5 ms·

I have never met a chat bot that worked. I try the same question worded 6 different ways, I try asking it to connect me to an actual fucking human being. If it

I have never met a chat bot that worked. I try the same question worded 6 different ways, I try asking it to connect me to an actual fucking human being. If it even does I still get stuck in a choice menu at first, which half of the time tells me that I can get help with this via their chat bots and disconnects. Fuck chat bots and the money-saving horse they rode in on.

vendiddy 3y ago
This exactly. I want a solution to my problem. If an AI can help me, great. But it's not even close to a human level of service yet. So I'll always try to get to a human ASAP knowing the AI will just waste my time.
TylerE 3y ago
They combine the charm and brevity of telephone voice recognition with the text parsing power of a knock-off early 90s adventure game.
- benj111 3y ago
  Now you're just making it sound cooler than it actually is.
blitzar 3y ago
Amazon. My personal best time for a full refund was slightly under 2 minutes. It may be that having a long standing account, not claiming every delivery has been "lost" and rarely returning products makes me appear unlikely to be the usual customer asking for a refund.
- hifromLA 3y ago
  If I’m not mistaken Amazon basically has a reputation for customers that is intended to penalize bad actors (and conversely reward good actors).
  - blitzar 3y ago
    They have reputation metrics for the speed which someone walks around the warehouse picking stuff off shelves and the speed with which they use a bathroom (I assume using the toilet fast is prefered but washing the hands fast would be penalised). I also suspect that the majority of refund requests are fraudlent, so if they dont have a reputation scoring system for their customers they are stupid.
- AllegedAlec 3y ago
  My experience with that is the opposite. Bought inks, one bottle arrived broken. Took me a few hours to get through to a place where I could put my complaint. Side note: after that they became even more useless. "Please mail the item back to us." Yeah no sure I'll mail you the shards of the broken bottle and a puddle of drying ink.
  - nucleardog 3y ago
    Had the same thing with some lotion. Played dumb and contacted them again the next day and told them I put it back in the box and took it to the post office but they refused to take the package because they said you can’t ship leaking things. Asked them what they wanted me to do now. They told me not to ship it and refunded it.
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    Meanwhile buying from the sketchiest possible "this official Arduino is 12 cents" sellers, I have lost $4 I spent on a bluetooth dongle that the "company" selling it disappeared a day after, but every other interaction, the sellers will jump over themselves to convince you to rate them higher than their competition. I had what I thought was a tiny drop shipper send me a double order because they were concerned I wouldn't get the product in time (like a day late on a 4 day shipping window, for free shipping) without me even complaining. Hell, they do this even though ebay probably lists me as a terrible buyer because I never add seller feedback.
- Tempest1981 3y ago
  Does having "Prime" give you better support, I wonder? (Do you have it?)
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > It may be that having a long standing account, not claiming every delivery has been "lost" and rarely returning products makes me appear unlikely to be the usual customer asking for a refund. Being that sort of customer certainly didn't get Amazon to treat me decently.
- justin66 3y ago
  > It may be that having a long standing account, not claiming every delivery has been "lost" and rarely returning products makes me appear unlikely to be the usual customer asking for a refund. You had a request that was simple enough and common enough the bot's design took it fully into account.

vendiddy 3y ago

This exactly. I want a solution to my problem. If an AI can help me, great. But it's not even close to a human level of service yet. So I'll always try to get to a human ASAP knowing the AI will just waste my time.

TylerE 3y ago

They combine the charm and brevity of telephone voice recognition with the text parsing power of a knock-off early 90s adventure game.

benj111 3y ago
Now you're just making it sound cooler than it actually is.

blitzar 3y ago

Amazon. My personal best time for a full refund was slightly under 2 minutes. It may be that having a long standing account, not claiming every delivery has been "lost" and rarely returning products makes me appear unlikely to be the usual customer asking for a refund.

hifromLA 3y ago
If I’m not mistaken Amazon basically has a reputation for customers that is intended to penalize bad actors (and conversely reward good actors).
- blitzar 3y ago
  They have reputation metrics for the speed which someone walks around the warehouse picking stuff off shelves and the speed with which they use a bathroom (I assume using the toilet fast is prefered but washing the hands fast would be penalised). I also suspect that the majority of refund requests are fraudlent, so if they dont have a reputation scoring system for their customers they are stupid.
AllegedAlec 3y ago
My experience with that is the opposite. Bought inks, one bottle arrived broken. Took me a few hours to get through to a place where I could put my complaint. Side note: after that they became even more useless. "Please mail the item back to us." Yeah no sure I'll mail you the shards of the broken bottle and a puddle of drying ink.
- nucleardog 3y ago
  Had the same thing with some lotion. Played dumb and contacted them again the next day and told them I put it back in the box and took it to the post office but they refused to take the package because they said you can’t ship leaking things. Asked them what they wanted me to do now. They told me not to ship it and refunded it.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  Meanwhile buying from the sketchiest possible "this official Arduino is 12 cents" sellers, I have lost $4 I spent on a bluetooth dongle that the "company" selling it disappeared a day after, but every other interaction, the sellers will jump over themselves to convince you to rate them higher than their competition. I had what I thought was a tiny drop shipper send me a double order because they were concerned I wouldn't get the product in time (like a day late on a 4 day shipping window, for free shipping) without me even complaining. Hell, they do this even though ebay probably lists me as a terrible buyer because I never add seller feedback.
Tempest1981 3y ago
Does having "Prime" give you better support, I wonder? (Do you have it?)
JohnFen 3y ago
> It may be that having a long standing account, not claiming every delivery has been "lost" and rarely returning products makes me appear unlikely to be the usual customer asking for a refund. Being that sort of customer certainly didn't get Amazon to treat me decently.
justin66 3y ago
> It may be that having a long standing account, not claiming every delivery has been "lost" and rarely returning products makes me appear unlikely to be the usual customer asking for a refund. You had a request that was simple enough and common enough the bot's design took it fully into account.