Member-only story
Talking to Customer Service BOTs Makes Me Want to Seek Therapy
Has anyone ever had a pleasant experience?
It all began two weeks ago. I had a big problem with a shipping company's website and could not print labels for a pickup.
At first, I blamed myself. Maybe I fat-fingered the address or clicked the wrong box. Possible, my browser was at fault or had trouble with the security changes made on the company network.
Upon resubmitting my webform, I got the same response: 'we're sorry, we cannot process your request due to an account problem, please try again later.'
I used my account two days prior and had no reason to suspect any trouble.
After exhausting all online avenues, it became evident; I needed to talk to someone in Customer Service. I don’t like calling customer service phone lines because I have to talk to the BOT before getting to a human.
Customer BOT screening works okay when a problem is obvious. But when a problem defies standard logic, and the error code is inconclusive, the BOTs can't deal with it.
"Hello, how may I help you?" the women's voice said.
"Are you a human?" I always ask.
