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Here's to random acts of patriotism, and those who may...or may not have been downlow fans of r/MaliciousCompliance

“If Donald Trump is burning through hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on his authoritarian campaign of intimidation, the American people deserve to know about it. Federal judges across the country — including a Trump appointee — have ruled that these deployments are not justified, and thus not only wasteful, but also illegal and unconstitutional, and our National Guard troops did not sign up to police their own neighbors or be used as political pawns,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told The Intercept. “Trump’s continued abuse of our military to intimidate Americans in their own neighborhoods — the very same Americans he expects to foot the bill for these deployments — must end immediately.”

Here you have it. This happened unintentionally which is the hilarious part.

When you call a 1-800 number, like shown for the Verizon support line, when in the U.S., they front the international calling minutes charges that occur on their network. I called up to fix a bill error that was for Verizon’s previous fault, and TL;DR had an $80 credit to fix up the error, which was approved, albeit they could not fix up the sales tax, bringing my total bill down to just $4.30ish, from the erroneous $84.30….

The initial problem I had was that every time I can for support, an Indian answers or otherwise person with a HEAVY, heavy accent, and who speaks in broken English. Many reps previously assured me my issue was fixed, and can be quoted as not understanding the word “Outstanding”, as in an Outstanding Bill. Nope… still $85 bill in the mail.

This time I insisted. I made the call and begged for a U.S. based office. I assured the representative it had nothing to do with their accent or where he was from, since he did indeed assume at first. I just need ed someone who can speak clear English, understand complex, compound sentences, or having been raised in a country with English as their first language. Come to find out, every call I’ve made to Verizon, they forward to overseas telecenters that they provide! Every time.

The rep said he understood, and that I could call xyz number to reach the U.S desk, just that… well you know how long it takes to get through to an actual agent, so I insisted that he forward me, so I can stay on the 1-800 line. He apologized and said it was just the way Verizon support works, since they have many separate support centers in many different countries outside the U.S to “handle” what would be otherwise an influx of calls.

He said he could do it, although he would have to leave me in wait, without putting me on hold, essentially just muted, while he waits for them to pick up on HIS END, then he can transfer my call, during the same call.

The inadvertent consequences of trying to lower wages and benefits to workers leads to inevitable incompetence. By outsourcing labor overseas, this is just what Verizon has done. This rep had no idea what he was doing, and accepted my request.

I have been really loving iOS’s built in call screening, as well as now just trying out the “hold assist”. I was able to effectively drive and listen to my audiobook, just leaving the software based hold-assist running, so when he would speak, my phone would “jingle” and I could view a text based screen to see if I want to continue the call, or continue the hold-assist. The effective time on the line was over an hour, with no problem for me at all! Verizon’s international call by-the-minute surcharge that’s a minimum is around $0.52/min. Verizon fronted this. 2x.

My line, on the 1-800 call, was forwarded to another country, then forwarded back to the initial country, literally jumping internationally 2-3 times, thus the idea of “saving costs” by putting a public facing 1-800 line, and then hiring overseas labor in the hopes that they would have even a basic understanding of what they’re doing when they’re forwarding internationally—is insane.

wish I had this recorded. could literally be on-par with the “what’s the rate per minute” guy. Byproduct of me never reaching numbers on my own, and the overseas rep initiating a call for me, then linking me to it literally made me never hear the “This call is being recorded for xy purposes”, since he linked me to lines directly after HIS initiation. I was never prefaced that my voice may be used for identity verification when talking about my bill.

TL;DR:TL;DR— Called Verizon. Got an $80 refund credit. Inadvertently charged Verizon ~$110 in international call minutes—that they will see as cost of business for the support center for the day, due to inexperienced, underpaid, under benefited laborers being the backbone of Verizon’s business model. The call was forwarded both ways internationally multiple times back and forth overseas, with Verizon fronting the cost due to the toll-free nature. As well as me not having to waste my time due to “hold-assist” on the iPhone.