For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please? • Hacker News Board

Re: For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please?

#81

Post by inetknght » Wed, Sep 03, 2025, 4:03 PM UTC

Night_Thastus wrote: post #73

toastal wrote: post #41

> Electrolux washing machine I had to buy one a couple of years ago. Snarkily I asked the floor salesman if I could get the washer “without all the smart features”. He said “let me check”, which had me puzzled. He came back to inform me that they still had last year’s model which was before the “smart” features were rolled out. He said they can sell it on the same warranty, & since it was older I would get a signific…

I don't get why people care about about whether a TV is "Smart". I have a "Smart" TV and never use the features, and it doesn't bother me. I have a PiHole in case it tries to do anything funny, and that's good enough for me.

Wait until TVs come with their own cellular modems so they can give the corporate middle finger to people like us.

Re: For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please?

#82

Post by mrbombastic » Wed, Sep 03, 2025, 4:05 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #53

shellac wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author works in Google developer relations, and while devrel aren't quite marketing they will use the latest and greatest Google hammer.

His demo is pretty slick, though. Less than 100 lines of code to get “the box I want on literally every customer service site.”

Yeah maybe it is overkill but this would be a semi hard computer vision task not too long ago, it is pretty amazing you can get it that easily nowadays

Re: For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please?

#83

Post by Tronno » Wed, Sep 03, 2025, 4:05 PM UTC

Author chose a brand based on loyalty instead of doing research. Leverage the web indeed - Google Search would have quickly revealed Electrolux is mediocre.

Plus, the manufacturer can't run a simple website to look up serial numbers, so author prefers their AI-based solution? And then builds one himself? This post reads like satire.

Re: For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please?

#84

Post by sokoloff » Wed, Sep 03, 2025, 4:05 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #53

shellac wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author works in Google developer relations, and while devrel aren't quite marketing they will use the latest and greatest Google hammer.

His demo is pretty slick, though. Less than 100 lines of code to get “the box I want on literally every customer service site.”

Less than 100 lines of code to give the overwhelming majority of consumers "LanguageModel is not available." and a free snipe hunt for 0.5% of them to try to figure out how to enable it via chrome flags or snapshot browsers.

Re: For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please?

#85

Post by toyg » Wed, Sep 03, 2025, 4:06 PM UTC

taeric wrote: post #5

Mistletoe wrote: post #3

If I had to guess, they don't want to leverage the web because calling the phone number to get the 10 year warranty is a dark pattern they hope most people give up on. And they know the current version of the Electrolux washer is hot garbage that won't make it 10 years, compared to the previous one that made it 20 years. Now this is not great long term for the brand, but Yannick Fierling, the new CEO, just started in…

My guess would be more that they don't have a support org in house. Were likely running very lean on a manufacturing pipeline and are adding a lot of other services on through partnerships.

But they don't have in-house capabilities precisely because of the above-mentioned enshittification cycle: CEO-monkey does not care about long-term. CEO-monkey lowers costs today. CEO-monkey moves on to new job soon.

Re: For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please?

#86

Post by mschuster91 » Wed, Sep 03, 2025, 4:07 PM UTC

mooreds wrote: post #74

nativeit wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% Customer support representatives, with very few exceptions, are just going to tell you whatever they think will get you off the phone. In I.T., this is generally accomplished by blaming whatever adjacent equipment/services they can plausibly pin the issue on.

Huge competitive opportunity here. All you have to do is hire customer support who is empowered, knowledgeable and actually cares. Source: support is a competitive differentiator for $CURJOB.

that can work out in large scale b2b or expensive consumer goods... but in mass market goods? forget it. people vote with their wallet and only their wallet, as evidenced by the shiploads of (sometimes life-threateningly defective) crap Temu and Alibaba have flooded most Western countries with.

Re: For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please?

#87

Post by MathMonkeyMan » Wed, Sep 03, 2025, 4:08 PM UTC

mooreds wrote: post #74

nativeit wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% Customer support representatives, with very few exceptions, are just going to tell you whatever they think will get you off the phone. In I.T., this is generally accomplished by blaming whatever adjacent equipment/services they can plausibly pin the issue on.

Huge competitive opportunity here. All you have to do is hire customer support who is empowered, knowledgeable and actually cares. Source: support is a competitive differentiator for $CURJOB.

> All you have to do is hire customer support who is empowered, knowledgeable and actually cares

Those people you have to pay, because they can do well in other positions. But paying them contradicts the goal of minimizing cost.

I'm not saying there isn't an opportunity to invest in top notch customer service as a product differentiator, but it's probably a safer bet to have barely-existing support and lower the sticker price.

Re: For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please?

#88

Post by datadrivenangel » Wed, Sep 03, 2025, 4:09 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #86

mooreds wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huge competitive opportunity here. All you have to do is hire customer support who is empowered, knowledgeable and actually cares. Source: support is a competitive differentiator for $CURJOB.

that can work out in large scale b2b or expensive consumer goods... but in mass market goods? forget it. people vote with their wallet and only their wallet, as evidenced by the shiploads of (sometimes life-threateningly defective) crap Temu and Alibaba have flooded most Western countries with.

Zappos got a huge exit by having exceptional customer service. Enough people notice.

Re: For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please?

#89

Post by mschuster91 » Wed, Sep 03, 2025, 4:09 PM UTC

toastal wrote: post #56

Workaccount2 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are called "Commercial TVs", selection is more limited and the cost a bit higher, but no smart-TV BS.

Do they come in OLED now?

Yup, at least from LG: https://www.lg.com/global/business/oled-signage

Re: For all that's holy, can you just leverage the web, please?

#90

Post by 1970-01-01 » Wed, Sep 03, 2025, 4:10 PM UTC

hedora wrote: post #48

freedomben wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fender did this with my bass guitar. Trying to get the sticker off without scratching it was impossible, and even after using alcohol there's still some residue D-:

Goo Gone is your friend. My usual flow chart: Nothing, water, alcohol, goo gone. I’ve never ended up with a marred surface.

+hair dryer heat, between nothing and water, can make a difference in a difficult peel.