Tom 7 Radar: Most frustrating customer service call ever

[ back to Tom 7 Radar ]

w
e
b

l
i
n
k

Most frustrating customer service call ever (11 Dec 2006 at 14:53)

This guy called Verizon customer support because he was quoted a data rate of ".002 cents per kilobyte" (= $0.00002/kb) but charged $.002 per kilobyte: a hundredfold difference. An understandable braino that should have been corrected after a short call—but listen to his third phone call to the service representatives who make the most incredible assertions that the bill is correct, and the unbelievable logical conclusions that follow from that. No video, just sound. (youtube link; caller's blog)

{{{1}}}

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

D (c-71-206-199-131.hsd1.pa.comcast.net) – 12.11.06 15:39:15

I got a beautiful laugh out of this when I first saw it. "There's no such thing as .002 dollars." Classic..

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Tom 7 (gs82.sp.cs.cmu.edu) – 12.11.06 16:58:24

They're both the same if you look at them paper wise.

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Jessica 8 (c-67-171-79-231.hsd1.pa.comcast.net) – 12.11.06 17:24:26

It's obviously a difference of opinion.

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Anonymous (charm.diamond.cs.cmu.edu) – 12.11.06 17:27:59

My Mugshot stacker alerted me to your blog informations

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

jcreed (24-183-32-255.dhcp.mdsn.wi.charter.com) – 12.11.06 17:47:58

This one time I went to a Taco Bell with a 0.002 dollar bill and they would not accept it as legal tender.

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Tom 7 (h-68-166-207-10.phlapafg.dynamic.covad.net) – 12.11.06 20:15:09

Legal tender and juicy

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Neal (c-69-140-246-111.hsd1.md.comcast.net) – 12.12.06 00:27:25

Tom, are you a Juiceamatician?

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Sridhar (c-71-198-169-165.hsd1.ca.comcast.net) – 12.12.06 03:18:03

I'd like to believe the customer service people walked away saying "Can you believe this guy? He has the most ridiculous assertions and no grasp of simple math!", and then spread the recorded audio among their friends for giggles until they eventually ended up red-faced in front of a supervisor with some sense.

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Tom 7 (gs82.sp.cs.cmu.edu) – 12.13.06 09:30:48

I know, maybe there is like a dual youtube site where they post hilarious callers who just don't get it?

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Anonymous (charm.diamond.cs.cmu.edu) – 12.14.06 10:21:36

dualtube

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Adam (charm.diamond.cs.cmu.edu) – 12.14.06 10:21:47

oops, I am not anonymous

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Don (dynamic-acs-24-154-191-51.zoominternet.net) – 12.15.06 21:46:37

Sadly, this confirms youtube monism--1668 comments fighting over whether verizon or the caller have the right opinion.

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Don (dynamic-acs-24-154-191-51.zoominternet.net) – 12.15.06 21:51:15

Then again, maybe with my poor grammar I should keep silent.

Anyway, they should take a vote--math belongs to the people not to the ivory tower....how many elephants did you kill to build that tower, anyway?

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Hock (adsl-75-32-147-78.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net) – 12.19.06 01:09:54

So how did that LP project turn out?

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Tom 7 (pool-71-253-30-80.pitbpa.east.verizon.net) – 12.19.06 01:35:27

Good question. The project was almost successful, but like so many class projects we ran out of time and didn't get to do all the things we wished to. I think Jason and I will probably take another couple stabs at it, because after we fix a bug we discovered late in the evening the rest of the stuff will be pretty fun optimization kinds of things. And if we can make it work, then I think people might actually use it...

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Jesse (pool-72-95-248-17.pitbpa.east.verizon.net) – 01.01.07 18:01:05

Verizon's customer service policy seems to be along the lines of a dedication to provide the worst customer service ever; I've got five pages of notes about conversations with three different supervisors trying to figure out why my DSL wasn't working; at one point, one of their guys claimed to be having a conversation with a tech worker just a quarter mile from my house who had the problem isolated and 84% corrected, though the next person I spoke with (after the problem wasn't resolved by 6 that evening) told me that it would be impossible for that conversation to take place.

That having been said, how many times have you seen mismarked prices in merchant stores along the lines of 0.50 (cents symbol)? I really want to get two for a penny, but it's never happened. Then again, if the compoany were the size of verizon and had that many lawyers working for them, they ought to have their act together enough to know the difference between dollars and cents and deserve to be taken at their word.

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

Stijn van Drongelen (sd5116826.adsl.wanadoo.nl) – 01.24.07 09:00:17

And what do they mean exactly by 'kilobyte'? Kilobytes of 'actual broadband traffic' (whatever encapsulation they use), or kilobytes of IPv4/IPv6 packets? And is it kilobytes (10^3 bytes = 1000 bytes) or kibibytes (2^10 bytes = 1024 bytes)(also called 'big kilobytes')?

p
o
s
t

a

c
o
m
m
e
n
t

[ Tom 7 Radar • Tom 7 on Google+ • on Twitter • on Facebook ]