# Dollars and Cents

1. Dec 9, 2006

2. Dec 9, 2006

### Ivan Seeking

Staff Emeritus
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!!!

3. Dec 9, 2006

### 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: Dec 9, 2006
4. Dec 9, 2006

### BobG

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.