191–200 of 473 posts
And there's a vocal minority that want to be able to buy a smaller truck in the United States, but they keep on building monstrosities with beds too short for a sheet of plywood.
Time to start realizing that Capitalism doesn't really offer consumer choice or optimizes for the best outcomes for people, it optimizes for the best outcome for the business.
Typically I call customer service because I'm trying to tackle a problem that cannot be solved by using their normal interface. There is usually some subtlety or exception that requires an agent capable of understanding them at the other end, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered calling. Chatbots almost by definition cannot deal with that, at least I've never experienced one ever. And I imagine that if they can underst…
I agree, calling up and getting a bot is irritating, but personally fielding every call without screening out the silly PEBCAC tickets gets expensive quick and hold-times pay the price.
Typically I call customer service because I'm trying to tackle a problem that cannot be solved by using their normal interface. There is usually some subtlety or exception that requires an agent capable of understanding them at the other end, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered calling. Chatbots almost by definition cannot deal with that, at least I've never experienced one ever. And I imagine that if they can underst…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really, same idea. Hospitals want to recover as much as they can with as little headache. Coming from a lawyer vs trying to negotiate yourself just means "I can actually make this difficult for you, play ball"
In the case of a death or bankruptcy, yes it does work. There is a hard cutoff date and if they miss it the debt is uncollectible. It does not work for the living.
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Well, it worked in the case of my dad's estate. I think the fact that it was from a lawyer made a difference. I had a different situation with Wells Fargo where I quoted their own document back to them and they still denied me. When I got a lawyer to send essentially the same letter, but with his letterhead, they suddenly bent over backwards to help me out, going above and beyond their obligations.
That's because most companies operate their customer support at extremely basic level and hope that those with complex needs will simply give up in frustration. A lawyer letterhead short-circuits that because companies fear that someone who is actually willing to pay upfront for a lawyer is also going to follow through with a lawsuit or, worse, a complaint to the regulatory agency so they'll kiss asses beyond belief…
(I might contact the CFPB these days, but I think this incident was before they existed.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the case of a death or bankruptcy, yes it does work. There is a hard cutoff date and if they miss it the debt is uncollectible. It does not work for the living.
I should have been more specific, or understood the question more generally as "can you actually negotiate with the hospital on your bills?"
Typically chatbots that I interact with are just attempting to steer me back towards FAQs. I don’t need a different interface to search your documentation in an attempt to keep me on the cheap customer service path and away from the expensive customer service path. Which isn’t to say they can’t be helpful. I’d much rather chat with a bot than call a person, if the bot is capable of doing the things I need. The thing…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I should have been more specific, or understood the question more generally as "can you actually negotiate with the hospital on your bills?"
You can do this, even as a living person. I once got a $10k bill reduced to $700. (It took a lot of back-and-forth, but it was worth it.)