(beep) Would You Like Fries With That?

PC World's Mark Sullivan blogs today about an AOL tech support chat session that left him feeling a little less like a customer and a little more like a database query.

Judging by the partial transcript Sullivan posted, the entity at the other end was perfectly scripted and pressing buttons that fired macro and marketing-perfect answers at the user or a bot.

That's right. Even when Sullivan baited the conversation by asking if he was typing to a male or female, he did not get a straight answer. He finally called the person (?) "HAL" after the computer in the classic movie 2001. Still no answer.

Only a month ago, we wrote about AOL's refund policies and our work on behalf of consumers who were owed money. Even if Sullivan had received service from someone in Bangalore or South America or even Dubuque, now is not the time for the beleaguered company to be coy regarding its service.

(beep) You've got customers.

Labels: AOL, PC World

posted by George Bounacos at 3:11 PM |