I don’t get it… that makes about as much sense as girls in bondage! Bear Blaws you… what does that mean? My mind is in bondage of ignorance on this one.
Let me see. February 4. *checks calendar* Yup. Just as I thought. It’s pick on Dragonwriter day. *puts on appropriately decorated hat and blows noise maker*
This is one of those few times where using the Closed Captioning service of Youtube would be nice, when the video is entirely composed of what I must assume to be audio that I cannot hear. Failblog fail?
How? Some people have lots of camel toe jam, some have none. Are you going to take from the haves and give to the have-nots? Are you some kind of camel toe jam socialist?
The Verizon mathematicians are gonna be on this blog looking for proof and you guys are talking about camel toe jam. Woo Failblog! And Failbog by the way, a little crowded, but nice.
You’d think cell phone companies would
Check math skills, especially considering they deal with numbers.
I feel bad for this guy if he actually paid $78 for a 0.002 cents rate per kilobyte.
I teach Jazz camel-toe as a side job. But my real job is I’m part of a band. Our most recent show had a ridiculous camel-toe solo (by me) on the tune Equinox. The suaveness of the camel toe is rather supplemented by the minor blues.
No, I’m pretty sure $.002 is 2 thousandths of a dollar, and .002 cents is 2 thousandths of a cent. But yeah, same difference. Reminds me of the other day online with technical support and I had to teach them what a captcha was. That’s pretty bad.
Looks like it is rocket science. $0.002 is 2 thousandths of a dollar,
not 2 tenths of a cent, 0.002 cents is 2 thousandths of a penny,
and I SUCK at maths.
$0.002 does equal 2 tenths, or .2, cents. Here is why:
$0.02=2 cents
$0.01 Divided by 10=$0.001 How do I know this? Here is why:
$0.001+$0.001+$0.001+$0.001+$0.001+$0.001+$0.001+$0.001
+$0.001+$0.001=$0.010 or $0.01
An alternative way: Moving the Decimal:
$1.00 divided by 100 (Move the decimal two places to the left) = 1 penny/cent or $0.01
For each 0 you move the decimal one place so 10=1 place,
100=2 places, 1000=3 places.
Let’s take $0.01 and divide it by 10.
$0.01–>$0.001
$0.001 is therefore one-tenth of a cent
Does this make sense for you Yallah habib or should you just go back to school?
THE GUY CALLING IS WRONG. You are being charged 2 tenths of a penny– the only time there is a difference between the “dollars and Cents” is when you are referring to percentages and we r not. there is no conversion because it is the same number. the lady doesnt tell him right but verizon is right i promise. i talked to my trig proffesor about it today. the dollar and cent thing doesnt apply in that way. promise guys
for wikipedia “In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1/100 of the basic monetary unit. The word also refers to the coin which is worth one cent”
Rofl and you spelled “here” wrong trying to correct someone’s spelling error.
Thats funny, “its a matter of opinion” lol! If you had explained it in terms of percentage they might have figured out that these are 2 completely different numbers, its like saying 2 percent of a penny is the same as 2 percent of a dollar.
……..you used the wrong version too. It’s their people. They’re is they are. Do Do they also train they are people to use the wrong version of thare?….
its like….irony? But, also not because it’s still the expected outcome. I don’t know anymore.
I don’t think Verizon trains their people at all.. I use verizon internet and I always have to have my brother in law fix things because Verizon employees in Texas have no idea what they’re doing.
Nomatter what the problem is, if you use wireless internet, they’ll always tell you that it’s your wireless and you should try it wired. They if it doesn’t work take you through a long and complex series of steps that result in getting abolsutely NOTHING accomplished.
verizon fail, we just delt with them, no Tech support any where within the states. We have to deal with Indians, which, not to be racist, but their Help line sucks, or we deal with Canadians, which actually have a nice help service, but evidentally cant do math…
Going well. Energy level is slowly returning and I getting around on my own again. I’m currently being driven around the bend by the latest DSHS form and trying to arrange for my next CT scan. The forms questions are unbelievably ridiculous and the CT people can’t get it through their heads that I can not take an oral contrast agent. I ought to take it a throw up all over their machine again to teach them a lesson.
I’ll have you know that dial-up is on the rise what with the economy keeping company with the Ti-D-Bowl man. So there! I’m a trend setter. I’m cutting edge. I’m out of the box. And any other piffle that you might care to add.
the new people came because one friend tells another about the site (which itself is great) and then maybe they click to see the comments on a ridiculous post, just to see what’s going on, and then they happen upon a strange conversation between fish and moomies and foops and people talking about personal things. Perhaps they’re commenting because your conversations are so enlightening!
(they’re their there – check)
(are our R – check)
(hare hair here hear – check)
ok. I’m prepared for the backlash now.
Regardless of what the customer service people were saying, the guy calling in realized it was 2/10 of a cent for each KB he transferred. 35,000 x 2/10 of a cent is his 71 dollar charge. Yes, the Verizon people didn’t know why they were talking about as far as the math he was addressing. Either way he realized what he should be charged, I had to listen to it again, but he answered his own question. He just wanted to attack the poor customer service further.
The Verizon people are misunderstanding him and *sounding* like idiots, but this guy on the phone is a bigger moron.
$0.002 is the number he is looking for. This is 2/10 of a penny, so for every 5kb of data he transfers, it will add up to 1 penny. 100 of those is a dollar (so 500kb = $1). He used 35,000kb, so divide 35,000/500 = 70.
So while this jackass thinks he’s so smart, HE was just as wrong as the Verizon employees. .002 cents doesn’t even make sense. Maybe he should stop being a douche and look at his plan, which would clearly lay out the $0.002/kb. OR conversely, think about it in terms of MB of usage. I know for me it’s $15 per MB when I’m out of the country. 35,000kb = 3.5MB. So that’s over $50.
Hearing this guy be so condescending really bothers me. Don’t sound so sure of yourself when you are clearly wrong. YOU FAIL.
The error is on Verizon’s part: if he was quoted a rate of .002 cents and not $.002, then he should be charged .002 cents per kb. Sure, Verizon may have MEANT to say $.002, but it’s not the customer’s fault that they accidentally quoted him a much lower price. The guy on the phone wasn’t asking what his rate is – he knows what he was quoted (.002 cents). He’s just asking for the Verizon employees to do their math correctly so he’s not charged 100x more than he was quoted, regardless of whether Verizon meant to quote him that amount.
Oh, and .002 cents makes sense – it’s math. Just because you can’t hold 2 thousandths of a cent doesn’t mean it’s not a real number.
Oh, and ryan, don’t sound so sure of yourself when you are clearly wrong.
Obviously Verizon employees are posting erroneous comments to this blog in order to detract from the fact that their brethren call center staff did not know that the difference between hundreds, tens and units… let alone dollars and cents…..
There you go verizon employees… proof that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
Wow u idiot no it wouldnt work idiot 1 canadian dollar is worth 88 cents not 1 canadian dollar worth 1 us cent.. and a few months ago 1 canadian dollar was worth about 1.40 US.. l2business?
Oh, I guess you want the solution, too. Ok.
.
1 gallon = 4 quarts.
1 quart = 2 pints.
So there’s 8 pints in a gallon.
1 pint = 2 cups.
1 cup = 8 oz.
8 x 2 = 16.
16 x 8 = 128.
Guy A: I have 6 apples and I ate one. I have 5 apples left.
Guy B: You have 5 ORANGES left
Guy A: No, I started with apples, they are still apples, just the number has changed
Guy B: Well, that’s your opinion.
But
Are you sure its not .128 oz instead of 128. ?
Or maybe its actually 128 pints.
You may have forgotten to convert.
…like the Verizon employee, and his immediate super….
…which is still above Solo’s record low. Though said run took a bit longer than usual since he stopped to save his then-girlfriend from falling into one of the many black holes in that region.
I want to hear the conversation where they had the epiphany. How do you apologize for overcharging someone by 10,000 percent? “I’m sorry sir, but our basic math skills seem to be a bit off… Thankfully our jobs only require that we do computations during billing.”
It’s not that they’re billing it wrong, it’s that they’re pitching it wrong. The sales reps are telling people it’s .002 cents when in fact it’s .002 dollars. ‘Cuz sales reps are assholes. = )
I don’t think it’s being billed incorrectly, but that the employee’s don’t know how to read their billing policy. They just see $0.002 and think it is automatically converted to cents, you don’t have to be a mathemetician to know that if you make changes to an equation it has to be done to both sides. I learned that my first year in high school, and after that it becomes common sense. But Verizon should totally adjust the charges since they are repeatedly quoting the price at 0.002cents. I really hope it is resolved now.
I am not entirely sure how to take that. i thought for sure that the female would have figured it out after a few seconds. i’ll bet that they think that a ton of feathers weighs less than a ton of bricks, too.
The man does write some scary stuff.
I read The Shinning during a winter stay at my grandparents house in Ulster County NY. The house was a 100 year old estate once owned by the Kellogg family. It even had overgrown topiary in the woods surrounding the house. Scared the bejesus out of me.
The light burned out while I was reading It. I turned every single light in the house on. Even the ones in the closets. Especially the ones in the closets.
No, no, guys, Funnyboi’s right, though not in the way he (or she, I won’t make assumptions; people see “Penny” in my ID and mistakenly assume I’m female) probably intended.
The video IS funny BECAUSE it’s too long. The amusement stems from the fact that the individual had to spend so much time trying (though sadly, unsuccessfully) to explain relatively simple mathematic concepts to the representative and his supervisor.
If I had to guess, I’d say that all that filtered into Funnyboi’s brain in the first thirty seconds was “numbers, numbers, words, words….” before he/she stopped listening. Coincidentally, “numbers, numbers, words, words….” was probably what was running through the rep’s and the supervisor’s minds while the individual was explaining basic math that most of us learned in grade school–which is why they didn’t get it and thus why we laugh at them.
Not-so-coincidentally, “they didn’t get it” is why we’re laughing at Funnyboi. Not laughing *with*, mind you, but *at*. As in “making fun of, because U R DUM.” (I figure that Funnyboi can grasp that last part, if nothing else.)
Main Entry: whis·key
Variant(s): or whis·ky \ˈhwis-kē, ˈwis-\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural whiskeys or whiskies
Etymology: Irish uisce beatha & Scottish Gaelic uisge beatha, literally, water of life
Date: 1715
1 : a liquor distilled from fermented wort (as that obtained from rye, corn, or barley mash)
2 : a drink of whiskey
Actually, you buy Whisky from the United States, and you buy Whiskey from Canada. I have no idea about how other countries’ products choose to spell it.
Bartending school: it will help you post comments!
We’ll need another mural for that, this one only gets me to the blog. BFF! You’re needed!
*wishes, wishes, wishes she had a whirlpool tub! Or even just a deep tub*
The Decider decides what money is worth!
.
Funnily enough, a penny happens to be worth more than a penny, what with the copper in it. We produce pennies at a loss.
With no intention to insult, I’d like to make a correction to your comment. Pennies made post-1982 are made with a Zinc core and an overcoat of copper making the minting process cost less than 1 cent. But yeah, Verizon employees need a class in unit conversion.
Umm math is not debatable, thats the point of math!! There is always one right answer. There is a big difference between 0.002 dollars and 0.002 cents and that is not debatable. The people that he was talking to are just stupid.
That’s actually pretty accurate…
Chances are those two winners work at a call center, subcontracted by Verizon to handle their customer service. I used to repair machines at a call center that was subcontracted by Verizon…and I can tell you from first hand experience that if cubicle farms were real farms, that one would be growing a whole lot of stupid. Sixth-grade-dropout stupid.
Yes, but what happens when you try to pay somebody? Will it revert to $1 USD? Or, will it become more? Besides your $30 000 dollars, would actually be one note, so it would be invalidated, because energy cannot be made or destroyed, only converted to matter to other forms of energy…[/infomation]
Yeah, I think this goes beyond the realm of math fail and into the realm of logic fail. Either that or the VZW call center people are just huge WEASELS.
I think this made my head explode. Dear Gaia, are people really, really that idiotic? Yeah, a difference of opinion that $.002 doesn’t equal .002 cents. Right.
Too many exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes and no. It’s like watching a train wreck. I found myself yelling at the computer because you just want those people to get it. Sadly, they never will. So after some thought, I don’t think I need to hear any more.
Alright, first of all, people need to stop arguing amongst themselves about punctuation issues and the wrong usage of “there” because it is incredibly obvious who the real idiot is here. Actually, there are two, and they are both in this clip. This is a fail of Darwin-award proportions. Randall, if this is real, you WIN. Even if you don’t know what the word “conversion” means, this is still a lame attempt at trying to weasel you out of $71. Thank you for sharing this epic fail.
should’ve started the ‘lesson’ with 2 dollars vs 2 cents. Then .2 dollars vs .2 cents. Then .02 dollars vs .02 cents. Finally .002 dollars vs .002 cents.
Either way, I can’t believe both the guy and the girl failed at basic match. mob mentality on a small scale?
BlasiuS, it seems to me a math issue based in a reading error. Like many I’ve noticed in office situations, they need some remedial help with their English. Having worked in call centres during my college years, I have seen this kind of $tupidity in a¢tion before.
Nooo you are nawt unnerstaneen me. I will tell you wanse agayn. Youuu have 2 cents. I have 2 dollars. Youuuu have to pay me what? Nooo, you cannawt speak to my supahvisah.
ha ha, I had a nightmare that I called 911 and got the same kind of
customer service that I get with my cell phone company:
a nice foreign person in Singapore who speaks as much English
as I speak Swahili.
Iselin, NJ is a huge Indian community and I happened to live there 4 years. I am sure half of them worked in call centers and were mocking me behind my back, knowing it was me calling. I will never have Vonage again because of my pure hatred for their call center.
Is internet(s) plural??? there is more than one???? OMG, here I have been the whole time thinking it was singular since it appears as one whole even though it spans world wide. Is it determined to be plural because of the different technolgy? So I should start using a plural case for everything. Mouse’s, Moose’s, Boat’s…….I’M CONFUSED!!!!!
Your reasoning behind this post perplexes me. So the fact that this movie was made before you where born makes it less of a fail? I believe that any fail, no matter what its age, has the same effect now as when it was made. Simply because you dislike of this particular fail does not facilitate a loss of faith in the fail blog community to me.
*runs back towards Electrohacker*
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Dammit DW, you put me back down facing the wrong way!
*runs back away from Electrohacker*
*SQUEEZES DW on the way past*
EEEEEEEEEEEWWAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
It seems like they’re both reciting a script that was poorly written. Neither of them did the math or bothered to think about what they’re saying; they’re just saying what they’re told to say.
gamamew “That’s because at Verizon, the English System is used instead of the International System of Units ”
re-reading this much later, missed this comment first time round – maths is an international language – nowhere does .002=.02 – whatever system or nationality you are.
um, maybe … I have heard there is a proof that 1 = 2 ….. if I could get my head round that, maybe I could work for Verizon?
Hah! I thought the same thing! Although honestly, if it were Randall Munroe, we probably would have been treated to a series of stick figures acting out the scenario instead of the static background. And there would have been some wickedly funny hover text.
I know you people don’t really want to hear this BUT…. the fail here is in communication, not math. This is why I get very angry when people use words incorrectly. I try to politely correct them and they say “Same thing”. No. It’s NOT.
These people simply aren’t thinking about the differences in the words they are using. In each case they are thinking the same number, and understanding it correctly, but they are not thinking about the words they are using because they have been taught that words are interchangeable.
It’s like when people use the word “download” to describe copying a file, or talk about “logging on to ” a website. You don’t “log on” to a website, you simply access it. “Logging on” to something is a VERY different process! Most people would say “same thing”, but it is NOT and that precedent is what leads to mistakes like this fail.
You have NO IDEA how often it happens here. People try to tell me things all the time using words they don’t really understand. And often things go wrong because they ask me to do something using the wrong words. Well sorry, but I don’t know your specific version of the language!! Use the words correctly, or at least ASK if you’re not sure and things work much better!
I agree, I think they charged him the correct amount, but TOLD him the wrong thing. But, since it was their error that lead to a misunderstanding of the charges, proper customer service and salesmanship should have the company correct that error and explain future charges more clearly.
But then again, I was born knowing better customer service than most corporations have in their entire companies these days.
I am seriously frightened that anyone with a high school diploma – which I believe is a minimum requirement for most work in the U.S. – cannot understand this. Even after this guy clearly broke down the logic behind the math.
I understand your sentiments here. I’m a 20 year old that hasn’t finished a year of college yet due to personal issues, yet I spell better than my 45-year-old supervisor. I had to spell ‘compliance’ for her the other day…pay raise, please? It’s just scary to see this kind of thing, day after day, from those that get paid more than me *sigh*
I feel the same way. My boss is 20 years older than me and makes twice as much as I do, yet he still has me read over his emails before he sends them out, usually to make sure he “got the point across”.
When he sends emails on his own, even one-liners, there is ALWAYS a mistake. A missing word, incorrect spelling, or the wrong word.
Friend, I’m a 34-year-old who dropped out of college sixteen years ago, and I have to do the same thing for a supervisor of comparable age to yours. Honestly, it’s not even the spelling itself that annoys me; what does is that he always asks while he’s typing a document on MS Word, which–last time I checked–HAS A SPELL-CHECK FUNCTION. It’s bad enough when one is more literate in computer use than their own language–he is quite tech-savvy–but how sad is it when that same individual can’t find “spell check” in a pull-down menu?
I feel your pain foozlesprite, my boss pulled me in the office and wrote I <3 U on a paper and asked me what the heck does “I less than three you” mean.
I’m a friggin drop out with a GED and half a semester of college for Failness
sakes!
This video made me cringe, a lot. Then I felt rather confused between the feeling of being sad for humanity and laughing at their stupidity. I like laughing better so I laughed. Hahaha. Ok, I retreat back into obscurity.
Well, this explains why my verizon bill is always $300 more than I was expecting.
I gotta go dig out my bills and see how many .002 dollars I was charged when it should have been .002 cents.
NOTE TO THE MATH TEACHER poster: Please, please, please save us from a future of these verizon style math morons who think that the difference between a dollar and a cent is just an opinion!
“Well I’m going to put up this video on my blog!” That must be the lamest threat I’ve heard all year. I hope he informed them in advance that he was recording them and just take it to a lawyer, I smell class-action law suit.
Almost every customer service telephone call starts with “This call will be recorded.. etc etc”
I’m not sure he would be able to record it without asking them, which is why I think it’s fake. She wouldn’t say “Go ahead, put it on your blog” if he didn’t ask permission.
FYI, in the United States legal system, in order for a telephone conversation to be admissible in a court of law, the recording party must inform the other party or parties that the conversation is being recorded, giving them the option to discontinue the telephone conversation. This is in accordance to a person’s basic rights, such as the Miranda Warning, “You have the right to remain silent.”
Interesting point there, JayCal. From now on, I’m gonna have a recording precede all my phone conversations: “Miss Antipodes will be with you in a moment, your call is important to Miss Antipodes, this call may be recorded for quality and failblog purposes….”
Why didn’t he just say “You forgot to move the decimal point two places” ? That would have saved him so many labored sighs and snooty jabs. I agree that these help line people were inCREDibly dumb, but it’s not really a Masters Degree kind of job and anyone would go on the defensive when you start talking to them like they’re on the Palin in 2012 campaign train (that is: like they’re inbred retards)
But that’s the problem. They got tripped up on the dollar vs. cents, not so much on the calculation itself.
0.002 dollars = .2 cents. But they are quoting 0.002 cents. So if you multiply say, 10,000 KB x 0.002 cents, you get 20… cents, but they thought it was dollars. So they would need to move the decimal point again to get a dollar figure, which makes it 0.2 dollars.
But the real stupid thing here is why bill by the KB? Just bill by MB and the math gets easier. Assuming 0.002 dollars per KB, that makes it 2 dollars per MB, so 35 MB = 70 dollars. It’s so easy, you don’t even need a calculator. If it’s cents we are talking about instead, then it is 2 cents per MB, which makes it 70 cents (ok. It’s a bit more simplistic than it should be because 1MB = 1024KB, but it helps get a close estimate).
So, it’s still Verizon’s fault. Because: a) they create confusion between cents and dollars; b) they don’t use an easier unit to calculate from and, c) they don’t ensure their people — managers included — have the minimal math skills required to do their jobs properly.
But this is win for Verizon, because so many people will be billed like this and not realise it’s 100x what they should pay! Even if only 1% of customers pay this inflated bill, they are still making a large (and fraudulent) profit. Plus, the staff they employ are of low intelligence and therefore cheap, plus dumb staff give the company a ‘plausible deniability’ option in any resulting court case. So, Verizon wins at scamming people out of money and making a huge profit.
Well duh, of course they didn’t understand it… they can’t type in the ‘cent(se)’ symbol into their qwakulator to see that the new number is still in (no)cents
that’s from december 2006, verizon gave him a full refund after aknowledging that they where at fault ( did take them a while though) for more information go to http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/
It’s sad. I especially like it when they know the difference between half a dollar and half a cent, but can’t make the leap to 0.002 dollars and 0.002 cents. I also loved her “It’s a matter of opinion” line. I mean, wow.
Are they serious? .002 cents= .00002 dollars. So bits*rate (bits/cent)=cents
To get it to dollars, you do the additional conversion of 100cents per dollar, giving you (bits*rate(bits/cent))/1000cents/dollar=price in dollars. It isn’t that complicated, really. And I’m not a mathematician either.
When she said it’s a difference of opinion, I wanted to firebomb schools of education. If she had responded “I sexually abuse small children”, I wouldn’t have disrespected her as much as I did when she said “it’s a difference of opinion”.
The dollar and cent sign just denote currency. If you write out 1.25 cents, no one assumes it’s one and 1 fourth of a penny. It’s a dollar and 25 cents in change. $1.25 similarly is still a dollar and 25 cents. The guy who made the call is being a pain in the ass. The verizon people had it right.
Its still misleading, If they are quoting 0.002 cents then thats what they should charge. Its a general ‘assumption’ that you pay for things at the advertised/quoted price. Not in soviet russia though…
Dollars and cents are two different units. Just like miles and inches are two different units.
Or meters and centimeters. No wonder the economy is tanking, people working for major corporations fail at basic math.
the verizon people had it wrong guy. come on! yes, the guy WAS being a pain in the ass. yes, 1.25 written out is a dollar twenty five, but when you tell someone one point two five cents, you are saying, 1 penny and a quarter penny. if you put up a sign that says $0.002, you are saying, a fifth of a penny, and if you put up a sign that says 0.002c, you are saying, a fifth of a cent. if i was the guy on the phone, i would exploit the misunderstanding until i got my 70 dollars back. if i didn’t, i’d cancel my service and vandalize as many verizon outlets as i could find. my reign of terror would not end until i was either jailed or given my money back.
i used to work as a customer care rep for ATTwireless 4 years ago, before Verizon bought them out, and i can tell you that a good 80% of the people in those places barely got their highschool diploma’s so debating with them can be difficult. but i can also tell you that a good 95% of people with cell phones barely got their highschool diploma’s so debating with THEM is downright retarded. i will never own a cellphone because of this
Are you an idiot? You’re arguing that there is no difference between $0.002 and 0.002 cents
they are NOT equal, they are completely different units of currency. If they were to equate their original 0.002cents/kb then that would be $0.00002/kb
Either way they still made a very ignorant statement saying that there is no difference between $0.002 and 0.002cents; which there most definitely is
Yes they do assume 1.25 cents = 0.0125 dollars especially when its being charged per KB on a data plan. You are an idiot Redlow, maybe Verizon is hiring though – I see a future there for you.
Wow, you are as stupid as the support people. The guy is not being a pain in the ass, he’s 100% correct. Read your post….out loud…..to someone with a brain and they will laugh at you too
ok, in there lies the problem… “no one assumes it’s one and 1 fourth of a penny..” sometimes the assumption overshadows logic & (not-so) common sense!! The guy who made the call is right and is only doing what corporations do all the time, get their way due to a loophole or technicality.. he was only clarifying what was written in black and white. The verizon people, and anyone who really agrees with them have no understanding of terms. Ever hear of comparing apples to oranges? It doesn’t work!
It gets worse with insurance. Any detail (and I do mean any), no matter how insignificant, can cheat somebody out of money they deserved.
Yes, I know it’s harsh that he (almost – read his blog) got cheated out of his money, but it’s only a small amount compared to what happens to countless more people.
What are you on? Please if you have any dependants, get them to look at your paycheques: because your boss may be screwing you if your happy with assuming getting 1000.25 cents every month would be equal to getting 1000.25 dollars.
When the sign for bag of chips says “.99c” I’m always tempted to see if they’ll actually give it to me for a penny… or if I can sue them for false advertising.
Fail to you Redlow.
Umm…no. 1.25 cents i still 1 cent plus .25 of a cent
1.25 dollars is one dollar and .25 of a dollar
If they wrote 1.25 and only 1.25 then yes I would assume one dollar twenty-five cents.
If they wrote 1.25 and added cents at the end….that’s completely different
they are not the same…..That’s why we have two different symbols for each of them.
25 cents are twenty-five dollars are not the same, perhaps that will make it a little easier to see the difference
Redlow- You are an idiot. Is 1.25 cups the same as 1.25 gallons? Is 1.25 tons the same as 1.25 grams? The numbers are completely meaningless without the units. 1.25 dollars is 125 cents. If you want to use symbols (I will use “c” for cents), then $1.25 DOES NOT EQUAL 1.25c. You should get a job with Verizon. They would obviously be able to make money with you working for them.
I agree. His argument was a fail, and is probably why it was posted on fail blog… man, of course that .02 dollars is the same as .02 cents. Redlow explained it well.
I see your point. But it could also imply 7 dollars and 50 cents.
This is just a game of words.
I still think that guy on the phone was just being a pain.
No. NO. 7.50 by itself could be dollars or cents. But when you have a sign before it, that means units of measurement. $7.50 is commonly assumed to mean 7 dollars and 50 cents, but the truth is that it means 7 dollars and five tenths of a dollar. We just use different terms for tenths and hundredths of a dollar. We call them “cents”. From the root word “cent”, meaning “hundredth”? When something is listed as being in cents, it is in cents. It doesn’t matter what you think. Do you agree that ¢7 means seven cents, as in seven pennies, as in .07 of a dollar? Well, then, why should it matter if it’s ¢7 or ¢7.5? Adding a decimal point does not change the meaning of the sign. It is not a game of words.
And by the way, I would be a pain too if it meant the difference between getting charged ¢71.95 and $71.95.
…What? Do you know the difference between a “cent” and a “dollar”? .01 dollars = 1 cent. If you write out .002 *CENTS* you better mean .002 *CENTS*, not .002 *DOLLARS*. Under that logic, .002 cents would convert to .002 dollars, which converts to .2 cents, which converts to .2 dollars, which converts to 20 cents, which converts to 20 dollars, which converts to 2000 cents, which converts to 2000 dollars…. you see where this is going? Even taking this one step multiplies the cost by 100.
If a contract says the rate is .002 cents per kilobyte, you can’t charge .002 dollars. This guy’s case can easily go to court and he would win easily.
At the same time, I really don’t know why I need to explain this.
15¢ doesn’t mean $15, you twit. And $0.15 doesn’t mean 0.15¢.
Further, not only did the Verizon people get the meaning of the cent sign wrong, they got the meaning of “cent” wrong, when they claimed that “.002 cents” meant the same thing as “.002 dollars”.
You’re intellectually unqualified to drive, vote, or have kids. Please shut up and return to your television set.
Um, not sure what universe you come from, but in this one 1.25 cents is 1 and 1/4 cents. Like when you go to the gas station and they say $2.259 per gallon. That is 2 dollars 25 and 9/10 cents. There are countless instances in the real world where things are charged by the fraction of a cent because of the volume.
Oh by the way, if the contract is written so it says 0.002 cents then they can’t charge you 0.002 dollars. There isn’t a court in the country that would find in Verizon’s favor, unless of course the judge was appointed during the Bush administration.
Whenever I see a sign that says (for example) “.99c” for a bag of chips, I’m tempted to see if they’ll really give it to me for a penny. Or whether I could subsequently sue them for false advertising.
Fail, Redlow, fail.
is that sarcasm i hear? cause i cant imagine anyone being as stupid as this, it is common knowlage that 100 cents is 1 dollar and that .01 dollars is equal to a cent. the verison people were just trying to overcharge him, 72 dollars for 3 megs of data? dont it seem a little wrong?
You’re kidding, right? If you write “1.25 cents”, it means “one and one-quarter cents” (or “one point two-five cents”, or “one and one-quarter pennies”). It doesn’t matter what one *assumes*! It simply *IS*. What you’ve written is as horrifying and ridiculously stupid as the woman saying it was a “difference of opinion”!
1.25 cents is 1/100th of 1.25 dollars.
If I buy 10,000 widgets at 1.25 cents apiece, I pay 12,500 cents which is $125 (or one hundred twenty five dollars). If you try to charge me $12,500 (or twelve thousand five hundred dollars), I will take it out on your ass.
I’m pretty sure that when you were in elementary school you learned that 1.25¢ was the wrong way to write $1.25 because they were different amounts. I even learned that all the way out here in a state with (what’s close to) the lowest education rating in the country.
And secondly – if someone gives me a check that says 1.25 cents, I will not assume that it means $1.25. I will see it as 1 and 1/4 of a penny and I will bash the person who gave me that miserable amount of money. And laugh at him as obviously he’s messed up multiple times in paying his bills and will get bitten in the butt for it soon.
Units are everything. The Verizon people were WRONG.
EVERYONE would assume it’s one and 1 fourth of a penny, because that’s EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID IT WAS!
I’m sitting here trying to think up a witty analogy to make it clear, but I can’t. I just can’t think of something more ridiculous than writing “1.25 cents” and expecting people to think it meant $1.25. My mind cannot wrap around the stupidity of someone even saying that.
Actually, EVERYONE would assume it’s 1 and one fourth of a penny, because that’s EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID IT WAS!
I’m sitting here trying to come up with a witty comparison, but I just can’t, because I can’t think of anything more ridiculous than writing out “1.25 cents” and then expecting people to assume you meant $1.25. That’s like quoting 50 cents and then charging $50. You’re doing exactly what Verizon is doing: pretending dollars and cents are the same thing.
Let’s see, you [i]said[/i] 1.25 cents, you [i]wrote[/i] 1.25 cents, but nobody’s going to assume you [i]meant[/i] 1.25 cents? Who’s being a pain in the ass here?
Let’s see, you [i]said[/i] 1.25 cents, you [i]wrote[/i] 1.25 cents, but nobody is supposed to assume you [i]meant[/i] 1.25 cents? Who’s being a pain in the ass?
No, they didn’t have it right. If I’m saying 1.25 cents, that’s one and one fourth cent. If I say 1.25 dollars, or a buck twenty five, or even one twenty five one could reasonably assume that we’re talking about one dollar and twenty five cents.
Suddenly, economic issues seem far more scary than they did before.
Although we all know what Verizon INTENDED the price to be, this guy should have gotten away with this based on the technicality. Cents and dollars ARE different. Verizon would be obliged to decrease his bill, and then change their grammatically incorrect billing statement.
He should have won, actually. I can see why they are confused, but Verizon is technically incorrect in this argument. They can avoid future “offenses” by fixing their statement, but he should have gotten through.
A company cannot make a statement and then refuse to back it up. If a store accidentally prints a wrong price, they must abide by that price until they change it to the correct one. Phone companies are no different. They’re just more stubborn because they don’t see you face to face.
Are you serious you think the verizon people were right.
he was saying .002 CENTS and .002 DOLLARS
if you multiply .002 CENTS times 35893 you get $7.17
if you multiply .002 DOLLARS times 35893 you get $71.78
kind of a difference you dumbass
1.25 cents is one and a quarter penny
125 cents is one dollar and 25 cents
the dollar and cent sign denote type of currency.
by that logic 1.25 centimeters is one and a quarter meter…
i hate you
no it’s not. if it was written on verizons bill that the conversion is .002cents then that is what the guy who made the recording believed his charges were supposed to be based on.
if you were told that you would be charged /hour then suddenly charged /minute with the same ‘number’ that it’s a big difference.
They quote prices in fractions of a cent all the time. I mean, even with 0.002 dollars, it’s 0.2 cents, which is still less than a cent. Your example of 1.25 cents is mismatched.
It’s Verizon being assholes by not admitting that it was a typographical mistake and that the real price was $.002. Or that it was actually $0.00002 (1/500 of a cent) and that they’re still being assholes by charging him 100 times the quoted amount.
Wow. Dude you should really learn math. A cent is 1/100 of a dollar (0.01 dollars) that’s why 100 cents equal 1 dollar (just like 100 centimeters = 1 meter). Therefore, $0.002 is never equal to 0.002 cents because 0.002 cents is 2/1000 of a cent or (2/1000)x(1/100) of a dollar. (again a cent is 1/100 of a dollar). Got it?! If you don’t I suggest you go back to grade school. And one more thing, a cent does not denote currency but unit. It is used so that people won’t have to say “I have 1/100 of a dollar in my pocket.”
that is not the point you can only charge a pre-stated amount they made a mistake in the the wording so their the ones at fault. really it wouldn’t be so bad if they realized the error but just denied it, they generally didn’t know what they did wrong.
I don’t know where you live, but I’ve actually never seen anyone ever use 1.25 cents, and it they did I actually would assume its 1 and a fourth of a penny.
You are right Redlow. I have done this many times over. It doesn’t matter what you do. You put in the computer 0.002 and multiply it by the usage you will get the number you owe. Please, try it through the calculator. It’s as simple as that. This is business, hon. They would not put that number there if it were not true.
Please tell me that you (above) are joking? 1 and 1/4 of a penny is written as 1.25 Cents. 1 and 1/4 of a dollar is written as $1.25. If I gave someone 1 cent, then I gave them $0.01. If I gave someone 1 dollar, then I gave them $1.
The caller was 100% correct.
Redlow, I bet $100.00 (or 10,000 cents) that you’re a dumb*ss.
You can’t convert cents to dollars and dollars to cents using the same formula.
You say 1 cent = $1/100 = $0.01 which is correct. You then say that
$0.002 = 0.002/100 = 0.00002 cents which is incorrect.
If you have $5.25 that is 525 cents, move the decimal to the right two places,
in other words multiply by 100 to go from dollars to cents. When going from
cents to dollars you move the decimal to the left two places, in other words,
dividing by 100.
$5.25=525 cents
525 cents=$5.25
The cents number is always going to be bigger than the dollars number.
$0.002=0.2 cents not 0.00002 cents
Your labels are messed up.
$0.002 = 0.002/100 = $0.00002
For cents you need to mulitply
$0.002 = 0.002×100 = 0.2 cents
Apparently this really is hard for people. It’s pretty amazing that people can’t do basic money math.
Good point…but you’ve offered a perfect example to support the caller’s argument: $1.25 is read as “one dollar and twenty five cents” not “one dollar and point twenty five cents”. It then logically follows that $0.002 could be read as “point zero zero two dollars” or “point two cents”. In conversation we typically make the conversion between dollars and cents in our minds indicating the cent amount with a number that is 100 fold greater than the dollar fraction it represents, e.g. $0.25 = “point twenty five dollars” or “twenty five cents”, but not “zero point twenty five cents”.
If thats the case then we can just omit the currency sign altogether and just write 1.25 and everyone can assume if its 1.25 cents or $1.25 or 1.25 Euro.
Point zero zero two cents is 100 times smaller than point zero zero two dollars. Maybe you are the Verizon guy.
OK genius u realize that 1.25 cents is not even 2 cents yeah?!?!?!
0.002c = $0.00002
100c = $1
OMG I FEEL LIKE IM TEACHING PRE SCHOOLERS!!!!
what u say means if i go to america or canada that if i go to mcdonalds and buy an apple pie for $1.25 i can give them 1.25 cents yeah??? and its the same thing is it?? In fact i should be giving them one hundred and twenty five cents.
so you’re saying “one cent” is equal to “one dollar”? since cent and dollar just denote currency….
and i feel like i’m just repeating the call to you.
i have to point out to you that nothing here was “written out”; it was all a phone conversation. and when you say “no one assumes”…the majority of people here do!
What the guy is upset about is that they specifically told him .002 CENTS. But they charged him .002 DOLLARS. He even says at one point that the difference is hundred-fold, and he’s absolutely right. They did not charge him the correct amount. Do you see it now?
Good.
*whips out a bat and beats Redlow’s head to a bloody pulp for being as retarded as the Verizon morons*
Yes, they are the same currency.
But they denote DIFFERENT AMOUNTS.
Would you say a computer with 300 gigabytes of ram is the same as a computer with 300 megabytes of ram?
SAME CONCEPT.
One Dollar,$1 or $1.00, is ONE HUNDRED CENTS
$1.25 dollars is 125 cents. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE CENTS.
1.25 cents is a penny and 1/4 of a penny.
If you want to write it as a dollar amount,
1.25 cents would be $0.0125
If you continue to hold forth that $1.25 and 1.25 cents are the same, please come see me to make change. I’ll give you 1.25 pennies; you give me a dollar and a quarter. I will be glad to perform this “even money” exchange with you a few thousand times. I could use a new car.
just because you inferred dollars because you saw it written as 1.25 does not make it a Dollar Twenty-Five.
thats why we have those amazing little symbols for dollars and cents!
.2 cents = two tenths of one cent
.02 cents = two hundreths of one cent
.002 cents = two thousandths of one cent
There are NO assumptions. If you mean .002 DOLLARS then that is what you need to state. .002 CENTS is something ENTIRELY different.
I don’t know which figure the Verizon people gave this customer at the outset BUT I do know it was all too obvious that they don’t grasp the concept and really didn’t know the difference between the two values. THAT is what is so pathetic!
The customer service reps in this video have NO IDEA how lucky they are that I am a Sprint customer. This customer let them off a lot easier than I would have.
The Verizon people had it wrong. They should have just said: “This is the rate (as written on customer’s contract). This is what you used. If you multiply them together, you get your total bill, which is $xx.xx.” Instead of trying to argue with the customer and differentiate the difference between how to show a fraction of a dollar versus a fraction of a cent. That’s the first rule of customer service: NEVER EVER argue with a customer, even if they’re wrong. In matters of over-payment problems, confused customers often get the benefit of the doubt, no matter how much of an ass they may be. That’s just the cost of doing business.
You’re a moron. 1.25 cents IS one and one fourth penny. 125 cents $1.25 because a cent is a hundredth of a dollar. Saying to that 1.25 cents is equal to one dollar is basically like saying 1.25g is equal to 1.25Kg. There is a conversion that needs to be done. Cents and Dollars do denote currency, but they have different values. You and the Verizon people are wrong, and the guy had a right to complain as he was being vastly overcharged.
nobody writes a dollar twenty-five as 1.25¢, when you start talking rates for really small/precise amounts, you talk fractions of pennies.
Think about gas prices, their always written like 79.7 for example (i’m talking canadian so L not Gal) which doesn’t mean 79 dollars and 70 cents, it means 79.7 cents.
Besides, even if he was charged in $0.002 it still wouldn’t be 71 dollars, it would be 7.13 something dollars, verizon apparently can’t even keep track of a decimal
Actually, in the automotive industry, we use numbers such as 1.25₵ all the time denoting 1 1/4 penny for things such as decals and small plastic fasteners. If you do not understand the difference between dollars and cents, let’s play poker sometime. I’ll sell you chips for $ and cash them in for ₵. We’ll have a blast!
You are joking right? Please tell me that you aren’t serious. If you write out 1.25 cents then you have one and one fourth of whatever unit you happen to be using, and that unit is CENTS. You CANNOT change 1 and 1/4 of a penny into 1 dollar and a quarter. The dude caling verison had every right to be pissed off and even to scream at those retards. However, he took a level headed approach and tried to explain with what I believe to be an amazingly simple example, and look where it got him. Screaming would’ve worked better because those verison shitbrains obvioulsy don’t understand logic. And apparently neither do you.
Goto the bank
Get a cashiers check for $0.71 (cost Variable, my bank $10)
Go buy a pen $0.99
2 Stamps, $0.84
Envelopes $0.20 ($0.10 each at Amscot)
$2.13 for gas
Send them the cashiers check for $0.71 and a bill for $15.
This is just sad… It’s bad enough that multiple levels at the Verizon company are confused by this, but I’ve seen multiple people on here who don’t get it either.
the problem is they have a sheet on a computer they’re plugging in the KB’s used and theres only a dollar sign and they all use the wrong grammer to describe the unit over the phone.
the introduction to the second emplyee spells it out right away
she understands $1 does not equal 1 cent
she understands $0.50 doesnt not equal half a cent
BUT she fails to see how $0.002 does not equal 0.002cents or $0.00002
Anyone nice enough to be answering the phone for a call center would likely be working elsewhere if they had the math skills. Without speaking to a supervisor, it’s unlikely the average employee patient enough to put up with mr math guy would be able to do anything. To give that much of a credit back would result in it bouncing back on the bill from the higher ups. That and trying to explain math to someone who flat out does not understand math well is ‘unpossible’
average emplyee, but in the full recording he talks to the manage and the manger of the manager and eventually some distric president and some other BS and they ALLLLLLLL get it wrong.
As a high school math teacher, I thank you. I deal with this every day and now it is infecting the real world. It needs to stop. Thank you for carrying on the crusade!
If the rate is 0.002 c per kilobyte, then the amount caltuleted would be:
0.002 (cents) x KB (let’s say 35000) = 70 CENTS!
if u multiply cents u still get cents
if u multiply 2 pieces of bacon u don’t get chicken.
*apologizes abjectly* Sorry, Dragonwriter. Your joke was just too subtle for my utterly dense brain.
*offers the “h” to psycoticsinginchick for the same low price*
Wow, you are as stupid as the support people. The guy is not bing a pain in the ass, he’s 100% correct. Read your post….out loud…..to someone with a brain and they will laugh at you too
Ordinarily I don’t believe in eugenics, but…
YOU are dumb and should be removed.
.002 cents does in fact mean EXACTLY .002 of a cent.
Just like .002 miles = .002 of a mile or .002 lbs = .002 of a lb.
Two thousandths cents means two thousandths of a cent. Two hundredths cents means two hundredths of a cent. Two tenths cents means two tenths of a cent. Finally, two cents means you have two of a cent (awkward, but still true).
Anyone who can’t understand this after it’s been explained seventy-six times should never have passed 4th grade, and it makes me weep to think of the teachers they must have had.
I hate to keep repeating what so many have already written, but this crap can’t be ignored.
0.002 cents means EXACTLY that it’s 0.002 of a cent. It doesn’t mean anything else. It’s not “lack of communication”. It does not and cannot mean anything other than that. There is no other possible interpretation that works. There is no gray area. There is no opinion. There is only the single truth: 0.002 cents means 0.002 of a cent.
Verizon service reps don’t have a clue about math.
He should have asked how much 10kb would cost (hint, .02 cents). Then how much 100kb would cost (.2 cents). And then see if they can make the jump that 500kb cost 1 cent, not 1 dollar. I doubt it though.
There are 100 pennies in a dollar. Multiply them together and
There are 50,000 .002 penny increments in a dollar.
.002 pennies = .00002 dollars
I’d expect that if you’re going to offer a service that gets this granular that the math to support the service should be provided in the training, and that people that can’t get it, sell something else.
This video is painful to watch… “A difference of opinion” was my favorite part. I have to give kudos, however, for not calling them out on being dumbasses or raising your voice. That whole conversation sounding infuriating.
Don’t you just love it when people have absolutely no logic? I love that they are jumping from dollars to cents magically in their reasoning here. They are truly brilliant individuals >.<
The caller is being INCREDIBLY PATIENT with dumb ass losers that cant even do basic math and are having the audacity to say that he is wrong, plus billing him a hundred times more than he should be.
You have to be the biggest idiot to ever post comments here.
Ehh.. I don’t think this is real. Why was he recording it? Either way, they are being nice and trying to help. They may be wrong/confused, but they’re being incredibly nice about it. He doesn’t need to be such an ass.
He should have just got in and talked to them. That’s much easier than doing it over the phone.
1. It is most definitely real. It happen two years ago, and the entire saga is well-documented – someone posted a link in one of the comments above.
2. They weren’t really trying to help; they just wanted him to give in and go away.
3. He wasn’t an ass about it at all – I would have been yelling by the end of this exchange.
4. I’m fairly sure Verizon doesn’t do billing inquiries like this in-store. That would be too easy.
5. Talking in person doesn’t make explaining that $.002 != .002 cents any easier. Stupidity doesn’t decrease when you’re face-to-face.
Wow…that seemed really angry. I guess I’m even more frustrated by the complete lack of intelligence in this FAIL than I thought. Seriously though, your comment was inane.
Aww, thanks. *eats the cookie before SB can appear and steal it*
And yes, your bias is definitely showing. I can think of several people who are probably enjoying the show a little too much .
I actually think he is being incredibly rude to them. I don’t think they are trying to make him give in and go away. If that was the case, they would have said “Pay your bill or switch companies”. They were trying to understand. It’s not like they said “NO SIR YOU ARE WRONG. PAY THE MONEY” They tried. He was unnecessarily rude.
And they DO take billing inquiries instore.
Talking to someone in store probably would have been easier. He could have written it down, showed them the math, the moving of the decimal, etc. Lots of people are better at understanding numbers when they have something visual to go with it.
Actually, I’m basing the claim on my experience as a Verizon customer and the level of help that people in Verizon stores have been able to give me and my family with respect to our bills. They have indeed been able to GIVE us information like this, but with respect to RESOLVING such issues, we have ALWAYS been referred to call their customer service line.
This is only tangentially related, but…
I was reading CNN news online, and came across an article about how “trillion is the new billion” wherein they assessed Mitch McConnell’s claim that “if you spend a million dollars every day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn’t have spent a trillion.” They begin their assessment of this claim with the following sentence:
“CNN checked McConnell’s numbers with noted Temple University math professor and author John Allen Paulos.”
The article then goes on to report a number of analytical points from Prof. Paulos, most of which are interesting. What I want to know is are the people at CNN really so stupid that they need a math professor to figure out how many days are in 2008 years? If so, then I think this Verizon story becomes a lot more frightening as an indicator of the general intelligence levels in America today. What I’m hoping is that the above sentence was merely the best they could do as a segue into Paulos’ analysis, but I’m just not so sure.
LOL – Diana, I looked at 50 cars parked on a steep hill today, and the only one with its wheels pointed in the correct – and safe – direction was mine. All the rest were either straight ahead – on both sides of the street, or (a minor percentage) pointed in the wrong direction.
These people couldn’t buy a .002 cent clue for $0.002. Scary. Just scary.
Haha. I’m a math tutor at a local community college in Texas. I should send the students who fail out of my institution’s math program to Canada. Seriously, I hope that the cause of this stupidity was that all Canadian Verizon workers are required to be lobotomized prior to employment. Good Job Canada. Here’s an equation for you:
canada did not elect George W. Bush. (who came from texas). The u.s WERE STUPID ENOUGH TO ELECT BUSH 2 TIMES!!!!!. if you think we’re stupid, then YOU need to be tutered.
and if you’re so smart, then you should have guessed that verizon highers these people on purpose to increase profit margins. the more intelligent people, like maybe the manager was probably just faking. this is not just stupidity. this is not just corruption. this is currupt people exploiting stupid people. corruption like this could only be rivaled by microsoft and the upper level of u.s. politics.
CDMA Data Roaming**
• In the Canadian Broadband and Canadian Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage areas, usage will be charged at a rate of $0.002 per KB or $2.05 per MB.
• In the Mexican Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage areas, usage will be charged at a rate of $0.005 per KB or $5.12 per MB.
• For more information on roaming in Canada and Mexico, visit http://www.verizonwireless.com/naroaming.”
It might be that this is what’s listed on their website, but the fact is that a when a representative of a corporation quotes a customer a rate and confirms that rate verbally MULTIPLE times, regardless of their stupidity interfering with correct articulation of that rate, a customer should NOT have to pay a rate higher than that which s/he was quoted. To make him/her pay the higher rate is bad business and probably illegal.
Yeah, that’s what the terms and conditions say NOW. That isn’t what they said in 2006 when this incident occurred. At the time, it really did say, in plain written English, “0.002 cents per kilobyte.” It has since been corrected.
Right he should have been charged $72 by the proper rate. The problem was that he had been quoted a rate of .002 cents. It’s akin to leasing a car and being told that it will be $200 a month, I have no clue how much leasing a car usually costs so just go with me on the numbers, but actually getting charged $400.
It is astounding (and troubling) that adults cannot understand that a decimal number with a cents sign is DIFFERENT than the same number with a dollar sign.
You’ve confused convention with math. This really has nothing to do with math at all, yes 0.002 of a cent is less than 0.002 of a dollar but by convention we can represent the same value either as $0.002 or by 0.002c.
In other words, you’re a moron that made yourself and every other respondant above look like a failed retard. It’s the smartass cheapskates like yourself that cause companies to have onerous TOS and provide customer service equivelent to herding mindless cattle towards the slaughteryard. You know, the type of idiot that whines about the poor state of roads and also whines about paying additional taxes for road improvements.
You wouldn’t say that $0.02 is “different” than 2c, would you?
$0.02 is 2c
$0.02 is not .02c
.02c is 2/100 of a penny. This is (to me) a lot less that 2 cents.
Perhaps you should apply your cheapskate label to the company that said one thing when they clearly meant another.
Imagine if I told you that you could use my beach house for $200 a year, but then explained that $200/year really means $2,000/day. Would you call yourself a moron for wasting my customer service phone lines when I insisted that you pay me at the rate I meant?
“by convention we can represent the same value either as $0.002 or by 0.002c.”
$20000 is the same as 20000c?
0.002$ is the same as 0.002c?
Are you kidding?
What kind of never-heard-of convention is this? The NFRC? The National Failed Retard’s Convention?
Wow, you’re completely and utterly retarded, just like the Verizon employees. Have you applied to work there yet, or were you one of the people the customer talked to in the recording?
Cents do not equal dollars, ever. You can’t multiply cents per kilobyte times the number of kilobytes and magically end up with dollars. The only unit left in the equation after you get rid of kilobytes is cents. If you think it magically changed to dollars, you’re a moron.
I was with you until “but by convention we can represent the same value either as $0.002 or by 0.002c.” If it has “c” at the end, it means cents. If it has a dollar sign it means dollars. I was confused by your use of the word “convention”, did you mean conversion?
Here’s some grade 2 math:
If you have $1 it is the same as 100 cents or 100c in this case.
If you have $0.1 it is the same as 10 cents or 10c.
If you have $0.01 is is the same as 1c.
If you have $0.001 is is the same as 0.1c.
If you have $0.0001 it is the same as 0.01c.
If you have $0.00001 it is the same as 0.001c.
See, if you add a 0 on one side you do it to the other side. OR if that confuses you you can just take the dollar side and minus two zeros and switch the currency symbol and you get the cent side!
Therefore, $0.00002 is the same as 0.002 cents (see I took away two zeros from the dollar side and changed the $ symbol to a c symbol!)
NOT $0.002 = 0.002 cents
So if his bill was (I forget what he said) 0.002cents per kb and he has 1000kb then his bill will be 2 cents NOT $2 (for those of you confused I multiplied the 0.002cents by the 1000kb).
Everyone in class get it?
I’m so sorry people are that stupid, Verizon is the stupidest company I’ve ever met, they “forgot” to turn off my service 3 times (after my contract – which strangely I never signed – had ended) and sent me a bill 2 years later for a phone I didn’t even own any more, good job there buddies.
Thank you, holysheeit. I have scanned half of the 1300+ replies here wondering if anyone ever realized that our writing convention for cents uses the dollar sign ($) before it. Now if a person SPEAKS “point oh oh two cents”, the American convention (using symbols) is to write: $0.002. That is how we would write a check to someone for point oh oh two cents. That does NOT mean point oh oh two dollars. Now, if the man was quoted point oh oh two cents per whatever usage, and they charged him point oh oh two dollars for that usage, then they’re wrong. I’d have to listen to the recording again, but I’m thinking his conversation was right (the spoken word), but the symbolic representation of the picture is just plain wrong.
For the people still not getting this, when we SAY fifty cents, we WRITE $0.50. That is fifty cents. That is not the same as 0.50 cents (which is HALF a cent).
Got it???
So, 0.002 cents is two thousandths of a cent; $0.002 is two tenths of a cent (since $0.02 is two cents…).
I am so glad you wrote in, holysheeit. I have scanned half of the 1300+ responses to see if anyone figured that out. Granted, our writing convention for cents uses the dollar sign ($) before it. Now if a person SPEAKS “point oh oh two cents”, the American convention (using symbols) is to write: $0.002. That is how we would write a check to someone for point oh oh two cents. That does NOT mean point oh oh two dollars. Now, if the man was quoted point oh oh two cents per whatever usage, and they charged him point oh oh two dollars for that usage, then they’re wrong. I’d have to listen to the recording again, but I’m thinking his conversation was right (the spoken word), but the symbolic representation of the picture is just plain wrong.
For the people still not getting this, when we SAY fifty cents, we WRITE $0.50. That is fifty cents. That is not the same as 0.50 cents (which is HALF a cent).
Got it???
So, 0.002 cents is two thousandths of a cent; $0.002 is two tenths of a cent (since $0.02 is two cents…).
yes 0.002 of a cent is less than 0.002 of a dollar but by convention we can represent the same value either as $0.002 or by 0.002c.
…no u can’t
there different vaules
he was right…ur juts an idiot. u should work at verizon
Not sure if anyone is still reading the comments on this post… sorry I am so late to the game…. just had to chime in.
I was just in a verizon store where they tried to pull this kind of absolute ignorance of simple mathematic principles.
The woman told me that my “new every two” (which will be avail. in Nov.) afforded me $100 towards the purchase of a phone.
We happened to be looking at a phone that was $127 but came with a $50 mail in rebate.
I, logically, pointed out, “So this phone would be free?”
She said, “No”.
I asked if the $50 mail in rebate did not apply to a phone that was being purchased with the “new every two” feature.
She replied that the mail in rebate could still be used.
I went through every possible reason that I could think would make this $127 phone NOT free with $150 worth of discounts:
- We were both talking about the “after the mail in rebate”, “final” cost of the phone
- We were talking about the “two year contract” price of the phone – that we were both looking at – $127
- We we taking an initial price of $127 and subtracting from that $100 (for the new every two) and $50 (for the mail in rebate)
And she STILL insisted that the phone would not be free.
I don’t really remember what it was that I said, but she finally explained that the “new every two” is UP TO $100 and that for “certain” phones, (apparently the one we were discussing) you do not get the full $100.
I love the way the Verizon manager understands the difference between 1 cent and 1 dollar, and half a cent and half a dollar, but 2 thousands of a dollar and two thousands of a cent are the same thing to her, and she says it’s all just a matter of opinion. I wonder what she would say if people paid their $71.56 phone bill by writing a check for 71.56 cents? or rounding it up to 72 cents?
perhaps we should all start paying in this manner, using this recording as evidence that Verizon calculates this way.
Sure wouldn’t mind paying 71.56 cents a month myself! And she did sound rather insistent that they are the same thing.
I am thinking that maybe this is no fail at all. But, rather, a large WIN for all of us Verizon sufferers (I meant users, just couldn’t seem to type it).
Those people are retarded. You should have gotten them to pick up a pencil, and then write 1 dollar = 100 cents, and then do the conversion. Holy shit!
I think this should be labeled American education = fail.
Someone commented that the cents sign and dollar sign are just types of currency and make no difference when associated with the same number. Huh? Someone else commented that it’s just “convention” and that $0.002 really does mean the same thing as 0.002¢ Huh? Huh?
Just another example of our stellar education system at work. Or not at work.
It’s like the dolts who can’t count change back to you unless their cash register figures it out for them. Sheesh.
I think it’s a pretty well-known fact that the American education system is woefully under-funded and our assessments of it (via NCLB) are deeply flawed.
HAHAHAHA! I want to switch back to Verizon! I could pay them 100 cents a month instead of 100 dollars and even the managers would not know the difference!
Wow! I really wish I knew the response of the two people to this day with them knowing their voices are immortalized on the internet with a complete math failure on their conscience.
See, I’m no good at math. That’s why I’m an English major. That’s why I don’t get jobs like this because, sadly, that’s probably the kind of stupid mistake I would make…
But at least I admit it and stay the hell away from that career option!!
Wow! This is so terrible. I know 6yr olds who are better at math. And this is exactly what is wrong with the world today. Too many idiots. Frig, too many low iq families having multiple births, lack of natural predators and medical advances are all contributing to the increase in stupid people on the planet. If only there was a way to cull the population…
In all fairness, I worked for Verizon. Their data network training (including billing, usage, and conversion) sucks for basic customer service. I do understand and agree that the customer’s math is the correct one, but I was smarter and better trained than most of my coworkers at my level.
Um…I know it’s already been said…but I am going to echo the sentiment. The Verizon people had it right. This guy who made the call is a dumbass. .002 X 35,987 is 71.79.
That’d work in Canada…
And in Sweden!
no you silly!
No you Blawbear!
Socialdemokrat :@
Om du tror att 0.02 öre är samma sak som 0.02 kronor så har du problem.
Socialdemokrat! :@
Haha ein neiveh blaw-bair
wow this fails…
anyone can freaking do that…
LOLZ THIS CRACKS ME UP!
seriously?
Classic Fail
how did this not get noticed by anybody at verizon or the ad agency
hi ive have made a fail site with my own fail! please click on my name for the fail its the best fail ever its not fake real stuff!
Your right, you do have your own fail, And wtf is ‘fake real stuff’ ? that just proves your OWN STATEMENT wrong.
This is just stupid, how can people be that unintelligent? :/
In Soviet Russia, bear blaws you!!!
I don’t get it… that makes about as much sense as girls in bondage! Bear Blaws you… what does that mean? My mind is in bondage of ignorance on this one.
Still… it’s a big time FAIL
He is a cigarette?
*blows kisses in coyote’s direction*
Good evening lovely lady. How’s with you?
A lot of new names here. Who left the door open?
I would have thought that fresh water would the thing for you. Though I have come across smoked salmon before.
Smoked salmon? Was it uncle Freddie by any chance?
I don’t have an uncle Freddie.
Below smoke herrings?
POW!!!
Oooof!
*picks self up off ground*
Okay…I see one sock hanging from the ceiling fan…I think the other is in China.
Dragon you really must try to come out of your shell more. You are far too shy and retiring. Don’t be such a wallflower.
hehe.. it’s funny because it’s true.
C’mere sweets, I can’t wait a moment longer!
*SMOOOOOCH!*
Apparently Dragonwriter left her sock in the elevator. Hmmm…
We’re going down after it.
Let me see. February 4. *checks calendar* Yup. Just as I thought. It’s pick on Dragonwriter day. *puts on appropriately decorated hat and blows noise maker*
Woohoo!
*SMOOOOOOOOOOOCH!*
*snork*
I apparently just celebrated “Pick on Me” day.
…I’m cool with that!
Let’s hear it for time zones! I almost missed it.
*takes a noisemaker*
*PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTT!*
In our time zones it already peck on you day!
*smooch* *smooch* *smoooch*
♫Celebrate♫
♫Celebrate♫
♫Dance to the music♫
what’s heavier…1 lb of feathers ..or a 1lb dumbell GOGO
They are both the same weight.
No you Hejhopp!
Blawbear? Hmm… I’ll have to look that up.
This is one of those few times where using the Closed Captioning service of Youtube would be nice, when the video is entirely composed of what I must assume to be audio that I cannot hear. Failblog fail?
Mute button fail?
Speakers turned on fail?
Headset plugged in fail?
Am I getting warmer?
Maybe he is deaf?
Am I getting warmer?
sensitivity awareness fail?
i will be laughing abaout this ALL DAY lol verizon idiots 5 THUMBS DOWN EPIC FAIL
Uuuummmm there’s a difference between a dollar and cent…. EVEN IN CANADA. Conversion FAIL
sweden is the best full of hot grils
heuehue
as can i see dumb people too
“as can i see dumb people too” + “full of hot grils” = Lol
ALDRIG!!! Du gamla du fria…..
It’s true. They use metric dollars.
I think Bell Canada trains there customer service people at the same place.
Do they also train they’re people to use the wrong version of thare?
That’s neither hear nor their.
You spelled hair wrong.
Ewe spelled ewe wrong.
Eye yam sorry!
mmmmmhh… eye jam!
Toe cam!
Camel toe!
camel toe jam? ewww
eew, indeed!
It’s like buttah. Just spread it around.
Spread it thin, let it dry, peel and use as chips or if its thick treat as peanut brittle.
But wait! There’s more!! You can use it as glue on those stubborn dentures!
We could use it to fix the economy!
How? Some people have lots of camel toe jam, some have none. Are you going to take from the haves and give to the have-nots? Are you some kind of camel toe jam socialist?
I am proud to say I am a have-not and prefer to stay that way.
…pats Ry’s tush…again…safely…
I believe his plan involves stocking options.
NO ONE EXPECTS CAMEL TOE JAM!!!!1!
Well it certainly got jammed somewhere!!!!3*37!!
Hmmm I wonder if WhoaNellie knows about Aikido.
Aikido not, I think he doesn’t.
And its big brother, Jeet Kune Do!
The Verizon mathematicians are gonna be on this blog looking for proof and you guys are talking about camel toe jam. Woo Failblog! And Failbog by the way, a little crowded, but nice.
Proof of what? And two years later? Really?
What’d I miss? I waited two years, like you said, and now I’m totally lost!
Look in your pants, man… you’re answers are their…
Yay!
Oh, right… in my pants, I will find answers, got it.
If you need help looking, let me know.
*ahem*
I looked, and all I found was this large diameter hose… anything you can do with that?
*uncovers Ry’s manhole*
On women I like both innies and outties, and daddy always said “Son, once you get past the smell, you’ve got her licked.”
For some reason, I am very disturbed by this comment.
Okay, nothing to do with this but I have a new clicky!!
WILL. NOT. CLICKIE!!
:p
I swear, you will love it. Not “dirty”. I would even tell BFF to clicky.
*Snickers*
Nope, not me. NO CLICKIE!
OMG that was hysterical, Ry! I got another clickie from there. Clickie.
I am surprised it says 2009. I saw that one last year but it never gets old. Pinch a loaf! hehehehe
Do you want me to pull your finger?
You realize you guys are just reinforcing my resolve to never, EVER clickie on any link you post…right?
Do you want a pocket vibrator or a twelve inch dick for free?
Of course he does! He also knows about its big brother, Jeet Kune Do
But Dragon! I have the best clickie ever here!
*ROFFLE!!*
*smooches fluffy*
Beat’s Camel Joe Jam
y’all postin in a troll thread!
The main weapon of camel toe jam is surprise, surprise and
fear… fear and surprise are our two weapons…
Aikido the self defense art? what does that have to doo with camel toe jam?
You’d think cell phone companies would
Check math skills, especially considering they deal with numbers.
I feel bad for this guy if he actually paid $78 for a 0.002 cents rate per kilobyte.
i have this lady I work with who consistantly misuses are and our…arrrg
Don’t you mean ourg?
I think areg.
Arooooga.
Ha ha ha!
i thought it was arghh!
Ha ha ha!
Oh my gosh, it’s not rocket science, verizon! $0.002 is really 2 tenths of a cent, and 0.002 cents is 2 thousandths of a penny….. Wow….
It’s a good thing the people at Verizon log on here and read all the comments.
Speshally the camel toe ones. Those will definitely teach them something.
Give a man a toe and he eats for a day. Teach him to jam a camel toe and he eats for a lifetime.
Only the truly enlightened man can learn to jam on camel toe. The rest just sort of thrash around and give up.
Right, that’s it. I’m finding me one enlightened man.
I teach Jazz camel-toe as a side job. But my real job is I’m part of a band. Our most recent show had a ridiculous camel-toe solo (by me) on the tune Equinox. The suaveness of the camel toe is rather supplemented by the minor blues.
actually, I work for Verizon, and I think this rep is just stupid. We’re not all that dumb, I promise
Sarcasm-win.
yes, that’s very good, otherwise his comment wouldn’t mean a whole lot.
It’s a good thing people use sarcasm all the time.
Is that your final answer?
It would be mine
You didn’t do a cents to pennies conversion
That doesn’t make any cents.
*makes random money pun as has been done many times before on FB*
yes!!!!!!!!!thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but how many rupees???
Man verizons got some skill. Finding two ppl that stupid in the same area must have been tough
It’s just because all of those stupid customer service don’t know
to do the FcUKinG MaTh
No, I’m pretty sure $.002 is 2 thousandths of a dollar, and .002 cents is 2 thousandths of a cent. But yeah, same difference. Reminds me of the other day online with technical support and I had to teach them what a captcha was. That’s pretty bad.
Now, do you understand the difference between a cent and a penny?
Looks like it is rocket science. $0.002 is 2 thousandths of a dollar,
not 2 tenths of a cent, 0.002 cents is 2 thousandths of a penny,
and I SUCK at maths.
Please tell me you’re not a rocket scientist.
$0.002 does equal 2 tenths, or .2, cents. Here is why:
$0.02=2 cents
$0.01 Divided by 10=$0.001 How do I know this? Here is why:
$0.001+$0.001+$0.001+$0.001+$0.001+$0.001+$0.001+$0.001
+$0.001+$0.001=$0.010 or $0.01
An alternative way: Moving the Decimal:
$1.00 divided by 100 (Move the decimal two places to the left) = 1 penny/cent or $0.01
For each 0 you move the decimal one place so 10=1 place,
100=2 places, 1000=3 places.
Let’s take $0.01 and divide it by 10.
$0.01–>$0.001
$0.001 is therefore one-tenth of a cent
Does this make sense for you Yallah habib or should you just go back to school?
The customer is just being a prick and needs to get a life.
The csr should have just asked does he have the quote in writing and if not that obviously he meant to say 0.002$ not C.
FFS
THE GUY CALLING IS WRONG. You are being charged 2 tenths of a penny– the only time there is a difference between the “dollars and Cents” is when you are referring to percentages and we r not. there is no conversion because it is the same number. the lady doesnt tell him right but verizon is right i promise. i talked to my trig proffesor about it today. the dollar and cent thing doesnt apply in that way. promise guys
for wikipedia “In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1/100 of the basic monetary unit. The word also refers to the coin which is worth one cent”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cent_(currency)
I’ll trade you a thousand pennies for a thousand dollar bills than. Promise.
these verizon people think math is a difference of opinion…THAS SAD.
i no, rite! uggg! sum ppl can just b so damn stoopid!
You have this lady? Which lady?
You spelled spale wronge.
Rofl and you spelled “here” wrong trying to correct someone’s spelling error.
Thats funny, “its a matter of opinion” lol! If you had explained it in terms of percentage they might have figured out that these are 2 completely different numbers, its like saying 2 percent of a penny is the same as 2 percent of a dollar.
Hair is spelled “hare”, while hear is spelled “here”.
Haere is a classic example of phale.
……..you used the wrong version too. It’s their people. They’re is they are. Do Do they also train they are people to use the wrong version of thare?….
its like….irony? But, also not because it’s still the expected outcome. I don’t know anymore.
they sure do
Their
Their, their.. you no you’re looking in the rong place, rite?
*their
THANK GAWD someone finally pointed this out.
At least no one is being sarcastic about this.
And thank goodness no one’s tossing irony about, either.
You just let me know if you see anyone doing that and I’ll jump all over their crumudgeony bones.
hahaha So true!
I don’t think Verizon trains their people at all.. I use verizon internet and I always have to have my brother in law fix things because Verizon employees in Texas have no idea what they’re doing.
Nomatter what the problem is, if you use wireless internet, they’ll always tell you that it’s your wireless and you should try it wired. They if it doesn’t work take you through a long and complex series of steps that result in getting abolsutely NOTHING accomplished.
Verizon itself = FAIL imo.
yueah t university of stupid
Rogers too!
Canada bashing fail.
Verizon is in the US, and it seems to be working with some people…
Canada defense fail.
The person at whom you are snotting is a Canadian making the point that Bell Canada representatives behave similarly.
verizon fail, we just delt with them, no Tech support any where within the states. We have to deal with Indians, which, not to be racist, but their Help line sucks, or we deal with Canadians, which actually have a nice help service, but evidentally cant do math…
Their Help Desk is in Canada…hence….
The event in question took place in Canada, if I remember the story right.
The talk show is Canadian, not the stupid person.
And I’m pretty sure that’s a joke show, I’ve heard it before on CBC.
It’s fake.
Wow dude. I don’t even know you and it’s not my problem and I just want to cry…
Ha! I thought the exact same thing. I feel so frustrated for that guy!
No kidding.. I want to call them and be like “are you all just idiots or something?”
SAME!!!
“I’m no mathematician…” Yeah, no sh*t. You obviously didn’t make it past the ones place.
$1.00 1¢
==========================================
20% = .2 20¢ .2¢
2% = .02 2¢ .02¢
.2% = .002 .2¢ .002¢
==========================================
x 35893 = $71.79 71.79¢ (or $0.7179)
↑Verizon’s charge ↑Actual charge
I think I understood it better before.
1c = $1 in Canada? Really?
1c = 33f in the US
What is that in furlongs?
I thought that 1c = 8 oz in the US.
and in Texas…wait…uhhh Texas is a country right?
Speaking for those in the rest of the U.S., we only wish it where so.
Good to see you, coyote! How’s everything going??
Going well. Energy level is slowly returning and I getting around on my own again. I’m currently being driven around the bend by the latest DSHS form and trying to arrange for my next CT scan. The forms questions are unbelievably ridiculous and the CT people can’t get it through their heads that I can not take an oral contrast agent. I ought to take it a throw up all over their machine again to teach them a lesson.
That would take some guts, coyote. Glad I peeked in and caught you here.
*pique!*
Our ships almost passed in the night.
*sends signal*
Good to see you. Lots of new faces about.
I have NO idea where they all came from. I’ll bet fluffy left the door open again.
It’s nice to have new faces, but unfortunately we have to take the bad with the good.
Yeah, blame the fish whydontcha.
She just did.
My Internet connection is acting up. Refreshing 740+ comments from Fluffy’s new friends is agonizingly slow.
I’m sorry; it’s all my fault.
*waves to coyote* Glad to see you about again!
Great minds at work again Admiral.
*waves back to DTI*
I only invited my 694 closest friends.
At this moment there are over 740 comments! That is almost too much for a simple dial-up connection to deal with.
I thought you used tin cans and string…
(Sorry…Dilly isn’t here, so I had to step up!)
No you didn’t.
I’ll have you know that dial-up is on the rise what with the economy keeping company with the Ti-D-Bowl man. So there! I’m a trend setter. I’m cutting edge. I’m out of the box. And any other piffle that you might care to add.
I like piffle.
*hug*
the new people came because one friend tells another about the site (which itself is great) and then maybe they click to see the comments on a ridiculous post, just to see what’s going on, and then they happen upon a strange conversation between fish and moomies and foops and people talking about personal things. Perhaps they’re commenting because your conversations are so enlightening!
(they’re their there – check)
(are our R – check)
(hare hair here hear – check)
ok. I’m prepared for the backlash now.
Canada
Regardless of what the customer service people were saying, the guy calling in realized it was 2/10 of a cent for each KB he transferred. 35,000 x 2/10 of a cent is his 71 dollar charge. Yes, the Verizon people didn’t know why they were talking about as far as the math he was addressing. Either way he realized what he should be charged, I had to listen to it again, but he answered his own question. He just wanted to attack the poor customer service further.
dumb.
Knowing economics of your country’s current situation fail.
wow that was just sad .002c=$.00002 what uder morans
20000=$200
2000c=$20
200c =$2
2c=$.02
.2c=$.002
.02c=$.0002
.002c=$.00002
I work for Sprint in billing and I get it.
The Verizon people are misunderstanding him and *sounding* like idiots, but this guy on the phone is a bigger moron.
$0.002 is the number he is looking for. This is 2/10 of a penny, so for every 5kb of data he transfers, it will add up to 1 penny. 100 of those is a dollar (so 500kb = $1). He used 35,000kb, so divide 35,000/500 = 70.
So while this jackass thinks he’s so smart, HE was just as wrong as the Verizon employees. .002 cents doesn’t even make sense. Maybe he should stop being a douche and look at his plan, which would clearly lay out the $0.002/kb. OR conversely, think about it in terms of MB of usage. I know for me it’s $15 per MB when I’m out of the country. 35,000kb = 3.5MB. So that’s over $50.
Hearing this guy be so condescending really bothers me. Don’t sound so sure of yourself when you are clearly wrong. YOU FAIL.
The error is on Verizon’s part: if he was quoted a rate of .002 cents and not $.002, then he should be charged .002 cents per kb. Sure, Verizon may have MEANT to say $.002, but it’s not the customer’s fault that they accidentally quoted him a much lower price. The guy on the phone wasn’t asking what his rate is – he knows what he was quoted (.002 cents). He’s just asking for the Verizon employees to do their math correctly so he’s not charged 100x more than he was quoted, regardless of whether Verizon meant to quote him that amount.
Oh, and .002 cents makes sense – it’s math. Just because you can’t hold 2 thousandths of a cent doesn’t mean it’s not a real number.
Oh, and ryan, don’t sound so sure of yourself when you are clearly wrong.
Obviously Verizon employees are posting erroneous comments to this blog in order to detract from the fact that their brethren call center staff did not know that the difference between hundreds, tens and units… let alone dollars and cents…..
There you go verizon employees… proof that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.
LOLOLOL they are a tiny bit stupid
no, actually, it wouldnt work in canada. those ppl are just idiots.
Wow u idiot no it wouldnt work idiot 1 canadian dollar is worth 88 cents not 1 canadian dollar worth 1 us cent.. and a few months ago 1 canadian dollar was worth about 1.40 US.. l2business?
no it would’ not only in the states because Canadians are brighter.
lol other than that funny vid
I disagree.
um…… canadians arnt stupid…….
i work for verizon and all i can say is…im sorry.
That’s a wheat penny! Cool!
Seriously, though. Did this ever get corrected or is Verizon still billing it wrong? Enquiring minds want to know!!
How many ounces in a gallon?
128.
Oh, I guess you want the solution, too. Ok.
.
1 gallon = 4 quarts.
1 quart = 2 pints.
So there’s 8 pints in a gallon.
1 pint = 2 cups.
1 cup = 8 oz.
8 x 2 = 16.
16 x 8 = 128.
Now, show me again without all those confusing numbers!
It’s a matter of opinion.
Completely subjective.
Absolutely skewed.
who got screwed?
Something here is askew…
I ask yew…
Hew yew asking?
I’m going to put this on my blog!
So glad metric was invented about now
)
(and that sane countries use it
Actually…
A British pint is 20 fluid Oz. That makes our gallons 10 US pints!
That one really is a matter of opinion, I guess.
That was the best part…
Guy A: I have 6 apples and I ate one. I have 5 apples left.
Guy B: You have 5 ORANGES left
Guy A: No, I started with apples, they are still apples, just the number has changed
Guy B: Well, that’s your opinion.
wow! you use all that?!
ever considered switching to the metric system?
I like how it’s powers of two, though.
see, that`s why the metric system rox!!! you guys have too many different units!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some people have too many units, some people have too many exclamation marks.
Not if you are in the UK. A gallon is 160oz. So…you FAIL!
But
Are you sure its not .128 oz instead of 128. ?
Or maybe its actually 128 pints.
You may have forgotten to convert.
…like the Verizon employee, and his immediate super….
So sad.
Yay math! Thats one more thing I now know how to convert in my head!
And that sums up how terrible the US system of units is.
Here’s how we do things in Canada:
1 Litre = 1000 mL
Done.
crap. i guess i got # 58 wrong on my math test.
per kilobit or per kylobite?
It’s 8 bits in a byte, right? Wow, that’s dusting off some brain cobwebs.
no, 1 kylo is 1024 kilo!
I want it in kryptonite!
No, Superman! That’s a bad idea!
Superman would NOT be happy with you though…
4 bytes per apple, 2000 apples per firlong, 1 firlong per year, so you have 2.5 kalory intake depending on how much you poo that year
AND it keeps the doctor away!
Now.. if we could only find a fruit that works with lawyers and tax people…
Potatoes work, but then you need something for the religious ones.
How about garlic?
You can always use “Essense of Small Boy” as a distractor… just spray it on a tennis ball and throw it in the other direction. They can’t resist that!
What if a golden retriever catches it? Won’t the smell of “essence of small boy” turn it deadly?
Hey LB how do you get a Nun pregnant?
.
Dress her up as an Alter boy.
…that would be an alteration, wouldn’t it?
Once he found out, there may be an altercation.
I really enjoy your alliteration.
You made me roffle Dragon.
.
The (k)nave could have an alternative life stlye.
There’s a chance(l) that that is true!
Aisle agree with both of you.
Pew! What’s that new perfume, Mookie? I don’t think it suits you.
Would it be rood if we call him a cross dresser?
It might mash him into a pulp(it).
I think he deserves a good kick in the sacristy.
Perhaps we had a little (l)apse in judgment.
If iconostas behavior of his to stop, without violence, I would.
We’ll need a transept of the conversation as proof of what we said, though.
The question is if you can prove it was hymn.
It’s always so sad when we find out a member of the clergy is the [a]psalter.
You can always altar the evidence.
hahaaha
Actually its just an opinion.
If you chill an opinion before you cut it, it won’t make
you cry as much.
I do the same with my men but it’s so they won’t cry so much.
Doesn’t that cause shrinkage?
wait….does that mean if I eat 250 apples my brain will gain a megabyte of memory!?! AWESOME!!!!
http://xkcd.com/394/
Verizon can do the kessel run in 12 parsecs!
…which is still above Solo’s record low. Though said run took a bit longer than usual since he stopped to save his then-girlfriend from falling into one of the many black holes in that region.
Um, isn’t a parsec a unit of distance, not time?
The Verizon Falcon?
NOONE can do the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs!
NNNNEEEERRRDDDD!
a parsec is distance not time
You do realise, parsecs are a measure of distance not time, oh the irony
family guy? really? lol. Family guy math WIN
^ AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAH
Parsecs are a unit of distance, not time.
But then again, that’s just my opinion.
chuck norriss can do it in 11
I thought trilobytes were extinct?
Not with the new stimulus package. 800 of them will be released into the economy.
kilobyte and kilobit
like what the other said 8 bits a byte!
besides how dumb can that verizon call center be.
There’s only one ounce in a gallon… just ask Verison billing office.
American, or Imperial?
(Why, I don’t know that AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGGGHHHH)
Is that an imperial gallon or an American gallon?
It eventually got corrected.
I “corrected” them, sir.
I “quoted” them, sir.
So the matter has been “dealt with”?
The “matter” has been dealt with.
The matter “has been” dealt with.
“The” matter has been dealt with.
your son is a very willful boy.
“Shining” moment? My own PWN PUN PHAIL
How do you know?
Oh, thank God for that. My stomach was in knots just listening to it. Poor you! Was the charge actually .002 cents per KB? That seems nice and cheap.
You should have sent them a bill for their math lesson.
Oh that’s good to know…
I want to hear the conversation where they had the epiphany. How do you apologize for overcharging someone by 10,000 percent? “I’m sorry sir, but our basic math skills seem to be a bit off… Thankfully our jobs only require that we do computations during billing.”
http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-dollars-from-cents.html
It’s not that they’re billing it wrong, it’s that they’re pitching it wrong. The sales reps are telling people it’s .002 cents when in fact it’s .002 dollars. ‘Cuz sales reps are assholes. = )
It was corrected already.
http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/
That’s the guys blog.
INquiring minds.
Ugh.
I don’t think it’s being billed incorrectly, but that the employee’s don’t know how to read their billing policy. They just see $0.002 and think it is automatically converted to cents, you don’t have to be a mathemetician to know that if you make changes to an equation it has to be done to both sides. I learned that my first year in high school, and after that it becomes common sense. But Verizon should totally adjust the charges since they are repeatedly quoting the price at 0.002cents. I really hope it is resolved now.
I am not entirely sure how to take that. i thought for sure that the female would have figured it out after a few seconds. i’ll bet that they think that a ton of feathers weighs less than a ton of bricks, too.
Inquiring*
There should be 24 grains in a pennyweight.
Penny wise and pound foolish?
As long as they float.
Beep beep Avis. They all float down here.
The wooden pennies?
That book terrified me. I stayed up an entire night and read it cover to cover because I couldn’t put it down.
Never read It myself.
*tee hee*
The man does write some scary stuff.
I read The Shinning during a winter stay at my grandparents house in Ulster County NY. The house was a 100 year old estate once owned by the Kellogg family. It even had overgrown topiary in the woods surrounding the house. Scared the bejesus out of me.
The light burned out while I was reading It. I turned every single light in the house on. Even the ones in the closets. Especially the ones in the closets.
Get me some turtle wax.
Yay! Stephen King reference!
Props to you, sir!
a duck floats!
burn her?
YES! Pound the foolish!
YES! Found the polish!
It’s funny because the video is too long.
It’s funny because your name is ironic.
It’s funny because he needs a colonic…
It’s funny because his lack of humor is chronic.
It’s funny because he’s making me catatonic.
It’s funny because the boi is moronic.
It’s funny because she said she only wanted platonic.
It’s funny because she’s now histrionic.
Its funny because he injured himself autoerotic.
Its funny because i never heard of those words beforeonic
sad
Umm, Haiku? Or you just ran out of words lexiconic?
really sad…onic
I love you, but only platonic
DUDE. I saw this a few weeks before this on facebook and the original thing was 29 mins long. Unedited. So STFU and watch.
That’s funny, Chris, but psychotic.
Alas, that was done before. Your repetition is iconic.
Stop ryming, I mean it!
It’s funny after gin and tonic.
its sad because this verizon people’s stupidity is hypnotic
skill
Its funny because i smoke the cronic.
His lack of humor is catastrophic
What are we talking about, plate tectonics???
C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!!
This humour’s embryonic. It’s not exactly earth-shattering (tectonic). I’ll just go watch Johnny Mnemonic.
It’s funny because I just broke the rhyme chain.
A month later.
Way to go.
Potty fingers!!
It’s funny because I’m playing Sonic.
Abstractonic Haiku is sad.
its funny because the video is ironic
Its funny because he was rebuilt bionic
c-c-c-combo breaker
He is not funy
I think I love you in a non-lesbian way.
…smiles gently at Ry and pats her non-lesbian tush
Oh my.
I think Nellie loves you in a lesbian way, Ry.
I think Nellie has a penis.
I think that won’t stop true lesbian love.
Or fake internets love.
There are fake internets out there? Why didn’t someone warn me???
I have fake lesbian love for you on the internets LB, does that count?
I’d tap that forehead.
room for a 3rd?
i’m hoping you meant that in a non-sexual harassment sort of way.
No, no, guys, Funnyboi’s right, though not in the way he (or she, I won’t make assumptions; people see “Penny” in my ID and mistakenly assume I’m female) probably intended.
The video IS funny BECAUSE it’s too long. The amusement stems from the fact that the individual had to spend so much time trying (though sadly, unsuccessfully) to explain relatively simple mathematic concepts to the representative and his supervisor.
If I had to guess, I’d say that all that filtered into Funnyboi’s brain in the first thirty seconds was “numbers, numbers, words, words….” before he/she stopped listening. Coincidentally, “numbers, numbers, words, words….” was probably what was running through the rep’s and the supervisor’s minds while the individual was explaining basic math that most of us learned in grade school–which is why they didn’t get it and thus why we laugh at them.
Not-so-coincidentally, “they didn’t get it” is why we’re laughing at Funnyboi. Not laughing *with*, mind you, but *at*. As in “making fun of, because U R DUM.” (I figure that Funnyboi can grasp that last part, if nothing else.)
Time to change.
…. LOL
Ohhh a wheat penny!
Why so cereal?
Someone grained on my parade
Wheat are you talking about?
Her F-Stop was fouled errant.
Or maybe just errant. Who knows?
I know, but I’m not telling.
I’m telling, but I don’t know.
I don’t know, but I’ve been told!
♫L.A. woman ain’t got no soul♫
you should probably not talk about other people’s f-stops on the internet. chris hansen is probably watching. probably.
I was grist trying to help.
You are made of true grit.
Such floury words.
I barley know you!
*hops to it and orders a beer*
At yeast you could share your beer.
Rye? Don’t you have your own money?
I did, but I took a whiskey chance on a bet and lost it.
You spelt whiskey wrong.
He accidenty his whiskey.
Anyone for a game of Hops Scotch?
I’ll play, but not until the moon is shining on us.
Aja, from Merriam Webster….
Main Entry: whis·key
Variant(s): or whis·ky \ˈhwis-kē, ˈwis-\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural whiskeys or whiskies
Etymology: Irish uisce beatha & Scottish Gaelic uisge beatha, literally, water of life
Date: 1715
1 : a liquor distilled from fermented wort (as that obtained from rye, corn, or barley mash)
2 : a drink of whiskey
you all spell Whisky wrong lol
I’m sure he’ll millet over and come to his senses.
*sobs*
*gobs*(can’t hold his likker)
Whiskey is Irish for whisky, so if you’re Irish it’s correct, if not you’re a dunce.
Oh god the punz….
Actually, you buy Whisky from the United States, and you buy Whiskey from Canada. I have no idea about how other countries’ products choose to spell it.
Bartending school: it will help you post comments!
i am loafing these puns
yummy i love weet surreal!
Hmm. And we wonder why we are in a recession.
Don’t look at me, I didn’t vote for him.
I voted for Gore, and he won. I don’t know what the hell happened after that.
I voted for More, and got Less…
You too? All that talk about CHANGE and all I wound up with is 87¢!
Which is apparently the same thing as $87.
You got 87? I only got 59. It’s time to redistribute your wealth!
87 cents is change. And apparently is the same as $87.
Just because you change something doesn’t mean it’s going to be better.
87ct or dollars?
Gotta know the difference nowadays.
Jeb Bush…’nuf said.
Jeb had the double whammy of being a Bush and being a Floridian.
No thanks.
He is NOT a Floridian. He was just the governor that gave his brother the white house. Go wash your mouth out!
Yes ma`am.
amen sister! and Go Gators!
Fellow Floridian?
Born and raised but moved away 4 years ago.
That’s why I called “W” the “Thief in Chief”.
*SMOOOOOOOOOOOCH
I knew if I hung around long enough….
Ry would unable to resist you. *snickers*
We now return you to your regularly scheduled fluff.
ARGH! would be unable…
*dunks head into bukkit* YUCK.
*sighs*
I was hoping you were still around!
I got the movie, a bottle of good Shiraz, and some Mr.Bubble. Can I come in already? Its cold.
By all means, the mural is right here. Just give me a minute while I figure out how TWO people are gonna fit in my apartment’s bathtub.
Funny you should mention that, Avis. I put in a corner whirlpool bathtub last year.
Party at my place, I guess. Key is under the potted plant.
We’ll need another mural for that, this one only gets me to the blog. BFF! You’re needed!
*wishes, wishes, wishes she had a whirlpool tub! Or even just a deep tub*
Just hitch a ride on one of your rocs. I’ll e-mail you the address.
*grins* I never thought of that!
You guys sound like fun. We should double faildate sometime.
Or triple date even!
Just give me a minute to clear out…
and you might want to turn on the fan.
yaaaaaaaaaaay!!! GOOD FOR YOU!!!
Math is debatable. This guy should learn that
Yeah. Just ask George W Bush.
The Decider decides what money is worth!
.
Funnily enough, a penny happens to be worth more than a penny, what with the copper in it. We produce pennies at a loss.
lol they aren’t made of copper anymore, maybe like..2%
Is that 0.02 or 0.002?
Is 0.002 of a penny the same as a 0.002 of a dollar?
ya know.. I meant something completely different when I wrote that a few hours ago.. now I can’t imagine what it was…
thus, inflation.
The Decider decides what ‘money’ is…
97% of it only exists electronically.
That used to be the case… until 1982 when pennies were changed to copper-plated zinc.
Which is why modern pennies are mostly zinc. In 1982 they switched from 95% copper to 2.5% copper
not since 1983. We WOULD produce pennies at a loss if they were still copper. They aren’t. They’ve got aluminum and lead in them now.
Pennies are more than 90% zinc now. Which is why animals get so sick when they eat pennies produced after 1986. Zinc toxicity.
The nickel is currently the most expensive coin to make. I think it might bge up to seven cents now. More than half our coins are produced at a loss.
its not at a loss because of the material its made with, its a loss due to the labour and process to produce and distribute them
With no intention to insult, I’d like to make a correction to your comment. Pennies made post-1982 are made with a Zinc core and an overcoat of copper making the minting process cost less than 1 cent. But yeah, Verizon employees need a class in unit conversion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cent_(United_States_coin)#Metal_content
Wow… now that makes cents.. Oo
Government Fail!!
Actually, pennies are made like chocolate, a hard coppery outside with a
smooth creaamy zinc inside…
Actually, pennies are made up of 97% Zinc.
not that valuable at all.
go back to school
Umm math is not debatable, thats the point of math!! There is always one right answer. There is a big difference between 0.002 dollars and 0.002 cents and that is not debatable. The people that he was talking to are just stupid.
No math in canada?
Must be in the US
Canadians know how to convert between units because of the metric system. Durr its like converting ¢ to c¢
“Its obviously a difference of opinion…”
Unless opinions can dispute mathematical laws haha
You didn’t know they could? Dumb smart people…
That was the best part! “It’s obviously just a difference of opinion”. What a pair of dumbasses.
Canada doesn’t have Verizon. Those workers were educated in the united states of ameeeerica
holy shit, I would be so pissed, what dumb fkin idiots…
its 71 cents not 71 dollars, apparently people at Verizon didn’t graduate high school
This coming from the person that doesn’t capitalize or punctuate regularly.
LOLz…
That’s actually pretty accurate…
Chances are those two winners work at a call center, subcontracted by Verizon to handle their customer service. I used to repair machines at a call center that was subcontracted by Verizon…and I can tell you from first hand experience that if cubicle farms were real farms, that one would be growing a whole lot of stupid. Sixth-grade-dropout stupid.
Except this disputes the “all the call center work is outsourced to Asia”. Those people KNOW their math!
Heheh, I did call centre work for T-Mobile, some of the reps are stupid, but the customers were almost always stupider
let alone pre school where we learn the relative value of all US currency
wow. it’s like my mom’s experience of teaching high school general math for 35 years all wrapped up into one video.
That’s giving too much credit, you imply that they are required to go to school at all.
Or grade 5…
Goddam so ignorant!
This is obviously a difference of opinion.
Only among the peasantry
Only among the pheasentry?
*skeet skeet shoot*
Between 1:29 and 1:33, is that the sound of a toilet flushing?
.
And I love how .002 cents versus .002 dollars is “a difference of opinion”.
That sound was the U.S. economy.
That’s what it sounds like when it depends on people like those folks.
WIN!
Yeah well, you know… that’s just your opinion, man.
Lebowski ftw!
Dude, its “on hold” music
As a future math teacher, I find that my heart is just about broken by this.
Not to worry; Future Math is different.
You mean in the future, inflation will be so bad that $.002 will equal .002 cents? I am not looking forward to that…
Just think in terms of Quantum Money and it all works out
Damnit Nellie, she’s a math teacher not a rocket scientist.
Quantum Money? Does that come in packets?
Sure, but I guarantee that the purse that carries it will be entangled. What with the strings and all.
That’s quite the theory, but I don’t think we’re all on the same wavelength.
I just worry that I’d never know how much money I had, since every time I looked in my wallet the amount would change.
I just had this strange vision of Schroedinger’s Wallet…
Now I’m trying to figure out how one gets a cat into a wallet. Or do they?
Quantum cats are fickle. Even observing them changes their very nature.
Yes.
And no.
That sounds like regular cats.
You must have a different breed of cat than I do. Mine are lazy whether I see them being lazy or not.
.
Unless they are near toilet paper, or course.
Mine are never where you saw them last. Oddly enough they are ALWAYS right where you are about to step.
I suspect they do that on purpose.
Of course! This is so they can look hurt and sad, thus garnering more attention and affection. Cats are smart. Sometimes.
Sometimes. Sometimes they’re bottom-of-the-foot scratching harbringers of pain and evil.
Conniving. That’s what they are.
And they don’t miss you until their bowl is empty.
Or their litterbox wants changing.
Your money is there and is not there….and it all depends on whether or not you open the **** thing…..
Just one string all massed together
Yeah. If you know where it is, you don’t know how much there is is, and if you know how much there is, you don’t know where it is.
Great minds thinking alike FTW!
It’s too bad that not so great minds also think alike…
it’s”wtf”
I feel uncertain about that principle.
No, I think you’re certain…but you’re also uncertain…just don’t look into yourself or you’ll ruin it.
So that’s your momentum position?
Yes. and no.
Yipper. And teensy little ones at that.
Or not.
Schrodinger’s Purse, actually…
I love quantum money, I just give the clerk $1 USD and walk out with $30,000 worth of merchandise! Some how, it’s value changes as it passes hands.
Yes, but what happens when you try to pay somebody? Will it revert to $1 USD? Or, will it become more? Besides your $30 000 dollars, would actually be one note, so it would be invalidated, because energy cannot be made or destroyed, only converted to matter to other forms of energy…[/infomation]
Or might it revert to $1 LSD instead?
You would do great as banker. Seriously.
When all of you’d think like this, we would be bankrupt.
Every single one of us.
And we wonder why the economy is unstable…
i hope this is a joke b/c no matter what inflation is $.002 will never equal .002 cents.
Anyone see Dragon? Someone here needs a refresher on her humo(u)r 101 course.
Mac failed his equivalency exam.
Maybe he needs to sign up for the Pre-Humo(u)r Assessment Test [PHAT]?
It’s the jeans!
Does this joke make me fat?
No Mallaria, your fat ass maked you fat.
I’m here! Sorry, I was teaching my actual-factual class.
*reads posts*
Ummm. I have an application here for the remedial section of Humo(u)r 101…
I’m a math major and I cried after listening to that…
I stopped listening, I got bored and decided to pick my nose instead.
Just a pickin’ and a grinnin’. Hey! Put yer teeths back in.
Let me get them back from my cousin.
I played it at 3/2 speed, That way it is at least slightly funny.
I am horribly bad at math and I cried at that too! I don’t understand how they couldn’t understand!
Yeah, I think this goes beyond the realm of math fail and into the realm of logic fail. Either that or the VZW call center people are just huge WEASELS.
I vote weasels. My calling plan is Verizon. They seem to not understand what it means when you have a text plan. I argue with them fairly often.
My math is awesome. I have checks in my checkbook so I keep spending.
Is that anything like when the credit card is full just get a new empty one?
You’re not alone; I’m an engineer and cried after this as well.
Either Verizon just can’t do math, or Michael Bolton loaded the virus on this guy’s account.
I’m not a math major and wasn’t that great at math… but even I know that .002 CENTS is not the same as $0.002 !
I think I cried a little too.
I’m not even a math major, and I cried after that. Takes a real genius to work up from one cent. For cryin out loud.
Did they work for Lehman Bros. too?
Those roaming decimal charges really add up.
The cost is dependent on which tower you used. Now for Mookie and I, we prefer the Eiffel Tower but it costs a great deal.
Don’t pay the middleman; he’ll work for free.
I thought he would gladly pay me Tuesday for work done today. Or am I confusing him with someone else?
No Coke. Pepsi.
I’ll has a can.
A billy goat ate the can.
And he was yelling cheezborger. cheezborger, cheezborger!
Ry, I’d be glad to give you an Eiffel of MY Tower for free!
Ooo la la
Wow. In addition to “Verizon Math Fail”, it should be titled “Units Fail”.
Could you pass me that salt unit?
*passes a mirror to DjKraid*
No idea man.
Emotions matching comment fail.
Don’t ask us, the trolls just came to Failblog!
Ohhh where does this belong?
I think this made my head explode. Dear Gaia, are people really, really that idiotic? Yeah, a difference of opinion that $.002 doesn’t equal .002 cents. Right.
Dear Veggie,
Yes.
Your Friend,
Gaia
Too many exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
haha verizon: “I is good at for converting da numbers” *buck tooth smile*
I wonder how much it would be with 0.002 Schrute-bucks
About 71.78 Stanely nickels.
*shakes head in amazement*
Maybe if he had used 0.002 Years vs. 0.002 Days in his analogy with the girl.
“Would you rather be spanked for 0.002 Years or 0.002 Days?” Ya think she would have gotten it or said “Yes, Please!” ?
I wonder what the outcome was. Did the blog posting help?
We shall soon see. Wheels have been set in motion.
the soup has been stirred…
The egg has been laid.
Egg?
Really?
Is THAT where he’s been..
Last I saw him, he was in a coma *licks lips*
I heard a rumor he was performing on Broadway.
Give my regards!
The stone has been cast…
this is old. this originated in late 2006. just google ‘verizon bad math’ and you will see the whole story.
That’s OK, Anya. You see, a good manager is one who hires people smarter than they are… *paraphrasing Dilbert*
You realize that if you extend that principle to its logical conclusion, the CEO of Verizon must be dumber than a box of rocks, right?
By definition, the dumbest person in the company.
Oh god, say it isn’t so. Our new CEO is a statistician and slated to take us into a new world.
Well you know that they stay about statistics…
.
Maybe he is of the mindset that if you can’t dazzle ‘em with footwork, baffle them with bullshit.
You may have misheard, most executives are stasisticians – nothing changes.
I wouldn’t assume they have ‘good’ managers all the way up
This was truely awesome. I only wonder how long this was going on before he recorded it.
What, you’re saying you would like to hear more?
Yes and no. It’s like watching a train wreck. I found myself yelling at the computer because you just want those people to get it. Sadly, they never will. So after some thought, I don’t think I need to hear any more.
Should I cancel my Verizon contract?? I’m worried now… wtf are they doing??
roflcopter, im getting a 54 in math and even a dumbass like me knows theyre incredibly stupid.
Alright, first of all, people need to stop arguing amongst themselves about punctuation issues and the wrong usage of “there” because it is incredibly obvious who the real idiot is here. Actually, there are two, and they are both in this clip. This is a fail of Darwin-award proportions. Randall, if this is real, you WIN. Even if you don’t know what the word “conversion” means, this is still a lame attempt at trying to weasel you out of $71.
Thank you for sharing this epic fail.
I feel so put in my place after reading that. *flicks booger*
*deflects booger towards FAIL BOG*
This should be fun.
Eww…what did I just get hit with?
*looks around innocently*
She said it was a booger but it’s not.
*sings*
…it’s Chiffon!
Chiffon is made from nasal mucous? Mucophagy win.
Everything’s better with Snot Bonnet on it.
That’s some Hot Snot.
Is that like a Snot Pocket?
Snot Pocket? I know kangaroo’s pouches are coated im mucous, but that seems… wrong somehow.
Snot for you to say.
*blows nose*
*shows*
snot mine!
OMG, I really did just LOL at that. XD
“Darwin-award proportions”? I was unaware that they died because of this misunderstanding…how sad…
We can only hope they were redeemed on their deathbeds (i.e. finally “got it”).
should’ve started the ‘lesson’ with 2 dollars vs 2 cents. Then .2 dollars vs .2 cents. Then .02 dollars vs .02 cents. Finally .002 dollars vs .002 cents.
Either way, I can’t believe both the guy and the girl failed at basic match. mob mentality on a small scale?
It all rounds down to zero, so what’s the big deal?
*warning: explanation of the obvious ahead*
BlasiuS, it seems to me a math issue based in a reading error. Like many I’ve noticed in office situations, they need some remedial help with their English. Having worked in call centres during my college years, I have seen this kind of $tupidity in a¢tion before.
Too bad they didn’t outsource to India, at least there they understand math (but not English)
Nooo you are nawt unnerstaneen me. I will tell you wanse agayn. Youuu have 2 cents. I have 2 dollars. Youuuu have to pay me what? Nooo, you cannawt speak to my supahvisah.
Is it plooged in?
You don’t ask dumb questions!
ha ha, I had a nightmare that I called 911 and got the same kind of
customer service that I get with my cell phone company:
a nice foreign person in Singapore who speaks as much English
as I speak Swahili.
Iselin, NJ is a huge Indian community and I happened to live there 4 years. I am sure half of them worked in call centers and were mocking me behind my back, knowing it was me calling. I will never have Vonage again because of my pure hatred for their call center.
old video fail
Video? Where?
FAIL BLOG SUCKSSSS!!!!
This is from 12/2006.
You people at fail blog need to check the internets before you post things.
FAIL BLOG = FAIL
Fails never get old.
You should know that, you pompous newbie.
Hands Ken Ry’s booger…
Is internet(s) plural??? there is more than one???? OMG, here I have been the whole time thinking it was singular since it appears as one whole even though it spans world wide. Is it determined to be plural because of the different technolgy? So I should start using a plural case for everything. Mouse’s, Moose’s, Boat’s…….I’M CONFUSED!!!!!
Yes you are. Those are possessives
Godly, WhoaNellie.
wordses ares onlys plurals ons tehs ICHCs
AND! it’s not even the complete recording
*wonders why the “and” was so very important*
because IT! could be
Damn that Pennywise.
Dear, Sir or Madam
Your reasoning behind this post perplexes me. So the fact that this movie was made before you where born makes it less of a fail? I believe that any fail, no matter what its age, has the same effect now as when it was made. Simply because you dislike of this particular fail does not facilitate a loss of faith in the fail blog community to me.
Effervescently verbose logic WIN!
Sesquipedalian accolade success!
Thank you I do try my best.
Chill, man! This is supposed to be fun!
How about “NO VERIZON LEFT BEHIND” program?
they need to show their work and label all answers correctly.
ROFL! That’s the best comment here, Mario. The Fail had me staring in horror at my monitor, but you made me howl with laughter. Thank you!
K, I’m sorry, video fail If he really wanted to make his point he would have had the math going
00.002¢
÷100(being that a cent is 1/100 (one hundreth) of a dollar)
____________
.00002dollars
$ 00.00002
x35896Kb
____________
$00000.71792
Also I know it’s part of the irony. But there is a little think called the not equal sign.
$0.002 ≠ 0.002¢
It should have been flashing in red all up and down their bad math.
10 think ≠ thing
20 fail
run
?SYNTAX ERROR IN 10
READY.
Wow. That took me back, Aja.
Nostalgia win!
Thank you.
oooh Commodore reference <3
*runs*
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
*nabs*
*SQUEEZE!!*
*releases*
*runs back towards Electrohacker*
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Dammit DW, you put me back down facing the wrong way!
*runs back away from Electrohacker*
*SQUEEZES DW on the way past*
EEEEEEEEEEEWWAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
the dark side told me 35,893KB = 358.93 Bytes, 358.93x.002=.71786
35KB≠35B
It seems like they’re both reciting a script that was poorly written. Neither of them did the math or bothered to think about what they’re saying; they’re just saying what they’re told to say.
It’s audioshopped!!! Just like the Beatles!
It’s audioshopped! Just like the Beatles!
It’s audioshopped!
BRAVO BRAVO : )))
LIFETIME LIFETIME : )))
Is it Lifetime or Oxygen that has every man painted as a steroid using wifebeater?
You are asking someone that watches Spike? Seriously?
I thought that it was mandatory for women to watch Oxygen. Like I had to watch the Superbowl just to meet my man quota.
Buck the norm baby! You should have watched that ballet you had been talking about for months. Don’t let them tell you what to do! Down with the man!
I prefer the phrase “down with the person.”
Oxygen makes the rest of us look bad.
Yeah, ever since they canceled Tissue Time with Jenna Jamison, I stopped watching.
Isn’t that the “every woman is a high-maintenance chick” channel?
Never seen it.
I am not sure I have ever had access to the channel on cable anywhere I have lived.
I’d much rather watch Michael Bay movies and play poker.
Yeah, I like the inexplicable explosions too!
Lifetime. Oxygen actually lets men have shows on their channel. They may be gay men, but they’re still men.
I just got a bill for $-8 from ebay… just sayin
So ebay owes you $8?
That’s because at Verizon, the English System is used instead of the International System of Units
gamamew “That’s because at Verizon, the English System is used instead of the International System of Units ”
re-reading this much later, missed this comment first time round – maths is an international language – nowhere does .002=.02 – whatever system or nationality you are.
um, maybe … I have heard there is a proof that 1 = 2 ….. if I could get my head round that, maybe I could work for Verizon?
wooowww those people are sooo dumb. its not that complicated… i feel bad for that guy trying to explain it to them!
“Submitted by Randall M.”
Is that Randall Munroe? lol
Hah! I thought the same thing! Although honestly, if it were Randall Munroe, we probably would have been treated to a series of stick figures acting out the scenario instead of the static background. And there would have been some wickedly funny hover text.
It’s possible that Randy did submit this.
http://xkcd.com/verizon/
It is! And it seems to be a bit old?
http://xkcd.com/verizon/
-anin
This IS Randall Munroe, of xkcd fame
http://www.xkcd.com
Don’t believe me?
http://imgs.xkcd.com/verizon_billing.mp3
And this is indeed his voice, as well.
http://blag.xkcd.com/2006/12/10/brazil-and-verizon/
Certainly could be him that posted.
given this http://xkcd.com/verizon/, it might just be randall munroe . . .
This might give you a hint…
http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/fail-owned-verizon-fail.jpg
I ♥ xkcd.
that seem to be him : http://imgs.xkcd.com/verizon_billing.mp3
Click my name for a hint (as failblog didn’t seem to like me posting the link in the actual comment space).
Okay, noticed just after posting that my previous post did work after all, just had to use the Show All thing.
COMMENT FAIL!
He’s maybe been doing group theory all day – I sympathise.
HAHA! Verison = FAIL!
Poor guy. I wouldn’t have been so nice.
Largest U.S. wirelss company name spelling fail. (Spelling… it HAS stopped working for you!)
I know you people don’t really want to hear this BUT…. the fail here is in communication, not math. This is why I get very angry when people use words incorrectly. I try to politely correct them and they say “Same thing”. No. It’s NOT.
These people simply aren’t thinking about the differences in the words they are using. In each case they are thinking the same number, and understanding it correctly, but they are not thinking about the words they are using because they have been taught that words are interchangeable.
It’s like when people use the word “download” to describe copying a file, or talk about “logging on to ” a website. You don’t “log on” to a website, you simply access it. “Logging on” to something is a VERY different process! Most people would say “same thing”, but it is NOT and that precedent is what leads to mistakes like this fail.
Ok, rant over. You may return to the jocularity!
This may explain why I actually understood why the caller was correct. It wasn’t math.
Therefore, you are smart!
But often if you listen/watch things like this from the outside it’s easier to see whats going wrong.
moral of the story, it only matters when money is involved
I feel ya scotteh. I have that issue with people in my office in Florida all the time.
You have NO IDEA how often it happens here. People try to tell me things all the time using words they don’t really understand. And often things go wrong because they ask me to do something using the wrong words. Well sorry, but I don’t know your specific version of the language!! Use the words correctly, or at least ASK if you’re not sure and things work much better!
“Sure, if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!”
Almost every website I access involves logging on, this one included.
I agree, I think they charged him the correct amount, but TOLD him the wrong thing. But, since it was their error that lead to a misunderstanding of the charges, proper customer service and salesmanship should have the company correct that error and explain future charges more clearly.
But then again, I was born knowing better customer service than most corporations have in their entire companies these days.
I totally agree. I hate to be a killjoy, but ambiguity is frustrating.
Can you fail me now?
uh…*fails Marius* are you happy? not too sure about your request, but i think that should do it…
You had me at fail…
If you fail me now
you take away the very heart of me
Fail me once, shame on me
Fail met twice, shame on the other me
Who’s met? Are you referring to the Mets? Probably failed more than twice…
I call that a SERIOUS earworm.
Oh I dunno, I think it is a lighthearted earworm.
I think it’s more a bemused earworm.
A whimsical earworm, if you will.
I am seriously frightened that anyone with a high school diploma – which I believe is a minimum requirement for most work in the U.S. – cannot understand this. Even after this guy clearly broke down the logic behind the math.
I understand your sentiments here. I’m a 20 year old that hasn’t finished a year of college yet due to personal issues, yet I spell better than my 45-year-old supervisor. I had to spell ‘compliance’ for her the other day…pay raise, please? It’s just scary to see this kind of thing, day after day, from those that get paid more than me *sigh*
It has been proven that the ability to spell is not tied to intelligence. One can be wildly intelligent and a terrible speller. It happens.
You know what’s better? One who is both. Just saying.
Crap. I meant one who is both wildly intelligent and an excellent speller.
I feel the same way. My boss is 20 years older than me and makes twice as much as I do, yet he still has me read over his emails before he sends them out, usually to make sure he “got the point across”.
When he sends emails on his own, even one-liners, there is ALWAYS a mistake. A missing word, incorrect spelling, or the wrong word.
Friend, I’m a 34-year-old who dropped out of college sixteen years ago, and I have to do the same thing for a supervisor of comparable age to yours. Honestly, it’s not even the spelling itself that annoys me; what does is that he always asks while he’s typing a document on MS Word, which–last time I checked–HAS A SPELL-CHECK FUNCTION. It’s bad enough when one is more literate in computer use than their own language–he is quite tech-savvy–but how sad is it when that same individual can’t find “spell check” in a pull-down menu?
I feel your pain foozlesprite, my boss pulled me in the office and wrote I <3 U on a paper and asked me what the heck does “I less than three you” mean.
I’m a friggin drop out with a GED and half a semester of college for Failness
sakes!
Oh my!
You seem to have much more faith in the education system than I will ever have….
As a high school dropout, grade 9 in fact, even dumb ‘ol me gets ‘er!
Oi! My head huyts!
Unbelievable!
This video made me cringe, a lot. Then I felt rather confused between the feeling of being sad for humanity and laughing at their stupidity. I like laughing better so I laughed. Hahaha. Ok, I retreat back into obscurity.
I think these CSAs were trained by Telus. Or Starchoice. Or any utility company’s contracted third party call centre staff.
I never had a problem with Telus. Bell Expressvue, on the other hand, seems to think “free” means “pay us $90″.
So much for East Indians understanding math.
I am an Alltel customer and this makes me very very afraid.
Well, this explains why my verizon bill is always $300 more than I was expecting.
I gotta go dig out my bills and see how many .002 dollars I was charged when it should have been .002 cents.
NOTE TO THE MATH TEACHER poster: Please, please, please save us from a future of these verizon style math morons who think that the difference between a dollar and a cent is just an opinion!
“oh please save us. Save us from all the monies” – Oglethorpe (from aqua teen hunger force)
There is only one way to save us from such morons, and it doesn’t involve educating them better, or failing them when they still get it wrong.
It involves a lead pipe, a roll of carpet, and a shovel. In a pinch, you can use the shovel as a stand-in for the lead pipe.
My brain actually cried.
Literally?
Yeah. On second thought, maybe I should have that checked out. Might not have anything to do with the fail.
Your begging the question did it literally cry.
———————————–
Man, it hurts to type like that, even for just one short sentence.
If I were u I would sewe them!
*wonders if this was a nesting fail*
*waits to see*
Apparently it was.
Never a fail nesting with you.
*Strokes ego gently and passionately*
*purrrrs*
*Is pleasantly surprised to find a species of purring bird*
What can I say? I’m a rare bird!
sewe?
My .002 sir
The gentleman who placed that call should be a math teacher.
He should also be given permission to commit whatever acts of violence he can think of against the two morons who (mis)handled his call.
I’ll add more comments when I stop sobbing.
I really oughta start recording my phone calls. Then I can post retardation like this.
hahahahahahahahahaha wow.
Hi, do you recognise that there is a difference between one dollar and one cent?
definately.
Do you recognise there is a difference between half a dollar and half a cent?
definately.
then, do you therefore recognise that there is a difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents?
no.
I love you like a piece of cake, I really do, but we have to get your “definately” under control.
Definately
Definitely
“Well I’m going to put up this video on my blog!” That must be the lamest threat I’ve heard all year. I hope he informed them in advance that he was recording them and just take it to a lawyer, I smell class-action law suit.
Why should he have to tell them? They already were recording it themselves. It seems that if they can do it, he can do it.
Almost every customer service telephone call starts with “This call will be recorded.. etc etc”
I’m not sure he would be able to record it without asking them, which is why I think it’s fake. She wouldn’t say “Go ahead, put it on your blog” if he didn’t ask permission.
FYI, in the United States legal system, in order for a telephone conversation to be admissible in a court of law, the recording party must inform the other party or parties that the conversation is being recorded, giving them the option to discontinue the telephone conversation. This is in accordance to a person’s basic rights, such as the Miranda Warning, “You have the right to remain silent.”
I smell an ass-faction lawsuit…
Interesting point there, JayCal. From now on, I’m gonna have a recording precede all my phone conversations: “Miss Antipodes will be with you in a moment, your call is important to Miss Antipodes, this call may be recorded for quality and failblog purposes….”
Why didn’t he just say “You forgot to move the decimal point two places” ? That would have saved him so many labored sighs and snooty jabs. I agree that these help line people were inCREDibly dumb, but it’s not really a Masters Degree kind of job and anyone would go on the defensive when you start talking to them like they’re on the Palin in 2012 campaign train (that is: like they’re inbred retards)
But that’s the problem. They got tripped up on the dollar vs. cents, not so much on the calculation itself.
0.002 dollars = .2 cents. But they are quoting 0.002 cents. So if you multiply say, 10,000 KB x 0.002 cents, you get 20… cents, but they thought it was dollars. So they would need to move the decimal point again to get a dollar figure, which makes it 0.2 dollars.
But the real stupid thing here is why bill by the KB? Just bill by MB and the math gets easier. Assuming 0.002 dollars per KB, that makes it 2 dollars per MB, so 35 MB = 70 dollars. It’s so easy, you don’t even need a calculator. If it’s cents we are talking about instead, then it is 2 cents per MB, which makes it 70 cents (ok. It’s a bit more simplistic than it should be because 1MB = 1024KB, but it helps get a close estimate).
So, it’s still Verizon’s fault. Because: a) they create confusion between cents and dollars; b) they don’t use an easier unit to calculate from and, c) they don’t ensure their people — managers included — have the minimal math skills required to do their jobs properly.
Epic Fail if you ask me.
Thank you John Nash.
You’re welcome
such a beautiful mind…
But this is win for Verizon, because so many people will be billed like this and not realise it’s 100x what they should pay! Even if only 1% of customers pay this inflated bill, they are still making a large (and fraudulent) profit. Plus, the staff they employ are of low intelligence and therefore cheap, plus dumb staff give the company a ‘plausible deniability’ option in any resulting court case. So, Verizon wins at scamming people out of money and making a huge profit.
He should have done the conversion before the multiplication:
0.002 cents is 0.00002 dollars, now multiply
What none of you idiots realize is that this caller paid what he was billed. He just wasted everyone’s time and money by calling in a bitching.
ur dumb
Wow. How much stupider do they get?
you misspelled “more stupider”.
Apparently not much “stupider” than you.
It’s more stupid, deary.
Wait until you hear them when they’re sober.
Well duh, of course they didn’t understand it… they can’t type in the ‘cent(se)’ symbol into their qwakulator to see that the new number is still in (no)cents
Sorry, you lost me after ‘Absinthe’.
I got lost just by staring at that perplexing avatar.
You misspelled “alabaster snail”.
This hurts me to listen to. So frustrating!
I hear a train coming, you may want to get off that track where you are sitting.
I hear the train a comin’, it’s rolling round the bend.
And I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when. . .
Look man, it’s perfectly simple! You only need to solve this partial differential equation.
that’s from december 2006, verizon gave him a full refund after aknowledging that they where at fault ( did take them a while though) for more information go to http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/
It truly is a shame that so many people are egregiously horrible at arithmetic…and content about it!
It’s sad. I especially like it when they know the difference between half a dollar and half a cent, but can’t make the leap to 0.002 dollars and 0.002 cents. I also loved her “It’s a matter of opinion” line. I mean, wow.
actually if you follow quantum physics, it could be argued
hahahaha! totally!
Are they serious? .002 cents= .00002 dollars. So bits*rate (bits/cent)=cents
To get it to dollars, you do the additional conversion of 100cents per dollar, giving you (bits*rate(bits/cent))/1000cents/dollar=price in dollars. It isn’t that complicated, really. And I’m not a mathematician either.
Are you a cousin of black?
He wants his teeth back.
Oh.My.God. The Stupid, it HURTS! GAH.
IT’S NOT OPINION! IT’S MATH! – CLASSIC!
It’s not math. It’s communication.
it’s not communication. it’s people being retarded.
When she said it’s a difference of opinion, I wanted to firebomb schools of education. If she had responded “I sexually abuse small children”, I wouldn’t have disrespected her as much as I did when she said “it’s a difference of opinion”.
Ok..I thought I understood but listening to the verizon people…it got my head all turned around….MISHY R CONFUZZLED NOW TT-TT
As a mathematician it makes me cringe.
constant use of the word “point” instead of “zero point”….
sarcasm fail anyone?
As a xenophope and mother your statement makes me shrink in fear and/or servility.
…xenophope??
I think you misspelled “xenopope”. You know…someone who is afraid of foreign popes.
I think you misspelled “xenodope”. You know…someone who is afraid of foreign stupid people…or, alternatively, someone who is afraid of foreign weed.
Zenophobia – fear of Zeno’s paradox.
Which one?
wow, that’s great. and stupid. stupidly great.
The dollar and cent sign just denote currency. If you write out 1.25 cents, no one assumes it’s one and 1 fourth of a penny. It’s a dollar and 25 cents in change. $1.25 similarly is still a dollar and 25 cents. The guy who made the call is being a pain in the ass. The verizon people had it right.
*facepalm*
cool, redlow. i’ll give you 100.00 cents, you give me back 100.00 dollars.
Its still misleading, If they are quoting 0.002 cents then thats what they should charge. Its a general ‘assumption’ that you pay for things at the advertised/quoted price. Not in soviet russia though…
…wow… you should get a job with verizon.
That’s just stupid, even verizon aknowledged that they where wrong
Wow you’re an idiot.
1 cent = $0.01
.001 cent = $0.00001
Dollars and cents are two different units. Just like miles and inches are two different units.
Or meters and centimeters. No wonder the economy is tanking, people working for major corporations fail at basic math.
He probably really does think that an inch equals a mile.
Must be that flexible penis-measuring scale he’s using.
His map?
Ha!
the verizon people had it wrong guy. come on! yes, the guy WAS being a pain in the ass. yes, 1.25 written out is a dollar twenty five, but when you tell someone one point two five cents, you are saying, 1 penny and a quarter penny. if you put up a sign that says $0.002, you are saying, a fifth of a penny, and if you put up a sign that says 0.002c, you are saying, a fifth of a cent. if i was the guy on the phone, i would exploit the misunderstanding until i got my 70 dollars back. if i didn’t, i’d cancel my service and vandalize as many verizon outlets as i could find. my reign of terror would not end until i was either jailed or given my money back.
i used to work as a customer care rep for ATTwireless 4 years ago, before Verizon bought them out, and i can tell you that a good 80% of the people in those places barely got their highschool diploma’s so debating with them can be difficult. but i can also tell you that a good 95% of people with cell phones barely got their highschool diploma’s so debating with THEM is downright retarded. i will never own a cellphone because of this
tl;dr;cbb
Um — I think you need to talk to the math teacher in this post.
Are you an idiot? You’re arguing that there is no difference between $0.002 and 0.002 cents
they are NOT equal, they are completely different units of currency. If they were to equate their original 0.002cents/kb then that would be $0.00002/kb
Either way they still made a very ignorant statement saying that there is no difference between $0.002 and 0.002cents; which there most definitely is
Yes they do assume 1.25 cents = 0.0125 dollars especially when its being charged per KB on a data plan. You are an idiot Redlow, maybe Verizon is hiring though – I see a future there for you.
that is like saying 1.25 ounces is the same as 1.25 pounds. The two are not the same.
With math skills like that, you should go into customer relations.
Wow, you are as stupid as the support people. The guy is not being a pain in the ass, he’s 100% correct. Read your post….out loud…..to someone with a brain and they will laugh at you too
ok, in there lies the problem… “no one assumes it’s one and 1 fourth of a penny..” sometimes the assumption overshadows logic & (not-so) common sense!! The guy who made the call is right and is only doing what corporations do all the time, get their way due to a loophole or technicality.. he was only clarifying what was written in black and white. The verizon people, and anyone who really agrees with them have no understanding of terms. Ever hear of comparing apples to oranges? It doesn’t work!
It gets worse with insurance. Any detail (and I do mean any), no matter how insignificant, can cheat somebody out of money they deserved.
Yes, I know it’s harsh that he (almost – read his blog) got cheated out of his money, but it’s only a small amount compared to what happens to countless more people.
What are you on? Please if you have any dependants, get them to look at your paycheques: because your boss may be screwing you if your happy with assuming getting 1000.25 cents every month would be equal to getting 1000.25 dollars.
When the sign for bag of chips says “.99c” I’m always tempted to see if they’ll actually give it to me for a penny… or if I can sue them for false advertising.
Fail to you Redlow.
Hahaha Redlow are you serious?
Umm…no. 1.25 cents i still 1 cent plus .25 of a cent
1.25 dollars is one dollar and .25 of a dollar
If they wrote 1.25 and only 1.25 then yes I would assume one dollar twenty-five cents.
If they wrote 1.25 and added cents at the end….that’s completely different
they are not the same…..That’s why we have two different symbols for each of them.
25 cents are twenty-five dollars are not the same, perhaps that will make it a little easier to see the difference
Were you the first or the second Verizon-Idiot?
Dude…think about it. Either that, or go to elementary school or primary school or whatever it is that your parents clearly didn’t let you attend.
$1.00 is 100 cents
$0.02 is 2 cents
Hence, divide the number of cents by 100 to get its value in dollars.
2 cents=$0.02
0.02 cents=0.02/100
=$0.0002
actually no it’s not if you write 1.25 cents thats one cent and one forth a cent. 125cents would be one dollar and twenty five cents.
no, you’re a jackass, who doesn’t understand math, and you probably work at verizon. shut up.
You have got to be kidding me…
If I write out 1.25 cents then it is EXACTLY 1 and 1 quarter cents, no more, no less…
The guy is being precise, clear, auditable, not effing stupid and the idiot manager says it is a difference of opinion… OMG this makes me so sad.
Thank God that being clever is going to be considered normal now that Dubya is gone from the White House.
Redlow- You are an idiot. Is 1.25 cups the same as 1.25 gallons? Is 1.25 tons the same as 1.25 grams? The numbers are completely meaningless without the units. 1.25 dollars is 125 cents. If you want to use symbols (I will use “c” for cents), then $1.25 DOES NOT EQUAL 1.25c. You should get a job with Verizon. They would obviously be able to make money with you working for them.
Verizon employee.
I agree. His argument was a fail, and is probably why it was posted on fail blog… man, of course that .02 dollars is the same as .02 cents. Redlow explained it well.
no… IDIOTS don’t automatically assume it’s one and a quarter cent. When it says Cent it means CENT.
Just like if you say kilobyte I don’t assume you mean Gigabyte just because they involve the same type of measurement.
Just like if you say pint I don’t assume you mean gallon just because they both measure liquids.
Just like if you say piano I don’t assume you mean forte just because they both deal with music.
Just like if you say Will Sasso I don’t assume you mean John Goodman just because they’re both fat.
Ok, your next employer will pay you 7.50 cents per hour.
you good with that?
I see your point. But it could also imply 7 dollars and 50 cents.
This is just a game of words.
I still think that guy on the phone was just being a pain.
No. NO. 7.50 by itself could be dollars or cents. But when you have a sign before it, that means units of measurement. $7.50 is commonly assumed to mean 7 dollars and 50 cents, but the truth is that it means 7 dollars and five tenths of a dollar. We just use different terms for tenths and hundredths of a dollar. We call them “cents”. From the root word “cent”, meaning “hundredth”? When something is listed as being in cents, it is in cents. It doesn’t matter what you think. Do you agree that ¢7 means seven cents, as in seven pennies, as in .07 of a dollar? Well, then, why should it matter if it’s ¢7 or ¢7.5? Adding a decimal point does not change the meaning of the sign. It is not a game of words.
And by the way, I would be a pain too if it meant the difference between getting charged ¢71.95 and $71.95.
Woo! You tell ‘em, TS20!
I completely agree!!
No Redlow, Verizon had it WRONG. They thought 0.002 dollars and 0.002 cents were the same thing, when they’re NOT.
Christ almighty. Re-watch the video.
…What? Do you know the difference between a “cent” and a “dollar”? .01 dollars = 1 cent. If you write out .002 *CENTS* you better mean .002 *CENTS*, not .002 *DOLLARS*. Under that logic, .002 cents would convert to .002 dollars, which converts to .2 cents, which converts to .2 dollars, which converts to 20 cents, which converts to 20 dollars, which converts to 2000 cents, which converts to 2000 dollars…. you see where this is going? Even taking this one step multiplies the cost by 100.
If a contract says the rate is .002 cents per kilobyte, you can’t charge .002 dollars. This guy’s case can easily go to court and he would win easily.
At the same time, I really don’t know why I need to explain this.
Uhm… no.
verizon had it right?
1.25 cents is 1 and a fourth of a penny
1.25 dollars is 1 and a fourth of a dollar
god invented units for a reason
*facepalms*
15¢ doesn’t mean $15, you twit. And $0.15 doesn’t mean 0.15¢.
Further, not only did the Verizon people get the meaning of the cent sign wrong, they got the meaning of “cent” wrong, when they claimed that “.002 cents” meant the same thing as “.002 dollars”.
You’re intellectually unqualified to drive, vote, or have kids. Please shut up and return to your television set.
I get what you are saying, it’s like when you write out 2.75 centimeters, people know that it’s clearly 2m and 75cm. It’s all so clear to me.
The customer service agent’s name is “Redlow.”
listen to the video again, or try to guess who made the price.
?? Are U retarded? Even if everyone in america would think it’s right the fact that it is NOT don’t change.
Please, please tell me that you’re kidding. Nobody can be THIS stupid.
Um, not sure what universe you come from, but in this one 1.25 cents is 1 and 1/4 cents. Like when you go to the gas station and they say $2.259 per gallon. That is 2 dollars 25 and 9/10 cents. There are countless instances in the real world where things are charged by the fraction of a cent because of the volume.
Oh by the way, if the contract is written so it says 0.002 cents then they can’t charge you 0.002 dollars. There isn’t a court in the country that would find in Verizon’s favor, unless of course the judge was appointed during the Bush administration.
you should go get a job at verizon…moron.
you are retarded
Um, 1.25 cents *is* 1 and 1/4 cents. The unit starts out as cents & remains cents.
Basic math:
1 dollar is equal to 100 pennies. Or we can put it in an equation:
1 dollar = 100 pennies
We need to switch to decimals here, so you can see what happens when we add that “one fourth” later on.
1.00 dollars = 100.00 pennies
In English, one dollar is 100 pennies
1.00/10 of 1 dollar is 1.00/10 of 100 pennies, or 10 cents (a dime).
Or we can say, one tenth of a dollar is a dime.
1.00/100 of 1 dollar is 1.00/100 of 100 pennies, or 1 penny.
In other words, 1 one hundredth of a dollar is a penny.
1.25/100 of 1 dollar is 1.25/100 of 100 pennies, or 1.25 pennies.
If we divide 1.25 by 100,
1.25/100 of a dollar = .0125 DOLLARS.
1.25/100 pennies = .0125 PENNIES.
Get it? Let’s try an example.
Let’s say we used 5,000 minutes of phone time.
If we have to pay .0125 DOLLARS, we’d owe 5000 minutes * .0125 DOLLARS, which is 62.5 DOLLARS.
If we have to pay .0125 CENTS, we’d owe 5000 minutes * .0125 CENTS, which is 62.5 CENTS.
Personally, I’d rather pay 62 cents than 62 dollars.
Hey, if you still don’t get it, can I sell you 62 cents for 62 dollars? Or better yet, maybe 62,000 cents for 62,000 dollars? I like that idea.
Didn’t you ever learn fractions in school?
I sure hope you’re not an accountant.
FAIL!
understanding fail
So when you go to a vending machine and see “50″ on it, do you attempt to pay $50?
Not just an basic English Fail and a Math fail– but a “No one” FAIL!
Whenever I see a sign that says (for example) “.99c” for a bag of chips, I’m tempted to see if they’ll really give it to me for a penny. Or whether I could subsequently sue them for false advertising.
Fail, Redlow, fail.
Let’s test your theory… why don’t you send me $100 and I’ll say it’s 100 cents and we’ll call it even.
is that sarcasm i hear? cause i cant imagine anyone being as stupid as this, it is common knowlage that 100 cents is 1 dollar and that .01 dollars is equal to a cent. the verison people were just trying to overcharge him, 72 dollars for 3 megs of data? dont it seem a little wrong?
You’re kidding, right? If you write “1.25 cents”, it means “one and one-quarter cents” (or “one point two-five cents”, or “one and one-quarter pennies”). It doesn’t matter what one *assumes*! It simply *IS*. What you’ve written is as horrifying and ridiculously stupid as the woman saying it was a “difference of opinion”!
1.25 cents is 1/100th of 1.25 dollars.
If I buy 10,000 widgets at 1.25 cents apiece, I pay 12,500 cents which is $125 (or one hundred twenty five dollars). If you try to charge me $12,500 (or twelve thousand five hundred dollars), I will take it out on your ass.
… Wow. It says CENTS. Cents does not equal dollars…
Wait, you’re saying 1.25 dollars = 1.25 cents? Do you happen to have a vested interest in Verizon?
I second the *facepalm*
yur as stupid as verizon then.
they charged him in dollars instead of cents, thats the entire point.
are u serious?
I’m pretty sure that when you were in elementary school you learned that 1.25¢ was the wrong way to write $1.25 because they were different amounts. I even learned that all the way out here in a state with (what’s close to) the lowest education rating in the country.
RU NUTS?
Firstly, who the hell writes 1.25 cents?
And secondly – if someone gives me a check that says 1.25 cents, I will not assume that it means $1.25. I will see it as 1 and 1/4 of a penny and I will bash the person who gave me that miserable amount of money. And laugh at him as obviously he’s messed up multiple times in paying his bills and will get bitten in the butt for it soon.
Units are everything. The Verizon people were WRONG.
no. just no.
FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL OMG FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL
1.25 cents is 1.25 cents is 0.0125 dollars. 125 cents is 1.25 dollars. That is not a matter of opinion.
EVERYONE would assume it’s one and 1 fourth of a penny, because that’s EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID IT WAS!
I’m sitting here trying to think up a witty analogy to make it clear, but I can’t. I just can’t think of something more ridiculous than writing “1.25 cents” and expecting people to think it meant $1.25. My mind cannot wrap around the stupidity of someone even saying that.
Actually, EVERYONE would assume it’s 1 and one fourth of a penny, because that’s EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID IT WAS!
I’m sitting here trying to come up with a witty comparison, but I just can’t, because I can’t think of anything more ridiculous than writing out “1.25 cents” and then expecting people to assume you meant $1.25. That’s like quoting 50 cents and then charging $50. You’re doing exactly what Verizon is doing: pretending dollars and cents are the same thing.
Let’s see, you [i]said[/i] 1.25 cents, you [i]wrote[/i] 1.25 cents, but nobody’s going to assume you [i]meant[/i] 1.25 cents? Who’s being a pain in the ass here?
Let’s see, you [i]said[/i] 1.25 cents, you [i]wrote[/i] 1.25 cents, but nobody is supposed to assume you [i]meant[/i] 1.25 cents? Who’s being a pain in the ass?
Wrong. You fail.
Wrong. You fail.
No, they didn’t have it right. If I’m saying 1.25 cents, that’s one and one fourth cent. If I say 1.25 dollars, or a buck twenty five, or even one twenty five one could reasonably assume that we’re talking about one dollar and twenty five cents.
Suddenly, economic issues seem far more scary than they did before.
HAHAHAHA ur just as retarded as verizon!!!! geez…
Although we all know what Verizon INTENDED the price to be, this guy should have gotten away with this based on the technicality. Cents and dollars ARE different. Verizon would be obliged to decrease his bill, and then change their grammatically incorrect billing statement.
He should have won, actually. I can see why they are confused, but Verizon is technically incorrect in this argument. They can avoid future “offenses” by fixing their statement, but he should have gotten through.
A company cannot make a statement and then refuse to back it up. If a store accidentally prints a wrong price, they must abide by that price until they change it to the correct one. Phone companies are no different. They’re just more stubborn because they don’t see you face to face.
Are you serious you think the verizon people were right.
he was saying .002 CENTS and .002 DOLLARS
if you multiply .002 CENTS times 35893 you get $7.17
if you multiply .002 DOLLARS times 35893 you get $71.78
kind of a difference you dumbass
You must work at Verizon…
1.25 cents is one and a quarter penny
125 cents is one dollar and 25 cents
the dollar and cent sign denote type of currency.
by that logic 1.25 centimeters is one and a quarter meter…
i hate you
Hey, you should get a job with verizon. Hell, you could even be a manager like Andrea!
You know what they say about assuming…
It makes your bad math look stupid.
Redlow, seriously? You don’t write 1.25 cents, brainiac! You’re writing $1.25, which is 1.25 DOLLARS. Heeeeere’s the issue. .002 CENTS is not $.002
You’re not serious. Right? You cannot possibly believe what you just wrote, unless you are as math-stupid as the Verizon people.
1.25 CENTS is exactly one and 1/4 penny!!! 1.25 cents does NOT equal $1.25!!!!! 1.25 CENTS equals $0.0125!!!!!
no it’s not. if it was written on verizons bill that the conversion is .002cents then that is what the guy who made the recording believed his charges were supposed to be based on.
if you were told that you would be charged /hour then suddenly charged /minute with the same ‘number’ that it’s a big difference.
…
I think banging ones head against a desk or wall would be more appropriate in this situation.
I know I am at the moment.
They quote prices in fractions of a cent all the time. I mean, even with 0.002 dollars, it’s 0.2 cents, which is still less than a cent. Your example of 1.25 cents is mismatched.
It’s Verizon being assholes by not admitting that it was a typographical mistake and that the real price was $.002. Or that it was actually $0.00002 (1/500 of a cent) and that they’re still being assholes by charging him 100 times the quoted amount.
ah you must work at verizon.. it all makes sense
What?!?! *facepalm* is right. Someone put Redlow’s comment on this site as a fail.
Wow. Dude you should really learn math. A cent is 1/100 of a dollar (0.01 dollars) that’s why 100 cents equal 1 dollar (just like 100 centimeters = 1 meter). Therefore, $0.002 is never equal to 0.002 cents because 0.002 cents is 2/1000 of a cent or (2/1000)x(1/100) of a dollar. (again a cent is 1/100 of a dollar). Got it?! If you don’t I suggest you go back to grade school. And one more thing, a cent does not denote currency but unit. It is used so that people won’t have to say “I have 1/100 of a dollar in my pocket.”
that is not the point you can only charge a pre-stated amount they made a mistake in the the wording so their the ones at fault. really it wouldn’t be so bad if they realized the error but just denied it, they generally didn’t know what they did wrong.
I don’t know where you live, but I’ve actually never seen anyone ever use 1.25 cents, and it they did I actually would assume its 1 and a fourth of a penny.
You are right Redlow. I have done this many times over. It doesn’t matter what you do. You put in the computer 0.002 and multiply it by the usage you will get the number you owe. Please, try it through the calculator. It’s as simple as that. This is business, hon. They would not put that number there if it were not true.
Please tell me that you (above) are joking? 1 and 1/4 of a penny is written as 1.25 Cents. 1 and 1/4 of a dollar is written as $1.25. If I gave someone 1 cent, then I gave them $0.01. If I gave someone 1 dollar, then I gave them $1.
The caller was 100% correct.
Redlow, I bet $100.00 (or 10,000 cents) that you’re a dumb*ss.
1$ = 100 cents
1 cent = 1$ / 100 = 0,01 $
0,002$ = 0,002 / 100 = 0,00002 cents
What is so difficult ?
0,002$ = 0,00002 cents
You can’t convert cents to dollars and dollars to cents using the same formula.
You say 1 cent = $1/100 = $0.01 which is correct. You then say that
$0.002 = 0.002/100 = 0.00002 cents which is incorrect.
If you have $5.25 that is 525 cents, move the decimal to the right two places,
in other words multiply by 100 to go from dollars to cents. When going from
cents to dollars you move the decimal to the left two places, in other words,
dividing by 100.
$5.25=525 cents
525 cents=$5.25
The cents number is always going to be bigger than the dollars number.
$0.002=0.2 cents not 0.00002 cents
Your labels are messed up.
$0.002 = 0.002/100 = $0.00002
For cents you need to mulitply
$0.002 = 0.002×100 = 0.2 cents
Apparently this really is hard for people. It’s pretty amazing that people can’t do basic money math.
you don’t happen to be classmates with these people, do you?
Good point…but you’ve offered a perfect example to support the caller’s argument: $1.25 is read as “one dollar and twenty five cents” not “one dollar and point twenty five cents”. It then logically follows that $0.002 could be read as “point zero zero two dollars” or “point two cents”. In conversation we typically make the conversion between dollars and cents in our minds indicating the cent amount with a number that is 100 fold greater than the dollar fraction it represents, e.g. $0.25 = “point twenty five dollars” or “twenty five cents”, but not “zero point twenty five cents”.
If thats the case then we can just omit the currency sign altogether and just write 1.25 and everyone can assume if its 1.25 cents or $1.25 or 1.25 Euro.
Point zero zero two cents is 100 times smaller than point zero zero two dollars. Maybe you are the Verizon guy.
OK genius u realize that 1.25 cents is not even 2 cents yeah?!?!?!
0.002c = $0.00002
100c = $1
OMG I FEEL LIKE IM TEACHING PRE SCHOOLERS!!!!
what u say means if i go to america or canada that if i go to mcdonalds and buy an apple pie for $1.25 i can give them 1.25 cents yeah??? and its the same thing is it?? In fact i should be giving them one hundred and twenty five cents.
Ok im glad i cleared that up
so you’re saying “one cent” is equal to “one dollar”? since cent and dollar just denote currency….
and i feel like i’m just repeating the call to you.
i have to point out to you that nothing here was “written out”; it was all a phone conversation. and when you say “no one assumes”…the majority of people here do!
I’ll spell it out for you:
2 dollars = 200 cents
.2 dollars = 20 cents
.02 dollars = 2 cents
.002 dollars = .2 cents
.0002 dollars = .02 cents
.00002 dollars = .002 cents
What the guy is upset about is that they specifically told him .002 CENTS. But they charged him .002 DOLLARS. He even says at one point that the difference is hundred-fold, and he’s absolutely right. They did not charge him the correct amount. Do you see it now?
Good.
*whips out a bat and beats Redlow’s head to a bloody pulp for being as retarded as the Verizon morons*
Ahem,
Yes, they are the same currency.
But they denote DIFFERENT AMOUNTS.
Would you say a computer with 300 gigabytes of ram is the same as a computer with 300 megabytes of ram?
SAME CONCEPT.
One Dollar,$1 or $1.00, is ONE HUNDRED CENTS
$1.25 dollars is 125 cents. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE CENTS.
1.25 cents is a penny and 1/4 of a penny.
If you want to write it as a dollar amount,
1.25 cents would be $0.0125
If you continue to hold forth that $1.25 and 1.25 cents are the same, please come see me to make change. I’ll give you 1.25 pennies; you give me a dollar and a quarter. I will be glad to perform this “even money” exchange with you a few thousand times. I could use a new car.
say it out loud.
“one point two five cents”
no where did you say anything about dollars.
just because you inferred dollars because you saw it written as 1.25 does not make it a Dollar Twenty-Five.
thats why we have those amazing little symbols for dollars and cents!
Just no.
1 cent = .001 dollars
1 cent does not equal 1 dollar
1.25 cents is NEVER assumed to be anything BUT 1 & 1/4 cents. As in 0.0125 dollars. FAIL.
If you write out “1.25 cents” then….
THAT *IS* ONE AND ONE FOURTH PENNIES/CENTS!!!!
Let me break it down for you….
0.2 dollars = 20 cents
.02 dollars = 2 cents
.002 dollars = .2 cents
.2 cents = two tenths of one cent
.02 cents = two hundreths of one cent
.002 cents = two thousandths of one cent
There are NO assumptions. If you mean .002 DOLLARS then that is what you need to state. .002 CENTS is something ENTIRELY different.
I don’t know which figure the Verizon people gave this customer at the outset BUT I do know it was all too obvious that they don’t grasp the concept and really didn’t know the difference between the two values. THAT is what is so pathetic!
The customer service reps in this video have NO IDEA how lucky they are that I am a Sprint customer. This customer let them off a lot easier than I would have.
Choose your words carefully is all I can say…
The Verizon people had it wrong. They should have just said: “This is the rate (as written on customer’s contract). This is what you used. If you multiply them together, you get your total bill, which is $xx.xx.” Instead of trying to argue with the customer and differentiate the difference between how to show a fraction of a dollar versus a fraction of a cent. That’s the first rule of customer service: NEVER EVER argue with a customer, even if they’re wrong. In matters of over-payment problems, confused customers often get the benefit of the doubt, no matter how much of an ass they may be. That’s just the cost of doing business.
You’re a moron. 1.25 cents IS one and one fourth penny. 125 cents $1.25 because a cent is a hundredth of a dollar. Saying to that 1.25 cents is equal to one dollar is basically like saying 1.25g is equal to 1.25Kg. There is a conversion that needs to be done. Cents and Dollars do denote currency, but they have different values. You and the Verizon people are wrong, and the guy had a right to complain as he was being vastly overcharged.
Seriously? 1.25 cents is exactly that, 1 and 1/4 penny. For it to be $1.25, it would need to be 125.00 cents.
please tell me you’re trolling
Um, not quite.
nobody writes a dollar twenty-five as 1.25¢, when you start talking rates for really small/precise amounts, you talk fractions of pennies.
Think about gas prices, their always written like 79.7 for example (i’m talking canadian so L not Gal) which doesn’t mean 79 dollars and 70 cents, it means 79.7 cents.
Besides, even if he was charged in $0.002 it still wouldn’t be 71 dollars, it would be 7.13 something dollars, verizon apparently can’t even keep track of a decimal
Hahaha, this idiot still doesn’t get it…
Actually, in the automotive industry, we use numbers such as 1.25₵ all the time denoting 1 1/4 penny for things such as decals and small plastic fasteners. If you do not understand the difference between dollars and cents, let’s play poker sometime. I’ll sell you chips for $ and cash them in for ₵. We’ll have a blast!
u r dumb
wow i cant even call you retarded as that is offensive to them because even they get this
You are joking right? Please tell me that you aren’t serious. If you write out 1.25 cents then you have one and one fourth of whatever unit you happen to be using, and that unit is CENTS. You CANNOT change 1 and 1/4 of a penny into 1 dollar and a quarter. The dude caling verison had every right to be pissed off and even to scream at those retards. However, he took a level headed approach and tried to explain with what I believe to be an amazingly simple example, and look where it got him. Screaming would’ve worked better because those verison shitbrains obvioulsy don’t understand logic. And apparently neither do you.
Some is wrong on the internet!!
this is a joke right?
NO
this is the FULL STORY
http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/
I don’t think so. XD
I’m just shocked there not Indians who speak very broken English. That’s all I get when I call Verizon.
Goto the bank
Get a cashiers check for $0.71 (cost Variable, my bank $10)
Go buy a pen $0.99
2 Stamps, $0.84
Envelopes $0.20 ($0.10 each at Amscot)
$2.13 for gas
Send them the cashiers check for $0.71 and a bill for $15.
fan vad många svenskar det är inne
hahahahahahhahaha dude..hahahahahhaa
Awesome…absolutely awesome….lol. AT&T Win! Lol
At&t = no signal = fail
This is just sad… It’s bad enough that multiple levels at the Verizon company are confused by this, but I’ve seen multiple people on here who don’t get it either.
Remember, people:
1 cent = 1 penny
1 dollar = 100 cents = 100 pennies.
Therefore,
0.002 dollars = (0.002 x 100) = 0.2 cents
I wish I didn’t have to feel ashamed of my own species…
0.002 cents/KB Quoted
* kb’s used
= CENTS
the problem is they have a sheet on a computer they’re plugging in the KB’s used and theres only a dollar sign and they all use the wrong grammer to describe the unit over the phone.
they dont understand simple unit conversion
Yes, Spud, so multiply 35,893 x .002
Thank you.
Don’t be a douchebag to people on the phone. They have a shitty job and little to no training.
dont be a douchebag to your customers, they have pathetic lives and petty minds!
It is clear that the caller is right and the Verizon people keep on using the term “cent” when they are in fact figuring in dollars.
the introduction to the second emplyee spells it out right away
she understands $1 does not equal 1 cent
she understands $0.50 doesnt not equal half a cent
BUT she fails to see how $0.002 does not equal 0.002cents or $0.00002
Verizon support’s thoughts:
“Damn you, 7th grade pre-algebra! Damn you!”
Wow. this had better be a joke.
But this is totally a matter of opinion. When you’re brain-damaged like both those employees.
the full recording shows it was more like 10 to 15 employees, this is the middle of the conversation
My favorite moment was, “Well that’s a difference of opinion…”
Lord. Did you ever get this resolved!?
No. But then again, it wasn’t my problem.
Math Ninja WIN!
Anyone nice enough to be answering the phone for a call center would likely be working elsewhere if they had the math skills. Without speaking to a supervisor, it’s unlikely the average employee patient enough to put up with mr math guy would be able to do anything. To give that much of a credit back would result in it bouncing back on the bill from the higher ups. That and trying to explain math to someone who flat out does not understand math well is ‘unpossible’
average emplyee, but in the full recording he talks to the manage and the manger of the manager and eventually some distric president and some other BS and they ALLLLLLLL get it wrong.
As a high school math teacher, I thank you. I deal with this every day and now it is infecting the real world. It needs to stop. Thank you for carrying on the crusade!
2 years ago…
Ooh, good point! They certainly wouldn’t make that mistake today.
If the rate is 0.002 c per kilobyte, then the amount caltuleted would be:
0.002 (cents) x KB (let’s say 35000) = 70 CENTS!
if u multiply cents u still get cents
if u multiply 2 pieces of bacon u don’t get chicken.
thats just OMG, what do this people have in their brains.
thats defenitly not a win xD
What the hell is wrong with these people?
just to clarify, when i asked my 8 year old cousin this question he did get it right. Its fairly sad that an adult couldn’t
And people wonder why I absolutely refuse to ever use verizon again. Im getting all incensed just listening to this returd.
I love how he’s so convinced he’s right he’s not even willing to listen to the other guy’s rationality! Oh the joy!
Video availability FAIL
Let’s make the bailout a trillion cents. It’s more economical that way.
Ahhh, my favorite kinda break!! And we hardly ever get them where I work
Given how my Verizon bill is concocted each month, this lack of math skills does not really shock me. . .
it’s things like this that make me loose faith in humanity…
Are you really that stupid to not know the difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents
.002cents x 35896= 71.792 cents = .71792 dollars =$0.72
.002dollars x 35896= 71.792 dollars = $71.79
Holy Shit!
Did this ever get fixed?
No and now with interest, I owe them $3,561.23.00031
That’s just psycotic.
*offers an “h” to DW* For the low, low price of only .002 cents.
Ahem.
Lookie at the name of the first person who posted in this thread.
*awaits abject apology*
*apologizes abjectly* Sorry, Dragonwriter. Your joke was just too subtle for my utterly dense brain.
*offers the “h” to psycoticsinginchick for the same low price*
Well, you’re a math-teacher-to-be. I’m an English prof. I’m sure I won’t get all of your math jokes, either, so I wouldn’t sweat it.
*gives di another cookie*
What happened when i met 1/0?
They became imaginary friends!
Yes. This vid clip is at least two years old. I think it was after posting this vid on the internet it got resolved
Congratulations on the best FAIL BLOG entry I’ve seen!!!
hahaha that was so hilarious! god people are stupiddd.
my favorite part would have to be when she says that she’s not a mathematician, because she can’t carry over a cent sign.
…I might be an idiot for saying this, but I didn’t know people were truly this–uneducated……with math… It’s frightening! D8
Awesome. I love Verizon. I’ve had to call a couple of times and had some pretty intense conversations.
Wow, you are as stupid as the support people. The guy is not bing a pain in the ass, he’s 100% correct. Read your post….out loud…..to someone with a brain and they will laugh at you too
How do stupid people get to positions of authority?????? l8-o
Blow jobs.
Luckily, those people are woking in call-centers and therfore do not get to have authority.
this video is dumb and should be removed.
it was just a lack of communication from both sides.
0.002 cents doesn’t mean its 0.002 of a cent.
Ordinarily I don’t believe in eugenics, but…
YOU are dumb and should be removed.
.002 cents does in fact mean EXACTLY .002 of a cent.
Just like .002 miles = .002 of a mile or .002 lbs = .002 of a lb.
Two thousandths cents means two thousandths of a cent. Two hundredths cents means two hundredths of a cent. Two tenths cents means two tenths of a cent. Finally, two cents means you have two of a cent (awkward, but still true).
Anyone who can’t understand this after it’s been explained seventy-six times should never have passed 4th grade, and it makes me weep to think of the teachers they must have had.
WIN!
And besides, DTI, in his case .002 of a brain definitely = .002 of a brain.
But I digress.
This isn’t a lack of communication because the guy is BEING BILLED for $72!
Rayotavo, that’s pathetic.
I hate to keep repeating what so many have already written, but this crap can’t be ignored.
0.002 cents means EXACTLY that it’s 0.002 of a cent. It doesn’t mean anything else. It’s not “lack of communication”. It does not and cannot mean anything other than that. There is no other possible interpretation that works. There is no gray area. There is no opinion. There is only the single truth: 0.002 cents means 0.002 of a cent.
JEEZ!
Did you hear yourself? You just said .002 cents doesn’t mean .002 cents. Post FAIL.
Verizon service reps don’t have a clue about math.
He should have asked how much 10kb would cost (hint, .02 cents). Then how much 100kb would cost (.2 cents). And then see if they can make the jump that 500kb cost 1 cent, not 1 dollar. I doubt it though.
HAHAHAHA this exact thing happened to me.
Some people don’t learn decimals completely at school…
wow thats sad
i think ur right cause theres a HUGE difference there
There are 500 “.002 cent” increments in a penny.
There are 100 pennies in a dollar. Multiply them together and
There are 50,000 .002 penny increments in a dollar.
.002 pennies = .00002 dollars
I’d expect that if you’re going to offer a service that gets this granular that the math to support the service should be provided in the training, and that people that can’t get it, sell something else.
Jeez, how annoying was that?!
I’m impresses by your use of granular.
This video is painful to watch… “A difference of opinion” was my favorite part. I have to give kudos, however, for not calling them out on being dumbasses or raising your voice. That whole conversation sounding infuriating.
Don’t you just love it when people have absolutely no logic? I love that they are jumping from dollars to cents magically in their reasoning here. They are truly brilliant individuals >.<
0.002
That’s less than half.
I lol’d.
I’d prefer us having a 900 billion cent stimulus package discussion……
900 billion? Please, you should see LB’s package. It is definitely a stimulus for me.
lol, Verizon fail
that explains why the caller ID on my phone didn’t work for a year
The caller is an asshole that comes off with a real attitude. If you’re patient and explain clearly, people will understand you a lot better…
The CALLER is an asshole with an attitude??????
The caller is being INCREDIBLY PATIENT with dumb ass losers that cant even do basic math and are having the audacity to say that he is wrong, plus billing him a hundred times more than he should be.
You have to be the biggest idiot to ever post comments here.
Your effort at explanation was impressive; their ability to comprehend considerably less than that.
The good news: by the manager’s standards, the rest of us are mathematicians!
Ehh.. I don’t think this is real. Why was he recording it? Either way, they are being nice and trying to help. They may be wrong/confused, but they’re being incredibly nice about it. He doesn’t need to be such an ass.
He should have just got in and talked to them. That’s much easier than doing it over the phone.
1. It is most definitely real. It happen two years ago, and the entire saga is well-documented – someone posted a link in one of the comments above.
2. They weren’t really trying to help; they just wanted him to give in and go away.
3. He wasn’t an ass about it at all – I would have been yelling by the end of this exchange.
4. I’m fairly sure Verizon doesn’t do billing inquiries like this in-store. That would be too easy.
5. Talking in person doesn’t make explaining that $.002 != .002 cents any easier. Stupidity doesn’t decrease when you’re face-to-face.
Wow…that seemed really angry. I guess I’m even more frustrated by the complete lack of intelligence in this FAIL than I thought. Seriously though, your comment was inane.
*gives di a cookie*
Better?
And I agree…he wasn’t being an ass. But then, I think math and science nerds are incredibly hawt, so that might just be my bias showing.
Aww, thanks. *eats the cookie before SB can appear and steal it*
.
And yes, your bias is definitely showing. I can think of several people who are probably enjoying the show a little too much
I actually think he is being incredibly rude to them. I don’t think they are trying to make him give in and go away. If that was the case, they would have said “Pay your bill or switch companies”. They were trying to understand. It’s not like they said “NO SIR YOU ARE WRONG. PAY THE MONEY” They tried. He was unnecessarily rude.
And they DO take billing inquiries instore.
Talking to someone in store probably would have been easier. He could have written it down, showed them the math, the moving of the decimal, etc. Lots of people are better at understanding numbers when they have something visual to go with it.
You’re wrong about number four, and you’re basing that off of nothing. Way to make unjustified claims.
Actually, I’m basing the claim on my experience as a Verizon customer and the level of help that people in Verizon stores have been able to give me and my family with respect to our bills. They have indeed been able to GIVE us information like this, but with respect to RESOLVING such issues, we have ALWAYS been referred to call their customer service line.
This is only tangentially related, but…
I was reading CNN news online, and came across an article about how “trillion is the new billion” wherein they assessed Mitch McConnell’s claim that “if you spend a million dollars every day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn’t have spent a trillion.” They begin their assessment of this claim with the following sentence:
“CNN checked McConnell’s numbers with noted Temple University math professor and author John Allen Paulos.”
The article then goes on to report a number of analytical points from Prof. Paulos, most of which are interesting. What I want to know is are the people at CNN really so stupid that they need a math professor to figure out how many days are in 2008 years? If so, then I think this Verizon story becomes a lot more frightening as an indicator of the general intelligence levels in America today. What I’m hoping is that the above sentence was merely the best they could do as a segue into Paulos’ analysis, but I’m just not so sure.
LOL – Diana, I looked at 50 cars parked on a steep hill today, and the only one with its wheels pointed in the correct – and safe – direction was mine. All the rest were either straight ahead – on both sides of the street, or (a minor percentage) pointed in the wrong direction.
These people couldn’t buy a .002 cent clue for $0.002. Scary. Just scary.
What’s happened to America???
That’s a big ass car that it could have the tires on both sides of the road.
Where I live a trillion *is* a actually a billion.
Thank you! Now everyone else sees what it’s like with Verizon telephone and internet services…
“I’m not a mathematician…” LOL… Like mathematicians are the only ppl with common sense.
omf so stupid… they need to be slapped
Haha. I’m a math tutor at a local community college in Texas. I should send the students who fail out of my institution’s math program to Canada. Seriously, I hope that the cause of this stupidity was that all Canadian Verizon workers are required to be lobotomized prior to employment. Good Job Canada. Here’s an equation for you:
CANADA = FAILURE
No.
Uh… the guy was roaming into Canada not out therefor this, caller and company are all American. Therefor by your logic its
AMERICA = FAILURE
Oh sure, “Blame Canada!”
canada did not elect George W. Bush. (who came from texas). The u.s WERE STUPID ENOUGH TO ELECT BUSH 2 TIMES!!!!!. if you think we’re stupid, then YOU need to be tutered.
and if you’re so smart, then you should have guessed that verizon highers these people on purpose to increase profit margins. the more intelligent people, like maybe the manager was probably just faking. this is not just stupidity. this is not just corruption. this is currupt people exploiting stupid people. corruption like this could only be rivaled by microsoft and the upper level of u.s. politics.
Spelled check is probably required if at no other times in your than when you
are denigrating someone.
No, wrong. Shut the hell up.
CDMA Data Roaming**
• In the Canadian Broadband and Canadian Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage areas, usage will be charged at a rate of $0.002 per KB or $2.05 per MB.
• In the Mexican Enhanced Services Rate and Coverage areas, usage will be charged at a rate of $0.005 per KB or $5.12 per MB.
• For more information on roaming in Canada and Mexico, visit http://www.verizonwireless.com/naroaming.”
As seen at:
http://b2b.vzw.com/productsservices/wirelessemail/voicedatacallingplans.html
It might be that this is what’s listed on their website, but the fact is that a when a representative of a corporation quotes a customer a rate and confirms that rate verbally MULTIPLE times, regardless of their stupidity interfering with correct articulation of that rate, a customer should NOT have to pay a rate higher than that which s/he was quoted. To make him/her pay the higher rate is bad business and probably illegal.
Yeah, that’s what the terms and conditions say NOW. That isn’t what they said in 2006 when this incident occurred. At the time, it really did say, in plain written English, “0.002 cents per kilobyte.” It has since been corrected.
Right he should have been charged $72 by the proper rate. The problem was that he had been quoted a rate of .002 cents. It’s akin to leasing a car and being told that it will be $200 a month, I have no clue how much leasing a car usually costs so just go with me on the numbers, but actually getting charged $400.
an absolute classic. Seen it before but it’s still funny as hell!
lol, this is funny
Brave! You are my hero of the day, randall!
XOXOX
It is astounding (and troubling) that adults cannot understand that a decimal number with a cents sign is DIFFERENT than the same number with a dollar sign.
Where did these people go to school????!!!!
Who still thinks foreign customer service operators are bad after seeing this?
You’ve confused convention with math. This really has nothing to do with math at all, yes 0.002 of a cent is less than 0.002 of a dollar but by convention we can represent the same value either as $0.002 or by 0.002c.
In other words, you’re a moron that made yourself and every other respondant above look like a failed retard. It’s the smartass cheapskates like yourself that cause companies to have onerous TOS and provide customer service equivelent to herding mindless cattle towards the slaughteryard. You know, the type of idiot that whines about the poor state of roads and also whines about paying additional taxes for road improvements.
You’ve confused imprecise with inaccurate.
OHHHHHHH
Agree with dragonwriter (above)
You wouldn’t say that $0.02 is “different” than 2c, would you?
$0.02 is 2c
$0.02 is not .02c
.02c is 2/100 of a penny. This is (to me) a lot less that 2 cents.
Perhaps you should apply your cheapskate label to the company that said one thing when they clearly meant another.
Imagine if I told you that you could use my beach house for $200 a year, but then explained that $200/year really means $2,000/day. Would you call yourself a moron for wasting my customer service phone lines when I insisted that you pay me at the rate I meant?
Um-No
$0.01 = 1 cent
0.01Cents does NOT = 1 cent it = 1/100 of a cent
Therefore $0.002 = 2 tenths of a cent
0.002 cents = 2 HUNDRETHS of a cent, Totally different!!!!
I persoNALLY THINK ALL OF YOUR MATH IS WRONG
DARN CAPS LOCK
0.002cents = one hippopotomus with a broken leg
“by convention we can represent the same value either as $0.002 or by 0.002c.”
$20000 is the same as 20000c?
0.002$ is the same as 0.002c?
Are you kidding?
What kind of never-heard-of convention is this? The NFRC? The National Failed Retard’s Convention?
Wow, you’re completely and utterly retarded, just like the Verizon employees. Have you applied to work there yet, or were you one of the people the customer talked to in the recording?
Cents do not equal dollars, ever. You can’t multiply cents per kilobyte times the number of kilobytes and magically end up with dollars. The only unit left in the equation after you get rid of kilobytes is cents. If you think it magically changed to dollars, you’re a moron.
*snicker*
What convention would it be that says .002c means the same as $.002?
.
Wonderful continuation of the original failage there.
I was with you until “but by convention we can represent the same value either as $0.002 or by 0.002c.” If it has “c” at the end, it means cents. If it has a dollar sign it means dollars. I was confused by your use of the word “convention”, did you mean conversion?
Here’s some grade 2 math:
If you have $1 it is the same as 100 cents or 100c in this case.
If you have $0.1 it is the same as 10 cents or 10c.
If you have $0.01 is is the same as 1c.
If you have $0.001 is is the same as 0.1c.
If you have $0.0001 it is the same as 0.01c.
If you have $0.00001 it is the same as 0.001c.
See, if you add a 0 on one side you do it to the other side. OR if that confuses you you can just take the dollar side and minus two zeros and switch the currency symbol and you get the cent side!
Therefore, $0.00002 is the same as 0.002 cents (see I took away two zeros from the dollar side and changed the $ symbol to a c symbol!)
NOT $0.002 = 0.002 cents
So if his bill was (I forget what he said) 0.002cents per kb and he has 1000kb then his bill will be 2 cents NOT $2 (for those of you confused I multiplied the 0.002cents by the 1000kb).
Everyone in class get it?
I’m so sorry people are that stupid, Verizon is the stupidest company I’ve ever met, they “forgot” to turn off my service 3 times (after my contract – which strangely I never signed – had ended) and sent me a bill 2 years later for a phone I didn’t even own any more, good job there buddies.
Thank you, holysheeit. I have scanned half of the 1300+ replies here wondering if anyone ever realized that our writing convention for cents uses the dollar sign ($) before it. Now if a person SPEAKS “point oh oh two cents”, the American convention (using symbols) is to write: $0.002. That is how we would write a check to someone for point oh oh two cents. That does NOT mean point oh oh two dollars. Now, if the man was quoted point oh oh two cents per whatever usage, and they charged him point oh oh two dollars for that usage, then they’re wrong. I’d have to listen to the recording again, but I’m thinking his conversation was right (the spoken word), but the symbolic representation of the picture is just plain wrong.
For the people still not getting this, when we SAY fifty cents, we WRITE $0.50. That is fifty cents. That is not the same as 0.50 cents (which is HALF a cent).
Got it???
So, 0.002 cents is two thousandths of a cent; $0.002 is two tenths of a cent (since $0.02 is two cents…).
GOT IT???
I am so glad you wrote in, holysheeit. I have scanned half of the 1300+ responses to see if anyone figured that out. Granted, our writing convention for cents uses the dollar sign ($) before it. Now if a person SPEAKS “point oh oh two cents”, the American convention (using symbols) is to write: $0.002. That is how we would write a check to someone for point oh oh two cents. That does NOT mean point oh oh two dollars. Now, if the man was quoted point oh oh two cents per whatever usage, and they charged him point oh oh two dollars for that usage, then they’re wrong. I’d have to listen to the recording again, but I’m thinking his conversation was right (the spoken word), but the symbolic representation of the picture is just plain wrong.
For the people still not getting this, when we SAY fifty cents, we WRITE $0.50. That is fifty cents. That is not the same as 0.50 cents (which is HALF a cent).
Got it???
So, 0.002 cents is two thousandths of a cent; $0.002 is two tenths of a cent (since $0.02 is two cents…).
GOT IT???
yes 0.002 of a cent is less than 0.002 of a dollar but by convention we can represent the same value either as $0.002 or by 0.002c.
…no u can’t
there different vaules
he was right…ur juts an idiot. u should work at verizon
Not sure if anyone is still reading the comments on this post… sorry I am so late to the game…. just had to chime in.
I was just in a verizon store where they tried to pull this kind of absolute ignorance of simple mathematic principles.
The woman told me that my “new every two” (which will be avail. in Nov.) afforded me $100 towards the purchase of a phone.
We happened to be looking at a phone that was $127 but came with a $50 mail in rebate.
I, logically, pointed out, “So this phone would be free?”
She said, “No”.
I asked if the $50 mail in rebate did not apply to a phone that was being purchased with the “new every two” feature.
She replied that the mail in rebate could still be used.
I went through every possible reason that I could think would make this $127 phone NOT free with $150 worth of discounts:
- We were both talking about the “after the mail in rebate”, “final” cost of the phone
- We were talking about the “two year contract” price of the phone – that we were both looking at – $127
- We we taking an initial price of $127 and subtracting from that $100 (for the new every two) and $50 (for the mail in rebate)
And she STILL insisted that the phone would not be free.
I don’t really remember what it was that I said, but she finally explained that the “new every two” is UP TO $100 and that for “certain” phones, (apparently the one we were discussing) you do not get the full $100.
So simple. So complicated. (apparently)
Sorry for your trying experience.
I love the way the Verizon manager understands the difference between 1 cent and 1 dollar, and half a cent and half a dollar, but 2 thousands of a dollar and two thousands of a cent are the same thing to her, and she says it’s all just a matter of opinion. I wonder what she would say if people paid their $71.56 phone bill by writing a check for 71.56 cents? or rounding it up to 72 cents?
agreed.
perhaps we should all start paying in this manner, using this recording as evidence that Verizon calculates this way.
Sure wouldn’t mind paying 71.56 cents a month myself! And she did sound rather insistent that they are the same thing.
I am thinking that maybe this is no fail at all. But, rather, a large WIN for all of us Verizon sufferers (I meant users, just couldn’t seem to type it).
Those people are retarded. You should have gotten them to pick up a pencil, and then write 1 dollar = 100 cents, and then do the conversion. Holy shit!
I think this should be labeled American education = fail.
Someone commented that the cents sign and dollar sign are just types of currency and make no difference when associated with the same number. Huh? Someone else commented that it’s just “convention” and that $0.002 really does mean the same thing as 0.002¢ Huh? Huh?
Just another example of our stellar education system at work. Or not at work.
It’s like the dolts who can’t count change back to you unless their cash register figures it out for them. Sheesh.
Yes it makes perfect sense to stereotype an entire nation because there are a few fools in it. *shakes head*
I think it’s a pretty well-known fact that the American education system is woefully under-funded and our assessments of it (via NCLB) are deeply flawed.
This is why I am home schooled. And apparently smarter than a full time customer service manager at Verizon.
Up yours, Legal Working Age!
HAHAHAHA! I want to switch back to Verizon! I could pay them 100 cents a month instead of 100 dollars and even the managers would not know the difference!
Best fail yet of my short time watching this blog.
You’ve been watching??? *puts clothes back on*
God, they were confusing me even! And I’m not *that* stupid with math…
Wow! I really wish I knew the response of the two people to this day with them knowing their voices are immortalized on the internet with a complete math failure on their conscience.
who says they think it is a failure?
See, I’m no good at math. That’s why I’m an English major. That’s why I don’t get jobs like this because, sadly, that’s probably the kind of stupid mistake I would make…
But at least I admit it and stay the hell away from that career option!!
THEY ARE MORONS. IF THOSE PEOPLE GO ON TO THIS BLOG I HOPE THEY SEE THAT THEY ARE MORONS.
Fuzzy math in action. I thought this was about inflation at first lol. Perhaps I could enslave these people…
AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!!
Really should be tagged as “owned”
That’s unpossible!
Where do Verizon learned it’s employees too counts gooderer?
Wow! This is so terrible. I know 6yr olds who are better at math. And this is exactly what is wrong with the world today. Too many idiots. Frig, too many low iq families having multiple births, lack of natural predators and medical advances are all contributing to the increase in stupid people on the planet. If only there was a way to cull the population…
Its called war. Eventually a war will break out, or a disease will hit, that takes the population down and many stupids with it.
In all fairness, I worked for Verizon. Their data network training (including billing, usage, and conversion) sucks for basic customer service. I do understand and agree that the customer’s math is the correct one, but I was smarter and better trained than most of my coworkers at my level.
Um…I know it’s already been said…but I am going to echo the sentiment. The Verizon people had it right. This guy who made the call is a dumbass. .002 X 35,987 is 71.79.
Caller is full of epic FAIL.
the guy who made ^ this post ^ is a dumbass. .002 cents x 35,987 = 71.79 CENTS you moron.
you are an epic fail
if you still fail to understand this remove yourself immediately from the gene pool by whatever means available
hell your math is even wrong its 71.97 cents
hi misheard the number 35,893
Perception problems much? This just makes you look as stupid as the caller (and – no surprise – the video’s been removed).
This: $.02 is two cents.