HN Explorer

Irritating conversation with a bot

2 points by ccleve ↗ HN
I went to a site that answers questions about home appliances. Whenever I typed a question into chat, the answer came back instantly. Here's the transcript:

Pearl Wilson, Appliance Technician's Assistant Welcome! How can I help with your appliance question?

You I've get a Creda EDO 212 oven. The lights on the front panel have gone out and the digital clock is dark. Oddly, though, the oven still operates. When I twist either of the front dials to control the top or bottom ovens, the lights next to the dials go on and the oven heats up.

Pearl Wilson, Appliance Technician's Assistant What's the make and model of your oven? And can you guesstimate how old it is?

You Creda EDO 212. Probably 1990's, but I'm not sure. There's no date in the manual.

Pearl Wilson, Appliance Technician's Assistant Do you plan on doing the work yourself?

You Yes

Pearl Wilson, Appliance Technician's Assistant Anything else we should know to help you best?

You Are a bot or an actual person?

Pearl Wilson, Appliance Technician's Assistant I'm an assistant to the Appliance Technician. I work with them to help customers like you.

You So you're a bot.

Pearl Wilson, Appliance Technician's Assistant It makes me sad that you don't believe in me. Maybe I'll be like Tinkerbell and die unless you believe I'm real.

You Fine. How do I fix the problem?

Pearl Wilson, Appliance Technician's Assistant OK. Got it. I'm sending you to a secure page on XXXXXX.com so you can place the $5 fully-refundable deposit now. While you're filling out that form, I'll tell the Appliance Technician about your situation and then connect you two.

Is this our future?

1 comment

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lsiunsuex
People were (still are?) all excited when Facebook announced bots for Messenger; others have followed coming up with their own spin on stuff. To me, it's the same as automated phone systems. The moment I get annoyed, and it's usually after the first 2 prompts, I press 0 in hopes of getting a human.

I'm gonna assume bots are / will be worse; no 0 to press per say.

Customer service is a big expense for companies. Real humans in chairs to answer chat or voice calls can be a big burden on a company. Let's just see if that burden out weights customers not buying their products because of the lack of good customer service.