h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Veggie is such a tease!

>> Your last two questions are tracking well <<
>> Look to the original clues, the last two questions
in your list and the Mu Beta guess <<

The last two clues:
>> but don't bank on it being the answer <<
>> this thread will drift as thinking out of the box
could be an asset <<

My last two answers:
>> When the date stamp on a watch or clock fails to turn. <<
>> When processing or posting accounts from the day before. <<

The Mu Beta answer:
>> the Royal Mail claims service. <<

So.. it must be to do with Bank Holidays (which will vary
with each calendar year) and the way banks date stamp some
transactions - either thru bank machines or international
transfers or cheque processing - which occur just before or
during the holiday but are not posted until they re-open.

There used to be a law in North Am that banks could not stay
closed longer than 72 hours. This was a result of runs on the
banks in the Great Depression Era, but these laws were either
repealed or simply forgotten when Xmas/BoxingDay and Good
Friday/Easter kept creating four day weekends for the masses.

I am not familiar with the details of UK banks but here
any teller-machine transaction after 3pm on any day is not
posted until the next day (generally) and not until they re-open
after a long weekend holiday - so the machine generated
receipt will show one date and the monthly account statement
will show it happening from one to four days later depending
on the length of the holiday.

When paying a bill on its due date thru a banking machine one
has to be careful to do so before 3pm if it's on a Friday and
especially so on a long weekend. This would also be true of
any deposits to one's own savings accounts (not that the lost
interest would likely even show with our current rates of less
than 1% per annum.)

But then, all this was implied in my first reply about date-
stamps and accounts postings...

So it must be some other banking or money exchange transaction
like clearing a cheque or an international money order or forrin
funds transfer such as stock market investments or sales.

Yes/No?


~jwf~

Well Just Bob

I would never of thought of that one
- but a good attempt. Love it

vegiman

I might have guessed you would solve this one. Was it too many good clues? Yes, I believe so.

Well done

The riddle was based on what happened to me.

I rushed to a local branch of Barclay Bank to pay a Credit Card which the deadline was the 25th September. Time 3.40pm - This bank changed their date stamp to the 26th of September at 3pm. The result, I was charged a late payment fee.

I got the late fee cancelled and the cost of my phone call refunded. Happy ending. My point is, there are many people out there who would have accepted this and paid the late payment fee.

Do we really accept that this is legal. Banks get away with so many other things ?

Is it not a legal document of proof of payment and show the true time of payment. The credit card company which was also Barclay, received the money instantly on the 25th yet their computer shows the 26th. All for the sake of 10 minutes.

They have to set some deadline, I agree:

The question I now pose - should their end of day be at the same time as they close their doors to the public ?

Once again Well done ~jwf~ for working it out. I was not an easy one.

vegiman

Sorry the bank changed their time stamp at 3.30pm not 3pm as outlined, hence the 10 minute difference.

The quest and question

should it be considered legal ?

all the best
vegiman

Just a point - it was done by a cashier and not an automated process. This is why it made me

Anyone else have a view on this?

vegiman

Well, yes.
This is definitely a case of preferring to deal
with a human being rather than a machine. But,
sadly, even that human being has to deal with
the machine at her workstation (tellers' wicket)
and could not adjust the date stamp in your cause
even if you had charmed the pants off her. It's
not just the customer who has lost control of the
system, even the badgers in the cages are slaves
to the machines provided by absentee management
who operate on the assumption that their human
employees would fiddle the books if they could.
Woulda Coulda Shoulda


~jwf~

PS: Did you note how I instinctively referred to the
teller as a 'she'. This is neither a deliberate sexist
comment nor an unconscious revelation of a sexist
prejudice, but rather my actual experience in that
I have never seen a male bank teller.

You are right she was a she and not a .

There are a few male cashiers / tellers in the UK but not many.

Fiddling

could not a cashier date stamp a receipt and put it for processing the next day, "borrow money" (In inverted commas) for the night knowing it could be replaced the following day or after a weekend break.

So in that case would that argument ring true.

I still think in todays technology where everthing is instant - they should be able to change the date at closing time, not half an hour before.

The changing of time stamps varies from branch to branch, I was told if I had gone to the main branch in town which closes at 5pm, the date stamp is changed at 4.30pm.

So it is not a hard or fast rule.

The question remains - do you think it is legal, especially if the banks are going to charge you for the privilege or is it just me

vegiman

Legal doesn't make it right.

I first noticed this phenom a few years ago when I noticed that my
monthly bills charged me late fees and showed a payment date
that did not match the automated teller generated receipt.

Some transactions, such as paying down a bank branded credit card
usually take 3 days to be posted, holidays, weekends, after 3pm or no.

Why this should be so in an 'instant electronic' accounting system I do
not know but I suspect it allows for verification of funds available as well
as a few more days interest and charging punitive late fees.

Legal? Probably. Right? No.


~jwf~

PS: Why am I on Pliny even though I logged on thru my usual Alabaster bookmark?

The moral of the story is 'Pay early, pay often'.
As an old man I canna be bothered with dealing
with the people who come forward to defend the
machines when I complain. It's easier to play by
their rules - hence, pay earlier than necessary
and in my case sometimes pay twice since I am
getting forgetful and don't bother keeping the
receipts which as you've pointed out are not
considered a legal proof of payment anyway.

Don't they trust their own machines?


~jwf~

I am a classic man myself and most likely as old if not older than yourself.

I often end up in Pliny and wonder how I got there. In the dark age at the begining of time, just after the Big Bang. This site was run on cookies to check which is your chosen skin. I do not think this is still the case.

The site is more URL based so it depends on the you clicked on.

I gave a friend the URL of My Space and on some browsers it came up with a page not found.

I Think, this is because Pliny took over and does not recognise that are not Pliny based. Or it could be that cookies are used and it confuses the system.

Perhaps this discussion should continued on thread
/AddThread?inreplyto=110664049
if that link works.

Closing this as The Riddle has been solved and point has been made.

all the best and thank all who took part.
vegiman

Must master how to post a forum link that actually works in all skins.

I have done it in the past - but cant remember how.

>>..done it in the past - but cant remember how, <<

Hmm.. maybe you are older than I.

But then I've forgotten everything I used to know
about GDML coding. Did you say elsewhere that Pastey
has created a new user-friendly way to build pages?


~jwf~

Oh yeah, if it is a true 'forum' the main page will have an A-number. There may be many conversations at the bottom of any A-number page. Just posting the A-number should work in all skins. A148907 is the ASK Forum mainpage. Posting links to specific threads or especially specific posts in a thread is much more difficult and I understand it varies from skin to skin and not always creates a link workable in every skin. I usually just copy the full URL of a thread page complete with the Alabaster tag and hope it opens for people somehow. This should be page two of your 21st century thread: http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F10333?thread=8296799&show=20&skip=20#pi22 ~jwf~

And that last post doesn't show up at all in Pliny.

Anyway, banks. Yes, they're a law unto themsleves, and as long as they let you know what their practice is, I suspect it's legal. I had an issue with one bank where my salary went in and my mortgage went out on the same day, but because their accounting system took the payments off before crediting the income, it on more than one occasion declared me overdrawn and bounced the mortgage payemnt. They've since changed that practice.

We have an issue at work when transferring money from one account to another - even though we use internet banking, there are certain tranfsers which still require manual intervention, and therfore have cut-off times.

Omigod.

The Pliny is not wanting me postings anymore!
Thanks for pointing that out Beatrice.
I wonder how many other posts of mine do not appear
in the wild blue yonder of the Pliny.

It says to contact the editors but my advice (not
necessarily the best advice) is to read it in Alabaster...
No actually, my best advice is to not bother trying
to read it at all - it was a long, poorly worded and
highly temperamental rant against bank machines.


~jwf~

(This is posted from Pliny but I suspect it will send me
to sign in when I hit send possibly because I still windows
open in Alabaster)