I appear to be waging a one-woman ’See Something, Say Something’ campaign where I write to companies to register my displeasure when they use AI to enshittify customer service.
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@kimlockhartga @CiaraNi It's funny, the reactions to QR codes. My first reaction was &$%&@#&% kids. Then I started using then. The best part, in my opinion, is that they typically have the specials on that menu and I don't have to listen to a recitation of them. Plus I have the prices for them. However, because of our age, the servers usually ask "Would you prefer a paper menu?"
To the AI, I repeat, over and over again "Agent." Until I get a human. Fuck AI.
@RegGuy @kimlockhartga "To the AI, I repeat, over and over again "Agent." Until I get a human"
If I absolutely cannot get around using an AI chatbot at the start, I do this too. Hating the company and the AI techbros and me, every one of us, as I do it, annoyed at having to degrade myself through the exchange with a bloody machine.
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I was faced with an unpleasant AI customer service bot last week. It cost hours my time, but I know how to work the corporate structure and cost them money.
@dianea It's infuriating. Great if you can waste some of their time and money back on them - good for you!
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@kimlockhartga @CiaraNi
One of my favorite restaurants hands you an old masonite clipboard where the clip has broken, but there's a magnet holding a piece of paper with the day's menu, and sometimes if you turn the paper over, there's often an older menu printed there.They can change things according to availability of ingredients, and even simply cross items off when they run out.
@RealGene @kimlockhartga That sounds like an excellent restaurant. That's how to do it.
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@kimlockhartga @CiaraNi
One of my favorite restaurants hands you an old masonite clipboard where the clip has broken, but there's a magnet holding a piece of paper with the day's menu, and sometimes if you turn the paper over, there's often an older menu printed there.They can change things according to availability of ingredients, and even simply cross items off when they run out.
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@kimlockhartga @RealGene That sounds like such an elegant way to do it.
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@RealGene @kimlockhartga That sounds like an excellent restaurant. That's how to do it.
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@RegGuy @kimlockhartga "To the AI, I repeat, over and over again "Agent." Until I get a human"
If I absolutely cannot get around using an AI chatbot at the start, I do this too. Hating the company and the AI techbros and me, every one of us, as I do it, annoyed at having to degrade myself through the exchange with a bloody machine.
@CiaraNi @kimlockhartga Indeed. I also hate those systems that "assume" to know why I called. "Your balance is ..., the next payment is due on..., your minimum payment is..." No you moron computer, I need to do something you can't do and I know you have a website that can handle most things I need. It can't handle this and neither can you. So give me a &%$@$& human!"
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@kimlockhartga @RealGene That sounds like such an elegant way to do it.
@CiaraNi @RealGene It was significantly ahead of its time, and a little caught up with nouvelle cuisine, but I learned everything I needed to know about wine for the rest of my career. It was valuable experience.
As far as restaurants with menus that change in tandem with seasonably available ingredients, I cannot recommend Aria highly enough, if you ever get to Atlanta. Best restaurant I've ever been to, hands down.
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@CiaraNi @kimlockhartga Indeed. I also hate those systems that "assume" to know why I called. "Your balance is ..., the next payment is due on..., your minimum payment is..." No you moron computer, I need to do something you can't do and I know you have a website that can handle most things I need. It can't handle this and neither can you. So give me a &%$@$& human!"
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@CiaraNi @kimlockhartga Indeed. I also hate those systems that "assume" to know why I called. "Your balance is ..., the next payment is due on..., your minimum payment is..." No you moron computer, I need to do something you can't do and I know you have a website that can handle most things I need. It can't handle this and neither can you. So give me a &%$@$& human!"
@RegGuy @kimlockhartga Same here. I recognise this entire situation. The automated voice trying to send me to Double You Double You Double You Website drives me bananas. I wouldn't be bloody ringing in the first place if their website could provide the answer.
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@CiaraNi @RealGene It was significantly ahead of its time, and a little caught up with nouvelle cuisine, but I learned everything I needed to know about wine for the rest of my career. It was valuable experience.
As far as restaurants with menus that change in tandem with seasonably available ingredients, I cannot recommend Aria highly enough, if you ever get to Atlanta. Best restaurant I've ever been to, hands down.
@kimlockhartga @RealGene That sounds wonderful. Even the name fits the elegance.
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@kimlockhartga @CiaraNi @RealGene My restaurant would be a food truck. If I didn't like my customers I would just drive off. Probably just drive home and order from myself. Now that's customer service.
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@RegGuy @kimlockhartga Same here. I recognise this entire situation. The automated voice trying to send me to Double You Double You Double You Website drives me bananas. I wouldn't be bloody ringing in the first place if their website could provide the answer.
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@kimlockhartga @CiaraNi @RealGene My restaurant would be a food truck. If I didn't like my customers I would just drive off. Probably just drive home and order from myself. Now that's customer service.
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This grumpy thought is brought to you by the fact that I have 3 mails to write after abysmal AI customer experiences this week. On the plus side though, I had a quick & good experience with hands-on human help at my insurance company. I didn’t even have to battle through a phone tree or ’we have a website!' messages to speak to the human in the first place. I want to say something when I see something good, too. To compliment their corporate choices. So I will write a mail of praise to them too.
@CiaraNi Which reminds me of something. About a year ago I needed to sign the electricity bills to me. It wasn't possible to do that on their web service. It wasn't possible to reach a human. And it wasn't possible to get through their AI chatbot. So the only way possible was to change the provider, which was easy and straightforward process. As you can just go to the new provider website, provide all the necessary data, and they handle closing the contract with the previous provider. I thought it was the end of the story.
They - the former operator - have called me a month or two ago. Like, the human has called me. At first they have asked why I have quit. But later in the conversation it became obvious they do not care. It was only an opening line to convince me to get back to them. Which they have utterly failed.
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This grumpy thought is brought to you by the fact that I have 3 mails to write after abysmal AI customer experiences this week. On the plus side though, I had a quick & good experience with hands-on human help at my insurance company. I didn’t even have to battle through a phone tree or ’we have a website!' messages to speak to the human in the first place. I want to say something when I see something good, too. To compliment their corporate choices. So I will write a mail of praise to them too.
Customer service staff must be hit doubly hard by enshittification and AI. Companies use AI in a bid to replace their jobs. The AI is useless and wastes time, so even a placid customer with a benign query will become frustrated and fed-up as they try to battle their way through to a human who can actually help. Customer service was hard enough in advance. It must be harder still these days, when AI has made even the pleasant customers cross before they get through to the human.
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@kimlockhartga @Nead @RealGene Haha, agreed - this is a great and beautifully human business model.
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@kimlockhartga @RegGuy All of this, agreed - and especially this: "When did all the work fall to us?" We need to normalise asking this question aloud and often!
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@CiaraNi Which reminds me of something. About a year ago I needed to sign the electricity bills to me. It wasn't possible to do that on their web service. It wasn't possible to reach a human. And it wasn't possible to get through their AI chatbot. So the only way possible was to change the provider, which was easy and straightforward process. As you can just go to the new provider website, provide all the necessary data, and they handle closing the contract with the previous provider. I thought it was the end of the story.
They - the former operator - have called me a month or two ago. Like, the human has called me. At first they have asked why I have quit. But later in the conversation it became obvious they do not care. It was only an opening line to convince me to get back to them. Which they have utterly failed.
@agturcz That is such a frustrating situation. And so sly. It is utterly depressing, how badly customers are treated these days, and depressing that sea-boiling technology is enabling it to get worse and worse.
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@kimlockhartga @CiaraNi @RegGuy
Our pharmacy calls to tell us our prescriptions are ready to pick up even though they are actually still on the delivery truck and unavailable. It's 12 mile round trip for us every time they do this and they do it a lot.
When they finally do have the prescriptions available, they ask for our address and last four digits of our phone number as the "security questions"
I don't think they're doing the whole pharmacy thing particularly well.
