Verizon Math Fail!

[Dark Nation]

I just stumbled across this YouTube link. I think I have seen it before and some of you may have as well, but in case you haven't:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCJ3Oz5JVKs

[Beldaran]

That made me so mad.

/math major.

[Cloral]

I ran across this last week on FailBlog. It's mindblowing how this many people could be so stupid.

If you really want to blow your mind, read the transcript of the whole thing, which is even longer:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/asinine/transcript-verizon-doesnt-know-how-to-count-220723.php

[Beldaran]

If you really want to blow your mind, read the transcript of the whole thing, which is even longer:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/asinine/transcript-verizon-doesnt-know-how-to-count-220723.php

On page 2 of the comments there is some dipstick who is arguing that verizon is correct and he uses really horrible math to "prove" it.

Sad.

[ctrl-alt-delete]

This is embarrassing. I'm going to check my AT&T bills now...

[The_Amaster]

*stares in abject horror*
I mean, seriously. The guy explained it like three times, and these people didn't know what unites their calculators were working in.
This makes me despair for humanity...

[gdorf]

Haha. That is really sad.

Decimals are hard. :(

[Gleeok]

Wow. If I didn't see it, I might not of believed it. Shameful. If I was a verizon employee I would ask for a .02 dollar raise.




On page 2 of the comments there is some dipstick who is arguing that verizon is correct and he uses really horrible math to "prove" it.

Sad.

Hahaha, yeah I saw that: .25 cents = 25 cents. lol. 0.100 dumbass.

[Trevelyan_06]

I had to stop watching it after the manager lady sat there agreed that there was a difference between dollars and cents, half a dollar and half a cent but not between .002 dollars and .002 cents.

[rock_nog]

For the sake of my sanity, I'm just going to assume they were lying to bilk the guy out of his money, and that they aren't actually this dumb.

[Nicholas Steel]

I would say they ARE that dumb and the sheet of paper containing there formula for working it out lacked a $ or cents symbol on it which was causing the confusion. They probably rectified it by reissuing the formula with the cents or dollars sign.

[phattonez]

Wow, I really had confidence that the girl would understand it. How can there be a difference between half a cent and half a dollar but not a difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents. Is this some crazy conversion factor that they teach at Verizon that's way above everyone else?

[The_Amaster]

Well, the problem wasn't really the differencece between .002 dollars and .002 cents. It was that the calculator read 78.65 (or whatever), and they'd been taught to read that as dollars.cents.
They looked at it and instantly thought "78 dollars", without considereing the units it was calculated in.

[Archibaldo]

Well its not like call centers attract the most brilliant minds. It's one of those jobs you don't need your high school diploma to get.

Honestly, I don't see why everyone is surprised, go out and ask any high school drop out if .002 dollars is equal to .002 cents.

[Nicholas Steel]

Well, the problem wasn't really the differencece between .002 dollars and .002 cents. It was that the calculator read 78.65 (or whatever), and they'd been taught to read that as dollars.cents.
They looked at it and instantly thought "78 dollars", without considereing the units it was calculated in.
True, they were probably told to always treat it as dollars and cents or else loose your job.

[Gleeok]

Honestly, I don't see why everyone is surprised, go out and ask any high school drop out if .002 dollars is equal to .002 cents.

Isn't basic fractions and decimals like fourth or fifth grade math?

I mean correct me if I'm wrong, It's been awhile, but you would think you'd learn something closely related to the following in each grade:

1st grade: reading/writing
2nd grade: addition/subtraction
3rd grade: basic multiplication tables
4th/5th grade: decimals/fractions/division/etc..

[Revfan9]

Not since Leave Every Child Behind. They've been slowly bumping the curriculum up here ever since then. And by "Bumping the curriculum up", I mean "Well, not enough first graders are getting this, so we'll just push this to the second grade instead" and the like. It's really quite sad to watch.

[Beldaran]

If you think American schools were really good before No Child Left Behind, and then suddenly got really bad, well then I have some property I'd like to sell you.

[EatinCake]

The transcript is different from the actual video recording, not to mention the video accompanying it removed.

I feel bad that there are people like the Verizon employees out there, but on the other hand hope that there are more like the caller.

[Modus Ponens]

The feeling I got when I first heard this was, yeah, these people at Verizon sure do sound like complete morons, but at the same time, come on, guy; it was obviously a mistake to begin with, and you decided to take advantage of it and now you're trying to argue like a douchebag and get them to let you have your stupid cheap phone bill.

[Beldaran]

come on, guy; it was obviously a mistake to begin with, and you decided to take advantage of it


There are two things wrong with this.

1) If a company deliberately quotes you a price, even if they accidentally quote you too low, they are obligated to honor their quote. It was their mistake, they have to pay for it.

2) He had no idea what minutes should cost. His US plan is "unlimited", meaning he's never actually paid for a minute by minute basis. He figured that the low foreign rate was a component of his expensive "unlimited" plan. He even called to verify with Verizon that the correct rate was .002 cents per minute. They not only quoted him the wrong price originally, but they then verified it.

There is nothing about this situation that is not Verizon's fault.

[Modus Ponens]

Okay. Agreed.