• (cs)

    DO NOT USE this comment!

    How easy was this comment to use:? 1052

  • Josh (unregistered)

    So where is this WTF in the verizon bill? The #MIN+SEND stuff is for you to do on your phone to get billing information...

  • (cs)

    Save your time and read this comment.

    Comment includes these three lines only.

    Time Saved By Reading My Comment: 0 Seconds.

  • (cs) 
    For all future correspondence about this comment please include 
in the subject line your ticket number "Program fragment delivered 
error ``syntax error at template line 18, near "->WTF Comment"''"

Thank you,
  • (cs) in reply to Josh
    Josh:
    So where is this WTF in the verizon bill? The #MIN+SEND stuff is for you to do on your phone to get billing information...

    Your doing it wrong, while there are no other comments stealing your bit, you are required to parody the article.

    That is why the three of us are registered members and your just a guest.

  • JB (unregistered)

    I don't quite get what's the WTF with the Verizon bill.

  • (cs)

    It may be saving $0.00, but there's NO LIMIT! You could be saving as little money as you want!

  • (cs)

    I like the next question on the netgear registration:

    Did you use the CD during initial setup or configuration? Please select most appropriate response:

    Yes No 404_CD_NOT_FOUND

  • (cs)

    If you read all of the 'fine print' on the Verizon Bill, they have the right to pass on to you their COSTs OF DOING BUSINESS!

  • (cs)

    I think the DO NOT USE thing was there to tell the TV stations not to show 2 Fast 2 Furious, and the viewers not to watch it. So really the guy who submitted this is the one who failed.

  • foo (unregistered) in reply to JB

    The real WTF is that he's with Verizon.

  • (cs)

    He also PAID them MINUS $80 and they thank him. That's a lazy way of refunding and raising credits, just in case you were wondering - charge them minus something.

  • (cs) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    Subject: Program fragment delivered error ``syntax error at template line 18, near "->Webcity Subject"'' 
    For all future correspondence about this comment please include 
in the subject line your ticket number "Program fragment delivered 
error ``syntax error at template line 18, near "->WTF Comment"''"

    Thank you,

    There, FTFY.

  • Chowlett (unregistered) in reply to NaN

    Uh, no. The bill is a statement of debt. He owed $80, then paid $80. That $80 adjusted the debt downwards, so the bill shows it as -$80. That way, the $80 debt plus the -$80 payment equals $0.

    It's a pretty standard billing mechanism.

  • (cs) in reply to Chowlett

    OMG, Really???

    Thanks for explaining! We really had no clue :P

  • (cs) in reply to ParkinT
    ParkinT:
    If you read all of the 'fine print' on the Verizon Bill, they have the right to pass on to you their COSTs OF DOING BUSINESS!
    I heard someone describe Verizon's scam this way: You take a $10 item to a store checkout. In NJ, for example, you expect the clerk to add the 7% sales tax for a total of $10.70. But in the Verizon store, Verizon will then charge more fees to "defray" the cost of charging you the sales tax.

    In short, this allows Verizon Wireless to claim that a plan will cost you $39.99 per month. But when you get your bill, it really costs $41.57. This allows them to fool you while you're comparing their plans with other carriers.

    Just try to get a look at any Verizon contract before you sign up. They won't let you see the contract until after you agree to take the service.

  • Anonymous Cow-herd (unregistered) in reply to Flash

    [quote user="Flash"][quote user="ParkinT"]They won't let you see the contract until after you agree to take the service.[/quote]

    Then they're not allowed to hold you to it.

    Anyway, TRWTF is the forum software (so I'm told). I'd only give it a 1052 at best.

  • Anonymous Cow-herd (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous Cow-herd

    The Real TRWTF is that you don't know how to close quotes properly. You stupid ... oh, that was me. Bugger.

  • (cs) in reply to Flash
    Flash:
    They won't let you see the contract until after you agree to take the service.

    How do you sign it then? Unless US contract law is really broken, I'm pretty sure that you can't be held to details you were never given.

    Edit: The real WTF is that none of these were really that funny. Normally I disturb anyone nearby with my laughing when I check Error'd... What happened?

  • Kim (unregistered)

    TRWTF is 2 Fast 2 Furious is rated PG-13.

  • Rancid-tea (unregistered)

    As far as Verizon billing goes (and any other service provider I've ever worked with), if you ask them "How much will I be billed for this service?" the representative you speak will should be able to very accurately tell you exactly how much will show up on your bill (excluding overage) every month. Most people just ask "How much does this cost?" to which they usually reply the advertised price.

    I'm not saying this isn't deceptive, just that you need to know what questions to ask if you want to know how much you'll really be paying.

  • (cs)

    TRWTF is I am WTF'ing the WTF?

    I see nothing wrong with the Verizon bill? Apart from maybe a it should be $0.00 rather than $.00?

    Is the person simply paying too much for their contract!? Are we getting into cell phone tariff prices now?

    Why am I asking so many questions?

  • (cs) in reply to Flash
    Flash:
    You take a $10 item to a store checkout. In NJ, for example, you expect the clerk to add the 7% sales tax for a total of $10.70.
    And that's TRWTF.
  • (cs) in reply to robzyc
    robzyc:
    TRWTF is I am WTF'ing the WTF?

    I see nothing wrong with the Verizon bill? Apart from maybe a it should be $0.00 rather than $.00?

    Is the person simply paying too much for their contract!? Are we getting into cell phone tariff prices now?

    Why am I asking so many questions?

    Maybe it's because there's no dollar sign in front of the payment received amount? Thin gruel, indeed.

  • (cs)

    #BAL + SEND is my SOP with Verizon. "Here's the #BAL you owe. SEND it in. PDQ."

  • Rocketboy (unregistered)

    The real WTF is where it said DO NOT USE, it should have said DO NOT WATCH

    (CAPTCHA's gone Italian on me.. Saluto..)

  • (cs) in reply to Rancid-tea
    Rancid-tea:
    As far as Verizon billing goes (and any other service provider I've ever worked with), if you ask them "How much will I be billed for this service?" the representative you speak will should be able to very accurately tell you exactly how much will show up on your bill (excluding overage) every month. Most people just ask "How much does this cost?" to which they usually reply the advertised price.

    I'm not saying this isn't deceptive, just that you need to know what questions to ask if you want to know how much you'll really be paying.

    You're right in that it is deceptive. If you need to ask anything other than "How much will I be billed for this service?" in order to get the real cost, then it's a scam. We shouldn't need to ask any further questions to get the right answer.

  • Michael Mrozek (unregistered)

    I can't figure out if the Verizon WTF is supposed to be the negative payment or the table with #MIN, #DATA, #BAL. Either way, not a WTF at all, somebody just doesn't understand how to read their bill

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to Rancid-tea
    As far as Verizon billing goes (and any other service provider I've ever worked with), if you ask them "How much will I be billed for this service?" the representative you speak will should be able to very accurately tell you exactly how much will show up on your bill (excluding overage) every month. Most people just ask "How much does this cost?" to which they usually reply the advertised price.

    Actually, I've asked an AT&T Rep how much my monthly bill would be and they could not for the life of me give me a straight answer.

    They promised and promised that the fees would "not be over 10 dollars" but I wanted an exact amount and they kept repeating the 10 dollar thing time and time again.

  • Mark (unregistered)

    Dang, for a second there I thought they were showing us that George finally got his money back!

    http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/2006/12/verizon-doesnt-know-dollars-from-cents.html

  • (cs)

    Why does the beer look like one of those aliens from "Alien" the movie is poping out of it? Is it made of acid?

  • Ken B (unregistered)

    I, too, see no WTF on the Verizon bill.

    If it was supposed to be the fine print, I would have expected a more legible image. But, in any case, any wireless bill will include such language. ("Sure, we advertise $39.95, but that doesn't include taxes, fees, surchages, the CEO's salary, postage, handling, and any 'we felt like it' extras.") As for what the actual bill will be, just ask the sales rep, and they should be able to tell you. Before switching to Verizon FiOS internet, which they were offering for a discount if you bundled it Verizon long distance, I called their sales line and asked flat out "what will the monthly bill be". (I needed to know the actual amount, to see if the more-expensive [but unlimited domestic] long distance service, combined with the discounted Internet, would be less than the current phone and Internet providers. It was.) The sales rep typed something into her computer and she gave me an actual "your monthly bill would be" answer.

    If the WTF is supposed to be the "#MIN+SEND" items at the top, there's nothing wrong there, either. You type "#MIN" and press the SEND button to get the number of minutes used.

    If it's the negative number for the payment, that's standard as well.

    Can someone please ask Adam K. what the WTF is?

  • unklegwar (unregistered)

    There's no WTF in that verizon bill. the WTF is in the submitter not understanding his bill.

    captcha: ideo....as in ideot.

  • Dave (unregistered)

    I think the WTF with the Verizon bill is that above each #MIN+SEND, #DATA+SEND, and #BAL+SEND, there is Get Minutes Used, Get Data Used, and Get Balance, rather than anything feasibly useful.

  • James (unregistered)

    Add another vote to "where's the beef" on the Verizon bill.

    On the subject of hidden fees -- I used to get outraged about stuff like that, but on my current (T-Mobile USA) bill, it adds up to something like a buck fifty a month, which really isn't that bad. I guess it still ought to bug me... I mean, when I buy a bag of pretzels, they don't tack on the cost of emissions compliance at the factory and shipping and marketing and federal health inspections as separate line items. Then again, I'm paying a lot less even after fees than the posted price for similar plans from other carriers, so I can't complain too much.

  • (cs) in reply to JB
    JB:
    I don't quite get what's the WTF with the Verizon bill.
    It's pretty clear, actually.

    He was going to use the "Super Savings" on Tui Bottles to pay off his Verizon bill.

  • (cs) in reply to ParkinT
    ParkinT:
    If you read all of the 'fine print' on the Verizon Bill, they have the right to pass on to you their COSTs OF DOING BUSINESS!

    Uhh, yes, that's how the relationship between every business and its customers works. You, the customer, pay ALL their costs of doing business - the advertising, the wages, the office rental, the raw materials and tooling and manufacture, the LOT! And then they try and hide it from you by adding it into the price of the goods or services you buy from them! They must obviously have something to hide if they're trying to conceal it from you like that!

    If you think that's bad, wait until you hear about a thing called "profit". That also gets passed on to you and it's NOT EVEN A COST OF DOING BUSINESS! They're just taking money for nothing at all! O NOES!!!!1!!!

  • (cs)

    Ok, the WTF is this: the guy sees a "payment", and it has a negative sign, so he thinks this means they're saying he paid negative money, which would add up to them paying him.

    Of course, that means that another WTF is that he doesn't also complain about the balance being plus eighty dollars, and ask why the phone company owes him eighty dollars. But then again, that would have cancelled out his main WTF, because it would have explained why they were giving him the eighty bucks they owed him.

    The bill makes sense if you say that the amount is +80 and -80 was added to it, or the amount is -80 and +80 was added to it; the only difference is whether you're looking at it as written from Verizon's point of view or the OP's point of view, which swaps round the signs as it swaps round what is a credit and what is a debt.

    And TRWTF is the OP, because his complaint is that he expects them, rather than sticking to one POV or the other, to swap POV on every alternate line of the bill, so that they can have two amounts of plus eighty that somehow manage to add up to zero.

  • (cs)

    I must agree with some of the other commenters here; there doesn't seem to be any wtf with the Verizon bill. Certainly nothing funny or unusual.

  • Jim (unregistered) in reply to Flash
    Flash:
    Just try to get a look at any Verizon contract before you sign up. They won't let you see the contract until after you agree to take the service.

    You have to sign it, smart guy.

  • Hmmmm... (unregistered)

    Is the Verizon WTF the fact that they are sending him a bill for $0? If so, that's silly, but it happens all the time...

  • Derek Hartley (unregistered)

    Doesn't really solve the WTF but I found:

    '2 FAST 2 FURIOUS ** (2003) Paul Walker, DO NOT USE. Two friends and a U.S. customs agent try to nail a criminal. 'PG-13' LAV (CC) (120 min.) (USA: Sat 11 am, 11 pm) '

    at http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/television/stories/DN-tvmovies_0120gl.State.Edition1.150496f.html

    I wonder who lifted who's text first.

  • Barry (unregistered)

    The phone bill WTF is the MIN + SEND statements, surely.

    The "Previous statements" section of my UK phone bill has that kind of 0 total all the time, it's to show you that you owed x amount, you paid x amount, and now nothing is carried forward to your next bill.

  • (cs) in reply to Jim
    Jim:
    Flash:
    Just try to get a look at any Verizon contract before you sign up. They won't let you see the contract until after you agree to take the service.

    You have to sign it, smart guy.

    Nope. You don't sign it. You just get it. And you've likely dropped your previous service in anticipation of the new service. Only then do you notice the fees it'll take to drop the new service if you object to the hidden charges. Even if you can convince them that you shouldn't have to pay the $149-$199 cancelation fee, you still have to go through the trouble/expense to renew your old service.

    The fair thing would be to tell you what it costs up front. Showing you the contract in advance accomplishes that function very nicely.

  • Anonymous Cow-herd (unregistered) in reply to Jim
    Jim:
    Flash:
    Just try to get a look at any Verizon contract before you sign up. They won't let you see the contract until after you agree to take the service.

    You have to sign it, smart guy.

    TRWTF is not knowing you don't have to sign a contract. Search for "manifestation of assent" and "implied in fact".

  • (cs) in reply to Flash

    Of course you sign it. A contract isn't really valid in the US unless you sign it. I had to sign my Cingular contract before my service could start... not that I read it all.

  • Hmmmm... (unregistered) in reply to Barry
    The phone bill WTF is the MIN + SEND statements, surely.

    To get my minutes-used with Verizon, I open my phone, dial '#', then 'M', then 'I', then 'N', and then I hit the send button.

    If the way the bill is written now is a WTF, how should it be correctly rendered?

  • Anon Fred (unregistered) in reply to Heron
    Heron:
    Of course you sign it. A contract isn't really valid in the US unless you sign it. I had to sign my Cingular contract before my service could start... not that I read it all.
    A contract generally requires offer & acceptance, consideration, capacity, and intention to be bound. Signing a piece of paper is not required.
  • Jeff Rife (unregistered) in reply to Ken B
    Ken B:
    Before switching to Verizon FiOS internet, which they were offering for a discount if you bundled it Verizon long distance, I called their sales line and asked flat out "what will the monthly bill be". The sales rep typed something into her computer and she gave me an actual "your monthly bill would be" answer.
    Unless it's different where you live, the reason the FIOS quote was easy is that what they quote is what you pay.

    The first ads I saw for the service I have (Business FIOS with 5 static IPs) quoted $99/month, and that was exactly what my bill was. I increased the speed recently and their ads, web page, and CSR all said $139/month, and that's the exact bill.

    There may be taxes, fees, etc., as part of that bill, but it's not itemized out like the "CEO needs a new pair of shoes" fees on cell phone and cable bills.

  • (cs) in reply to Hmmmm...
    Hmmmm...:
    Is the Verizon WTF the fact that they are sending him a bill for $0? If so, that's silly, but it happens all the time...

    It's probably a joke WTF -- we're meant to laugh AT Adam K rather than WITH Adam K.

    Here's how I know: usually the descriptive sentence preceding and Error'd is related to the joke, but this one just says, "Adam K shared this bill with us." No joke in the description -> no WTF in the Error'd.

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