HP "Talk live to representative" a scripted robot?

[NDeters]

I was on HP's site today and was researching something for my boss...I clicked on the 'click here to chat with hp' link, and while I was going over my issue I started thinking that I was talking to a robot....a scripted 'support person'

- cue idea from the movie Super Troopers -
<when I started getting a suspicion>

Guest: what is the DSS encryption?
Guest: what is the date today?
Thayne: Digital Sending Services. It's a software encryption service that would be installed directly to the Multi-Function Printer (or MFP) and would ensure the security of your documents. Today is January 7th.
Guest: I don't see any refernce to DSS under accessories...do you have a webpage with more information?
Thayne: Absolutely!
Thayne: Click HERE for Digital Sending Software
Thayne: Does that help?
Guest: I believe it meow help
Guest: meow have a good day now
Thayne: Fantastic! If you like, I can save you some time and help you place your order today. Or I can have a written quote generated for you. Meow how would you like to proceed?
Guest: heheh
Guest: meow
Thayne: Would you like that written quote? It would include the price of all accessories and lock in that price for the next 30 days.
Guest: not meow, I think I will compare it to some others
Thayne: Not a problem! Meow is there anything else I can help you with today?
Guest: not meow, I think I have everything
Thayne: In that case, thank you very much for chatting today! After our chat, a short survey should pop up. I would greatly appreciate your feedback on our chat today. Thank you again for chatting with me and have a great day meow!

what do you think? Computer program thinking my name is meow, or person trying to play along with the joke? They don't even ask what the hell I'm meowing about....hmmm

 

[Dollie]

I would say it's a scripted person with little to no sense of humor (it's not scripted, so laughing may be done offline instead of utilizing the ever-hated "LOL" online).

 

[Opieo]

Was that the exact conversation you had?

Programming a system or "person" to respond specifically to computer issues would probably be easier than coding an entire Ezra. I wouldn't be completely surprised if it wasn't really a person.

~
Give a man some fire, he will be warm for a day, Set a man on fire, he will be warm for the rest of his life.

 

[NDeters]

That was the last half of the conversation, the first half was very wierd but standard chat about the product I was looking for...kinda went like this

me: yeah I'm looking for something with this ability, and this special encrypting technology

HP: we have something that can do exactly that! Let me ask you a few questions so I know specifically what you are looking for

and it went from there...the responses were always canned and wayyyy too happy/excited for me. Finally I got annoyed and started goofing around with them, that's where the above quote started.

 

[Ed2020]

I've used the chat on the HP site before and have definitely got through to a person, although this was about a problem with my Pocket PC, rather than enquiring about a new product.

The conversation you've posted feels like you're talking to a bot to me, but I'm not sure.

I might give it a try from home tonight.

Ed Metcalfe.

Please do not feed the trolls.....

 

[grande]

I got something like that on a different site. About halfway though I asked "Okay, are you a person reading from a script, or a scripted program?"

The response was "Hahaha, never heard that before! I assure you I'm human, and I'm looking forward to lunch."

-------------------------
Matt Grande
C# Master.
Ruby on Rails Admirer.
ActionScript Student.
JavaScript Hate-Monger.

 

[chiph]

I suspect they've written macros for the most common questions.

{read question from potential customer}
{click Solutions | YesWeCanDoThat | Send}
{go back to reading graphic novel}

Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[lhuegele]

I used HP chat support last week and by the end of it I had the same exact feeling - that it was some form of A.I. scripted response. Very strange feeling.

But it could have also been someone reading from a script so who knows....

 

[Opieo]

A lot of tech support seems to read from scripts these days. It probably helps with the paying people less to be tech support since the support no lnoger needs to be tech savvy. They can solve 75% of problems just from the simple scripted responses.

~
Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.

 

[lhuegele]

Next time I chat with them I'm going to try to muck it up with weird words too, so I can see if the responses seem automated.

Another clue is the chat rep was named "raven".

 

[fredericofonseca]

Opieo hit the main point.

Most of the tech support people do NOT know a thing about what they are doing. HP is well known for that.

My most annoying experience with them was a tech guy trying to force me to install Windows on a server that was giving problems installing Novell (5.1 at the time).

And when I stated that I was on the part where MS-DOS is installed he promptly stated that MS-DOS was NOT supported by the machine in question.

Had to force him to pass the call to his supervisor to get things sorted (Hard-Disk firmware upgrade needed).

Regards

Frederico Fonseca
SysSoft Integrated Ltd

http://www.syssoft-int.com