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I'm starting to think it's wise to call a business's support line before ever doing business with them. Actual human immediately? You're at the top of the list.

I'm starting to think it's wise to call a business's support line before ever doing business with them. Actual human immediately? You're at the top of the list. Phone menu labyrinth followed by a human? Ok, fine. Chatbot? Eliminated from contention.

ChicknNuggt 4mo ago
At the rate that we are going. No companies would have humans at the end
anon7000 4mo ago
Phone menu labyrinth is worse than chatbot in some cases. Depends on the phone menu and the chatbot.
- ArcHound 4mo ago
  I saw a game, where you played as a poor Soviet soldier that accidentally sent nukes to USA. To save the world, you had to navigate a phone call labyrinth to alert USA defense systems for missile interception. I haven't laughed that much in a hot minute.
  - computerfriend 4mo ago
    Do you have a link? Would play.
  - rahimnathwani 4mo ago
    https://papercookies.itch.io/coldline https://papercookies.itch.io/coldline
jsbg 4mo ago
That was a scene in The Office. The salesmen phone the cheaper competitor's customer service while on a sales call to let them see how long they would wait on hold if they needed support. That said, I had an experience recently where the chatbot replaced the phone tree that led to a human and it was very helpful.
- ryukoposting 4mo ago
  Chatbots seem to work fine as long as your request is on the happy path. Call your bank to get a cashier's check? Great. Call your bank because the cashier's check never arrived in the mail, and you need to recover the money, but you closed the account the check originally came from? Forget it.
  - ben_w 4mo ago
    TBH, this is also my experience with humans. Spent about 18-24 months with E.ON trying to convince them that the street they'd sent the bills to didn't exist. Eventually had to contact the Ombudsman. And E.ON don't even have the worst reputation for customer service in their domain.
shepherdjerred 4mo ago
The issue is that companies will be acquired/cut costs
vdfs 4mo ago
You would be speaking to an AI instead of chatting with it

ChicknNuggt 4mo ago

At the rate that we are going. No companies would have humans at the end

anon7000 4mo ago

Phone menu labyrinth is worse than chatbot in some cases. Depends on the phone menu and the chatbot.

ArcHound 4mo ago
I saw a game, where you played as a poor Soviet soldier that accidentally sent nukes to USA. To save the world, you had to navigate a phone call labyrinth to alert USA defense systems for missile interception. I haven't laughed that much in a hot minute.
- computerfriend 4mo ago
  Do you have a link? Would play.
- rahimnathwani 4mo ago
  https://papercookies.itch.io/coldline https://papercookies.itch.io/coldline

jsbg 4mo ago

That was a scene in The Office. The salesmen phone the cheaper competitor's customer service while on a sales call to let them see how long they would wait on hold if they needed support. That said, I had an experience recently where the chatbot replaced the phone tree that led to a human and it was very helpful.

ryukoposting 4mo ago
Chatbots seem to work fine as long as your request is on the happy path. Call your bank to get a cashier's check? Great. Call your bank because the cashier's check never arrived in the mail, and you need to recover the money, but you closed the account the check originally came from? Forget it.
- ben_w 4mo ago
  TBH, this is also my experience with humans. Spent about 18-24 months with E.ON trying to convince them that the street they'd sent the bills to didn't exist. Eventually had to contact the Ombudsman. And E.ON don't even have the worst reputation for customer service in their domain.

shepherdjerred 4mo ago

The issue is that companies will be acquired/cut costs

vdfs 4mo ago

You would be speaking to an AI instead of chatting with it