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SolariS 
Forum Senior Member 
Joined: October 27 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 891 |
 Topic: Is this disturbing?Posted: December 09 2006 at 12:26 |
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So I stumbled upon a recording of a coversation this guy was having with a verizon representative. Apparently they quoted him a rate of $0.002 cents/kb for cellular internet or something like that and he was not charged correctly. So he called up the company (verizon) and tried to get it straightened out. To me, their response is somewhat comical, but I get frustrated when I listen to it. http://verizonfails.ytmnd.com/ Edit: It takes a few seconds for the sound to load. Edited by SolariS - December 09 2006 at 12:30 |
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chopper
Special Collaborator 
Honorary Collaborator Joined: July 13 2005 Location: Essex, UK Status: Offline Points: 19942 |
Posted: December 09 2006 at 13:01 |
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Unbelievable. They recognise that 1 dollar and 1 cent are different, half a dollar and half a cent are different, but think that .002 dollars and .002 cents are the same!!!
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SolariS
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 27 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 891 |
Posted: December 09 2006 at 13:04 |
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Yeah, I don't know how that guy kept his composure! HAHA the lady goes "i'm no mathmatician" |
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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: October 16 2006 Location: FL, USA Status: Offline Points: 17493 |
Posted: December 09 2006 at 16:57 |
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Complete and utter idiots these people....
There's where some math class would've worked.... (elementary at its most elementary level)...
Not only math.... my bad.... it's also a matter of logic....
So people in verizon are complete and utter.... idiots.
But the caller is an arrogant prick, too.... he always tries to make the associates look like idiots (which was not difficult at all, because they are)... instead of explaining that 0.002 means the two thousendths (don't know if that's how you spell it) part of something, and that if that something is cents, it would be... well, two thousendths of a cent, and the other would be two thousendths of a dollar.... but he doesn't explain this: he just keeps on talking to everybody trying to sound like he's above them... maybe he is, but he didn't TEACH... he was like the idiot that says he know everything but tries to keep other people in ignorance....
So for me, while the people in verizon are idiots, he's just a worthless b*****d with an inferiority complex
Edited by The T - December 09 2006 at 17:07 |
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william314159
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 24 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 144 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 11:35 |
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ughhhhhhh....... things like this make me want to hurt people for being stupid...... |
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bhikkhu
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: April 06 2006 Location: AČ Michigan Status: Offline Points: 5109 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 12:57 |
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The caller messed up half way through the call too. He started saying that pennies and cents were different. He must have meant to say pennies and dollars, but got confused himself.
The problem with these support lines is that the people who initially answer the call are only qualified to answer simple questions. I have had this problem with Verizon, and especially Comcast. Now when I call, if I see that I don't have a person that can actually help me, I ask for a supervisor. |
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tuxon
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 21 2004 Location: plugged-in Status: Offline Points: 5502 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 15:32 |
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A little disturbing that such a compagny puts such a conversation on the internet ridiculising an all too honest customer.
Everyone knows that there goes 100 cents in a dollar, so you have to divide by a hundred when you calculate from dollars to cents.
0.002 cents in order to turn cents into dollars you have to make it times 100, so that would make 0.2 dollar, so he should be charged with 751 dollars, but the compagny only charged him with 71 dollar, so i think it's a very honest customer to report the difference.
shame on that compagny.
If I was that customer i would have kept the 680 dollars i payed too little. Edited by tuxon - April 12 2007 at 15:43 |
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I'm always almost unlucky _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Id5ZcnjXSZaSMFMC Id5LM2q2jfqz3YxT
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31165 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:03 |
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This story has been circulating the net for quite a while. I listened to the whole conversation a while back and was falling over laughing. There was a part where some Verizon representative chalked the math error up to "a difference of opinion" - classic. If anyone cares, the result of this blogger's newfound internet fame (and the concomitant ridicule Verizon suffered) was that they removed the disputed charge - he didn't even have to pay the $0.71 which he should have owed based on the quoted rate.
Edited by NaturalScience - April 12 2007 at 16:55 |
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31165 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:09 |
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The italicized portion is wonderfully ironic considering the story. 0.002 cents does not equal 0.2 dollars. 0.2 dollars is 20 cents. What had happened was he was quoted a rate of 0.002 cents/kB ($0.00002/kB), and transmitted about 35500 kB, therefore what he should have paid was $0.71 ($0.00002*35500). However, I think Verizon misread to him what the actual rate is, which is 0.002 dollars/kB, and claimed he should have owed about $71. It was clear from the phone call that they indeed quoted him the former rate, that these people are horribly bad at math and only do what "the computer" tells them to do. Edited by NaturalScience - April 12 2007 at 16:13 |
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tuxon
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 21 2004 Location: plugged-in Status: Offline Points: 5502 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:19 |
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Yes, but how many cents do you need to make a dollar?
correct 100, so when calculating from cents to dollars you have to multiply by 100, else i would be a millionaire. I only have 100.000 cents aproximatly, thats 1000 dollars and not 10 million dollars.
so if it costs 0.002 cents, than when you calculate from dollars you must use 0.002 times 100 equals 0.2 dollar/kb times 35500 kbites makes 710 dollar and not 71 dollar.
Maybe they ment 0.002cents/Kb instead of kb (which is a 1000 times as much) than it would work, so i think that's what went wrong, there is a difference of 1000 times in the kbites transformation, which would result in a bill of 71 dollar (because of aprox 10% tax, which is one tenth of 100, so it has to be divided by 10 to corrct for that).
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I'm always almost unlucky _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Id5ZcnjXSZaSMFMC Id5LM2q2jfqz3YxT
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31165 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:26 |
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You've got a future at Verizon!
100 cents = 1 dollar 10 cents = 0.1 dollar 1 cents = 0.01 dollar 0.1 cents = 0.001 dollar 0.01 cents = 0.0001 dollar 0.002 cent = 0.00002 dollars Note: If you agree with my first equation, all subsequent equations are simply dividing both sides by 10 (except the last one which divides by 5). Edited by NaturalScience - April 12 2007 at 16:28 |
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tuxon
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 21 2004 Location: plugged-in Status: Offline Points: 5502 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:31 |
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Yes, now you understand it.
bills are always in dollars, i never receive a bill in cents, so they have to use the conversion table for translating the cents into dollars.
if you have 1 dollar that would mean you also have 100 cents, which is 100 times as much, so when transferring dollars to cents you have to multiply with a hundred as you see happening in the table you produced.
It's not that hard once yhou got the hang of it.
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I'm always almost unlucky _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Id5ZcnjXSZaSMFMC Id5LM2q2jfqz3YxT
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31165 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:33 |
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Right, now multiply 0.00002 dollars/kilobyte by 35500 kilobyte, and what do you get?
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tuxon
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 21 2004 Location: plugged-in Status: Offline Points: 5502 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:36 |
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0.00002 dollars/kb times 35500 kb/s = 0,710 dollar times 100 + 10% tax is 710 dollar.
 I love calculating.
 Edited by tuxon - April 12 2007 at 16:42 |
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I'm always almost unlucky _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Id5ZcnjXSZaSMFMC Id5LM2q2jfqz3YxT
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31165 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:38 |
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Why the extra multiplication by 100?
Dimensional analysis: dollars per kilobyte multiplied by kilobytes gives you dollars. That's it - that's the answer 0,71 dollars. |
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31165 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:40 |
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Are you actually serious about this, or are you just trolling me to get my blood pressure up?
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Peter
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: January 31 2004 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 9669 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:40 |
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Sorry. When converting dollars to cents, you MULTIPLY by 100, not divide by 100.
1 (dollar) X 100 = 100 (cents)
(Using your erroneous division method to convert from dollars to cents: $100 divided by 100 = 1. Thus one hundred dollars would be worth one cent.)
Again -- NO. You have it backwards, my friend.
When converting cents to dollars you divide by 100, not multiply.
100 cents divided by 100 = 1, that is to say, $1.
(If you multiplied by 100, then 1 cent would be worth 100 dollars!)
Thus .002 cents = .00002 dollars (Obviously, you have less dollars than you have cents, and as you must know, the more zeros there are after the decimal, the smaller the number is.)
(I think you know this. I see it in some of your calculations, which are correct -- it's just the way you are expressing it backwards in words, or confusing the word "division" with "multiplication.")  Edited by Peter Rideout - April 12 2007 at 16:52 |
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"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. |
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tuxon
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 21 2004 Location: plugged-in Status: Offline Points: 5502 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:46 |
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But if I divide 100 cents by 100 I would only be left with 1 cent, which is why i hate to pay taxes.
just trolling naturally science.
practicing odd logic. Edited by tuxon - April 12 2007 at 16:51 |
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I'm always almost unlucky _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Id5ZcnjXSZaSMFMC Id5LM2q2jfqz3YxT
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31165 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:52 |
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Boy, you got me good - I was really starting to freak out! |
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tuxon
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 21 2004 Location: plugged-in Status: Offline Points: 5502 |
Posted: April 12 2007 at 16:56 |
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It is a fun thread isn't it.
the disturbing part is that some people apparently think along those lines.
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Is this disturbing?
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chopper wrote:
That conversion is backwards, Tux -- you are moving the decimal in the wrong direction.) so he should be charged with 751 dollars