Today I received a text from a service company saying that my water heater was due for its annual service. I called the number it gave me and found that I was speaking to their womanly-voiced digital assistant, who greeted me by name as she picked up the phone.
She asked: “Are you calling about your water heater?” “Yes”, I said. “You sent me a reminder that it was due for its annual service.”
“Let me see”, she said. “Is that heater working now?”, she asked. “Yes”, I answered. “Is that heater now about ten years old?” “Yes”. “So you are calling to have the annual service”. “Yes”. “Please hold … I see that we have someone available this afternoon. Is that satisfactory for you?”, she said. “Yes”.
“Very well, a service technician will be there this afternoon between noon and 6. They will call you at least 30 minutes before they arrive”. “Great”, I said. “Thank you; bye.”
Two hours later my phone rang with caller-id showing that company. The caller was an actual woman. “We serviced that heater six months ago; it is not yet due for service.” “Oh!, I said. “You sent me a reminder, and I was acting on it when I called.” “I'm sorry’’, she said, “we want to cancel the appointment for today”.
The upshot is that the AI wasted about ten minutes of my time, some of their human caller's time, and undoubtedly a certain amount of cyber time and energy at their expense.
