Verizon Math Fail

[Travis]

Picked this off a recent Slashdot article... just too funny not to share.

Verizon Math Fail (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCJ3Oz5JVKs&eurl=http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/02/05/verizon-customer-service-not-so-good-at-math/)

[Google]

[ElyCyan]

Picked this off a recent Slashdot article... just too funny not to share.

Verizon Math Fail (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCJ3Oz5JVKs&eurl=http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/02/05/verizon-customer-service-not-so-good-at-math/)

I refuse to believe this is real. REFUSE. No no no no no!

Also, what &%^$ing loser rebuttals with "I'm going to post this on my blog"?! They all should be sterilized. All of them.

[Pythagora]

My head hurts. Can somebody explain a little more simply to me?

[Nobu]

Simply:
dollars are not cents.
1 cent = 1% of a dollar.
1% of a dollar = $0.01.
1 cent = $0.01
$0.01 != 0.01 cent
0.01 cent = $0.01 * 0.01 = $0.0001
0.01 cent = $0.0001 (One hundredth of a cent = one millionth of a dollar)

Phew! That was(n't) hard! ^.^

edit: therefore, if they're charging 0.002 cents per kb and he used 35896kb, 35896kb * 0.002 cents (or $0.00002) = 71.792 cents or $0.71792 or $0.72.

And I had to laugh every time those people said no.

[Travis]

Insane, I fully believe that this is 100% real. If it's fake, it's a really good fake, 'cause that sounded like pretty much every experience I've ever had dealing with over-the-phone "assistance."

I think this is actually a fairly common problem with some people: Inability to keep units in mind when doing calculations. Any natural science course would be a prefect litmus test for these people... When doing a calculation that involves units, you have to keep those units straight. Some people just cannot factor units in with their calculations; they think that "Math is Math" and if there are numbers, that's all you have to keep track of. I just think it's hilarious that the billing department for Verizon couldn't keep dollars and cents straight - not that it surprises me.

[Sim9]

I remember seeing the full version of this on consumerist last year... it was something like forty minutes long as he went through all the different reps.

[Pythagora]

Why do people like this have these jobs? I'm sure they pay more than my job does. I could do it. Really, I think I could.

[neozf]

But would you want to? What if you come out like them! D:

[Sim9]

From the video, it looks like each level higher is more and more incompetent... leading me to believe that the longer you're at Verizon, the dumber you become. :P

[Pythagora]

From the video, it looks like each level higher is more and more incompetent... leading me to believe that the longer you're at Verizon, the dumber you become. :P

With the economy on the road that it's on, that is an acceptable outcome. I wouldn't expect to last long there anyway. :P