Verizon Can't Do Math 639
Blogger George Vaccaro recently had a problem with his Verizon based on an unfortunate miscommunication of currency. The crux of the matter was that he was quoted .002 cents per kilobyte for data during a trip to Canada but was charged .002 dollars. Normally this would have been an easy fix, however several humorous calls later the Verizon reps still were unable to discern between the difference between the two rates. You really have to hear it to believe it. Kudos George, you have the patience of a saint.
knowing verizon... (Score:4, Informative)
Effectiveness (Score:3, Insightful)
https://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/contact/email. jsp [verizonwireless.com]
I really like the bananas explanation: Convert
My Message, for example (Score:5, Interesting)
What concerns me is not that he may have been misquoted, but that the quote was confirmed to be correct multiple times, and yet, the billing charge remains the same, stated multiple times, due to a simple math error. I fear this lack of proper math skills in both quoting and billing will be applied to my account. I will not continue to have an account with a company that cannot rectify its own math, as I fear this incorrect math will be applied to my account, and it too will result in a bill that is *100 times* larger than it should be.
Verizon needs to correct this math error, charge him the rate he was quoted, and repeatedly confirmed, which results in a charge 72cents, or $0.72, and also publicly apologize not only for the frustration and time loss it has caused to Mr. Vaccaro, but also to assure other customers that they will not be treated the in the same fashion.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
My wife used to have an employee account with them. When she left the company the person responsible for switching it to a consumer account forgot the minor detail of a contract. Within months the account balance started ballooning incredibly. After a lot of research I determined that a core option had magically disappeared from the secondary phone on the account, the In calling feature. After 2.5 months and several calls and
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I certainly don't want to defend a crappy company. Just a remark regarding a corrected invoice.
When I was working for the database end of the billing system for a Telco (and their size was a fraction from Verizon) they ran into the following problem:
The month has only 30 days
Hello from George Vaccaro (Score:5, Interesting)
Thanks also for correcting the people who accuse me of being less than sincere. I'd have to have Jerky Boys skills to have pulled that off not being sincere. After re-listening to it, I wished I had realized how funny it was, and thrown in "oh god, god and baby Jesus help us!"
To clear one thing up that people don't seem to understand, I have the unlimited data plan in the states, and no concept of per KB cost. I was heading to Canada so I called verizon to find the voice and data rates. The rep told me the rate, and I actually worked out roughly in my head and out loud the per megabyte cost - I didn't nail it down to $.02 cents per meg, I just roughly estimated it at $1 per meg - thats the degree of accuracy I cared about. I would spend a few bucks, but I wouldn't spend closer to a hundred. I did think the rate was low enough to think something might be wrong, so I reconfirmed the rate with her - ".002 cents / KB?" - "Yes, thats correct." Then I had her note the quote in my account to be sure.
Also, in the states, since the plan is unlimited, and as many posters have pointed out, you could easily use gigs/month, if you were streaming video or audio ala SlingBox. So the thought that I could pay less than a dollar per meg, even $.02 (if I had computed it exactly) didn't seem impossible, or crazy, just slightly suspicious.
I make a great hourly rate, and this clearly hasn't been worth the hours I've spent for the $71 thats in dispute. It's been about false advertising and the principle that if you quote something at a certain price, you should really charge that price - certainly not 100 x that price, and certainly if the mistake is on your side. And its been pretty hysterical following this thing.
Also, to those who think I could have done better or planned this - I was blindsided by 3 levels of customer service rep thinking that 2/1000s of a $ is the same as 2/1000ths of a cent. I did the best I could while in disbelief, and even confused myself at times. I had talked to 2 other reps, one on a different call, and one before the first supervisor (the handoff is in the beginning of the audio), and they all seemed incapable of understanding basic math, so I thought to myself of the AOL cancellation guy Vincent Ferrari, and said to myself "you better record this."
Also, I had tried other approaches - I didn't always just jump into "do you know the difference between $.002 and
I am really surprised that I haven't gotten any resolution at this point from Verizon, it seems like it could be a huge can of worms for them, but hey, I guess I should't expect much.
Anyway, thanks again for the support, kind words, funny comments etc. I'll keep the blog updated so anyone interested can see the resolution.
Finally, here is the wrap up:
1. Rep who quoted me initially
2. Brie: rep I called first, went through the same stuff, she seemed to get it, even noted
3. Trent: First rep on 1st call, same nonsense, quoted
4. Mike: Supervisor - first guy I battle on the mp3 - as you all heard ".002 cents/KB"
5. Andrea: Floor Manager - ".002 cents/KB... its a matter of opinion"
All 5 confirmed the rate as ".002 cents/KB", the last 4 "thought" this was the same as "$.002/KB" and claimed my bill reflected the quoted rate.
Thanks for playing.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Units are a matter of opinion? Well, then, it is our opinion that cents and dollars are the same thing. Send three quarters attached to a letter stating that their reps have claimed that dollars and cents are the same thing. Demand that they return $3 for your overpayment.
:-D
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It wouldn't work -- they could just ignore you. You'd have to get them on the hook for something else first.
Oh, by the way: by reading this post, you hereby agree to pay me (pinky to mouth) one billion dollars.
You've read it; you can't un-read it!
Re:class action lawsuit in the works? (Score:5, Funny)
And yes, I just reply to random threads with this post.
Re:class action lawsuit in the works? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:class action lawsuit in the works? (Score:5, Informative)
1) Nobody would work there.
2) A recording would do the job far better.
Basically, how it works is that you are told to give the customer accurate information to the best of your ability (although slanted in favour of the company). You also follow guidelines while in the call, to keep in accordance with company policy. You can get in trouble for going outside of those guidelines, but they are guidelines, not rules. The whole reason you are there, instead of a recording is to keep the customer happy.
Now, what I would have done in this case (and would have gotten full support from my supervisor), would have been to credit the ~$60 back to the customer's account, and inform him that he will see the credit on next month's bill. (We actually were only allowed to credit a maximum of $50 without going through the billing department, but the point remains).
No, I think the short and sweet of this story is that Verizon employs morons. (And just a tip, if you ever call Comcast, and get someone with a Texas accent, ask if they are from Lubbock. If they say "yes", then just hang up and call back).
Re:class action lawsuit in the works? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the Google calculator [google.com] really makes things very clear.
Also, I can't help but ask what the average math completion level is for call center people in that particular industry.
Re:Verizon makes this mistake all the time. (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with them admitting defeat and actually charging the rate they've been speaking is that it makes them liable to charge the quoted rate to everyone else.
Imagine if they grabbed Johnny B., that guy over in tech support that has a math degree. He'd get on the phone and say, "Yeah, that's right, Verizon is quoting the wrong price, you should pay 72 cents."
Three days later, thousands of Verizon customers who were quoted the same rate demand equal compensation. Then Johnny B. has to find another low-wage job that has nothing to do with his major.
These reps could have secretly realized what they were saying, just as they were passing the call to their boss. No one wants to make the million dollar decisions, so playing dumb is better than playing unemployed.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not at all. They can credit him the full use of data in Canada on his recent trip (generously declining his offer to pay the correct $0.71) purely as a customer retention move. They can also choose to "clarify" how they express the rate in future (I've given them several suggestions in a comment [blogspot.com] on his blog) to avoid customers "misunderstandi
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
So when accounts receivable called I told them I would gladly pay them when they honored their end of the contract and provided me with a monthly bill. The rep thought that was quite reasonable but her boss disagreed.
Re:knowing verizon... (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? In the U.S. it's pretty common to have unlimited Internet access for $40/month. Now, of course there are different definitions of "unlimited", but for the sake of argument let's say that I download for 1 hour every night - that's pretty reasonable, right? With a 256 kbit Internet connection (most people would have even faster than that) I could download a little over 100 MB in an hour. In a month, that'd be 3 GB. $40/month divided by 3 GB is 0.0013 cents per kilobyte. That's 1/1000 of a cent (not of a dollar), or less than what the guy in the story was quoted.
Or, think of it this way: the guy apparently downloaded 35893 kilobytes in a month. That's only ~36 megabytes - hardly anything! That's like downloading one album from the iTunes Music Store. And he was charged $72? No wonder he was mad.
5 megabytes for 10 cents is only cheap for a cell phone. For a shared home broadband connection it's pretty average.
Re:knowing verizon... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:knowing verizon... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:knowing verizon... (Score:4, Insightful)
But that's not the point here. He asked them about the rate, and he thought that they had it wrong. Because they insisted that was the rate when he asked, he had them make note of it on his account before he even left on the trip. It absolutely doesn't matter whether it's a reasonable rate or not. If they quote you a price for something and put it in writing, and you ask them and prod them about the price because you think they're making a mistake and don't want to get things wrong, then they #$&! well better charge you that price. When someone agrees to sell you something for a certain price, they can't just go billing you 100x what they said they were going to charge after the fact. It's their responsibility to charge you a reasonable price, not your responsibility to pay something they consider reasonable after the fact regardless of what they said they were going to charge upfront.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, for what it's worth, most of the internet access providers DO have a cap on their "unlimited" access, you're just not likely to hit it unless you're downloading a fair amount of movies or other very large files.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:My elementary teacher was right.. (Score:5, Funny)
Morons (Score:5, Interesting)
On a more serious note, it also looks like they can't read or spell, since the rep read "$0.002/KB Sent" as "0.002 cents/KB," as evidenced in the call.
Re:Morons (Score:5, Interesting)
When I received my statement, I was charged more dollars than euros. And so started hours of phone calls working my way up the bank's food chain.
I said $1 = 1.16 (euros - as Slashdot doesn't accept the euro symbol), so we therefore we can set up a proportion, cross multiple and solve for x. That was way too confusing, but thought almost everyone at least knew this by the 7th grade. A sample matrix got people confused.
When I spoke to the vice-president for international currency transaction, she was also confused and like many said their computer didn't make mistakes. I of course said it was not the computer, but the operator.
I said, remember when you took elementry algebra, you hated it, but your instructor said one day you would need to know it? She laughed and said she remembered. I said, now is that day. No longer laughing, she said they must do math differently in Europe. I was transfered to one of the banks currency traders.
The currency trader nearly laughed his head off. He corrected the transaction and noted this is why he makes the big dollars.
Ah, the dumbing of America. It's truly sad.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Try the HTML entity.
Re:Morons (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
And that's exactly the reason why European consumer protection laws require the price marking in supermarket to contain the price per a comparable unit, e.g. 100 grams or 1 kg.
Re:Morons (Score:5, Informative)
Unless Verizon has changed since I was with them, he'll get the money back if he fights for it, but it won't be easy.
I don't think it's a decimal problem (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
updates (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
We called to verify the rates if we plugged our mobile (also Orange) in and used it as a modem. We were told(several times during the month) 50 cents per 10Mb or connection (additional 50 per additional 10Mb) 2 weeks later (thankfully we only used our phones a few times) they called my wife to say her bill was over 300 euros and until she p
Re:updates (Score:5, Insightful)
Rep know he's being recorded (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But, most likely, at the beginning of the call an automated voice lets the caller know that "this call may be recorded for quality assurance" or some other such phrase. That happens to work both ways, so he is entirely legal in recording this conversation (and is usually a very smart idea, in case someone decides to disagree with anything they said before).
Re:Rep know he's being recorded (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
(Yea, even though I am Canadian, I have ventured through the valley of Verizon tech support. Thy LART and thy Ether killer, they comfort me...)
Soko
Type it into google (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Type it into google (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Type it into google (Score:4, Insightful)
She would instead type this:
$.002 cents per KB times 35893 KB
which leads to a nonsensical result (as well it should). That's the whole problem here - people like her who think that "$.002 cents" means something.
Re:Type it into google (Score:4, Informative)
Inumeracy (Score:2)
People are uneducated (Score:5, Informative)
The other day I had to help someone in payroll understand that 0.5 ("point five") hours really is equal to 0.50 ("point fifty") hours.
Don't they teach this stuff in 5th grade anymore?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Someone in payroll?! Jeez, tell us where you work so we know to avoid that place!
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Nowadays I teach maths myself and emphasise the same point to my students.
Re:People are uneducated (Score:5, Funny)
To be fair, I think being married to the owner was the prime qualifications on getting the job. So the call complaining about there only being 60 minutes in a hour and why do i think there are 75 was more humorous then anything. I almost laughed out loud when she suggested I was making numbers up. I almost told her it was code and only her boss could understand it. She better show him first.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not sure what issue I would have exactly, except that it has no meaning to me. "Point five zero" has meaning. To me, "fifty" is greater than one, and has no place in numbers less than one.
I guess it's just what you're used to...
However, on hearing "point fifty", after a momentary pause of total incomprehension, I would almost certainly conclude that the meaning was the same as what I know as "point five". I can'
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
But the precision is different.
If you have 0.46 or 0.54 you'd round both to 0.5. Now let's say we multiple:
0.5 * 2 = 1
0.46 * 2 = 0.92 ~ 0.9
0.54 * 2 = 1.08 ~ 1
With 0.50 we'd have:
0.50 * 2 = 1.0
0.496 * 2 = 0.992 ~ 1.0
0.504 * 2 = 1.008 ~ 1.0
So if 0.5 isn't your end result you're better off using 0.50 (or whatever the value is) for yo
Re:People are uneducated (Score:5, Informative)
Dude, parentage is hard!
Works For Them (Score:3, Insightful)
Goddamn stupid morons.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Solution if Verizon has Internet access (Score:2, Redundant)
(In reality, this would not work as you would never be able to get someone this dim to understand what the address bar was, even with patient explanation.)
There is sometimes a legitimate use for
Damn (Score:5, Funny)
Thank you Verizon for lowering the bar for me.
This is why small claims court exists.... (Score:2)
Re:This is why small claims court exists.... (Score:5, Informative)
I think I might have approached it like this: "Ok, so 1 kilobyte costs .002 cents, right? So how much is 2 kilobytes? .004 cents, ok? How much would 5 kilobytes be? .01 cents? Still wtih me? Ok, how about 50 kilobytes? .1 cents, right? And 500 kilobytes would be 1 cent, you still with me? If 500 kilobytes is 1 cent, how much is 1000 kilobytes? 2 cents? Ok, 1000 kilobytes costs 2 cents, how many of those did I use? About 36, right? So if each one is 2 cents, then that should be about 72 cents, right? So how come you're charging me almost 72 DOLLARS?" The point is to NEVER let them multiply anything by .002, always keep it in scale, always keep it in cents, scale it up until you're talking whole cents, then go from there.
How to bypass the problem (Score:4, Insightful)
"Contact Us" link broken (Score:2, Informative)
I wanted to write Verizon Wireless directly to thank them for providing us with such excruciating entertainment.
Funny thing...The link now leads to a page to purchase new Verizon products instead.
Does anyone at Verizon begin to understand the nature of this public relations fiasco yet?
Get it in writing (Score:2)
It is hilarious, though, that the CSRs don't know the difference between dollars and cents.
And you're surprised? (Score:2)
Write a letter (not an email) (Score:5, Informative)
Every time I've had an issue with the phone company this always resolves it. I've only had to write to the PUC about a company twice. Usually mentioning the PUC to the company will wake them up without you having to write a letter.
Your primary mistake... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Your primary mistake... (Score:4, Insightful)
Verizon's accounting department... (Score:5, Funny)
- RG>
Key Moment (Score:5, Informative)
George: Do you recognize there is a difference between one dollar and one cent?
Andrea: Definitely.
George: Do you recognize there is a difference between half a dollar and half a cent?
Andrea: Definitely.
George: Do you therefore recognize there is a difference between
Andrea: No... There's no
George: Of course there is.
Y'all are on the wrong page... (Score:4, Interesting)
This is not mysterious. This is not even funnny. Unless Verizon can clearly show me that they've chosen to staff their support teams from tech to top supervisors with the mentally handicapped, then the only sane conclusion is that their customer service (forgive the ephemism), is expressly designed to bludgeon, exhaust, and abuse customers into accepting that they've been lied to and cheated. This is not ignorance. This is not stupidity. This is an utter vacuum of integrity. This is a den of thieves. Let the buyer beware.
By the way, just sharing my own personal experience, yours may vary, but I traded with Verizon a few years back... I received several outrageous charges. I tried to get some service. I called dozens of times, attempted access through all of their phone and online resources. I never achieved a single meaningful interaction with a single employee of Verizon, and to this day would rather french kiss a wall outlet, or spend long hours sitting on a CuisinArt with the frape' button depressed, than do business with them again. Isn't somehow nice to see some things never change
--Genda
Unsurprising (Score:4, Interesting)
This is a particularly blatant and well-documented example, but it's not surprising. Verizon regularly lies to consumers, actively or by omission.
When I signed up, I had no credit history, so they charged me a large deposit which was to be returned after a year. When I called after over a year asking where my check was, they told me that I had to request the deposit to be returned. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Why didn't they mention this when I started the account? They were simply hoping I would forget that I'd paid the deposit or wouldn't be willing to fight them for it. How many deposits have they just kept in this way? Or put another way, how much of other people's money became Verizon's because of deception? How much money did they steal?
But what can you do about it? There's no accountability. "George" and "Andrea" are either absolutely incompetent or dishonest, but they don't even tell you their full names. You can't link the voices on the phone to actual people. Even if you could, there's no channel to complain about them. And there's certainly no way to link the absence of an action to a specific person, so there's certainly no way to hold them accountable for not sending my check. And unfortunately, you can't just switch to a more honest phone company, because I don't believe such a creature exists.
I think the most that can be done is to take them to small claims court each time. If you go through all the work to do so, you'll almost certainly win. But they're betting most people don't have the time to fight them, and...well, they're right.
Transfer to India (Score:5, Funny)
"Are you calling to complain about a mathematical error in your billing? If yes, press 1 now to speak to a representative in a country with a more effective educational system than yours, if no, press 2."
I'm from India and (Score:5, Interesting)
This is common (Score:3, Interesting)
Forgoing the fact that they misrepresented the Orange World internet completely by saying it was entirely free, it's still a poor show on Orange's part.
I guess I am just lucky it's free in the evenings and weekends, I would hate to see my bill otherwise.
This is a lesson to UK Orange customers, buy an unlimited Vodafone PCMCIA card. It's much cheaper.
Where the real problems exist here (Score:4, Insightful)
No, it's not at all surprising.
This is the result of a whole generation of schoolkids who don't know how to do arithmetic. All they know how to do is work a calculator. These are not the same thing.
And it must be said that the customer here is really not very good at explaining the arithmetic. I understand that he is impatient, angry, resigned, but what he mostly does is repeat himself. He does not explain himself well at all.
Two tips for cell phone complainants (Score:4, Interesting)
2) If you can't get your problem resolved and want to switch providers there is a way to weasel out of your contract with no obligation. This is absolutely the last thing the phone company will ever tell you and most people aren't even aware it's available. Tell them you moved to an area where you no longer have service and they are required, by law, to terminate your contract for you. I myself have never used this but I have several friends that have done it succesfully. Some providers may require you to provide some proof of relocation, like an apartment lease or something. Not that I'm advocating this [ahem], but many apartment companies post their leasing agreements on their websites where you can simply print it out, fill it in and fax it to the phone company.
Re:But did he know? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
But 20 cents is expressed as $0.20 and it would be correct int saying if you had $0.20 in change being returned to you, the cashier gave you 20 cents change.
So, I don't know what it is called but it is one of those things that gets interchanged around enough that it was finally done wrong. I think were the problem might be is were you get partial number or numbers that aren't equal to a hole cent.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
That's right, you would say that you got "20 cents" in change. You would not say "point 20 cents" or "point 2 cents".
Similarly, given $0.002, you ought to say "point 2 cents" or "point zero zero 2 dollars" - never "point zero zero 2 cents" as Verizon reps did repeatedly.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Whoever
Re:But did he know? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's because "cent" literally means "one-hundred". As in "per cent" (1% of a unit == 1/100th of that unit), or "centimetre" (1/100th of a metre). Thus, "cent" is already a fractional unit -- it's very name connotes that it is a 1/100th fraction of a larger unit (in this case, a dollar).
20 one-hundredths of a dollar (or 20 "cents") is thus correctly $0.20. There is no error is usage here -- the unit itself denotes the fractional part when written as a whole number of "cents".
It's no different than the fact that when we talk about a 2 000 000 000 Hz processor, we usually call it a "2GHz processor". The zeros didn't just disappear -- "G" represents "Giga", which is the prefix representing the large value of 10 to the 9th power.
As such, the error in this case is purely with the fact that the Verizon reps the gentleman spoke to have no idea what they're talking about, and get confused by a decimal point. They probably don't know how to cancel out the units in a multiplication: 0.002 cents/KB * 35893KB causes the KB on both sides to cancel out, leaving us with 0.002 * 35893 cents (== 71.78 cents). There is nothing to be confused with here -- you can't just multiply two numbers and then make up what unit you want it to represent because it's some unit you're comfortable with. I can't say that I'm charging someone 0.002 cents per KB for 35893KB, and then charge them 71.78 rutabegas. Or 71.78 emus. Or 71.78 Libraries of Congress.
Really, there is no excuse for this. Verizon should hire a grade 8 math teacher, and give their customer service staff a "how to use decimals and cancel units" math training day. I'll even volunteer to do it (although I'm over qualified). I'll even offer them a huge deal -- I'll just charge them 0.002 Gigacents an hour for my services.
Yaz.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
On a note for 'dishonesty' Recall that verizon is the same company that lobbied to have a federal fee removed and then as soon as that was done it added its own fee of the same amount back on to pad its wallet. And guess what, none
Re: (Score:2)
oh yeah, all in a days, work, maybe one could fit that in between slashdot pots, real work, and all the other important shit we have to do in a day. Yey.
Re: (Score:2)
So see, it does tie into slashdot a little so it wouldn't be too much of a has
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
And if you'd listened to the audio you would know that they refuse to accept the price being
The only way he'll get this fixed (his bill adjusted to the price he was quoted) is to get Verizon's attention in the press. Or something.
Can you do math now?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No it isn't! When the clerk hands me too much change, the clerk gets screwed because their till comes out wrong and the store thinks they are skimming. This is morally equivilent to buying an item that you think may have been priced too low through a bureaucratic error. If you hesitate to do that, then think back to the last time that you heard of a company refunding money (voluntarily, not through a c
Re: (Score:2)
No it isn't! When the clerk hands me too much change, the clerk gets screwed
It is still ethically wrong to knowingly keep the extra change. If you didn't count a few coins before dropping them in your pocket, that's one thing. But if you get back extra bills and count them and see that it's wrong, you're ethically obligated to inform the clerk and square up before leaving the store.
Since when do two wrongs make a right?
Besides, don't you check to make sure that your change is real currency and
Re: (Score:2)
Yes it is? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My personal belief is the sale still run into monday morning but they switch the prices in the registers first then let the stock boys change the shelves when stocking them. In essence though, It is the store giving money back because of some
Re:But did he know? (Score:4, Insightful)
If someone else tried to do that to them, they wouldn't stand for it for a moment, and you know it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I believe the audio on PutFile is longer (27 minutes verse the YouTube's 22 minute version).
Also, Andrea (the call rep) leaves her contact information at the end. Maybe someone here can explain this simple concept to her? Her phone number is 1-888-581-1070 (Ext. 2234)
If you call the number currently it says "The mailbox for Andrea is full"...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They (Verizon in this case) have all the power. When he doesn't pay, they can simply terminate his service. The continuity of service may be worth more than $71 to him.
Worse, they can probably (in according to the contract) increase the amount when paying late, put the matter in the hands of a collectors agency (which will charge even more) and register him on some blacklist.
As there will be no notice of the nature of the
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I'll bet an English teacher would get equally mad with you.