
When the machines compared Dec. 28, 1999, with Jan. 1, 2000, they failed to function
because they read the date as Jan. 1, 1900.
She said the problem was expected to disappear by Jan. 1 because the terminals would be
comparing Jan. 1, 2000, with Jan. 5, 2000.
Linda Stryker, a public relations executive for HSBC in the United States, said the error
was specific to software used in British machines and should not effect U.S. credit card
swiping machines.
With the New Year quickly approaching, however, officials around the world were making
final checks at Y2K crisis command posts.
"The sky is the limit when it comes to what might happen," said Peter de Jager, a Canadian
computer consultant who was among the first to sound the Y2K alarm. "There will be a
handful of what can only be described as catastrophic problems around the world."
Although Y2K experts say the United States, Britain and other industrialized countries
appear to be well prepared, there have already been several early Y2K glitches:
Hershey Foods Corp. faced distribution delays because of trouble with a new $112 million
automation system designed in part to avoid Y2K problems. At the height of problems in
October, several retailers were reporting shortages that forced them to turn to other
candymakers to fill bare shelves.
And in Maine, owners of 2000-model cars and trucks received titles identifying their new
vehicles as "horseless carriages," the designation used for vintage vehicles produced before
1916. About 800 passenger car titles and about 1,200 tractor-trailer titles were issued with
the error.
Britain's credit card problem started Tuesday when merchants tried to swipe Mastercard
and Visa cards through the machines without success, Dawson said.
Lines grew as retailers were forced to telephone for authorization. Some merchants
resorted to bringing out old manual machines, which produced a carbon copy of the
transaction.
"The problem was with the terminals, not the cards," Dawson said.
Small retailers were supplied with the new swipe machines several months ago and were
the worst hit by the bug, she said.
On Wednesday, they vowed to sue HSBC after watching their customers take their
business to bigger retailers who used different technology, according to a story in The
Times newspaper in London.
Instead of telephoning for authorization, shopkeepers were advised they could process the
cards by pressing a sequence of keys into the terminals before swiping the card.
An HSBC helpline was set up to help them through the sequence, but some retailers
complained they still couldn't figure out how to make their machines function properly.
Of the 20,000 machines, 14,000 were supplied by HSBC and 6,000 by other banks.
Racal Electronics said the problem would affect a maximum of 2 percent of all retail outlets
in Britain that accept credit cards. A Racal spokesman was unable to explain how the
malfunction was missed when the company went over its plans for the year 2000 date
change.
The Y2K retail disruption coincided with the official launch of Britain's Y2K tracking Web
site, which will monitor developments in Britain and overseas.
"This is a minor glitch," the Bank of England said in a Web site message that referred to the
swipe card problems. "It is typical of the sort of problem that it was expected would need
to be dealt with over this period."
Hang in there buddy,
Hank
