Comments on: A better system?!? don’t think so.

by: AGH

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 22:01:17 +0000

This voice recognition system is a real problem if you happen to have an accent, for instance I have a British accent, and the software never seems to reconize anything I say, even the simple words “yes” or “no” seem completely foreign to “Andrea”. I end up having to try and speak like a Canadian (its quite difficult really) so that I can get some response from the damn thing. It usually takes about 3 or 4 tries just to get past the yes or no stage, not to mention trying to relay the code for the voucher. Really annoying…

by: Ben

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

I share your thoughts.

And not only do you get a delay when you say something it doesn’t understand, but even if you do give one of its understood responses, it will still ask,

“I think you said, ‘Get me a real fvcking person, Andrea.’ Is this correct?”

So either way, every selection you make has at least a re-entry process. The only way they could make this worse is to implement the wait message as,

“Thank you for calling BlahBlahBlah. Your call is important to us and, in a joint partnership with your mobile carrier, will be answered by the next available representative after we’ve charged you an acceptable minimum amount of airtime.”

by: Kevin Cheng

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

basically Fido has said “great news we’re switching to a voice system so you can say what you want instead of pressing numbers!” except saying what you want doesn’t work as kathryn described. what’s more, they do things like ask for your password and a less knowledgeable person would think that they have to SAY it (which i’m sure you _could_ do).

at least with Fido it says up front you can say “agent” to get to a real person. i had a similar problem in the states with AT&T and i just couldn’t get to a real person. i spent about half an hour navigating their entire menu system and just could not get to someone. eventually i really was just swearing into it.

i think if you’re going to design a system like that, someone should put in recognition for the swear words and realize “ok, time to send that person to a real agent”.