Think Telus or Bell are bad? Try Verizon.

[HelloHockeyFans]

Hahaha... his sighs get more and more hilarious as the call progresses!

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by JimmytheT

Look at the comments from some of the posters below the video, some of them think the guy is WRONG and Verizon is Right!

I have just posted a couple things that someone in grade 3 should understand (my handle is Tubascope).

Innumeracy is still rampant

Nalornody... omg... the guy just doesn't think before he speaks...

[Winsor_Pilates]

That was great. I didn't think I could listen to a 20 min audio youtube but it was worth it.
Glad he got it sorted out somehow. Hopefully many people hear this and verizon looks really bad.

[JimmytheT]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

That was great. I didn't think I could listen to a 20 min audio youtube but it was worth it.
Glad he got it sorted out somehow. Hopefully many people hear this and verizon looks really bad.

The full call is linked on Greg Mankiw's blog and it is 1 hour and 43 minutes long!

I did not bother listening as that 22 minutes was enough

[Temporary_User]

Originally Posted by JimmytheT

The full call is linked on Greg Mankiw's blog and it is 1 hour and 43 minutes long!

I did not bother listening as that 22 minutes was enough

I didnt bother listening again to confirm this, but on his website it states: "Click here for Audio (27 minutes - PutFile is reporting the time wrong)"
when I clicked on it, the file sayed 1:43.

Technology its great. Think about if this had happened even 10-15 years ago. No way would this have been so big. Even if it had caught major news coverage, I believe that you have to listen to the full audio clip in order to understand how big of a deal this is.
BTW: has this received an news coverage, or is it all passed word of mouth on the internet?

[TheDragon]

Originally Posted by Temporary_User

BTW: has this received an news coverage, or is it all passed word of mouth on the internet?

I haven't heard anything on the news about it. I doubt any of the major US News Agencies would really care all that much, but I was kind of hoping that The Colbert Report might jump on this.

Colbert would tear Verizon to shreds.

[MatsNaslund]

due to the Telus/BCTel merger of a few years Verizon now owns about 30% of Telus. Verizon used to be GTE which used to own 50% of BCTEL for many decades.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

LOL You know what's funny? Read the comments from "lanorlody" under the recording.

[TheDragon]

I like Cingular. I bought a Cingular Pay as You Go phone down in the US while I was there for 9 days... and it was about 100 times easier to set up and then deactivate than it is here. Plus, the CS Reps. were so bloody friendly and knowledgeable, I actually felt like I was being served. Not only that, but a 20 minute call from the US to Canada was only like $4.50. Unbelieveable, I know.

If Cingular ever moved into Canada, it would be GG to both Telus and Bell, I suspect.

Verizon can stay down there, though. Until, at least, they hire a CS department with 9th grade math equivalency.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Clearly, many Americans flee in terror at the sign of a decimal point. The guy should have focused more on the misquoted rate, rather than the decimal place. Or asked how much 0.02 dollars is. If he could have got them to grasp that 0.02 dollars is 2 cents, then went through the quote, he might have had more luck.

Still, I'm amazed he kept it together. Those reps he spoke to were worthless.

[OilersBaby]

Originally Posted by TheDragon

I like Cingular. I bought a Cingular Pay as You Go phone down in the US while I was there for 9 days... and it was about 100 times easier to set up and then deactivate than it is here. Plus, the CS Reps. were so bloody friendly and knowledgeable, I actually felt like I was being served. Not only that, but a 20 minute call from the US to Canada was only like $4.50. Unbelieveable, I know.

If Cingular ever moved into Canada, it would be GG to both Telus and Bell, I suspect.

Verizon can stay down there, though. Until, at least, they hire a CS department with 9th grade math equivalency.

How much was the phone itself? Just curious

[TheDragon]

I believe it was something like $59.00-$79.99. I don't recall off hand which one I bought, now.. - meaning the cost of the phone, and the $25 dollar top-up card were still cheaper than using the phones there (in the end, after 9 days and about 15 hours worth of calls to Canada.) No long distance fees. Flat rate of 10-20 cents per minute to US and Canada (I can't remember which.) No set-up fee. No disconnection fee.

I remember calling the US on my cell phone here in Canada, and talked to a friend for like 20 minutes. I think it ended up costing me about 16 bucks?

EDIT:

UGH! I'm starting to do Verizon math, now. A 20 minute call only ended up costing me $2, and I just double checked, and it was a flat rate of 10 cents per minute...

Not $4.50.

RE-EDIT:

Okay, so truthfully, I don't remember how much, exactly it ended up costing me to use the phone there. All I know is I payed $25 bucks for some air time, and never ended up using all of the time, eithe..., even after about two hours a day of useage to call my friends back home.

[OilersBaby]

Wow, that's sweet. Next time I come upto Canada, I should buy one of these phones to use instead of my own cell phone which costs a lot. Thanks for the info.

[kermitology]

I was actually getting frustrated with the guy too.. He went about it so wrong.

He should have said his kB usage *0.002 cents is 72 cents. He let them to that part of the math every time. That aggrivated me.

[Burninator]

This girl I went to school had a plan with Bell. She went to the store and got them to switch her long distance from something like 35 cents a minute (or whatever it was) to 5 cents a minute. Turns out the dumb worker in the store didn't do it properly and she got billed for the higher long distance rate and got a bill of $1300! And stupid Bell wanted her (a student) to pay the bill and credit her account the $1300. It look her alot of hasseling but after many hours back on forth on the phone she sorted it out.

I couldn't believe they wanted her to pay the $1300 dollars. That would have been credit for almost a whole 3 year contract.

[AC]

[OilersBaby]

HAH that check is hilarious! They'd be so stumped! That's just funny. i wonder if they'd try to figure out what it meant or simply "return to sender"?

[V]

I think I knew this at one point, but what is the sum of (1/2^n) from n=1->infinity?

Is the answer 1?