Verizon doesn’t know the difference between dollars and cents

This blog details a Verizon customer’s frustration with Verizon quoting him .002 cents per kilobyte, and then charging him .002 dollars per kilobyte. He recorded part of a conversation with customer support, where escalating levels of supervisors do not believe or understand that there is any difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents. There are numerous places in the conversation where he goes through a series of questions like these:

“Do you recognize that there is a difference between 1 dollar and 1 cent?” yes

“Do you recognize that there is a difference between half a dollar and half a cent?” yes

“Then, do you recognize that there is a difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents?” no

It seems that Verizon is now quoting rates in dollars per Megabyte to avoid making people (including first and foremost their own employees) deal with such scary decimals. But at least they’re quoting the correct rate now (that it, the rate that will show up on their bill at the end of the month).

This says something very scary about math education in this country. 😦