Math is Hard! Especially if you're in customer service!

[tzikeh]

Listen to this call from a customer to Verizon Wireless, if you dare. "Do you recognize that there is a difference between .002 dollars, and .002 cents?" "No." "...."

Best reaction I've read, from Metafilter:

"I don't know why I listened to that whole thing because now the only way I am going to be able to calm down is to destroy every piece of furniture in my house."

Comments

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

I want to know how the caller remains so calm. I would have been going, "You know what? Cancel my service. You suck," about five minutes into the call.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Yeah - he totally has to be on 'ludes or something.

[ratcreature]

How can someone understand neither decimals nor units and still handle money?!? And how can they say it's a matter of opinion?? This does explain however where people running amok come from. I mean, that has to count at least as mitigating circumstances if you visited Verizon afterwards with an automatic weapon after going through this....

[silveraspen]

...

Wow.

Kudos to the customer for demonstrating a very, very high degree of patience.

Dear Verizon: Learn basic math. Also, I will not be contracting with you for anything at all that I can avoid. Ever.

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I loved the "matter of opinion" comment. And his, "Uh, no it's a matter of *math*" response.

In literature you can justify 'a matter of opinion'. In history, you can justify a 'matter of opinion' on many things. In math... not so much.

I want to send him a set of the blocks that we use in 4th grade to teach decimals. He can bring them in and show them how they're really different. :)

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

*speechless*

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get past a couple of minutes. It was destroying my will to live.

[vass]

I can't even.

*PRIMAL SCREAM*

*vein throbs in head*

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

This guy could've made his case if he had explained that
.002 cents = ____ dollars. (No, I'm not going to do that conversion, I suck at math -- I would get the number of zeros wrong, but I know that's what needs to be done..)

Or, he should've explained how they need to move the decimal two more times becuase his bill is quoted in terms of dollars but he's being charged in terms of cents.

I also think he needs to take Verizon to small claims and file a complaint with the BBB. Because they quoted his contract, which clearly says CENTS.

---

And frankly what else can we expect from a US educational system that does things like hand out work sheet after work sheet of quadradic equations, long division, whathave you, but rarely deigns to show how this stuff applies in the real world?

I mean, hell, I didn't know WTF you used a quadradic equation for until I was almost 10 years out of high school. (It's used in accounting when you're trying to determine highest "bang for the buck".)

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

Or, if (quoting metafilter) the caller had said.

Here's what he should have said. In fact, he may still have to say it:

"If the charge was one cent per kilobyte, I would owe one dollar after one hundred kilobytes of usage.

If the charge was one-tenth of a cent per kilobyte, I would owe one dollar after one thousand kilobytes of usage.

If the charge was one-hundreth of a cent per kilobyte, I would owe one dollar after one ten thousand kilobytes of usage.

If the charge was one-thousandth of a cent per kilobyte, I would owe one dollar after one hundred thousand kilobytes of usage.

Since the charge was two-thousandths of a cent per kilobyte, I would owe one dollar after two hundred thousand kilobytes of usage.

Did I use 200,000,000 KB? No. Then why am I being charged more than a dollar?"

Because, frankly, when it comes to math, a lot of people *need* an explanation on this level for it to click.