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I was usually able to get through a human operator on the biggest fintech in my country by starting every conversation on their website chatbox with "I want to

I was usually able to get through a human operator on the biggest fintech in my country by starting every conversation on their website chatbox with "I want to talk to a human being". Well, last week I had a problem that needed to be solved, and guess what, my "magic" phrase resulted in "human assistants are only available on business days, 9 to 5... the problem is, it was Monday 10AM. And the same happened on Tuesday. And my problem still isn't solved. So I believe they're phasing out the human part of their customer service. And I'll probably be phasing out the customer part of our relationship very soon if these shenaningans persist.

alsetmusic 3y ago
> And I'll probably be phasing out the customer part of our relationship very soon if these shenaningans persist. And over time, all banks will adopt these technologies and the market won't give you a choice. This is the hell we live in.
madphilosopher 3y ago
First, they phase out the service part of "customer service." Then, the customer part falls away naturally. Or, at least, that's what we would hope for.
ericmcer 3y ago
They have to keep a human element, there is no way they can give the chatbot authority to do things like reset passwords, add users to accounts, issue refunds, etc. If they do that will be a hilarious attack vector for companies.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > no way they can give the chatbot authority to do things like reset passwords, add users to accounts, issue refunds, etc. Plenty of companies have zero human support. The shitty solution is to just refuse to do those things. Lost your password and back-up codes? Create a new account. Need a refund? Contact the vendor.
- jstarfish 3y ago
  > If they do that will be a hilarious attack vector for companies. I used to think that before realizing it's only going to be customers that will suffer. When someone does something that affects your account, now you're sucked into this vortex of virtual despair. AI representatives just drown complainants in hallucinated bureaucracy. It is an illusion of service. I think we'll have to start bypassing it altogether and just taking companies to small claims court (or even arbitration) to compel human intervention. Maybe AI can help customers with that.
- kikokikokiko 3y ago
  My specific problem involved options trading, raising margins and enabling weekly options on my account. And there's no way the stupid chatbot can solve it for me. I always was able to have my issues fixed in a matter of minutes when dealing with a human operator on this specific fintech. Now it seems my use case it too niche for them to give a flying fu#k about my problem. They will probably lose me as a client, and I'm pretty sure I'm in the top 10%, maybe 5% of their clients in terms of funds alocated. If they are willing to alienate a guy like me, what chance does a small client have to talk to any human being on this company?

alsetmusic 3y ago

> And I'll probably be phasing out the customer part of our relationship very soon if these shenaningans persist. And over time, all banks will adopt these technologies and the market won't give you a choice. This is the hell we live in.

madphilosopher 3y ago

First, they phase out the service part of "customer service." Then, the customer part falls away naturally. Or, at least, that's what we would hope for.

ericmcer 3y ago

They have to keep a human element, there is no way they can give the chatbot authority to do things like reset passwords, add users to accounts, issue refunds, etc. If they do that will be a hilarious attack vector for companies.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> no way they can give the chatbot authority to do things like reset passwords, add users to accounts, issue refunds, etc. Plenty of companies have zero human support. The shitty solution is to just refuse to do those things. Lost your password and back-up codes? Create a new account. Need a refund? Contact the vendor.
jstarfish 3y ago
> If they do that will be a hilarious attack vector for companies. I used to think that before realizing it's only going to be customers that will suffer. When someone does something that affects your account, now you're sucked into this vortex of virtual despair. AI representatives just drown complainants in hallucinated bureaucracy. It is an illusion of service. I think we'll have to start bypassing it altogether and just taking companies to small claims court (or even arbitration) to compel human intervention. Maybe AI can help customers with that.
kikokikokiko 3y ago
My specific problem involved options trading, raising margins and enabling weekly options on my account. And there's no way the stupid chatbot can solve it for me. I always was able to have my issues fixed in a matter of minutes when dealing with a human operator on this specific fintech. Now it seems my use case it too niche for them to give a flying fu#k about my problem. They will probably lose me as a client, and I'm pretty sure I'm in the top 10%, maybe 5% of their clients in terms of funds alocated. If they are willing to alienate a guy like me, what chance does a small client have to talk to any human being on this company?