Verizon math: OMFG ow ow ow ow

[jrtom]

http://verizonmath.com/transcript.htm

Just _reading_ through this transcript gave me flashbacks to incredibly painful conversations I've had with some of my math (and CS) students.

And this isn't calculus...it's not discrete mathematics...it sure as hell isn't amortized complexity analysis, which admittedly can be a bit of a pain...it's not even algebra. It's ARITHMETIC. On MONEY. (Plus about the simplest case of unit analysis that one could ask for.) Units of currency, anecdotally at least, are the units that you do math problems in if you want people to have the best chance of getting the answer right, because almost everyone deals with money enough that they feel comfortable with it (sometimes more comfortable than if no units are used).

(For the record, I got to this through another article(http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/11/16/damning-video-verizo.html) which provides evidence that almost no one at Verizon gets this right.)

GAAAAH.

I have never been so happy that I am no longer a Verizon customer. Having read this, I'm not sure that I could resist the impulse to ask them about their data rate costs the next time I had to call their customer service line.

Comments

Cents

[fdmts.livejournal.com]

Wow, that guy values his time far less than I do. I mean, he's right ... of course, but I hope he got some amusement value out of it.

I bet he goes into strip clubs and is all, like, "OMG! There are naked ladies in here! Where are the gentlemen?"

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I use Verizon b/c I've found they're better than other companies. Sad.

[danyeke.livejournal.com]

Reading this sort of thing makes me that much more confident that I'm going to do well as an accountant. :)

[nancymcc.livejournal.com]

I didn't even follow the link to the transcript. This the one about hundredths of a cent, isn't it? I listened to about 20 minutes of an mp3 of it a while back, and then I stopped because it was taking years off my life.

I didn't think the customer was explaining very well. But the annoying part is the confidence of the reps that they're right... they aren't even listening to him. I'm pretty sure the rule for service reps who answer phone lines is that "the customer is always wrong."