To think there is no personal service anymore - just robots!

[Teentrauma]

I'm all for progress but it seems that so much is automated these days and it can be so counterproductive. The example prompting this post is as follows:

A few years ago we used a service called Shipley to collect a sofa from a different area. It was great, you submit details of what you need collecting and different delivery drivers email you with quotes. You then liase with them directly to make the arrangements. They are very reasonable as they are already doing jobs in the area.

Decided to use again this week to collect an item from the other end of the country we found on ebay. Put very specific details in regarding location, date, size of item etc and started getting quotes immediately. However it's clear they are just automated responses and many ask for details clearly stated in the request. Nevertheless, we contacted a few and mostly got more auto responses or replies to say quote submitted in error, no can do! So bloody frustrating! We even tried resubmitting with even more specific details but got the same companies replying some who already said they couldn't do it.

I give up.....

Just had another example.

Received text to say a parcel will be delivered with option to deliver to neighbour if not in. Neighbour across road is always home and has said is happy to take in our parcels. Link gives a list of house numbers to select, but not hers - only gives houses our side of the road for some reason. Cannot override it so select another neighbour who probably won't be home and it'll end up going to the sorting office which I won't be able to get to until Saturday when it's only open for about half an hour.

Arghhhhhh!

Yeah it can be very frustrating, especially if you have a serious problem you're trying to resolve. Most places will let you get through to a person eventually, but that person is often reading from a script and is little better than a robot!!

Apparently it's common for opposite sides of a street to have different postcodes. Looks like the computer thinks a neighbour should have the same postcode.

@Getoff ah yes, they are one digit different over the road. Computer says no!

I really loath ‘Cora’ the automated customer service bot that NatWest use, she’s bloody useless. I also hate the fact that you have to go through so many ‘press 1 for’ etc on most companies. And some, you find out that you really can’t speak to anyone anyway. I found that with the Post Office recently, it didn’t matter what I pressed, no-one picked up the phone 😡 😡

I would also write to Shipley and explain that site was not working as intended, and they need to refine their concept, if they don't want it to fall out of use.

This wouldn't help with my immediate need, but I like to facilitate the universe running smoothly.

I have an HR’ish issue at work.

Everything is through self service portals, which is an absolute nightmare as simply having a conversation with an actual person would probably of solved it a month ago

Shiply is just an online automated brokerage service for couriers. Every courier responds whether they can take the job or not (hence the automated responses) because if they don't Shiply will downgrade them and they'll get offered fewer jobs in the future.

If you went back to good old-fashioned getting the yellow pages out and ringing around for a quote you'd get the good old-fashioned service you're looking for. Using a free shipping agent app gets you the level of customer service you're paying for.

Yeah it can be very frustrating, especially if you have a serious problem you're trying to resolve. Most places will let you get through to a person eventually, but that person is often reading from a script and is little better than a robot!!

Exactly. How is this progress?

@DogInATent used Shipley previously and it wasn't like this. Actual humans answering whoi had actually read the requirements. Did manage to find one almost human amongst all the rubbish eventually so have booked them but very frustrating.

I also hate the portals. Had a nightmare with Aviva for an insurance claim for example.

Plus, Customer Service Depts that want you to use their live chat that can only answer standard questions. I could go on......