# Dollars and Cents

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Ivan Seeking
Staff Emeritus
Gold Member
He's as much of the problem as they are. He keeps worrying about irrelevant examples that only confused everyone. They are quoting cents!!! They keep saying that. But he kept focusing on the quote when he should have been focusing on the bill.

Of course, the folks at Verizon are complete idiots! Incredible!!!

0rthodontist
Just incredible. Though I think the supervisor was being deliberately dense after a while. I mean, he can't agree to bill the guy 72 cents (at least not without a legal battle) and he can't deviate from the quotes that he and all his employees have been giving out, so he just sticks to the quotes and the price and pretends there is no conflict.

I had a math teacher once in middle school who ranted about this type of thing on supermarket prices for canned goods--she said she should toss the cashier a quarter and say "keep the change."

Edit: now I'm listening where he's talking to the other representative, and she actually seems clueless. The first guy seemed to get it after a while and then started faking it, but she is not getting it at all.

If I were the guy, I'd try to ask the following questions:
"What would my bill be if the rate were 1 cents/kb?"
"What would my bill be if the rate were 1.002 cents/kb?"

Chances are low that the rep would be able or willing to answer, but working with the 1.002 cents would at least force them to treat the .002 as a cent figure, not a dollar figure. Then you might try to ask them to subtract one from the other, though chances of that succeeding are pretty low.

I wonder what the consequences could be if this guy pursues this in court with other people who were quoted the same figure.

Last edited:
BobG
Homework Helper
Their rate's listed at $.002/KB now. On the other hand, 'Unlimited' = 5 GB/mo. http://www.hp.com/sbso/wireless/MNY50079-VZAccessPricing-V1b.pdf Yeah, I think the first guy realized the caller was right, but there's no way for him to resolve the issue. His only options are to accept payment of$71.79 or bump it up to his supervisor. I think the concept honestly was beyond the second person.

Edit: In fact, if a person used his 5GB per month, they'd be paying about .0012 cents per kilobyte, which would make .002 cents per kilobyte for roaming charges at least seem somewhat reasonable (I think roaming charges normally charge at more than just double the normal rate for most things, though). However, the average user evidently only uses about 8.3 MB per day (per Verizon), which would be a charge of about .024 cents/kilobyte. Verizon Limits Its "Unlimited" Wireless Broadband Service.

Sometimes it amazes me how mechanical and bureaucratic people can be about these types of things. Several years ago, when stamps were still around 29 cents, I received a bill from our dentist. Being a small office, the bills were always handwritten and the person had particularly rounded 6's - unless you actually compared the 6's to the 0's, you wouldn't know they were 6's. If you didn't pay attention, it was easy to mistake a 6 for a zero, so I underpaid my bill by $.60. A month later, I got another bill and my first thought was they were sending me a bill for$0.00 so I would know for sure my charges were all paid. The second month I received a bill, I realized they were billing me $0.60. I thought about waiting one more month just to be obnoxious, but decided I should probably go ahead and pay it ... with a check and with a 29 cent stamp. At least the post office was happy. Last edited: DaveC426913 Gold Member Ivan's right, this would have been much clearer and much shorter, if he had just had them calculate what his bill should be. Get the guy to say you are charged at .002c/kb, then ask him to calculate his bill. 3.5Gb x .002c = 71 cents. Forget all the hypothetical stuff. 0rthodontist Science Advisor He did try that a lot. The reps either couldn't do or refused to do the units arithmetic, telling him that his kb usage x .002 cents/kb is "72" when they do it on their calculator, and insisting it's 72 "dollars" when he asked for the units. Last edited: So very very sad..... :surprised The caller is blatantly trying to complicate things, but still. My oh my. edit: On second thought, I would have to say that most people would be able to grasp this... I would be hard pressed to simplify it lol Last edited: Gokul43201 Staff Emeritus Science Advisor Gold Member Ivan's right, this would have been much clearer and much shorter, if he had just had them calculate what his bill should be. Get the guy to say you are charged at .002c/kb, then ask him to calculate his bill. 3.5Gb x .002c = 71 cents. Forget all the hypothetical stuff. This is EXACTLY what the guy did, like a billion times! He made them multiply 0.002c/kB ("keep in mind that's in units of cents") with 35,000 kB...and they'd say it came out 71 dollars! Incredible! The mind boggles! No, it actually does a lot more than that, but I haven't found the words for it yet! What a complete bunch of morons! The guy was plenty clear - not clear enough for a class of slow 3rd graders, maybe! What kind of grammar school dropouts does Verizon hire??!! The manager: "I'm sorry, I'm not a mathematician"! No kidding?! Last edited: dammit, I was just going to post this. 0rthodontist Science Advisor I liked it most when the woman said "Well, I guess that's a matter of opinion." The Verizon people were clearly feigning stupidity. brewnog Science Advisor Gold Member brewnog Science Advisor Gold Member Oopsie.... brewnog Science Advisor Gold Member "I'm not a mathematician, but I've got my calculator here...." ARGHH! XKCD 3.5Gb x .002c = 71 cents. I get 3.5Gb x .002c/Kb = 70 dollars. Are the inputs correct? BobG Science Advisor Homework Helper XKCD That's priceless. :rofl: :rofl: Or pretty close to$1.42

Or pretty close to $1.42 Extremely close, but much closer to$.002

Extremely close, but much closer to $.002 you mean .002 ? you mean .002 ? The .002 part is handwritten, the dollars part is printed. BobG Science Advisor Homework Helper Extremely close, but much closer to$.002
Doh! I knew that! I didn't really think pi was 90 degrees!

The .002 part is handwritten, the dollars part is printed.
Wow you really know how to distinguish between dollars, cents, and unitless quanitities... you should definitely not work for Verizon