Amazon's customer care chat - weirdness abounds ........

[PositivelyGlowing]

Has anyone used the online chat recently to get help with items that they have bought with Amazon Prime? I've contacted them from time to time over the years with no issues but recently have had to chat on a few matters. Over
the past few days the chat has been 'weird' in the sense that the reps are overly
enthusiastic and overly friendly, it's like dealing with somebody who has taken way too many happy pills ......... if they were puppies their tongues would be hanging out, they'd be running in circles around the room and doing constant backflips.

I'm all for people being happy, polite and courteous, far better than being unhelpful and abusive, but the overly friendly nature of the chat has now gone to the other extreme. It makes for an almost surreal experience. Irritating too, on a scale of 1 to 10 I feel like they've turned up the friendly dial to 200 .......

Can you give us an example or copy of chat transcript so we can make an informed response?

I wish I had kept them, is there a way to access them on Amazon?

I'm also starting to wonder if I was talking to some smart AI ........

Probably AI

all the online chat is AI now isn’t it?

put it this way, if it was a chat you can’t imagine on the phone, it’s going to be AI.

Quite possibly, or it could be that the higher ups at Amazon have ordered their customer services reps to be extra, EXTRA friendly.

It's all bots I think.
Certainly no deviation from towing the line even when it doesn't make sense.

The chat- no. Amazon sellers- yes.

I ordered a sweatshirt once (quite a niche brand and it was the only place I could get it). It arrived with a huge hole in it. The seller told me that “if only I’d put some effort in” I could get it repaired by a tailor and they’d refund me 10%. If only I’d put some effort in?! Yeah fuck off with that!

Hah - yeah, that really does sound like a bot.

I'm tempted to go into Amazon chat again and see if I can figure out if I'm talking to a bot or not ........ it could be the new Turing Test.

you can rank them after the call and their jobs depend on it, so they are extra nice.

useless but nice. Not their fault though,

I've always found them really helpful and pretty genuine.

I so know what you mean. It is nauseatingly over friendly and obnoxious. I leave feeling patronised. I haven’t asked you to be a Gad-parent to my child, just for a refund on a faulty item!

The first few interactions are almost certainly a bot. If it can't quickly answer you will be transferred to a human, but you don't get an indication that's happening. You think it's one long conversation with 'John'.

Its easy to see all previous conversations on amazon. All you do is go back on to any chat on to chat window and scoll down, you can view all previous coversations.

I have done it many times to quote what previous amazon employees promised me and tried to back track on.

Yanbu. I had to go on Amazon chat the other day regarding a return. Lovely chap, very helpful. He not only gave me addressed me as a shortened version of my name (when I had not indicated in any way that I wanted to be called this name). He also was happy to sort the return with no proof of postage for it because he ‘trusted’ me. Which is all very nice but did come across as a bit weird. So yeh. Bit odd, but sorted out the problem so I won’t complain.

Thanks, just checked and I see now.

Okay, here's some of the weirdly written examples from different Amazon reps:

"I promise that I'm gonna make your day better today.
Please allow me to take care of you.
No worries, you got me here."

"Know that my heart is with you and as promised, I am here to help you."

"Thank you so much for your kind understanding with me as well.
From the bottom of my heart, I truly appreciate it."

"Good day Heya :) I hope you are doing well, having an awesome day It's wonderful to meet you,"

"Rest assured. I will consider your issue as mine, will do my best to sort out this for you . Meanwhile I check this, may I know how is your day going so far?"

"Appreciate the delightful conversation :)) Thank you for contacting Amazon UK Customer Service it was pleasure assisting you, have a wonderful day ahead Remember, life is better when you're smiling. bubbye and Keep smiling :)"

Are they weirdly over friendly or is it me?

Oh dear me? What is that??

That is A.I.!

Ugh. Stop being so fake! Just sort our issues out.

Mind you it's also pretty annoying when the real people pad the chat with loads of filler effusively thanking you and the like. It's just annoying. Reply if you have something to say. And I'm sorry your employer is making you work on multiple chats at once. It sucks.

I thought you were maybe over embellishing a tad but W.O.W....

Wtf is that all about 🤣

Yep! I've had similar and thought wtf! I think it's a mix of AI/catch phrases 'scripts' they encourage people to use, and possibly a lot of the reps not having english as their first language so don't understand how some phrases come across to native speakers. It sometimes takes a while for them to understand what I mean as well e.g. a parcel was delivered to my local post office which was closed temporarily for refurbishment, it was oddly complicated to explain that I couldn't just 'try again tomorrow' because it would still be closed!

Have to say though I've always found them pretty helpful, I don't think I've ever not had my issue solved, so if that involves a few bizarre phrases fair enough.

Just had to use amazon chat again for a missing item - this time the rep seemed perfectly normal. After my issue was resolved I asked if he was a human or an AI - he said human (but an AI would say that of course!). I noted that I have recently had some weird experiences with AI's and his response was:

"I understand".

He then 'hung up' with:

"Thanks for giving me the chance to assist you. Have a great day! take care always"

After that some text appeared stating:

"Michael had a technical issue. Please wait while we transfer you to a new associate."

but no associate ever appeared.

I suspect that associates talking about AI in chat isn't allowed. Or he was an AI ..........

I find all of this fascinating.