I've used some great AI support agents/bots, whatever they're called. An example of a great one is Lemonade (the insurance company).
Most of the others are terrible. I'll pick on Dell for this next one. Their website in general, is terrible. Why would their support agent be any better?
We purchased a switch from Dell, that cost more than my SUV. Having a hardware issue with it, can't remember if it was fans or a power supply or what. It needs someone to come out and repair it, and we have the big fancy service plan.
There's no way to find the switch on the Dell support website. It's not listed anywhere.
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/products/networking_...
You can't actually contact support, you have to identify your device, and then you get options from there.
https://www.dell.com/support/incidents-online/en-us/contactu...
However, this product doesn't have a service tag, or express service code, so you can't do that.
So you try to use the 'Virtual Assistant', who has no idea what you're trying to tell it, no matter which way you try. They link to a contact page but you just end up getting looped back around. There is no useful information to be extracted from this dumb thing.
I finally found a phone number on the website, and was connected to a woman who sounded like she was smoking cigarettes in a basement somewhere in Alabama. She looked through her notes on the computer, and found out for this particular switch I need to go through the OEM manufacturer. I was relieved to have gotten useful information.
Most of the others are terrible. I'll pick on Dell for this next one. Their website in general, is terrible. Why would their support agent be any better?
We purchased a switch from Dell, that cost more than my SUV. Having a hardware issue with it, can't remember if it was fans or a power supply or what. It needs someone to come out and repair it, and we have the big fancy service plan.
There's no way to find the switch on the Dell support website. It's not listed anywhere.
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/products/networking_...
You can't actually contact support, you have to identify your device, and then you get options from there.
https://www.dell.com/support/incidents-online/en-us/contactu...
However, this product doesn't have a service tag, or express service code, so you can't do that.
So you try to use the 'Virtual Assistant', who has no idea what you're trying to tell it, no matter which way you try. They link to a contact page but you just end up getting looped back around. There is no useful information to be extracted from this dumb thing.
I finally found a phone number on the website, and was connected to a woman who sounded like she was smoking cigarettes in a basement somewhere in Alabama. She looked through her notes on the computer, and found out for this particular switch I need to go through the OEM manufacturer. I was relieved to have gotten useful information.