Computer Mistakes Slow Coop Rebates

Many rebate checks mailed out by the Harvard Cooperative Society within the last month were misaddressed due to a computer error.

Donald Steele, a former Coop director who has a lawsuit pending over the Society's last election, noticed the problem when he received someone else's check in the mail last week.

Richard Buswell, Coop comptroller, confirmed the error Friday but said that under 5000 of approximately 40,000 rebate checks were affected.

The addressing errors occurred in rebate checks which were not picked up at one of the Coop locations. The checks were then addressed by an evidently misprogrammed computer, which matched addresses to the strong Coop numbers.

Buswell said most of the misaddressed checks had been found before mailing but that members who did not receive checks should notify the Coop so new checks could be issued.