PRELIMINARY STEPS YOU CAN TAKE NOW
Take stock of your real personal and family needs. If you are worried about possible food supply disruptions, find out if buying clubs exist in your community and what it takes to join.
Government sector
If you have doubts about the state of readiness of any of your elected officials at whatever level, you should begin contacting them now. Governmental entities, while long on verbal and written assurances, may not be enforcing those assurances with the threat of legal action. This will be the arena of those businesses most affected by the problem.
One government document worth requesting is a current statement of your Social Security earnings. You can either contact the Agency at 800-772-1213 or go to their website at https://www.ssa.gov.
Bank records
Current copies of your credit records may be requested from any one of the three major bureaus:
TransUnion 800-916-8800
Equifax 800-685-1111
Experian 800-682-7654
Investment records
Before year's end, any investment firms you deal with should provide you with written guarantees that they have successfully dealt with the Y2K problem. These documents could prove critical in resolving any disputes or account problems caused by some variant of the Y2K bug.
Insurance documents
Since insurance companies are regulated by state commissions you need to contact your state's insurance commissioner for a current report on each insurance company's status re Y2K. You may be able to obtain that report online; check the home site for your state and enter the keywords: insurance, Personal computers Monopolists have no overall solutions to any Y2K problems inflicted on people with Windows operating systems made before 1995, except to continuously replace everything. Macintosh users, according to Apple and some Y2K consultants www.yourdon.com<, should have nothing to worry about as long as they don't allow their systems to somehow catch an infection from a non-compliant application or from something they've downloaded from the net. Check Apple's Y2K statement www.apple.com and follow it up with a detailed email if you have questions. It doesn't make sense not to prepare if you have a business or other critical issues that are totally computer-dependent. The web itself is replete with offers of programs, some free, some not, which claim to fix all known Y2K problems if only you will enter your credit card or download their product. What they don't offer are any guarantees or freedom from possible litigation should their particular solutions prove ineffective after 12/31/1999. If such guarantees exist, please forward You are still not out of trouble even if these programs do work: each piece of software you use needs to be Y2K-compliant and each publisher has to be contacted so that you have their recommendations for bringing their products into full compliance well before the turnover date. Some online sources doubt the credibility of these software publishers and expect litigation to ensue years after 1/1/2000. Gartner Group estimates the litigation expenses and damage awards from class action suits will reach $1.635 trillion. A phrase making the Internet rounds for the tactic some utilities and other businesses may choose to take is: skip all compliance steps and "fix on failure." Cap Gemini America LLC reports that more than half of America's biggest companies have already experienced some type of Y2K failure (Computerworld, 1/11/1999, pg. 20). These failures include processing disruptions, financial miscalculations or losses, logistics chain problems and customer service problems. RELATED LINKS:
Written By:John Downey.
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