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this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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Chapotraphouse
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I feel stupid because I don't get it. What else would .002 of a dollar be? Is the dollar weird and cents don't correspond to that?
I'll share the vid, it's quite long. Apparently this all went down seven years ago but I only watched the video recently
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUpZg-Ua5ao
Essentially:
Man calls up Verizon and asks what the roaming rate is.
Verizon rep tells him verbally it is "zero point zero zero two cents" per kb
He confirms it's "zero point zero zero two cents" per kb and asks them to note that on his account
Verizon rep writes it down on the account as $0.002 (i.e. zero point zero zero two dollars).
He is charged for his usage, which comes out to something like $75.35 for his usage, which is one hundred times more than he expects.
He calls up Verizon and asks them to explain. He confirms that the quoted rate was 0.002c
They say yes, it is zero point zero zero two cents, while they are looking at a written rate of $0.002.
He then spends hours trying to explain to multiple reps that just because the value is after the decimal point, it doesn't make the units into cents overall, you still have to look at the quoted unit, which was written down as $0.002 i.e. dollars
The reps do not understand the difference. They repeatedly multiply his kb total by $0.002, while saying that it's 'zero point zero zero two cents' and arriving at the $73.35 total and telling him that it's the correct amount.
If it sounds like it should be simple, yes, it is as simple an error as you think and yes the reps repeatedly fail to understand $0.002 isn't the same as 0.002c. it isn't that they misread 0.002c as 0.2c, their system units were always in $, and they for whatever reason think that $0.002 is 'zero point zero zero two cents'
He is eventually given 50% off his bill after it goes up the chain He complains again, then his bill is waived.
Oooooh I didn't get the 0.002c like .002% of a cent! Thank you!
Well technically...
If you put a % sign on it you are changing it again. 0.002c is 0.2% of a cent. 1% of a cent is 1/100th (or 0.01) of a cent. So 0.002% of a cent is 0.00002 cents. Since 1 cent is 1% of 1 dollar though, 0.002c is equal to 0.002% of a dollar.
It seems like this could have all been avoided if he had said “I was quoted two-thousandths of a cent per kb, but was charged two-tenths of a cent per kb, and thus need to be made whole” but what do I know?
It took him a long time to get to what the issue was, that he only starts to think about how to explain the error well-into the repeated calls. It's like he thought the issue was so self-evident that he doesn't start to refine and break down his explanations of why it's wrong until too late. Keeping things within one unit (rather than swapping between $/¢) as you suggest may have been better, but after two hours on the phone he sounds like he's already at his wit's end. It's really frustrating, so if you do have the time it's worth listening to
"I was charged $2/Mb when I was quoted 2¢/Mb"
I would be complaining about chest pains at that point
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
0.002¢ == $0.00002
It's easier if you replace the units with meters/centimeters:
Is 0.002m == 0.002cm ?