You all know the commercial… “All calls up to twenty minutes for only $0.99… and only $0.05 per minute after that”
So, let me get this straight…
If I made four phone calls each lasting just under 5 minutes, I would only have to pay $0.99 for these calls? If I made twenty calls that each lasted just under a minute, I would also have to pay only $0.99, right?
The word “All” is a collective.
The word “calls” is plural.
You figure it out…
Shouldn’t somebody force them to say what they mean? Shouldn’t they have to say “Any call up to twenty minutes for only $0.99… and only $0.05 per minute after that”
And even then it might not be 99¢ for each call under 20 minutes. I forgot which company operates that service but they’ll switch you to their main service if all those 99¢ circuits are busy. This would result in bills much higher than 99¢, especially if the parent company (whatever it is) isn’t your default long distance carrier.
Jeff: I’m pretty sure that’s not legal. At any rate (heh heh), you’re not actually making the long distance call itself from your phone number–you’re using your phone number to connect to one of those 1010xxx services.
bgillingham, is English your first language? The way you parse sentences is rather… unique.
Let’s say there’s a sign outside a movie theater that says “All moviegoers under 18 pay $5”
I would interpret that to mean that each individual under 18 pays $5, not that a gigantic group of under 18 years old get in for $5.
Similarly, when I hear “All calls up to 20 minutes cost 99 cents”, I interpret that as meaning each individual call up to 20 minutes costs me 99 cents. I don’t think that I can add together numerous calls and only pay 99 cents for all of them.
Sorry – I am a software engineer. Funny that you said I “parsed” my sentences – I have done my fair share of parsing. Maybe I take things too literally.
I only think that what they say “All calls up to twenty minutes…” could be literally translated to my first interpretation.
Lets not forget that they say “…for only…” rather than “pays” which makes your example almost crystal clear.
Wouldn’t you be more correct to say “Any moviegoer under 18 for only $5”??? This is surely more correct than “All moviegoers under 18 for only $5”.
If I said “All frenchfries you can eat in twenty minutes for $0.99” would that make it clearer? I can eat one frenchfry, but then am I done - and I’d have to pay?
You’re right. There is great potential for confusion here. They should have worded it as:
“Let C be the set of all calls made using this service, let P be the mapping from C into the positive real numbers such that ul( c ∈ C ⇒ P(c) = <the cost of c in dollars> ),[/ul] and let L be the mapping from C into the positive real numbers such that ul( c ∈ C ⇒ L(c) = <the length of c in minutes> ).[/ul] Then ul( [ ( c ∈ C & L(c) ≤ 20 ) ⇒ C(c) = 0.99 ] & [ ( c ∈ C & L(c) > 20 ) ⇒ C(c) = 0.99 + 0.5 (L(c) - 20) ] ).”[/ul]
That way, everyone would understand just what they are claiming.
My thoughts exactly. Where could be confusion in this possibly be? What is so misleading? If it lasts anywhere from a nanosecond to 20 minutes, it’s 99cents. So if you’re not sure if your pal is home, call with a regular long distance carrier first, then say “I’ll call you right back” and use 10-10-whatever. Or do what I do when you get the answering machine and leave a 20 minute message (or until the tape runs out)
