I read a book about this. Those "natural voice" answering 'bots aren't even AI as defined by the 'bot makers. They just have programed human response interpretation, and are as idiotic as their designers. The person who actually knows your answer is very expensive, and the humans who don't and leave you on hold for half an hour while "asking the supervisor" are worse because they don't have have good natural language processing.

The ones called AI are supposed to be able to look at all your data, both recorded within the company, and in the public 'net space, and use it to figure out what you need quickly, or suggest they get a more knowledgeable human to help. But while those systems are currently in use, they're expensive and require a complete reworking of the entire company, so don't expect them to knock the menu 'bots out soon. They also "learn" from other computers and are very bad judges of the quality of information. They will be taking over and you'll be nostalgic for the bad menu 'bots, which are at least limited to options that are relevant to the task or company.

Real AI can think for itself. It may find us irrelevant.

But rant away. I have been known to throw the phone, so please know, I feel yuor pain...

So sick of bots and AI. If I have bothered to dial the phone, I couldn't do it online. And neither one of the other earlier listed things can possibly help me. I'm thinking ugly words I can't post. Darn them?

I spent one hour 45 minutes with a Verizon bot to make a change that would have taken 5 minutes with a real live person.

It's an even worse event if you're calling Social Security or an insurance company for medi-medi, doing a favor for a friend (and not realizing how much of a time suck it would be) to get not only to a real life person, BUT TO GET TO THE RIGHT PERSON! So much time on hold, but thankfully I can put the "hold" time on speaker so I won't miss whenever anyone actually answers the phone.

Smiles,

Sooz

I suffered with that frustration just today with my electricity utility. None of the options in the nested menu addressed my issue and hold time for a real person was in excess of 60 minutes. I gave up because what I needed wasn’t that critical.

I’ve been on hold with the IRS for 2.5 or 3 hours before. Like you, I put the phone on speaker and pray that my battery holds out.

The one that irks me the most is when I have to phone my phone company, Frontier. Early in the dreadful menu they want to send me a text--I'm calling from a land line!. They're the PHONE company and they bill me monthly for that number! Next stupidest thing they do is when I have to call from a neighbor's house because my phone is out, the recording instructs me to phone from the number I'm having the problem with--my home phone. Good grief!

Laceyvail, have you tried going via the phone company's website? (I'm assuming you have a computer since you're on this site.) Ours has an easy step by step fault reporting procedure and they give you updates on the progress they're making with your problem.

FWIW, I understand most of this is on purpose. Cable companies do not want customers to change anything - except for upgrades, and ditto for phone co.s. They apparently count on people giving up in frustration, therefore maintaining the status quo.

The other part is that one of the worst jobs for burnout and turnover is being a human customer service rep. - it's a thankless and abusive existence, mostly, so companies are having a very hard time filling these jobs.

I imagin this is true, Carol. By the time I actually get a human I am beyond exaspirated, and I have to excuse my irritation from dealing with the AI… or they’d hangup on me… and I’d have to start over. 😱

Hughesnet The worst. Long long menu and wanting you to call from your home phone which you are reporting not working. When you do get a person. You have to start from the beginning as they see NOTHING you have already entered. Their English is poor and often misunderstood. After a 10 day outage I finally got the name of their "authorized repair center" in another state who says they do not have a technician to come to Michigan. We fixed the corroded cable ourselves which "voided our warrantee". Ha Ha like they were going to repair it in the first place. I am still trying to get credit on my bill for 10 days of no phone or internet. They just pretend not to understand and give me half hour holds.

ETA: I had an online chat with them today and they have refunded a portion of my money.

Why is this in the cooking forum?

Rant away -- I totally feel your pain.

The worst for me is calling the cable company. When I finally do get through to a person, (because yea over-the-line reboot isn't going to work if the manual reboot I just did doesn't work...duh) it's usually an overseas person. The problem with the overseas people is they work off a script and a script only -- it's obvious. If what you want or need doesn't fit the script...good luck. I swear I've felt my BP going to stroke levels I've gotten so angry and have waited so long for something that should be easy to understand and resolve but didn't fit the script they have to work from. I had to call a couple weeks ago and by some stroke of luck got through to someone in the U.S. -- she was a joy to speak with and took care of the problem lickety-split, someone was out that morning and fixed the equipment problem. I told her I enjoyed speaking with her and I was glad to have someone based in the U.S.

Why we revere the idea of businesses saving money by having fewer and fewer actual employees is rather odd. Who is going to pay for their goods and services if not real humans, and if so, how are we supposed to make a living? I spent quite a bit of time in the checkout lane yesterday at the grocery, (only two lanes open in a huge store with actual humans so I thought the "next in line" moment at the auto checkout was a plus, ha ha), trying to solve problems created by the automatic checkout machine--charging me twice for the bananas and then not being willing to go on because it couldn't prove to itself it was a real mistake, and then not taking off the advertised discount on another item. AI either doesn't recognize its mistakes, or makes up carp to get around them. No wonder stores are having such a problem with people stealing stuff . . . And the poor "manager" at the store was super busy and the lines at the store got longer and longer, and it was totally not her fault. The person who was overseeing the auto checkout had no ability to problem solve, always had to ask her. So even the human had almost zero skill or true wisdom/problem solving ability. And the disabled women at the next machine was having problem after problem because her son who was helping her couldn't figure out how to do the checkout. He wasn't that bright and either forgot to scan items or forgot to put them at the end where they could get weighed. My husband couldn't believe anyone could be "that dumb" which is kind of the way the AI programmers think, they assume all humans are like them in experience and perception.

If AIs are persistent in their inability to do as asked or go beyond their programing, then do we humans finally give up and leave them to their mistake?

I'd like to know a 'short-cut' past the AI. It used to be that all you had to do was dial zero and it would go to a human. Doesn't work anymore most of the time.

In the book about "AI", the author talked about how important it was to have a human in charge and that the AI's programming was supposed to pass you to the human superior if it didn't know how to help you. But the book also stressed that the 'bots we're talking about in this thread are not even close to the "AI" currently being purveyed. They're just SOS made by lazy humans.

Kate, I've found in a case like that, that if I just keep angrily punching the 0 button so the 'bot can't get a word in it'll eventually pass me to a decent human.

I realize that we're all in thrall to different companies, but FWIW, if I don't say anything in answer to the robot questions, IMPE, I'm usually told I'll be connected to a representative...

I can’t remember who I called to deal with a problem, but I got so frustrated with the automated, multilayered menu that didn’t have an option that applied to me that I started yelling ”real human” into the phone over and over. To my surprise, a real person finally came on the line. I wish I could remember what company that was…maybe American Express.

Carol, I’ve had the bot hang up on me when I gave no response, or if I tried the old 0 trick.

Fu2Bhere, this seems to be the only way to eventually get a human being. it’s too bad because it makes me not like their company and not want to deal with them. but, I feel I have no choice becaue they are all going to this.

Plllog, The bots have hung up on me when I just kept hitting the O.

Ugh!!