Dangerously close to throwing fucking Alexa out of the window. Assistance required.

[WinterRoad]

For the love of God will someone please help me speak to Alexa so that she doesn't give me garbage?
I wanted her to open bbc sounds and play me the titanic podcast from 15th April. I get " playing The Archers from 2007" FFS!!
I ask her (nicely) in a slightly different phrasing. I get "playing Elton John"
Is it just me? I am completely stupid? Alexa never plays what I want. Ever!

Mine also does this. They say on the radio all the time just open bbc sounds and ask her to play x,y,z. She never plays what I ask for.

It’s like having another teenager in the house. She’s taken to telling me she’s added stuff to my shopping list and she actually hasn’t! I get to the supermarket and I know I’ve added stuff and it’s not there. And she struggles to play the radio station I ask for. The same one I’ve been asking her to play daily for about 4 years. She’s getting worse not better.

The worst is pretty much every time I say 'alexa, play radio 6 music', before she plays it she launches into a big long boring spiel about next time just asking her to play radio 6 music and she'll play it, blah blah blah.

I literally just fucking did that!

I can't think when I last used ours. Too irritating and forever telling me things I don't want to know!

Do you ask for BBC sounds and then wait for her to ask you what you’d like to hear?

I don’t have Alexa but I listen to bbc sounds when I walk. I like the sound of this podcast so will search myself and
hope I do a better job than
alexa 😂

Ours randomly plays music every day at 5pm. I’ve never asked it to, I can’t seem to get it to stop either! I suspect one of the DC has accidentally set it to do this, Christ knows how. Getting right on my wick coming home every day to Diana Ross or whatever.

Ours keeps telling me that it’s raining in a place that I don’t live.

I’m Scottish and have to do my posh voice for Alexa to work. She’s usually ok but our local radio station is Tay FM and she just will never play it. She always does Tee FM (or is it TFM?) instead.

I have recently acquired one of these. I don't use it a lot. I ask it to play the Archers - it can manage that! - or Radion 3 - it can cope with that.

But getting it to play my Spotify playlist is complicated - it involves repairing each time.

I do not know how to do a shopping list - and even if I did I would not know how to retrieve it!

The only good ting is that when I am working on the computer it gives me better sound quality that through the laptop.

Oh - and the GC love asking it to fart! Worth every penny!

TFM, it’s a Teesside radio station. So close, sort of 😂

Are you asking it to play the right title? I just searched BBC Sounds and nothing came up when I searched for "titanic podcast". You need to know the exact title of what you want to play.

She can't even pronounce my hometown properly. So just asking for a simple thing like the weather forecast is stress inducing. 🤯

Where do you live, I might have it. I’ve got someone’s 😂

She can't pronounce mine, either. I live in a Shire and she pronounces it Sheer.

I love Alexa! She got my younger DD to speak more clearly and I find the devices really useful. I’d recommend checking settings on the app - particularly the weather and 5pm thingy!

I prefer to find what I want via Amazon music app and then cast it to whichever speaker I want because of how often Alexa gets it wrong and I end up frustrated with her 🤬

The shopping list does show in the Alexa app along with any routines you may have set.

I'm sorry to tell you that the Google lady is no better.

My DH has a very strong regional accent. We end up with all sorts of weird things on our shopping list. She also can’t pronounce our house name, but gives it a go every time someone walks past our front door.

Hal vibes, bin the spy in the house. Escape the unnecessary AI

We had this recently and it was really bugging me as it wasn’t an alarm. It turned out to be a Routine - check under routines and you may be able to turn it off!

You have to use your app to get the best out of it.

She offered to play an evening routine and someone said yes- that’s happening in my house too. If you skip a song she gradually gets better at recognising your taste though. The first few evenings were awful!

The sounds thing is a pain. Find it in your phone then pair it with the Alexa. It’s easier.
Otherwise open BBC sounds, search the podcast and then choose the one you need- argh, that’s only on the Show screen.

My parents Alexa also gives a random weather forecast and makes regular announcements nobody asked for. All instructions say to check settings on the app, but they don't have (and never have had) the app!!

Well I'm glad it's not just me.
Just to add to the general list of randomness, mine bongs everyday at 7:15 pm. Every bloody day. No idea why. No idea how to stop it. "Alexa, stop bloody bonging" has had no effect so far.