Canadian Shop Owner Shocked by $1.6 Billion Bill
TORONTO (Reuters) - The owner of a small Toronto coffee shop had grounds for dismay when he received a bill for C$2.4 billion ($1.6 billion) from Canada's postal service.
``I started laughing because there were so many numbers,'' store owner Derek Zavislake said on Wednesday.
``One month would be C$90 million, another C$120 million and then C$90 million. The months' accumulation, which would normally be just a few hundred dollars, ended up to being quite a bit more than that,'' Zavislake said.
``It's going to take us a few months to pay it off,'' he joked.
The shop uses the post office to ship its coffee beans to customers, running up a typical monthly bill of C$500.
The enormous invoice turned out to be a computer error by Canada Post.
``We're going to frame it,'' said Zavislake, adding he's waiting for a ``more realistic'' invoice.
