Altering the system in any way can only hurt these small businessmen who, after all, just want to sell furniture, treat their patients, or teach students. I would like to quickly share three representative stories that I have heard from my clients. Please remember, these are just a few of the many that I have heard. There are thousands thousands more horror stories like this. In one case, two small businesspeople who own furniture stores at the New Jersey shore faced severe financial hardship because of their systems crashing due to the Y2K problem.
Someone buys a dining room set and has two years to pay it off.
This software was supposed to track those payments and keep the accounts. One day, the computers were turned on and nothing happened. The system was dead, due to a Year 2000 problem. They immediately called the company for help, since they stood to lose thousands without the system, they would have no idea who owed them money, what their inventory status was, or who they owed money to. This could wipe them out.