Before I get even more confused than I already am, could one
of you gentles perhaps enlighten me?
I placed a rather large FAX order with TRF the other day. I
spent a not inconsiderable amount of time calculating my cost,
and was a bit confused by the discrepancies I found. I will
elaborate:
I ordered, let's say, $1,164.77 worth of stuff. With the 12%
discount the sale flyer claims for fax orders, that came to
$1025 ($1024.99, but a penny I can deal with). When I got my
confirmation back from TRF, the order was, due to price list
changes $1160.76 (I saved money on that deal), and the
discount amount was $134.79. Total cost 1025.97.
I'm confused. How can my gross be less, but my discounted be
more? I do the math, and see that the discount they gave me
is actually 11.61%. So I call the customer service desk, and
I say HuH? (I'm not upset about the $.97, here, I'm just not
sure that the universe hasn't gone off and left me somewhere).
The kind gentleman at TRF explains that it's not _12%_, it's
10% and then 2% more. (That's not what the flyer says, but I
thank him, and feeling that the universe is once again
spinning in its intended path, I trundle home.) As I'm
walking in the door my brain, which like Lauri Anderson's
often annoys me with little pieces of information I didn't
really need or want, says "Now wait a minute. Last time _I_
took algebra, .90*.98 was .882 (or 11.8% discount). And
before you say it, multiplication is still commutative".
My brain is right, and I'm still confused. I don't really care
about the difference in the money, but does anyone know how they're
really computing this stuff??
- MM
P.S. Please, if you're going to rag on me for griping about
$0.97, don't bother. I'm not bitching about TRF, and
I'm not trying to portray them in a bad light. I'm
just trying to make at least one corner of my existence
internally self-consistent. You may not appreciate that,
but it can mean an awful lot to some people.
--
passaretti@crd.ge.com {whatever}!crdgw1!brahe!passaret
mrmike@fasun0.ae.ge.com {whatever}!crdgw1!copernicus!fasun0!mrmike
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