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

blog.tomayac.com

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

#71

Post by hedora »

ale42 wrote: post #4

For such an operation like an ownership registration for a washing machine, this is totally true. But for some things (e.g., asking details about an invoice) I need to speak to someone, not to fill a form I receive an answer to in 3 days (and possibly not what I need). I say this because some companies are actually removing the option to call them in the first point, or hide it so it's very hard to find the number to…

I’ve dealt with multiple companies that hang up after hearing what your issue is, before and after AI became common.

Since it is standard industry practice, I think draconian regulations are appropriate.

Off the top of my head, if you are caught having a policy to do this, you pay all customers $100/hour retroactively for the total time they spent on hold (clawing back executive comp if necessary).

An amount equal to the total automatically goes to the whistleblowers that reported the behavior (even if they engaged in it).

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

#72

Post by [deleted] »

Citizen8396 wrote: post #17
crinkly wrote: post #13

This stuff really annoys me but the problem is really well solved elsewhere. When you buy an Apple product it has a number on it Axxxx and a serial number somewhere. That's all you need to identify your product to anyone. That includes service manuals and spare parts. And as far as warranty registration goes, they register it at the point of sale/activation as the warranty starting. Job done. No humans / lookups / an…

Product/warranty registration is often a way to collect more data about you as a first party.

[deleted]

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

#73

Post by Night_Thastus »

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.

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

#74

Post by mooreds »

nativeit wrote: post #61
observationist wrote: post #26

The point isn't to make it easy to register warranty for a product. The point isn't to make it easy to talk with customer service. The point isn't to make it easy to communicate with the company. The point isn't to make it easy to obtain service or replacement parts. The point is to "technically", and therefore legally, offer those things and minimize the cost of offering those things. All of these things are working…

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.

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

#75

Post by keybored »

shellac wrote: post #16
LauraMedia wrote: post #8

I fail to see a useful usage for AI in this case. Couldn't you just print the product number as a barcode/qrcode and let a "dumb code scanner" read it, instead of having to download a multifunctional LLM?

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

So now marketing is working through the disgruntled-at-stupid-tech HN bait (as someone who works on the built-in AI team)? Or wait, how long have they been doing that?

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

#76

Post by [deleted] »

keybored wrote: post #75
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.

So now marketing is working through the disgruntled-at-stupid-tech HN bait ( as someone who works on the built-in AI team )? Or wait, how long have they been doing that?

[deleted]

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

#77

Post by pessimizer »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #34
hedora wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conterpoint: We had a new samsung washer dryer pair with a 90 day warranty; they advertise something like 10 years, but it is a lie. The electrolux in the article is probably similar. Anyway, it said it lost communication between two boards. I opened it up, checked the wiring harness, and found zero visible problems. I replaced both boards. Same error code. There are 3-4 other computers in that model, so I guess the…

>There’s no reason these things shouldn’t last more than 20-30 years on average. This is actually a difficult problem I feel. Misaligned incentives aside. How do you keep a company running if it is so good it captures the whole market in 15 years, but it takes 30 years before it's products need replacing? (This is a simplistic presentation of the issue, but I feel it's understandable enough to start to formulate idea…

> How do you keep a company running if it is so good it captures the whole market in 15 years, but it takes 30 years before it's products need replacing?

I think that you don't. Things don't have to be infinite money-spinners to deserve doing. Use the googobs of money you made to invest in something else, and let the parts and repair for the old product take over the majority of the old business. Fire up the lines once a year to make new ones, and keep a few engineers working the rest of the year to look for improvements. Or just keep a tiny shop assembling new ones all year, whatever's cost efficient; if you focused on durability and repairability, your best customers probably could put their own unit together from your parts catalog, so you certainly can at any scale.

That might be a good metric for repairability. Could one of your customers build one of your products if they purchased everything from your parts catalog (assuming prequisite knowledge)? If so, you can scale down indefinitely.

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

#78

Post by sokoloff »

hedora wrote: post #71
ale42 wrote: post #4

For such an operation like an ownership registration for a washing machine, this is totally true. But for some things (e.g., asking details about an invoice) I need to speak to someone, not to fill a form I receive an answer to in 3 days (and possibly not what I need). I say this because some companies are actually removing the option to call them in the first point, or hide it so it's very hard to find the number to…

I’ve dealt with multiple companies that hang up after hearing what your issue is, before and after AI became common. Since it is standard industry practice, I think draconian regulations are appropriate. Off the top of my head, if you are caught having a policy to do this, you pay all customers $100/hour retroactively for the total time they spent on hold (clawing back executive comp if necessary). An amount equal to…

> even if they engaged in it

I can't imagine any way that could be abused... (Cue "I'm going to write me a new mini-van this afternoon.")

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

#79

Post by ajsnigrutin »

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.

Some tv's bother you with popups and notifications and all the other crap related to its "smart features".

And yes, even when not connected to the internet, then they show you popups to connect it to the internet, updates may be waiting, new features may be in a new update, you software has been last updated 726 days ago, click here to troubleshoot the internet connection, etc.

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

#80

Post by Nevermark »

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.

Tried that on the transparent cooker cover and it took off just enough of the cover surface with the sticker to look horrible.

Otherwise, yes!

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