Impulse Renegade
6 HN mentions · mentioned in 5 months, 2015–2025
27:24 · 551K views · Jan 30, 2014
An original recording of a Verizon customer service call in which the rep fails to understand the difference between cents and dollars, known as Verizon Math.
It is posted as a joke whenever threads discuss unit confusion, bad numeracy or customer service failures.
6 comments from Hacker News
Americans generally struggle with mathematics, and not just advanced concepts. The problem is cultural, because it is acceptable to be poor at math, it's viewed as wholly unnecessary. Some examples are A&W's Third Pounder vs McDonald's Quarter Pounder (3 < 4 so quarter pounder is bigger) [1], how long does it take to go 80 miles if you're driving 80 miles per hour [2], and Verizon Math [3]. As for Chinese struggling with math, I can give you firsthand experience at my American University, where the foreign (Chinese and Indian) students are known for rampant cheating, in both the Undergraduate and Graduate levels. We have a serious problem with logic, math, and science. People who are good at the three are ridiculed and alienated rather than celebrated, although it's not a hard rule, just something I've noticed. Reading for pleasure is the exception rather than something normal. We're very anti-intellectual once you get out of the big cities. [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] this video
I was nitpicking about 0.06 dollars versus 0.06 cents. It's this ancient meme, where a guy records a customer service call with Verizon where they have some back-and-forth about whether these are the same or not. this video
Reminded me of this classic recording [0] of Verizon Customer Service failing to understand the difference between cents and dollars. [0] this video
Ha, never heard of this before. I had to hunt the audio down (found it at this video ) but it was definitely worth it. Very funny! Thank you!
Hearing about decimal feet tape being recorded directly as X'Y" (feet inches format) made me immediately think of Verizon math: this video