Thanks to everyone for the words of support. So you know, at this point the $72, if I decide to pay it, would be well spent for all the laughs this has provided.
Thanks also for correcting the people who accuse me of being less than sincere. I'd have to have Jerky Boys skills to have pulled that off not being sincere. After re-listening to it, I wished I had realized how funny it was, and thrown in "oh god, god and baby Jesus help us!"
To clear one thing up that people don't seem to understand, I have the unlimited data plan in the states, and no concept of per KB cost. I was heading to Canada so I called verizon to find the voice and data rates. The rep told me the rate, and I actually worked out roughly in my head and out loud the per megabyte cost - I didn't nail it down to $.02 cents per meg, I just roughly estimated it at $1 per meg - thats the degree of accuracy I cared about. I would spend a few bucks, but I wouldn't spend closer to a hundred. I did think the rate was low enough to think something might be wrong, so I reconfirmed the rate with her - ".002 cents / KB?" - "Yes, thats correct." Then I had her note the quote in my account to be sure.
Also, in the states, since the plan is unlimited, and as many posters have pointed out, you could easily use gigs/month, if you were streaming video or audio ala SlingBox. So the thought that I could pay less than a dollar per meg, even $.02 (if I had computed it exactly) didn't seem impossible, or crazy, just slightly suspicious.
I make a great hourly rate, and this clearly hasn't been worth the hours I've spent for the $71 thats in dispute. It's been about false advertising and the principle that if you quote something at a certain price, you should really charge that price - certainly not 100 x that price, and certainly if the mistake is on your side. And its been pretty hysterical following this thing.
Also, to those who think I could have done better or planned this - I was blindsided by 3 levels of customer service rep thinking that 2/1000s of a $ is the same as 2/1000ths of a cent. I did the best I could while in disbelief, and even confused myself at times. I had talked to 2 other reps, one on a different call, and one before the first supervisor (the handoff is in the beginning of the audio), and they all seemed incapable of understanding basic math, so I thought to myself of the AOL cancellation guy Vincent Ferrari, and said to myself "you better record this."
Also, I had tried other approaches - I didn't always just jump into "do you know the difference between $.002 and.002 cents?" That just seemed to be the root of the issue so I figured with the management level people I should cut to the chase.
I am really surprised that I haven't gotten any resolution at this point from Verizon, it seems like it could be a huge can of worms for them, but hey, I guess I should't expect much.
Anyway, thanks again for the support, kind words, funny comments etc. I'll keep the blog updated so anyone interested can see the resolution.
Finally, here is the wrap up:
1. Rep who quoted me initially.002 cents/KB, confirmed the rate, the one who wrote the first note in the account. 2. Brie: rep I called first, went through the same stuff, she seemed to get it, even noted.002 cents/KB on my notes, but then left me a voicemail saying the charges were correct and there would be no credit. Conveniently she never mentioned units in her voicemail, just "point zero zero two." 3. Trent: First rep on 1st call, same nonsense, quoted.002 cents/KB but didn't realize I was being billed 100x that rate so I escalated - after asking twice for a supervisor, the third time was a charm. 4. Mike: Supervisor - first guy I battle on the mp3 - as you all heard ".002 cents/KB" 5. Andrea: Floor Manager - ".002 cents/KB... its a matter of opinion"
All 5 confirmed the rate as ".002 cents/KB", the last 4 "thought" this was the same as "$.002/KB" and claimed my bill reflected the quoted rate.
i mean, if someone wants to spy on your keystrokes they could install one of those $20 keycatcher thingies, freeware keyboard capture software, network snifers, or just look over your shoulder.
what kind of idiot would use a mic, and have to use neural nets to analyze the recording?
i wonder how many hours that guy flushed doing this study.
it would have been arguably more useful if he could determine what someone ate the night before by the sound of the splash.
i recently was looking for a keyboard that had the normal insert/delete, home/end, pgup/pgdn and arrow configurations, but that did not have the numeric keypad - i almost never use it. i would think that most people didnt use it regularly, but for some reason on 99% of the keyboards ive found, its there, or the cursor nave keys are in some crazy configuration, all in a vertical line etc.
this is amazing, i searched for days to find one that simply had the numpad lopped off, no luck. i told a friend, he couldnt believe it, searched for days, no luck. another friend etc.
finally, i stumbled onto this (no i dont work for ibm): Trackpoint USB Space Saver Keyboard (SB) http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser vlet/P roductDisplay?catalogId=-840&langId=-1&partNumber= 22P5150&storeId=1
at $100 it will set you back, but its exactly what i was looking for, and a built in 2 port usb hub for my mouse (mac style/although on left side)/digital camera, mp3 player etc. once in a while i press the eraser mouse by accident, but no biggie, also, that is sometimes convenient for sitting back in my chair when surfing.
hopefully this helps any of you with the same need, and saves some desk space.
thank you - sometimes i think some of these posters prefer living in a little theoretical fantasy world rather than taking a few minutes to try the theories out practically.
The argument (see the thread) was that it was ridiclous to assume that the product was bogus, just because they claimed 8:1 text compression.
I had no idea that in order for someone to claim any type of compresion ratio they would have to compress your selected text file (kjb). Perhaps they calculated their ratio using slightly more normal examples - more common text files - like html and xml and code - which would have more redundancy then the kjb.
I compress text files all the time - code backup etc. and always get ~90% compression - thats why i chimed in. Thanks for the input though.
When I read the article, I thought they were talking about text files - were they not?
I find it interesting that you interpreted that as meaning straight English ASCII text - as if someone actually has a hard drive full of files of plain english words (like what? a book typed into a text editor with no formatting? I don't know anyone who would make this assumption). Text files to me are source code files, web server logs, xml and html files etc.
I bet even then if you winzip'd your strictly defined plain english ascii text files you'd see 10:1. A novel idea might be to atually try it! Maybe your phd buddy could do that - I wonder if he knows what winzip is?:)
I don't mean to slam you, but it bothers me when people post with seemingly limited or academic knowledge of a subject.
I'm no compression expert but I regularly get 10:1 compression on text files using guess what? WinZip.
Maybe as an academic matter, your colleague couldn't achieve better than 4.x:1, but maybe he didn't know everything there is to know about text compression?
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks to everyone for the words of support. So you know, at this point the $72, if I decide to pay it, would be well spent for all the laughs this has provided.
.002 cents?" That just seemed to be the root of the issue so I figured with the management level people I should cut to the chase.
.002 cents/KB, confirmed the rate, the one who wrote the first note in the account. .002 cents/KB on my notes, but then left me a voicemail saying the charges were correct and there would be no credit. Conveniently she never mentioned units in her voicemail, just "point zero zero two." .002 cents/KB but didn't realize I was being billed 100x that rate so I escalated - after asking twice for a supervisor, the third time was a charm.
Thanks also for correcting the people who accuse me of being less than sincere. I'd have to have Jerky Boys skills to have pulled that off not being sincere. After re-listening to it, I wished I had realized how funny it was, and thrown in "oh god, god and baby Jesus help us!"
To clear one thing up that people don't seem to understand, I have the unlimited data plan in the states, and no concept of per KB cost. I was heading to Canada so I called verizon to find the voice and data rates. The rep told me the rate, and I actually worked out roughly in my head and out loud the per megabyte cost - I didn't nail it down to $.02 cents per meg, I just roughly estimated it at $1 per meg - thats the degree of accuracy I cared about. I would spend a few bucks, but I wouldn't spend closer to a hundred. I did think the rate was low enough to think something might be wrong, so I reconfirmed the rate with her - ".002 cents / KB?" - "Yes, thats correct." Then I had her note the quote in my account to be sure.
Also, in the states, since the plan is unlimited, and as many posters have pointed out, you could easily use gigs/month, if you were streaming video or audio ala SlingBox. So the thought that I could pay less than a dollar per meg, even $.02 (if I had computed it exactly) didn't seem impossible, or crazy, just slightly suspicious.
I make a great hourly rate, and this clearly hasn't been worth the hours I've spent for the $71 thats in dispute. It's been about false advertising and the principle that if you quote something at a certain price, you should really charge that price - certainly not 100 x that price, and certainly if the mistake is on your side. And its been pretty hysterical following this thing.
Also, to those who think I could have done better or planned this - I was blindsided by 3 levels of customer service rep thinking that 2/1000s of a $ is the same as 2/1000ths of a cent. I did the best I could while in disbelief, and even confused myself at times. I had talked to 2 other reps, one on a different call, and one before the first supervisor (the handoff is in the beginning of the audio), and they all seemed incapable of understanding basic math, so I thought to myself of the AOL cancellation guy Vincent Ferrari, and said to myself "you better record this."
Also, I had tried other approaches - I didn't always just jump into "do you know the difference between $.002 and
I am really surprised that I haven't gotten any resolution at this point from Verizon, it seems like it could be a huge can of worms for them, but hey, I guess I should't expect much.
Anyway, thanks again for the support, kind words, funny comments etc. I'll keep the blog updated so anyone interested can see the resolution.
Finally, here is the wrap up:
1. Rep who quoted me initially
2. Brie: rep I called first, went through the same stuff, she seemed to get it, even noted
3. Trent: First rep on 1st call, same nonsense, quoted
4. Mike: Supervisor - first guy I battle on the mp3 - as you all heard ".002 cents/KB"
5. Andrea: Floor Manager - ".002 cents/KB... its a matter of opinion"
All 5 confirmed the rate as ".002 cents/KB", the last 4 "thought" this was the same as "$.002/KB" and claimed my bill reflected the quoted rate.
Thanks for playing.
i mean, if someone wants to spy on your keystrokes they could install one of those $20 keycatcher thingies, freeware keyboard capture software, network snifers, or just look over your shoulder.
what kind of idiot would use a mic, and have to use neural nets to analyze the recording?
i wonder how many hours that guy flushed doing this study.
it would have been arguably more useful if he could determine what someone ate the night before by the sound of the splash.
i recently was looking for a keyboard that had the normal insert/delete, home/end, pgup/pgdn and arrow configurations, but that did not have the numeric keypad - i almost never use it. i would think that most people didnt use it regularly, but for some reason on 99% of the keyboards ive found, its there, or the cursor nave keys are in some crazy configuration, all in a vertical line etc.
r vlet/P roductDisplay?catalogId=-840&langId=-1&partNumber= 22P5150&storeId=1
this is amazing, i searched for days to find one that simply had the numpad lopped off, no luck. i told a friend, he couldnt believe it, searched for days, no luck. another friend etc.
finally, i stumbled onto this (no i dont work for ibm):
Trackpoint USB Space Saver Keyboard (SB)
http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/se
at $100 it will set you back, but its exactly what i was looking for, and a built in 2 port usb hub for my mouse (mac style/although on left side)/digital camera, mp3 player etc. once in a while i press the eraser mouse by accident, but no biggie, also, that is sometimes convenient for sitting back in my chair when surfing.
hopefully this helps any of you with the same need, and saves some desk space.
maybe they can send one to investigate Anna Nicole Smith's ass.
I wonder how long before they find warez on the satrallite's ftp site, in some deep "undeletable" directory.
how many dem *alien* hos didja jam witcha prime directive?
You are just jealous, 'cause this guy actually knows some girls.
Daft Punk did it with Discovery.
Who would copy a Bon Jovi album anyway, seems like a waste of time.
thank you - sometimes i think some of these posters prefer living in a little theoretical fantasy world rather than taking a few minutes to try the theories out practically.
just did it too, you're correct, for that file.
The argument (see the thread) was that it was ridiclous to assume that the product was bogus, just because they claimed 8:1 text compression.
I had no idea that in order for someone to claim any type of compresion ratio they would have to compress your selected text file (kjb). Perhaps they calculated their ratio using slightly more normal examples - more common text files - like html and xml and code - which would have more redundancy then the kjb.
I compress text files all the time - code backup etc. and always get ~90% compression - thats why i chimed in. Thanks for the input though.
When I read the article, I thought they were talking about text files - were they not?
:)
I find it interesting that you interpreted that as meaning straight English ASCII text - as if someone actually has a hard drive full of files of plain english words (like what? a book typed into a text editor with no formatting? I don't know anyone who would make this assumption). Text files to me are source code files, web server logs, xml and html files etc.
I bet even then if you winzip'd your strictly defined plain english ascii text files you'd see 10:1. A novel idea might be to atually try it! Maybe your phd buddy could do that - I wonder if he knows what winzip is?
I don't mean to slam you, but it bothers me when people post with seemingly limited or academic knowledge of a subject.
I'm no compression expert but I regularly get 10:1 compression on text files using guess what? WinZip.
Maybe as an academic matter, your colleague couldn't achieve better than 4.x:1, but maybe he didn't know everything there is to know about text compression?