What's the difference between .002 cents and .002 dollars...

[Garageaholic]

Priceless... Verizon...

http://media.putfile.com/Verizon-Bad-Math

[erik325i]

Priceless... Verizon...

http://media.putfile.com/Verizon-Bad-Math

Yeah, I've heard that before. It's pretty sad accually that some people can be that dumb...

-Erik

[hugh jass]

Can someone summarize that in a haiku for me? I don't want to waste 27 minutes of my life. Thanks.

[Garageaholic]

This guy wanted quotes of kbytes from verizon before he used it. They verbally said (3 reps) said .002 cents, which we all know is .00002 dollars.

They properly charged him .002 dollers per kilobyte but quoted him at .002 cents per kilobyte, so instead of his bill being .71 dollars, it was $71.00.

People dont know how to use basic math. pretty sad.... lol

[joshh]

There is no difference.....









sorry, just wanted to be reminded of the Plane thread....lol

[dude8383]

lol i love talking to service reps...

[JGood]

Don't get me wrong, I agree with the guy 100%, and I think the service reps should have seen the issue sooner, BUT...

It our modern day society, the way that is worded, 90% of people would have assumed it meant 2 cents. So you can't rip people apart too much for not understanding at first.

[browntown]

Don't get me wrong, I agree with the guy 100%, and I think the service reps should have seen the issue sooner, BUT...

It our modern day society, the way that is worded, 90% of people would have assumed it meant 2 cents. So you can't rip people apart too much for not understanding at first.

Are you out of your mind?

If you can't expect 90% of the population to understand basic math, then shoot me now. Why would anyone think it meant 2 cents? 0.002 dollars is 0.2 cents, 0.002 cents is a hundreth of that. If the population can't handle that, I should be supreme ruler of the world with my math training.

see http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/

[JGood]

I never said anything about people not understanding, did I? After watching that video and hearing his explanation it makes you wonder how anybody could see it any differently. However, Verizon Wireless has had that same fee for a while, and nobody else questioned it, because it is easy to assume and understand what they meant. As I said, 90% of the people understood the common language and assumed the correct pricing. It took one guy to think outside of the box to show everyone how it can be interpreted. This is simply one person who realized a way to get past the system and acted like he didn't know they made a mistake in the advertising, and acted like he wasn't trying to take advantage of it. It doesn't make every one of the thousands of people who have payed the correct amount for the service dumb, or people who need a brief explanation dumb either. It just means most people assume common language, and don't look for things like that.

For the record, I would have done the same thing, I found the video hilarious, and do think the reps are slightly retarded for not understanding his math.

[browntown]

90% of people would have assumed it meant 2 cents.

nm, my sarcasm wasn't clear. I was pointing out the above error, that 2 cents isn't either .002 dollars or .002 cents.

[joshh]

I would consider that guy to be thinking inside the box and everyone else not thinking at all.

[JGood]

I would consider that guy to be thinking inside the box and everyone else not thinking at all.

Right, he was the first person out of thousands, probably more, of people over many months, possibly longer, to use Verizon's data plan in Canada and notice the way to mis-interpret Verizon's intentions for billing, so everyone else simply "was not thinking at all". I'm sure you would NEVER have let it pass by without noticing...

My point is that you cannot call people who didn't catch it at first stupid or consider them to have lower intelligence, because assumptions exist, and to assume what Verizon meant to say is easy and would be natural without even a second thought. Yes, Verizon was technically wrong, and did mis-advertise, but nobody is stupid because of this situation except the people that had trouble with the math even after an explanation of the issue. They (people like those service reps) on the other hand could use some math help.

[joshh]

Right, he was the first person out of thousands, probably more, of people over many months, possibly longer, to use Verizon's data plan in Canada and notice the way to mis-interpret Verizon's intentions for billing, so everyone else simply "was not thinking at all". I'm sure you would NEVER have let it pass by without noticing...

My point is that you cannot call people who didn't catch it at first stupid or consider them to have lower intelligence, because assumptions exist, and to assume what Verizon meant to say is easy and would be natural without even a second thought. Yes, Verizon was technically wrong, and did mis-advertise, but nobody is stupid because of this situation except the people that had trouble with the math even after an explanation of the issue. They (people like those service reps) on the other hand could use some math help.

You can justify it all day long. Verizon is a huge company and should never of had this mistake in the first place. And yes everyone of those other people are either stupid or complacent enough to not even notice. I can't believe you would actually think people would see the way they get billed and just ignore it if it could have been 100% different. People are lazy and stupid, that's just the way it is. This guy called them out on their mistake. Plus if you have people that are service reps that don't even know the difference, your in trouble. That guy was thinking the way anyone should be and called them to have it corrected. They just happened to make a huge fool of Verizon.

[JGood]

You can justify it all day long. Verizon is a huge company and should never of had this mistake in the first place. And yes everyone of those other people are either stupid or complacent enough to not even notice. I can't believe you would actually think people would see the way they get billed and just ignore it if it could have been 100% different. People are lazy and stupid, that's just the way it is. This guy called them out on their mistake. Plus if you have people that are service reps that don't even know the difference, your in trouble. That guy was thinking the way anyone should be and called them to have it corrected. They just happened to make a huge fool of Verizon.

When did I stand up for Verizon or justify it?

Did you read my post or are you just rambling because you want to be on the bandwagon? Almost nothing you commented on even argues against my point. You practically agreed with me until you started blabbing about people being stupid for not catching the mistake, even though I doubt YOU would ever catch it. I'm willing to bet if someone came up and said they would give you "point zero two cents", before you heard that call and thought about the actual meaning, you would take it as they meant $0.02

I asked someone from the financial department at work today how much "point zero two cents" is and he said something like, "Like 2 pennies? What do you mean how much is it? It's just 2 cents." Then I explained it to him and he had the obvious reaction of "yeah ok, if you say it that way..." It's just not a common way to express that amount so when it is used we assume the common use of $0.02

I don't see the big deal or see why anyone is stupid (besides the reps).

[joshh]

See you're still trying to explain away the mistake. Verizon advertised it incorrectly so it's not just the reps.
But it's ok because "exeryone" should "assume" it's .002 DOLLARS right.
Whether I caught it or not is not the point.....
No, no, no......you're agreeing with me.