《中英對照讀新聞》French phone bill waived after 12qn-euro blunder 法國電話費帳單發生12千兆歐元的烏龍後全免除

《中英對照讀新聞》French phone bill waived after 12qn-euro blunder 法國電話費帳單發生12千兆歐元的烏龍後全免除

2012-11-05

◎管淑平

A woman in south-west France, who received a telephone bill of nearly 12 quadrillion euros, has had the real amount she owed waived - after the company admitted its mistake.

法國西南部一名婦人收到一筆將近12千兆歐元的電話費帳單，在電信公司承認是他們的錯誤後，她待繳的真實金額電話費已經獲得免除。

Solenne San Jose, from Pessac outside Bordeaux, said she received a huge shock when she opened the bill for 11,721,000,000,000,000 euros.

住在波爾多郊區佩薩克的索琳．尚，尤瑟說，當她打開這筆金額11,721,000,000,000,000歐元的帳單時，嚇了好大一跳。

She said she "almost had a heart attack. There were so many zeroes I couldn’t even work out how much it was".

她說她「幾乎要心臟病發。0多到甚至算不出來到底是多少錢。」

This is nearly 6,000 times France’s annual economic output. The former teaching assistant had requested her account be closed after losing her job.

這個金額是法國年經濟總產值的將近6000倍。這名曾經擔任教學助理的婦人失業後就已經申請停話。

The phone company, Bouygues Telecom, initially told her there was nothing they could do to amend the computer-generated statement and later offered to set up instalments to pay off the bill.

電信公司「布伊格電信」一開始告訴她，沒辦法修改這份用電腦產生的對帳單，後來又提供分期付款繳交這筆費用。

In the end, the company admitted the bill should have been for 117.21 euros only, and eventually waived it altogether.

最後，這家公司承認這筆電話費應該只有117.21歐元，並且最終全部免除了這筆費用。

It has also apologised for the gaffe, which it says was down to a printing error and a subsequent misunderstanding between the client and staff at their call centre.

這家公司也為這項疏失以及因此導致用戶和他們電話服務中心人員之間產生誤會道歉，他們說這項疏失是列印錯誤造成的。

新聞辭典：

waive：動詞，拋棄、放棄，免除。例句：The defendant waived his right to appeal his sentence.（被告放棄對他所受判刑提出上訴的權利。）

work out：動詞片語，解決，成功，訂出、做出（方法、計畫）。例句： I don’t think their long distance relationship will work out.（我不認為他們的遠距戀愛談得下去。）

instalment（同installment）：名詞，分期付款，連載刊物的一期、一部。例句： You can pay the income tax in instalments.（你可以用分期付款繳所得稅。）