verizon

Verizon

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In response to George Vaccaro's horrifying encounters with the Verizon billing department over the difference between dollars and cents (and other basic math): verizonmath.blogspot.com Click here for the full audio of the verizon call (warning: will make you throw your computer in frustration). -- xkcd

Random Explanation

Explanation

This is not a comic, but a webpage on xkcd.com There are many other similar xkcd webpages. The explain xkcd is trying to decide how they should be treated and you are welcome to help us decide how we should categorise, call, or present these kinds of explanations. Join the discussion at Category talk:Extra pages! This page should not be categorized until we decide how to explain these non-comics (see discussion above).

This page was announced in a Blag post titled "South America, Verizon Math".

"Do you recognise there's a difference between 1 dollar and 1 cent?"

"Definitely."

"Do you recognise there's a difference between half a dollar and half a cent?"

"Definitely."

"Then, do you therefore, do you recognise there's a difference between 0.002 dollars and 0.002 cents?"

"No."

e to the pi times i equals -1. The sum is equivalent to 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + ⋯, which equals 1.

As such, the number ends up being 0.002 - 1 + 1 = 0.002 dollars.

In 2013, Randall explained

For context, I wrote that in response to a 2006 audio recording of a tech support call between Verizon and someone who wasn't me, which consisted of an infuriating 30-minute argument with a series of people in Verizon's billing department over what "point zero zero two cents" means.

The frustrated caller posted the recording on a blog and garnered a lot of sympathetic outrage, so to try to cheer everyone up I scribbled that check and sent him a snapshot. Unexpectedly, the check image quickly became detached from the original story and turned into an email forward—usually with an incorrect caption—which circulates to this day. I feel a little bad about that, since without the context of the infuriating "0.002" argument it's just me being a dick with arbitrary math, but oh well.

I'm not sure I've ever mentioned this, but a few months later, I actually got a call from my bank's fraud division; one of their employees had been forwarded the check image by a family member. Since the account number was only pixellated (and not blacked out), they said I had to close my account and open a new one.

The "pixellation" doesn't actually have the real number under it (I'd heard about that research on depixellation), but rather than get in a dumb 30-minute debate about it with the (very nice) bank representative, I just went ahead with the change. I guess I'd learned that sometimes it's better to let things go.

—Randall Munroe, Source

Randall would later reference the Verizon incident in the title text of 558: 1000 Times: "And 0.002 dollars will NEVER equal 0.002 cents."

Transcript

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Discussion

if this is "not a comic" then why does it say "Go to comic" and why can i get to this from "Random comic" 00:44, 24 June 2025 (UTC)00:44, 24 June 2025 (UTC)Treeplate (talk) (is this enough tildes?)

Because we have not decided yet. Until we decide what to do with these pages its going to be messy. Read the notice:

There are many other similar xkcd webpages, some of which are explained here. Explain xkcd is trying to decide how they should be treated. You are welcome to help us decide how we should categorise, call, or present these kinds of explanations. Kindly leave a comment here.

Please feel free to comment! --FaviFake (talk) 09:14, 24 June 2025 (UTC)

maybe change it so that there is an option in the comic template to say "Go to Page" instaed of "Go to comic"? (maybe on april first it says "goto comic") me, hi (talk) 23:56, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, but I meant "feel free to comment in the community portal". There are already close no no discussions on this, and the last thing we need is a fragmentation of the discussions. --FaviFake (talk) 10:55, 19 August 2025 (UTC)
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