Thursday, June 4, 2009

Failblog Verizonmath Youtube Video hits #45 of all time in Comedy

It looks like via failblog.com my call (in condensed form) has reached over 1.8 million people, and ranks in the top 50 of all time in terms of user ratings. Not too shabby. :)

15 comments:

David C. Pearson, M.D. said...

It's like something out of Monty Python. Simply astonishing! Someone once said that Hell is the absence of reason. I guess Verizon's billing department is, too. :-)

Melissa said...

Oh, how I love the stupidity. Seriously, I had a crappy math program and even I know that .002 dollars doesn't equal .002 cents. I only hope that I never have to deal with Verizon's billing department.

Anonymous said...

The woman saying "This is obviously a difference of opinion"... LOL!

Omar said...

Oh, this is priceless. There is the most blatant difference in the two numbers. Even a caveman (Geico :)) would be able to figure that out. I guess it just goes to show the sheer idiocy of the workforce today. Astounding.

PortPower said...

Why does the phrase Dead Parrot keep screaming out to me from hearing this..?? lolz

Saif Ahmed said...

Not this exactly, but similar instances of stupidity have occurred with various phone and telco's. I had it happen with both DishNetwork and Cingular/AT&T. One guy insisted that if i kept my phone off, left it at home, and went abroad, I would still be charged for international usage. I couldn't convince him otherwise.

Nick Vitale said...

Im a little late on this, but I have been through similiar with verizon. More power to you! Love that it made it to 45 on youtube. Hysterical.

Carolyn said...

Congratulations!
I just listened to the audio this morning. I have to commend you for maintaining your cool.
I have been fighting Verizon Wireless for a year and a half for data usage charges and finally resolved the issue by demanding to be released from my contract without early termination fees. Fortunately, our coverage here sucks so they let us cancel!

AJD said...

I was on the phone with Sprint customer service today, and the guy quoted me a rate of point zero zero two cents! But then I said, basically, "Do you mean point zero zero two dollars?" And after a minute or so of confusion he said basically, "Oh, my bad; you're right, I meant point zero zero two dollars." And then I spoke with his supervisor and she said basically, "Well, thank you very much for that; I'll make sure to remind everyone here not to make that mistake."

So, there you go: they made the same mistake as Verizon, but appeared willing to correct it when it was called to their attention. Sprint: home of customer service rationality.

Bohemian Barracuda said...

I recently had the legal equivalent of the math SNAFU happen to me. Under my contract with Alltel (who is now Verizon after months of service interruptions and similar BS), I am entitled to cancel my contract with no fee if there is a "material change in service." Alltel closed down all its stores here, screwed up my voicemail so that some Hispanic citizen who only spoke Spanish was getting my messages and I was getting his, and then was taken over by Verizon. I refused to pay my bill and demanded cancellation under the "material change in service" provision of my contract. They keep saying "but there was no change in service." THEN WHAT THE EFF CONSTITUTES A CHANGE IN SERVICE, YOU IDIOTS?!?!?!

Same idea as the math thing, different academic realm, same damn apes "manning" the phones. But surely not all of them at Verizon are bonobos; I think they are just trained to act like that and not given any tools to fix anything. My hypothesis is that no one whom any customer can get to has the power to change anything in the computer systems at Verizon.

I remember the days when the third or 4th CSR that you reached would say, "OK, I'm sorry about that, let me credit your account for that. Thanks, and we know your phone company is a choice, and we thank you for choosing fillintheblank." Verizon just argues in asinine circles about why you, the customer, are wrong until you hang up in frustration because all they have the power to do anymore is try to get you to hang up.

BOYCOTT VERIZON!!!! ...'fer yer own sake!

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Sitiran said...

This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.

Mike said...

While I am on your side, and do find Verizon at fault for the fiasco, why didn't you go to a corporate retail location?
You could have shown a rep the math in person, and solved this issue rather rapidly.

Eikinkloster said...

Suggestion: You have to move from "one" to the decimals more slowly:

one dollar = 100 cents

half dollar = 100 half cents
0.5 dollar = 100 * 0.5 cents = 50 cents
(I think it is important to go both "half" and "0.5" since this transition is not natural for most people)
0.05 dollar = 5 cents
0.02 dollar = 2 cents

but this step is still hard:
2 cents = 100 * 0.02 cents

Leo said...

Sadly that video link is now dead. You might link to this one instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2isSJKntbg