Verizon Pisses Off Engineer

by Shawn @ 10:35 am · filed under Uncategorized

This is what happens when you piss off a customer who happens to be an engineer.

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35 Responses to “Verizon Pisses Off Engineer”

mdh Says:
February 7th, 2007 at 10:48 am

I luv this guy. Verizon pissed me off. I went into the main office with my bogus bills. Did their math for them. They called security. Verizon is the WORST company I have ever given money to.

Stevievep Says:
February 7th, 2007 at 11:18 am

that’s a one spicy meat-a-ball-a. nice.

Stevievep Says:
February 7th, 2007 at 11:20 am

shouldn’t that read, “Pisses Off Engineer”?

Shawn Says:
February 7th, 2007 at 11:24 am

Yeah it should… oops.

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February 7th, 2007 at 8:25 pm

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Steve Says:
February 7th, 2007 at 9:22 pm

So, does anyone know how much the check is actually for? I once got a parking ticket when I absolutely should not have, and the ticket said, “Attach payment securely to ticket.” After I put roughly 100 staples through the check I got a phone call from the city - they refused my check. Goes to show you simply can’t please everyone, no matter how hard you try.

Julien Says:
February 7th, 2007 at 10:24 pm

Duh… its for $76.29 (that was so easy I did it in like 5 seconds).

Aaron Says:
February 8th, 2007 at 5:44 am

I am not a math major, but here’s my translation (all in dollars):
0.002 + (-1) + 1 = $0.002
Yes, e raised to the i*Pi power is -1. Checked in Maple
I didn’t check the summation, but I remember that 1/2+1/4+1/8… = 1.
So I think the check is for a fifth of a cent, whatever that means.

Anonymous Coward Says:
February 8th, 2007 at 6:51 am

I’d say it’s for $0.002. e^(i*pi) = -1, the value of the series should be 1 (if I remember my analysis correctly), leaving 0.002…

alexhirurg Says:
February 8th, 2007 at 9:22 am

“e” in power of “i” is the undeterminable level “1″ - it mean that result is infinity

Matthew Says:
February 9th, 2007 at 3:54 am

I have no clue what that equation works out to be but I would laugh if he got a symbol wrong and the bank accepted it, understood it and took out 20k from his account or something.

Jimmit Says:
February 9th, 2007 at 11:35 am

Geeze, guys, get on the bandwagon!

Aaron and anon coward are correct in that the payment is for 2 tenths of one cent. This all has to do with:

http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/index.html

where Verizon doesn’t know the difference between 0.002 cents and 0.002 dollars.

Shawn, do you know the difference?

Jimmit Says:
February 9th, 2007 at 11:38 am

Oh, and PS, Randall Munroe is a Physicist, not an engineer.

http://www.xkcd.com/

The Voyager - » Verizon Pisses Off Engineer Says:
February 14th, 2007 at 3:53 am

[…] […]

Quintin Says:
February 19th, 2007 at 3:40 pm

E^(i*pi) = -1. It’s some weird thing that Euler noticed one day. The summation comes out to be a good 1. Each of those could be proved in several known ways. They’re very famous and very basic. No mistakes were made, so this comes out to be .002 cents, clearly mocking Verizon. Of course, they are incapable of doing the math or drawing the connections, so they do not realize that they are being mocked. Which only makes it funnier.

Quintin Says:
February 19th, 2007 at 3:50 pm

Sorry, I said it comes out as .002 cents. It comes out as .002 dollars, since the check is in dollars! Hahaha… ironic.

mbhunter Says:
February 20th, 2007 at 9:30 pm

0.2 cents is the correct answer.

Libertate Says:
March 4th, 2007 at 2:00 pm

Interesting how some of the other things weren’t noticed.
It seems to be a starter check. Notice number 1053.
Date is entered as YYYY-MM-DD, not the U.S. de facto MM-DD-YYYY.
10/02 next to the name, presuming following standard check formats, suggest this comes from a book that was printed in, or from an account opened in October 2002.
The upper right hand corner number tends to be also the bank account number.

karen jones Says:
March 30th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

OMG! This is the funniest thing I have seen all year. Nice memo too. I’d like to write a check to Warner…… Oh well nevermind. Nice work, I’m still not certain how much his bill was. Forwarding link to friend

Benj Arriola Says:
April 29th, 2007 at 6:29 pm

@Libertate - LOL your correct! YYYY-MM-DD, maybe he is using an SQL timestamp operation. LOL

dsd Says:
September 15th, 2007 at 9:50 pm

FRICKEN OWNED!

Mr.Bill Says:
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 pm

The math is quite funny. The first term (e^(i*pi)) is just part of Euler’s equation, which is (e^(i * pi) + 1 = 0) where i is the square root of -1. So in fact (e^(i*pi) is just -1. The second part is also a simple integration that equals +1, so the result is .002 -1 + 1, which is .002. In other words, the author is saying “here is my .002c worth”. hehe.

Love it

AJ Says:
February 28th, 2008 at 8:37 am

OMG, this is funny!
But don’t you have to write the amount of the check in letters?

For those who are wondering the maths:
E^(i*pi) = cos(pi) + i*sin(pi) = -1 + 0 = -1
The other part is the geometric series which gives 1

Peter Says:
March 9th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

Someone does not know how to use maple
.002+exp(1)^(2*Pi)+sum(1/(2^n),n=1..infinity);

1.002 + (exp(1)) ^(2*Pi)
evalf[10]( (1) );
536.4936554

theres your answer, and yes I am an engineer also

Kenneth Kral Says:
April 9th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

OK, I’ll bite. How does e^(i*pi) equal -1? complex exponents seem to have escaped my math classes.

Thanks

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RPM Says:
April 15th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

$536.49 roughly

fred w Says:
January 4th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

Get a life morons !

Johnny H Says:
January 4th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

I argued with Verizon for 6 months over being billed for 3 1/3 phone lines. EVERY amount was multiplied by 3.33. It wasn’t until I got the S.U.C. involved that I got in-touch with someone who actually could DO something. Every underpaid, uninformed phone jockey could SEE I had a problem, and promised they could fix it. Apparently, that’s their pad-answer for any problem, regardless of how hopeless your chances of resolution.

The very week it became legal to dump your landline number to your cell, we said goodbye to Verizon- never to return. I took my 3.33 phone lines elsewhere.

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san diego seo Says:
April 4th, 2009 at 9:07 pm

that’s funny stuff!

BadB Says:
August 20th, 2009 at 6:12 pm

I have no clue what that equation works out to be but I would laugh if he got a symbol wrong and the bank accepted it, understood it and took out 20k from his account or something.

Mo Says:
November 1st, 2009 at 8:41 am

it is not e^(i*pi) it is (e^2pi)

sweetpaseo Says:
November 13th, 2009 at 1:10 am

I like his style.. Really showing up what he is..

Daniel Says:
February 10th, 2010 at 12:35 am

I wonder if a bank manager knows the answer?

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