Verizon Can't Do Math

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.

Re:People are uneducated

[mrchaotica]

Someone in payroll?! Jeez, tell us where you work so we know to avoid that place!

Goddamn stupid morons..

[d_jedi]

This is what happens to those who flunked out of.. grade 4 math.

Re:People are uneducated

[Anonymous Coward]

I know a lot of people (including my mother) who have to use the % button on a calculator if they want to work out percentages. They can't convert decimals to percentages or vice versa.

This is despite repeated attempts to explain it to them. (After a certain point it gets a little embarrassing - when people can't grasp a simple concept like moving a decimal place to the right or left to convert between decimals and percentages, you start to wonder how they managed to dress themselves or talk in complete sentences).

Very sad :\

Re:class action lawsuit in the works?

[mrchaotica]

Now that I think of it, I think I'll be sending out a new round of "Let's go out together!" emails with the aforementioned phrase attached.

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?

[Propaganda13]

This is Slashdot. If I didn't RTFA, what makes you think I read your post.

And yes, I just reply to random threads with this post.

Re:People are uneducated

[sumdumass]

I know the feeling. I had to explain to a customer's accounts payable rep that .75 was actually 3/4 of a hour or 45 minutes so 2.75 hours was actually 2 hours 45 minutes.

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.

Damn

[morissm]

And I thought I sucked at math when I couldn't remember how eigenvectors work the other day...

Thank you Verizon for lowering the bar for me.

Re:People are uneducated

[Petronius.Scribe]

No, it's actually a good thing. Just tell them that you were recently given a point fifty dollar per hour pay increase, but you only got point five, so you need the extra point forty-five. Then repeat until you run out of payroll innumerates.

Your primary mistake...

[hikerhat]

You were transferred to supervisors. You should request to be transferred to someone who got an A in high school math. Odds are good there are one or two underachievers hiding in the call center, but there is no way in hell a person like that would get promoted to (or want to be promoted to) supervisor. On the next call, just say "Please go from cube to cube and ask each employee what their best high school math grade was. When someone says 'A' rather than 'huh?' or 'freshman', or anything else: transfer me to them."

Verizon's accounting department...

[RealGrouchy]

...should teach these people a lesson and pay them their salary in cents!

- RG>

Re:youtube

[Purity Of Essence]

Interestingly, the YouTube video is 11.8 MB and the PutFile audio is 14.8 MB. So YouTube IS actually saving you bandwidth. Neither, however, can do anything to save your faith in humanity.

My God ... where do tey find those guys?

[jbssm]

This is really hilarious ... but to say the truth my students (the new ones from this latter educations changes) probably would have the same problem.

I get mad with many of them because they all think that zero point 15 cents is actually bigger than zero point 6 cents.

And if I get units in the mixture ... it's even better (or worst :) ) ... so, I believe that the operator is not actually ling to the customer, there is the real hypothesis that the operator doesn't understand the difference.

Re:knowing verizon...

[aussie_a]

$40/month divided by 3 GB is 0.0013 cents per kilobyte.

It's also 0.0013 dollars per kilobyte. Because hey, there's no difference!

Transfer to India

[Dak RIT]

I find it incredibly ironic that for once the customer would have probably been better served by a customer representative in India than by one who speaks (presumably) the same language.

"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."

Re:My elementary teacher was right..

[Lemmy Caution]

You know what bothers me? That all the people at that call center have the right to vote.

Re:Hello from George Vaccaro

[dgatwood]

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:Importance of math

[Anonymous Coward]

we might be paid in pennis

That's because you're a bunch of cunnts.

Re:knowing verizon...

[honkycat]

Your comment is absurd. There is no 0.0013 dollars.

Re:My God ... where do tey find those guys?

[mrchaotica]

I'll bet an English teacher would get equally mad with you.