Apparently math is a problem for the people at Verizon

I just had to post this youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp0HyxQv97Q&eurl=

Synopsis:
Verizon employees never finished school. According to them there is NO difference between 0.002 cents and 0.002 dollars. Example:

Customer: "Do you recognize there's a difference between one dollar and one cent?"
Verizon: "Yes"
Customer: "Ok, do you recognize there's a difference between 0.5 cents, or half a cent and half a dollar?"
Verizon: "Yes"
Customer: "Do you then recognize that there's a difference between 0.002cents and 0.002 dollars?"
Verizon: *very long pause* "No"

How do these people function in society? My heart is beating so hard it's about ready to jump ship and leave my body behind.

Those 0.002 cent coins really are small aren't they?! I can carry a whole pocket full of them and still not have enough to buy a pack of gum!!

Over fifty views and not one of you find this crazy? I guess I get worked up too easily... You don't have to listen to the full 20 minute conversation to get the idea though. The first 3 minutes or so is plenty to get worked up about it

I find this crazy...
Topper

Robban said:

Over fifty views and not one of you find this crazy?

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I actually find it to be a major embarrassment. This type of math is (or at least used to be) second grade stuff. There is zero reason why anybody except a retard shouldn't know things like that. While companies will give every excuse as to why their employees don't know basic math such as "these are the type of people you get when you can only afford to pay $4 an hour", the hard fact is that the education system in the US is failing miserably. In Japan third graders are already learning basic algebra. In the US high school graduates can't even do basic arithmetic. When the US finally finishes its long decline into a Third World nation we'll have nothing to blame but our own apathy for letting things get this bad.

Oh, and don't even get me started on the grammar and spelling I see at most places on the Internet these days. Apparently it doesn't matter any more if you're correct in either math or grammar so long as you put forth a "good effort". Or so the "new" type of educational thinking goes. :thumbsdow

jtr1962 said:

the hard fact is that the education system in the US is failing miserably. In Japan third graders are already learning basic algebra. In the US high school graduates can't even do basic arithmetic. When the US finally finishes its long decline into a Third World nation we'll have nothing to blame but our own apathy for letting things get this bad.

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Just a bit of experience here...

I work at multiple schools doing IT stuff, and third graders in the US (at least in CA) are doing basic algebraic equations, maybe not very well, but they're doing them. By sixth grade, they're doing algebraic equations equivalent to what I did in first year algebra in high school.

When I went to high school, you couldn't be allowed to graduate without having at least been through geometry, which means you have to be able to do basic arithmetic.

I'm not working at some high level special schools or anything, I've moved through 3 different districts, one of them being one of the worst in CA, but the standards and the curriculum are basically 98% the same.

The largest difference between the education systems in the US and Japan is how it's run and managed, and how the material is taught.

You can add penmanship to the list of vanishing skills.

Compare the quality of your handwriting now to what it was in grade school. So much for the benefits of e-mail.

Funny how people accept poor grammar, punctuation and spelling in e-mail or forum posts, yet will take the time to either erase or cross out an error in a handwritten message.

It's "your"...not "ur" (and so on, ad nauseum).

LOL, if you read thru the comments, a lot of them refused to believe that $.002 is not the same as .002 cents as well.

After spending 22 minutes listening to this video, I wonder if the problem ever got resolved. I only read a few of the comments, I wonder if the poster ever responded.

geepondy said:

LOL, if you read thru the comments, a lot of them refused to believe that $.002 is not the same as .002 cents as well.

After spending 22 minutes listening to this video, I wonder if the problem ever got resolved. I only read a few of the comments, I wonder if the poster ever responded.

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Have a look here for some follow up info.
http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/

Sigman said:

Those 0.002 cent coins really are small aren't they?! I can carry a whole pocket full of them and still not have enough to buy a pack of gum!!

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Shoot ! You just reminded me of one of the cooler novelty items I used to own as a kid. It was an exact replica penny that was about the diameter of a pencil eraser. Probably the closest thing one could get to an (unofficially) minted .002 cent piece.

Mednanu said:

Shoot ! You just reminded me of one of the cooler novelty items I used to own as a kid. It was an exact replica penny that was about the diameter of a pencil eraser. Probably the closest thing one could get to an (unofficially) minted .002 cent piece.

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http://www.candidcamera.com/store/tiny-coins.html

I find it incredible!

But I am not surprised at all. A lot of kids in the UK would claim 0.02 pence was the same as 2 pence.

I am still listening to this and I am rolling on the floor laughing.

It's natural selection at it's best. That's why the Verizon guy won't be working at NASA anytime soon. Until Hillary realizes it's unfair to the mathematically challenged and dumbs down the requirements.

Cliff

My math is bad, to the point of nearly being a disability, but even I realize there's a difference between dollars and cents. Instances like this really make me worry sometimes.

That guy has much, much more patience than me! :laughing:

That's not even math, really, is it? It's just reading a number. Is reading numbers counted as "math"?

I honestly believe that this is just the way it is now; it's perfectly normal. This is the state of things as they are today. The statement, "I don't know, I'm not a mathematician," is pretty revealing of the normal attitude these days: You don't need to pay any attention in math class if you don't plan on becoming a "mathematician."

I think that if you were surprised by anything in this recording, that you're living in denial!

Cliffnopus said:

That's why the Verizon guy won't be working at NASA anytime soon.

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In the past, the Verizon guy wouldn't even have been able to get that Verizon job, because there would've been many more qualified applicants. It means there must not now be many any more qualified applicants. All of the "customer service" people we heard in that recording are vastly under-qualified for the job they're in, which is utterly normal. There has been a SHIFT.

It used to be that many people were over-qualified for the jobs they held, and we all enjoyed pleasant and productive interactions with businesses. Now, they're under-qualified, and transactions rarely go well. So MANY jobs now-a-days are taken by under-qualified persons. Daily, I watch people whose sole job it is to communicate and coordinate end questions with periods, and forget all about conjunctions, and really botch the whole idea behind language. It's one thing if your job _isn't_ solely to communicate clearly between different large organizations and so forth. But if you're paid THAT much to JUST communicate, …. <torques my jaw a tad!>

It shifted. Maybe the two pieces have shifted away from each other: the growth of high-tech jobs has taken the bright folks away from the menial jobs they would've held in the past, and, at the same time, everybody is just getting dumber and dumber.....

This is really ubiquitous. _Everybody_ has stories of encountering this situation. I have an overly-complicated one about trying to get change for a 20….. Obviously it shouldn't be complicated. But the story ends with me trying to make the vendor understand that if he readily admits to owing me $0.50, as he did (resulting from the overly complicated previous exchange, which I will omit), then giving me $4.50 for my $5 is actually compensation in the wrong direction. There was nothing that I could do to show him that if he gives me $4.50 for my $5, that this is equivalent to me giving him $0.50 and not the other way around. No way in the world. These stories are everywhere. We're living in a world where common sense is dead, dead, dead.

Synopsis? You mean like a summary?
Sounds more like a summary opinion to me.

I did listen to that arrogant antagonistic customer on that link. I'm not sure what it proves other than some people are jerks or get their rocks off on being jerks.

Robban said:

I just had to post this youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp0HyxQv97Q&eurl=

Synopsis:
Verizon employees never finished school. According to them there is NO difference between 0.002 cents and 0.002 dollars. Example:

Customer: "Do you recognize there's a difference between one dollar and one cent?"
Verizon: "Yes"
Customer: "Ok, do you recognize there's a difference between 0.5 cents, or half a cent and half a dollar?"
Verizon: "Yes"
Customer: "Do you then recognize that there's a difference between 0.002cents and 0.002 dollars?"
Verizon: *very long pause* "No"

How do these people function in society? My heart is beating so hard it's about ready to jump ship and leave my body behind.

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Brighteyez said:

Synopsis? You mean like a summary?
Sounds more like a summary opinion to me.

I did listen to that arrogant antagonistic customer on that link. I'm not sure what it proves other than some people are jerks or get their rocks off on being jerks.

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Oh come on.......I could feel the customers frustration, it was his 4th phone call and he had not even been able to talk to some one who even understood basic school maths.

While I'm not one to necessarily believe stuff that is posted on youtube, in this particular case, it really sounded like the caller was setting the whole thing up for the purposes of putting the conversation on youtube. Oddly enough, there were a couple of things missing in that recording, the tone that is supposed to sound every 15 seconds so that the person on the other end knows that the call is being recorded, and additionally the acknowledgement from the other party (the supposed Verizon rep.) that he was aware that the call was being recorded by the caller. The the "alledged Verizon end" did issue their required 'calls may be monitored for quality control' (note monitored not recorded.) People in both industry and government are sentenced to prison for unlawful recordings of telephone conversations. I don't see why an internet idiot who tries to provoke a phone agent and who may have doctored such a recording should be exempt.

"Basic school maths"? Have you seen some of the postings on this site? And I don't mean the typos.

London Lad said:

Oh come on.......I could feel the customers frustration, it was his 4th phone call and he had not even been able to talk to some one who even understood basic school maths.

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Different states have different laws about recording conversations. Here in Texas, only one party has to consent to the recording. Personally, I have recorded several phone calls to companies if I think I may need proof later as to what was said. I have never had to use a recording but better safe than sorry.