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Verizon’s new AI chatbot — customer disservice (pivot-to-ai.com)
submitted 1 week ago by dgerard@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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[-] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 21 points 1 week ago

If a human customer service rep [added charges without telling people and lied to them], it’d just be fraud. But being able to blame the computer, that’s the use case for AI!

Potential hot take: In situations where the company attempts to diffuse responsbility, the CEO should take the blame automatically.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I think thats not a hot take. It's a completely rational sane logical take.

We live in a world where corporations, and the wealthy have controlled the narative so hard for so long that you think a CEO being held accountable for their companies actions is a controversial view. And I'm not even saying you're wrong for thinking that. There probably ARE millions of people who would think that it's controversial, because thats the design of the elite controlling the flow of society. From the wealthys perspective, that's not a flaw. That's a feature of everything working as intended. It's up to us to hold their hand to the flame that they lit.

[-] HedyL@awful.systems 9 points 1 week ago

Just guessing, but the reported "90% accuracy" are probably related to questions that could be easily answered from an FAQ list. The rest is probably at least in part about issues where the company itself f*cked up in some way... Nothing wrong with answering from an FAQ in theory, but if all the other people get nicely worded BS answers (for which the company couldn't be held accountable), that is a nightmare from every customer's point of view.

[-] dgerard@awful.systems 10 points 1 week ago

imma gonna prompt inject me a new iPad

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 5 points 1 week ago

Yuck 🤢. I don't want this.

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 4 points 1 week ago

Much beloved US phone company Verizon

Bullshit.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Can you hear me now? .....good.

walks 10 feet

Can you hear me now? .......good.

walks 10 feet

Can you hear me now? ........good.

Yes. This was an actual ad, that ran for 6 years in different variations. Sometimes he was at the grand canyon. Sometimes he was in NYC. Sometimes he was in Montana's open countryside. One time he was at the effel tower in Paris, which made NO sense. But then they followed that a few years later with him floating in space.

Which at some point, it really should be called out for false advertising. Unless you're telling me I can get on a NASA rocket, blast off to space, and then call someone on my verizon serviced cell phone.

[-] diz@awful.systems 13 points 1 week ago

It's called sarcasm.

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 3 points 1 week ago

Maybe. Or it could be corporate delusion.

[-] mawhrin@awful.systems 9 points 1 week ago

you're new (to the site, and here), aren't you?

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 1 points 1 week ago

To pta, yes. To Lemmy, no.

[-] froztbyte@awful.systems 2 points 1 week ago

impressive, you got both of those wrong

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 1 points 6 days ago

I aim to impress.

[-] Delta_V@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Sounds like an improvement over trying to communicate past a language barrier and accents so thick that the actively-hostile human CSR is neigh unintelligible.

Verizon customer service has been terrible for many years, and somehow their business to business service is even worse than residential.

[-] bitofhope@awful.systems 16 points 1 week ago

Tech support workers who may or may not speak English as a second language or with a strong accent can sometimes be of actual help and sometimes not, much like people with possibly more familiar accents can. A call center AI has never been anywhere close to solving a problem I've had.

You're no less fucked but instead of a human being getting underpaid for the trouble, a shitty tech corporation is overpaid.

[-] HedyL@awful.systems 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

At the very least, actual humans have an incentive not to BS you too much, because otherwise they might be held accountable. This might also be the reason why call center support workers sound less than helpful sometimes - they are unable to help you (for various technical or corporate reasons) and feel uneasy about this. A bot is probably going to tell you whatever you want to hear while sounding super polite all the time. If all of it turns out to be wrong... well, then this is your problem to deal with.

[-] dgerard@awful.systems 9 points 1 week ago

Looking through your chudposting, this may not be the discussion group for you.

[-] mawhrin@awful.systems 6 points 1 week ago

i guess Δv learned that the sense of the velocity vector can be important too.

[-] froztbyte@awful.systems 6 points 1 week ago

at least they reached escape velocity!

[-] bitofhope@awful.systems 4 points 1 week ago

They quickly accelerated their way out.

this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2025
23 points (100.0% liked)

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