KEY POINTS:
If you're planning an excursion during next year's school holidays, don't check your diary for the dates.
Over one million copies produced by New Zealand's largest manufacturer of journals, Collins, have been printed showing the wrong term periods for primary and intermediate schools.
And it is no fault of their own, said product manager Colin Nagle.
"It's just ridiculous. It's the second year they've done this."
Nagle is referring to the Ministry of Education, which announced the 2008 school term dates this April.
All of them are different to last year's.
Collins complained to the department soon after the announcement but by then the diaries, complete with the previous year's term dates, were already on shelves.
"We've had a few complaints from customers, which we usually forward on to the ministry," said Mr Nagle.
And this isn't the first batch to go out without the amended dates.
"The point is that we weren't notified about the date change until after we had completely finished production."
But Ian Butler, spokesman for the Ministry of Education, said the department had up until June this year to announce the dates and Collins should wait until announcements were made before printing.
"The dates were decided some time ago. They should probably have checked," he said.
And in another date error, some diaries may have people arriving at work at the wrong time.
The Department of Internal Affairs announced in April that daylight savings would be extended by three weeks to run from 30 September to April 6.
Collins wasn't totally caught out that time, though.
"I can't tell you how many have been printed with the old dates, but let's just say we were well into production before we ran the new ones," said Mr Nagle.
All new diaries and calendars published by Collins now include an "over-rider' notifying customers that term dates are subject to change, and details of the education department's website, Mr Nagle said.
