Yeah, he's paying 100x more than he was quoted, but how much time is he spending on this call and how much is that time worth? He must have had a lot of data usage to make this call worth it. I'm only 4 minutes into it and I can't stand it anymore.
OK. Just heard how much he had to pay (~8 minutes). Maybe it is worth it, but after 90 minutes you should just give up. It isn't worth dealing with this much idiocy for this long.
What he should have done is called the Better Business Bureau. At work, we had a dispute with AT&T (similarly concerning Canadian data rates) that went on for over a month while AT&T did nothing. We finally contacted the BBB about it and the VERY NEXT DAY, AT&T called us to tell us they made a mistake and resolve the disputed amount.
In my head I was demanding that they get me someone at Verizon with a Math degree on the phone. Yes, I know it doesn't take a math degree to get this right, but geez it would be nice to have someone actually in Verizon explain it to the rest of those morons.
As far as practicality goes, yeah, my time is more valuable than to fight idiots for that long... especially when their real rate (not the advertised/promised rate) is not unreasonable.
I understand his desire to make them quote their rates correctly. But I would not have conceded that the correct rate was $.002/KB. I would have insisted that they honor their quoted rate and give me a refund. "You owe me money" is something they would have understood better and would have had to deal with, even if they didn't understand the math.
Reporting them to the BBB if they didn't cough up the refund sounds like a good idea.
Also complaining to Verizon via www.planetfeedback.com seemed to work for another dissatisfied customer (mentioned in a post on 12/11/2006 at verizonmath.blogspot.com).
I thought part of this problem was the customer. Sure, Verizon's staff can't perform basic multiplication (the biggest issue), but I think this guy could have possibly resolved the problem very easily by telling Verizon customer service what to type into the calculator. If at that point they still don't get, then why bother spending 90 minutes on the phone arguing in the same circle?
Reporting to BBB is a good idea.
(Sorry about the double post. I think I just broke one of your rules.)
Hmmmm... I don't remember any rules about double posting. But that's the least of your problems, mister. I don't see any ad hominems, strawmen, or undistributed middles in your post. Plus, no caps lock, no misspelled words.... And don't even get me started on your failure to call anyone "ghey".
You're in a load of trouble for violating just about every one of the rules. I mod you down -50 points.
I think the way I would have tried to demonstrate this to a stupid CS rep would be through the means of a gradually-shifting analogy. Something like:
If oranges cost 20¢ apiece, and I buy three, how much do I spend? In cents? In dollars?
Now, if oranges cost 2¢ apiece, and I buy three, how much do I spend?
If they cost 0.2¢? If they cost 0.02¢? If they cost 0.002¢?
Now, if at that same 0.002¢, I buy 30 oranges, how much do I spend? If I buy 300? 3000? 30,000? 35,893? Now if kilobytes cost 0.002¢ and I buy 35,893, how much does that cost?
An alternative method would be to ask for the cost in cents per megabyte, convert the data usage to megabytes, and multiply. Clearly, the problem was that the billing personnel did not understand fractions of cents, and were reading $.002 as "point zero zero two cents". This almost makes sense (cents), because we read $.02 as "two cents". They didn't want to say "zero zero two" cents, so they kept the decimal point.
It still demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of fifth grade level math, and it is beyond belief that someone so ignorant of something so basic and necessary to their job could end up as floor manager.
Holy crap, I'm losing my mind... and I'm only 12 minutes into this
ReplyDeleteWho's on first?
ReplyDeleteYeah, he's paying 100x more than he was quoted, but how much time is he spending on this call and how much is that time worth? He must have had a lot of data usage to make this call worth it. I'm only 4 minutes into it and I can't stand it anymore.
OK. Just heard how much he had to pay (~8 minutes). Maybe it is worth it, but after 90 minutes you should just give up. It isn't worth dealing with this much idiocy for this long.
--Mr. P
But it's the PRINCIPLE of the thing!
ReplyDeleteWhat he should have done is called the Better Business Bureau. At work, we had a dispute with AT&T (similarly concerning Canadian data rates) that went on for over a month while AT&T did nothing. We finally contacted the BBB about it and the VERY NEXT DAY, AT&T called us to tell us they made a mistake and resolve the disputed amount.
In my head I was demanding that they get me someone at Verizon with a Math degree on the phone. Yes, I know it doesn't take a math degree to get this right, but geez it would be nice to have someone actually in Verizon explain it to the rest of those morons.
ReplyDeleteAs far as practicality goes, yeah, my time is more valuable than to fight idiots for that long... especially when their real rate (not the advertised/promised rate) is not unreasonable.
I understand his desire to make them quote their rates correctly. But I would not have conceded that the correct rate was $.002/KB. I would have insisted that they honor their quoted rate and give me a refund. "You owe me money" is something they would have understood better and would have had to deal with, even if they didn't understand the math.
ReplyDeleteReporting them to the BBB if they didn't cough up the refund sounds like a good idea.
Also complaining to Verizon via www.planetfeedback.com seemed to work for another dissatisfied customer (mentioned in a post on 12/11/2006 at verizonmath.blogspot.com).
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI thought part of this problem was the customer. Sure, Verizon's staff can't perform basic multiplication (the biggest issue), but I think this guy could have possibly resolved the problem very easily by telling Verizon customer service what to type into the calculator. If at that point they still don't get, then why bother spending 90 minutes on the phone arguing in the same circle?
ReplyDeleteReporting to BBB is a good idea.
(Sorry about the double post. I think I just broke one of your rules.)
Hmmmm... I don't remember any rules about double posting. But that's the least of your problems, mister. I don't see any ad hominems, strawmen, or undistributed middles in your post. Plus, no caps lock, no misspelled words.... And don't even get me started on your failure to call anyone "ghey".
ReplyDeleteYou're in a load of trouble for violating just about every one of the rules. I mod you down -50 points.
I think the way I would have tried to demonstrate this to a stupid CS rep would be through the means of a gradually-shifting analogy. Something like:
ReplyDeleteIf oranges cost 20¢ apiece, and I buy three, how much do I spend? In cents? In dollars?
Now, if oranges cost 2¢ apiece, and I buy three, how much do I spend?
If they cost 0.2¢? If they cost 0.02¢? If they cost 0.002¢?
Now, if at that same 0.002¢, I buy 30 oranges, how much do I spend? If I buy 300? 3000? 30,000? 35,893? Now if kilobytes cost 0.002¢ and I buy 35,893, how much does that cost?
An alternative method would be to ask for the cost in cents per megabyte, convert the data usage to megabytes, and multiply. Clearly, the problem was that the billing personnel did not understand fractions of cents, and were reading $.002 as "point zero zero two cents". This almost makes sense (cents), because we read $.02 as "two cents". They didn't want to say "zero zero two" cents, so they kept the decimal point.
It still demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of fifth grade level math, and it is beyond belief that someone so ignorant of something so basic and necessary to their job could end up as floor manager.