When you get poppy hipsters upset, they’re bound to go all sorts of loco on your ass. Take MIA. She recently had a three-hour long customer support call with Verizon, which prompted her to write a new song, titled “I’m Down Like Your Internet Connection.”

The song is set to be part of MIA’s new album, Kala which will be out later this year. For part of the song, MIA got Filipino Verizon employees to sing the hook. “I was having issues with my cable and wireless, and I was on the phone [with tech support] for three hours, and I thought, ‘Maybe this needs to be part of my music, could you just learn these lyrics and sing it down the phone to me?'” she said. “Ten phone calls later, I have Internet that sticks and a song.”

Now you know Verizon. You’ve got some bad publicity in the form of a pop song and your customer support reps aren’t helping your cause.

Source: Rolling Stone

It’s hard to say who to blame for this one. On the one hand, I want to scream at Ted Estarija for not explaining the idea of data charges to his 13 year-old son. Not everyone is as tech savvy as you and me, though. On the other, you have to wonder why no one at Verizon noticed the sudden surge on the account – from zero data to 1.4GB in a month.

Whoever you blame, Ted Estarija still got slapped with a $21,917 bill for the server traffic. In a rare show of understanding, Verizon waived the entire bill. The lesson in all of this? Buy a data plan. That $15/month looks pretty great next to $21,917.

Source: AP