While I like solving problems, I don’t like solving them more than once. When I solve a problem, it should stay solved.
Which is why I don’t like plumbing. Or software where I don’t have access to really fix the problem.
And today it was software.
We have a program that is normally pretty awesome, but there’s an email problem where it sometimes puts people on a blocked list and then not tell anyone about it. The emails fail, panic ensures – the usual.
The “fix” – if that’s what you can call it – is to contact the company’s support and request that the addresses be taken off the double-top-secret blocked list.
I’ve got a process to identify the problem when it occurs and I know how to report it to get it quickly resolved.
Except not anymore.
The company has added an AI layer to the support process and it is…not great. When prompted, I put in my request knowing full well this was going to fail but not having any other option. And believe me, I looked for any other option.
The bot replies that it isn’t allowed to access user information – big surprise – then asks if that answered my question. (Really?)
I click the No button and it tells me that it is very sorry – and asks me if I would like to contact support.
I tell it yes, and it offers chat, telephone, or email. Since I have 25 addresses that need to be removed from the blocked list, Chat and Phone aren’t going to cut it.
I select Email and it tries to redirect me – and then just sits there spinning. I eventually realize that it’s trying to open a new browser window and I click to allow that. But, by that point, it has forgotten what it was doing and reloads the page I’m on – right up to the point where it tries to hand off to the email support option. I try reloading the chat to get it to trigger again and it keeps getting hung up.
So, I close the entire browser, reopen, log back in, and make my way back to the bot and this time I’m more vague on my request to just get past it. I was tired of playing the game by that point and so was the AI. It replied with “I”m sorry I can’t do that, Dave”. We jump through the hoops again before it finally hands me to the email window.
I put in the request quickly since I’m on familiar ground now and the system opens a ticket.
So, I head over to the ticket system to see if I could have bypassed this by creating a new ticket directly – but, no, I can view and edit (and close! it helpfully notes) tickets, but can’t create them.
I knew the AI couldn’t help and the AI knew it couldn’t help. And I have to imagine the company techs that put this in also knew it couldn’t help.
But here we are. Trying desperately to make AI a useful thing instead of a hindrance or a scam.
I, for one, welcome the inevitable rise of our robot overlords.
But they aren’t here yet.