Verizon reps never graduated from the 5th grade of elementary school - they failed the math

Mark points out to this amazing example of innumeracy:

Yup, it is 25 minutes long and it is frustrating as hell. And there is no resolution in the end.

To make a long story short, the guy went to Canada and before the trip he asked Verizon what his charge would be while there. He was quoted 0.002 cents per kilobyte. When he came back, he found out he was charged at the rate of 0.002 dollars instead. A nice, clean 100-fold difference.

He got on the phone (and recorded these 25 minutes of the conversation) and went through one rep to another, tryng, in vein, to get them to understand that there is a difference between the two numbers! The basic incomprehension is stunning - they do not see the difference between the two numbers. When presented with large numbers, e.g., 1 dollar or 100 cents, they get it, but once a decimal point starts figuring in, they get lost in the math! They do the calculation in cents and proclaim the final result to be in dollars! The last rep was the most infuriating - she actually said that there is NO SUCH THING (as in a "physical object") as 0.002 dollars (or cents, for that matter) so it is impossible to charge that little! In the end she asserted that this was a difference in OPINION!!!!!

And then we wonder why people don't get evolution or global warming or simple economics of the effects of slashing taxes...