Talking to machines!

I HAD TO CONTACT THE BANK TO REQUEST A SELECTION OF BANK STATEMENTS
FROM TWO ACCOUNTS.I CONTACTED THE "CUSTOMER SERVICES".THE PHONE RANG,AND A VOICE ASKED ME A FEW QUESTIONS TO SELECT 1,2,3, OPTIONS. I SELECTED OPTION 2. AGAIN THIS (ROBOT) VOICE ASKED ME ,MY ACCOUNT NUMBER.THIS I GAVE ABOUT 3 TIMES BEFORE IT WOULD ACCEPT MY DETAILS.
THE (SIMULATOR VOICE) KEPT SAYING (I DO NOT UNDERSTAND).THAT WAS HURDLE 1. HURDLE 2 ,COULD YOU PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR DATE OF BIRTH?? THE SIMULATOR VOICE SAID,THIS I DID."DID YOU SAY 05? NO I SAID.BY THIS TIME I WAS READY TO THROW THE PHONE OUT THE WINDOW! THEN GREAT RELIEF THE MACHINE PASSED ME ON TO A (HUMAN BEING). WHAT A DIFFERENCE SPEAKING TO A PERSON AND NOT A MACHINE.MY PROBLEM WAS SOLVED IN ABOUT 3 MINUTES . I THINK THEY SHOULD GET ALL THESE ROBOTIC VOICES/MACHINES
AND SEND THEM TO (ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER) IN CALIFORNIA. AND LET US GET BACK TO TALKING TO HUMAN BEINGS. I REALLY FEEL SORRY FOR THE NUMBER OF OLDER PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY ,COMMUNICATION IS GETTING NON EXSISTANT . I ALLWAYS THOUGHT THAT MACHINES WERE MADE TO MAKE LIFE EASIER. WHAT DO YOU THINK? MUSIC:(

 

I think they're rubbish.

Being a computer programmer I know a thing or two about these things, and in my professional opinion speech recognition is not ready for the mainstream. It just isn't good enough. For a speech recognition program to have anything like a decent success rate (and about 90% is about as good as you can hope for), it needs to be 'trained' to a specific voice. To do this the program will typically be written to get the user to read a set of words and phrases so that the software can work out the specifics tones and inflections in your voice, and how fast and how loud you speak etc. Obviously this is no good when any member of the public might use it, you can't make them spend 15 minutes training the recognition software before you even begin.

The only reason we have to endure these things is because a salesman has approached a manager who knows nothing about technical stuff, and told him that an investment of £250,000 will save you £1 million on call centre staff wages within the first year. At which point pound signs appear in the manager's eyes, as he knows his bonus is dependent on what's left over from his budget at the end of the year.

Personally I think its insulting that companies use these things. At the end of the day the customer is given them money, and they can't even do us the common decency of speaking to us.

 

Voice recognition programmes have come a long way and continue to improve,there was a programme the other day were they tested the one that british rail use for time tables again we had people saying they didn't work for them,several people with different regional accents were tested and the machine worked fine the one who said it didn't work didn't answer the question in the correct format,the reason b r are use this system is for people to get information quickly the length of time you would need to wait for an operator for an individual enquiry would be unacceptable with b r getting hundreds of thousands of calls every day.

 

My mum used that one the other day, looking for train times from Redcar to Darlington.

It went like this:
Machine: "Which station do you want to travel from?"
My mum: "Redcar Central"
Machine: "Which station to you want to travel to?"
My mum: "Darlington"
Machine: "Trains depart Selby at..."

She tried several times, "Redcar Central" must sound awfully like "Selby".

 

If you ring a company that has the press 1 for this service, 2 for that service - ignore it, let it repeat itself a few times and a human will answer. Someone that works for a bank call centre told me this, so now if I want to speak to a human on the phone I'll just ignore the requests and a human picks up the phone.

 

thanks CLUELESS, i thought that i had picked up a speech impediment, when the machine could not understand me . music.:thmb:

 

After a nearly 30 minute wait (must have been a good day, it's been longer than that in the past) and a rather dreary conversation with a person who had the IQ of a braindamaged gnat (SKY the thieving $&^$(^$^!) I might have gotten more sense out of an automated service.

 

Yes, I've had to deal with Sky too. Its at least as much fun as poking your own eyes out with sharpened bamboo canes dipped in lemon juice

When I phoned to tell them my router was broke, and that I know it is the router because my internal network was down, and another router worked (albeit without internet access because my spare was just a router and not an ADSL modem), they couldn't get their head round this, and made me listen to them go through their diagnostic script for about an hour, before asking me to phone back from my mobile so I could take the phone socket apart while I was talking to them. 3 hours (no exaggeration) later, they said "it sounds like your router has failed", no kidding Sherlock.

 

Mine was far more tricky a problem-it involved them adding and subtracting two digit numbers (gasp the horror). After 20 minutes at least of explaining the principles of basic arithmetic, and a rather exasperating few words about May being before June and not April, their best advice was.............wait for it.............wait..............to ring BT-as it is my fault I am exdirectory and withhold my telephone number and they can't send those fictitious "updates" that do nothing but knacker up your box.



This is the fifth time I have had to go through this rigmarole, I can't quite believe how dense they are.

 

Last year network rail had 24 million calls through its voice recognition system with 93% of customers satisfied I don't think you would have this success with live operators, some of these call centers have operators with strong regional accents and I fail many times to understand them, who has not been routed through india and not been baffled?.

 

As per Walnut, I am left baffled by strong accents-nevermind India, I can't understand when it gets put through to Scotland lol.


The only problem with voice recognition calls is when it is an out of the ordinary problem, querying billing errors, complaints etc. The automated calls whilst monotone and inflexible they are often better mannered than an actual member of staff-no joke, some of the rudeness, arrogance, beligerance and ignorance displayed by some call centre staff is beyond belief. Once example-I called to complain to one of my creditcard companies-at the end of the complaint the lads words were the unbelievable "and?...What exactly do you want me to do about it?" (imagine it in a cocky tone of voice). I "begged his pardon" and he just repeated himself!

How can you deal with people like this? Like I say, other than a lack of flexibility and a tendency to repeat themselves ( I know people who do this though lol) I would choose a machine over a person everytime. Sad but true. That's not to say I have had bad experiences everytime I haven't-but the bad attitude of so called "customer service" staff gets more and more prevalent as time goes by.

 

As far as rail travel is concerned (if I ever have to use trains, shudder!) I find www.nationalrail.co.uk aoids having to use the phone at all!

 

Oh my word, how I agree with you all.

I'm a nervous person these days but the one thing that will get my back up is ignorant, uncaring & incompotent people especially on the phone.

We had a problem recently with our electricity meter (it had been charging us at the wrong rate for a year!) and it was only a door to door person that pointed this out! Anyway, after many calls & visits I had to phone again. The other person was just like lollipop said - basically saying 'well, what we can do' as if it was my fault! I just snapped then but didn't get angry I just said to her, in a pretty snotty tone, 'are you having a bad day or something because there is no need etc'. My husband just looked at me and when I had finished the call said 'well done you', lol.

I hate incompentcy(sp?), shot myself in the fault there haven't I . Admit it if you are at fault. Everybody makes mistakes but it seems these major companies are masters at it.

cheers

 

When we first moved in here, I phoned up the electricity company to tell them we were here and all bills for electricity used at this address from now on should come to me. A couple of weeks later I received a bill for about £3000. I phoned them and asked them how I could have used so much electricity in just two weeks. They said "oh no, its because you haven't paid for two and half years and you're in arrears". I said "but I told you, I just moved here two weeks ago". Their answer was "yes, but that household is in arrears". I told them it was nothing to do with me but they just didn't get it. In the end I told them "well you'll have to take me to court for it then, I'm sure your company won't mind paying all the expenses I incur in having to attend court due to your incompetence after I've won and ridiculed your company in front of the court. Travel expenses, refreshments, loss of earnings arising from the time off work, legal expenses, it will all be on my bill. I look forward to the hearing". About a week later I received a revised bill and a letter of apology. I paid them the revised, much more sensible amount, and then switched supplier after that.