Wow. Nearly a year ago, I posted about an incident where a Verizon customer had been misquoted the overage charge for his data plan. The Verizon employees thought that “.002 dollars” was the same amount as “.002 cents”. He was quoted “.002 cents” when the actual price was “.002 dollars”. That’s one hundred times more expensive.
What I’m sure it came down to, was the employees were seeing this: “$.002” and saying “.002 cents”. At a quick glance, it’s an understandable mistake. The part that blew me away, was that after half an hour of the customer trying to explain this difference, the Verizon employees, including the supervisor, still thought the customer was wrong. They were convinced that “.002 dollars” was the same as “.002 cents”.
The recording of the call is still available if you want to follow my original link. However, if you are easily frustrated by displays of ignorance, I don’t recommend it. It was a pretty popular story on the internets for a while . Verizon received some bad publicity, released some official statements and like all things it eventually blew over.
I assumed at that point Verizon would make the necessary changes to its training program and make sure all the employees understood the difference. Apparently, I was wrong. Check out the video below, and you’ll see that not only are they making the same mistake, they are making all kinds of new ones. An astounding 93% quoted the wrong rate. Shame on you, Verizon and Verizon customers, be warned.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdKwRdWocco[/youtube]
Verizon will not honor changes in the sales contract made by its employees in writing unless the employee signs and dates the change. The manager of the Verizon store made the change in writing and dated it, but did not sign it. Although the manager was not working at that store anymore, Verizon would not confirm or deny whether that manager was working in any capacity for Verizon. Needless to say the change was not honored. Be careful with Verizon.
Maybe it’s comparable to the writer you doesn’t understand the
difference between “its” and “it’s” (see his or her comment above).
But I do agree that it is very frustrating.
I made a fortune by buying stuff at $1 and selling it at $3 … that’s a 3% markup, right? Who needs math to make money … Verizon certainly doesn’t!
Just have to point out that Jerry is wrong about it’s and its. Mark wrote “its employees..” in the above comment and this is the correct use. Its = possessive, it’s = it is.
Funny that Jerry decided to specifically point this out and yet is wrong.