Think Telus or Bell are bad? Try Verizon.

[TheDragon]

This is the first time I've seen (or rather heard) a purely audio recording on YouTube, but this truly is a gem.

Apparently, a guy down in the good ol' USA was quoted $0.0002 (or 0.002 cents) per KB of internet usage while he was in Canada. In actuality, he was billed 0.002 dollars and the good people at Verizon can't seem to grasp their minds around the difference. They're trying to claim he owes something like $72, rather than 72 cents, or $0.72 at it should be, despite the BIG difference in math. I failed math, and I can clearly see the difference.

Kind of makes you appreciate the 3 hr. line-ups to get ahold of a Telus Customer Service rep., no?

Here's the recording.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Gp0HyxQv97Q&eurl=

Kudos to anyone who can listen to the whole thing without wanting to yell at the THREE service reps. he talks to.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

this is painful... I want to kill the guy

supervisor: $72 divide by 3600 and it's .002
consumer: and what unit is that
supervisor: well let's see, you were in Canada so

[TheDragon]

The floor manager he talks to takes the cake.

"Clearly this is a difference in opinion." -- Good to see that math is a matter of opinion, now.

[HockeyPuck]

WOW!

I'm gonna have to check my Rogers bill cuz I've been getting charged $300/mo for my cell phone... Maybe the people at Rogers do the math the same way Verizon does...

[Crazy Flamer]

Wow....

Every time that supervisor was corrected the line went dead. Stupid at it's best!

[Jayems]

man, he clearly knows hes wrong... but hes pulling the PR BS

hahah this is really funny.

[TheDragon]

I seriously feel for the guy. He's trying so hard to remain polite, and he really does a great job of trying to explain it all to the reps. What else can you do, though?

Definitely has more patience than I ever would.

[fanforever1986]

supervisor: Im looking at the pricing here for ya.....long pause.....k.....long pause....for data.....and it's .002 cents.
Caller: Ok now translate that into my 35 xxxkb.
Supervisor: Alright, so it's $71.86
Caller: No, it's not. The quoted price is in cents.

Hilarious.

[TheDragon]

I'm seriously thinking of swinging down to the Crossroads Market on Friday, and having a few T-Shirts made up that state "I do Verizon math!"

[V]

That's so unbelievable. I'm surprised he managed to stay so polite. I don't know what I'd do if I ended up paying 100x what I was supposed to, just because multiple people on the other end of the line couldn't understand the difference between cents and dollars.

[OILFAN #81]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!

I was getting mad at those idiots when I listened to that. I used to work a summer job in high school as a telemarketer, etc so I tolerate alot but my god! How dumb can you be?

Patient customer: "Do you understand the difference between 0.002 dollars and 0.002 cents?"

Later in the convo.......

Team idiot: Take your calculator and take 0.002 and multiply by 35xxx(whatever the last 3 digits were) and that gives you $71.79, your bill total!

Patient customer: No it doesn't because that's in cents. Do you understand the difference between 0.002 dollars and 0.002 cents?

Team idiot: No.
LMAO!!!!!



I needed a laugh. Those clowns are so stupid. How can you be supervisor for 1.5 years or floor manager and not even do grade 3 mathematics? Seriously.

[OilersBaby]

the guy stays so calm, i wouldve been screamin for the manager by the 5 min mark. whats sad is stuff like that happens everyday here..i used to get so annoyed/mad by it.

Now my husband and I calling a credit card company, power company, the phone company etc for mistakes on a bill and them not understanding it..i wish things would change.

this reminds me of a thread i was going to create earlier..

i went to uni in both canada and the usa...good schools in both countries. school is soooooo much easier here, getting into the school and getting the grades.

it just makes me so upset because u guys up there try so hard to get to uni and stay afloat to get through it, and here i swear its a joke!! i wish i could take a hidden camera with me to these classes. i feel bad for albertans who are this close to getting into uni but then dont get in because their 3.3 wasnt good enough to get into business school etc..and here all u need is a 2.0 to get into uni! plus the classes are a joke. i wish i could take a hiddne camera and show you how the extra credit is and stuff.

perfect example: my brother had a 3rd year MIS class he took last year and he needed homework help (i majored in the same thing undergrad). i was stumped so i asked a friend of mine who is a professor at STANFORD......for undergrad. he said he could solve it, but it was at the PHD level in the US!!!! and neil here was taking it for his regular Bachelors degree at the U of A!

sorry, its not any american individual's fault or anything, im not trying to offend anyone, it's just the country's education system as a whole. thats what stresses me out. i feel sorry for all you guys up there..because people have it so easy here and then they get paid the big bucks.

sorry for the rant. i just had to say that. again, it's not any individual's fault, but the structure of the country as a whole.

and i just got my american citizenship..which im proud of but im scared for my future kids..i think ill send em up to alberta to school.

[TheDragon]

All because of the decimal point. I find it hysterical that they can't convert the answer into cents, because they rely on the calculator to give them the answer.

It should be 71.79 (or whatever the remainder after the decimal was) CENTS! Not DOLLARS!

The backlash of technological dependance, I guess.

[V]

Actually, I think the guy almost had her understanding, and then he starting talking about 1/1000th of a cent, and stuff like that, and at that point I think it starts getting fuzzy for a lot of people.

He had her at:

"What would you write for 1 cent?"

"0.01 dollars"

"And for half a cent?" (Here I would've said 0.5 cents)

"0.005 dollars"

And then he went into the 1/1000th of a cent stuff that I figured would confuse her more. Where he should've gone was:

"So what is 0.2 cents?"

"0.002 dollars" (She figured out 0.5 cents, she should get this one)

"So what is 0.002 cents?"

Here she would have to agree that it can't be 0.002 dollars, since 0.2 cents is 0.002 dollars. Who knows, though, these people were awful thick.

[OilersBaby]

to you guys, it may seem that it is grade 3 math, but here is an example of why the entire US system is so flawed.

- to get into uni, u only have to have 2-3 years of ALGEBRA (= to math 20 in alberta). deficiences are supposed to be made up in college/uni. not like this math 31 thing we have required to get into engineering there.

- than to get into some med schools, you dont even have to have pre requisites, and unlike CANADA, your undergrad can be in any major (ie any degree). you dont have to be an honors bio student etc....case in point, my brother in law is a dentist, and his undergrad is in history, my sis in law is a dentist, and her undergrad is english.

here's an example of what i mean..no specific pre reqs to get into med school at a decent med school in Illionois

http://www.siumed.edu/studentaffairs/requirements.html

compare that with the U of A/U of C..

Im not saying that the colleges are bad...it's just the system that is flawed........and not all uni's are like that...obviously the IVY"s and some of the other uni's have tougher requirements than Southern Illinois University, but hey, it's an accredited school where one can be a doctor! No one is REQUIRED to take math or anything like that (and so how can you expect a lady at verizon to know the difference??) when a med student doesnt have to take math to get into med school or for admission into the university's bachelor degree program???????????

[J pold]

Wow. Just wow...

[Antithesis]

This is incredible, I can't believe he's not screaming but it almost seems as if he's laughing on the inside.

[TheDragon]

Or crying.

[Antithesis]

I'd be really interested to see what, if anything, comes from this.

[KevanGuy]

I followed the links on the consumerist page to that guys blog and I guess they resolved the issue and charged him 71 cents.