This is a call between a customer and Verizon. It’s incredible.
found by Rick Salsman
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The guy should have just taken the unlimited data package. Yes he’ll pay more, but at least he wouldn’t have to go through this customer service crap.
But then again, ‘unlimited’ actually has a cap. !? wtf?
Am I to understand then that 35 kB of data costs 72 cents? What a rip-off.
Well this explains a lot. At least I don’t suck as much at math as I thought.
As someone who didn’t finish high school (I loathed it) and already in his mid-30s how the hell can these people be this ignorant about basic math I learned in GRADE school.
The sad part is these people probably are collage grads with decent paying jobs, and they can’t even tell the difference from a .002 of a dollar and .002 of a cent?
#37
College grads doing customer service? Wow, things are worse than I thought. Don’t know how verizon pays for people manning the phones but bell atlantic payed reasonable, had great insurance, and helped pay tuition – Oh and the overtime. Best employer I ever had.
I guess their problem is that after they do the calculation, they see a whole number appear 71.786 and they assume the “71” appearing as whole number must be in dollars.
Maybe if they did the math in fractions it might make it more clear to them. 1/500 of 1¢ or 1/50000 of $1 is what he’s supposed to be charged per kb.
Instead version is charging this man 1/500 of $1 per kb.
Stupid Indians….. maybe he should have asked how many rupees it was..
I am sure if Verizon had used a US based call center, people would know what a cent was.
I’m telling ya, the Verizon marketing folks came up with this scam, and the CSRs are/were simply following orders. They had the company line drilled into their heads, just like the wingnuts on AM radio do every day, and eventually the poor fools believe it, just like the poor fools who voted for Bush.
He should have just sent them a check for 71.79 cents.
Reminds me of a joke-
Why can’t you call God on the telephone?
Because even God can’t get through to Verizon
This may be more a matter of policy than stupidity. I have a fixed long distance account with Sprint. One month I realized the long distance bill about $40 over what it should be, even though I hadn’t even used what I was entitled to. Checking the breakdown, I saw they were billing me for long distance called I’d been making for months and months. Called them, and was told “That’s just how we do it.” When I demanded an explanation, I was told that sometimes “the computer” misses a call, so it’s never figured toward the bill, but in later auditing it’ll be discovered and put on the bill then. I told them I shouldn’t be charged for the calls, and explained why: I’d ALREADY paid for those calls in the months in which they SHOULD have been billed. They kept telling me I was wrong, and I owed them for the calls. Finally I said, “Look at it this way: let’s say I pay you $10 for an hour’s worth of calls per month.” They got that part. “In March, I talk for 45 minutes. I haven’t exceeded the $10 limit yet, right?” They agreed. “In April, I talk for 55 minutes. I haven’t exceeded the $10 limit yet, right?” They agreed. “Those phone calls amount to $7.50 worth of calls for March, and $9.50 for April, or $17 worth of calls, for which I’ve paid $20.” They got that. “But your computer doesn’t register I’ve made 45 minutes worth of phone calls for March, only 30, okay?” Okay. “When the April bill’s coming due, it finds those 15 minutes and tacks them on, and suddenly 55 minutes worth of calls in a month becomes 70 minutes of calls. That’s how it works, right?” They said yes. “But then I owe $10.15 for the month, or $20.15 for both months, when I haven’t even made $20 worth of calls per month.” They began to argue with me again, then stopped abruptly and I swear I could hear their eyes looking like a doe’s in headlights. They vanished for about 15 minutes and when they came back all those extra charges were wiped off my bill.
But the key words were “It’s policy,” which means it’s policy for Spring to screw more money out of their customers than they’re entitled to. I’m still with Sprint because it’s even more inconvenient to break away from them, but I check my bills every month, and warn everyone to check their own bills, because where one telecom’s pulling this scam, more than likely all of them are. They depend on people not looking closely at their bills.
they will for sure have a web based training in their call centers about this…
This charge was incurred upon him while he was in Canada, so he also could have blown their minds by asking if that was $.002 American dollars or Canadian!
I like how she understood the 1/2 dollar part, but dug in and refused to get the rest of it.
Verizon reps are expert in False Proofs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_proof
I love how so many of you assume that these people don’t have college educations. Why would you assume that? Have you ever checked Verizon’s job offerings?
As some one who works in public education, let me tell you that a college degree is not a guarantee of a quality education, only the quantity of the education.
Some of the dumbest people I know have college degrees, and sadly they’re educating the new generation.
What that old adage: “Those who can, do; Those who can’t teach”
#8 wrote: I thought the guys tutorial comparing one dollar to one cent, half a dollar to half a cent was really quite good.
I agree. And I’m a mathematician.
He was talking to a Republican!
He could have been clearer talking to the phone monkeys by saying “two thousandths of a penny” and “two thousandths of a dollar” instead of just repeating “point zero zero two”. He’s right that there is a difference, but trying to explain it over the phone and not trying to be more specific just made things worse.
I disagree with all of you, I think it’s an honest mistake! When I first watched it I was like, man this guy is sooo trying to get out of paying his bill. .002 of a dollar is two cents, and that times his minutes was the correct amount, but he wasn’t stressing that he was being billed .002 of a cent not a bill. I can completely see why the rep and the sup were confused.
lol good job #52, 0.002 * $1.00 = 2 cents? Where do you work good sir? 😉
I think #52 works for Bank of America.
$0.002 = 100 * ¢0.002
just as
$1.00 = 100 * ¢1.00 (one dollar = one hundred cents)
thus ¢0.002 = $0.00002
What the heck is so tough about that??
Sheesh! This is exactly why I have nothing from Verizon. What morans!
In fact, they (and #52) get the BubbaRayDipDork Award, the 2nd of this year. At this rate, it will be a banner year. I’ll bet Mr. Fusion is laughing now and doesn’t know why.
# 28 Mr. Fusion said, “Since they can only respond in the manner Verizon wants them to, they had to deny there was a problem to begin with.”
THAT may be the crux of it.
So that’s why a Verizon phone doesn’t work. Remember those commercials with the “network” people filling the streets? There are really only 1/100th of them there. In fact, they way they do math, there might be only 1/1000th of them there.
# 56 KD Martin said, “In fact, they way they do math, there might be only 1/1000th of them there.”
LOL!
Episode #999999999999 of “Why We are Doomed.”
This doesn’t surprise me at all. The customer service reps at Verizon are beyond a doubt the stupidest in the business. I spent hours on the phone with them over a bill that had been paid-they didn’t know the difference between paid and not paid. Finally I gave up and got an AT & T account and haven’t looked back. Screw Verizon they suck.
#55, Bubba,
I’ll bet Mr. Fusion is laughing now and doesn’t know why.
My wife becomes very concerned whenever I laugh and don’t know why. So I just snicker a lot.
OFN.
#57 — Let’s not exaggerate. Verizon’s bills are only inaccurate by TWO orders of magnitude, not three.
Sadly for me, they’re buying Alltel, so it’s only a matter of time before I have to call that same group…. ><
Last month I got my bill from our landline provider. I won’t mention Embarq so they can remain anonymous.
On it was a charge for *69 for $0.99. Curious, since I didn’t know what that was, I phoned the handy dandy number provided and asked. It was explained that this is how to discover the phone number of someone who has just called. Well I’m a little perplexed here since we have call display.
So I press the guy about what the number was. He can’t tell me. OK, so who can I ask to find out. No can do, I would need a search warrant to find out. Hhmmm, now that is something that really touched a nerve. So after speaking to the requisit supervisor and getting the same line of crap, I bid them adieu. I should point out though that they did remove the charge from the bill.
So I did some quick research. I found the President and CEO’s name and address. Right below his name was that of their Chief Legal Counsel with an email address. So I fired off an email briefly explaining the problem and my inability to discover what number had been *69ed. I also pointed out the relevant section of our State Public Utilities regulations that required a clear explanation of all charges.
This was right after Christmas. About a week later I received a nice call from the Legal Counsel’s office apologizing for the incident and promising me that their billing would be corrected. A few days later I received a letter explaining the same thing along with the phone number that was called up.
The moral of the story is always try to talk to someone that has the authority to think for them self.