I was hoping for a lot better. The story's entirely made up and the XML parsing bit is especially painful.
There's absolutely no reason that "false" will necessarily be represented as "0" for a particular API.
Not to mention that it actually wouldn't be that hard to unload the coal. Yes, it would be annoying and cumbersome, but certainly not on the order of losing 80%.
Really? I'd imagine the potential pool for buyers in the market for 28K tons of coal is pretty limited (read: power stations), and they have their supplies sorted out years in advance.
There's absolutely no reason that "false" will necessarily be represented as "0" for a particular API.
Not to mention that it actually wouldn't be that hard to unload the coal. Yes, it would be annoying and cumbersome, but certainly not on the order of losing 80%.