Virtual assistants

[Buckman]

Why do companies insist on using these virtual assistants as generally they are totally useless and give you answers that do not even remotely answer your question? I have an issue trying to obtain a spare and eventually contacted the manufacturer direct and you are referred to the useless Virtual Assistance. I then tried phoning and gave up after about 30 minutes as no answer. Using the chat facility it is in Italian yet the product did not originate from Italy? Also chat facility states they are closed until 29th Aug 2023?

I guess I will be taking the product, a Flymo strimmer back to the supplier as spares like the spool are unobtainable for this model and unit is not even 6 months old! Next time I will spend a bit more money on something decent where spares are obtainable.

 

[Jcloughie]

Fully agree, I hate them. Just today, I have a PayPal issue. Yesterday I tried to pay off my credit, Today it tells me the payment was completed, But it also says I owe the money, it cannot be both. The money though is still in my bank.

No contact is possible on the app. Online it is a virtual assistant that failed miserably to give me an answer. Then it promised to email me within 4.5 hours. 6 hours ago.

Have you noticed how they are geared to refer you to “the community”? Or sell you something else?

John

 

[Sam Vimes]

I've used chat systems which involve a human at the other end and experiences varied from being very good to useless.

I've use one AI powered chat system and that was absolutely useless on two fronts.

The chat window kept closing and reopening and you would more often than not lose what you were typing. If it reopened it would lose your place in the thread.

If you could actually engage with it, it could only answer the obvious questions you didn't need help with. There being no other way to engage with a real person I started each session with a request to speak to a human operator. This was actioned but it could be a few hours before any real person came on line. Once on experience varied again.

I raised a formal complaint and got my issue resolved, eventually, and also got compensation.

I can't believe that anyone designing such a system has ever tried them out for real.

 

[Jcloughie]

Fully agree, I hate them. Just today, I have a PayPal issue. Yesterday I tried to pay off my credit, Today it tells me the payment was completed, But it also says I owe the money, it cannot be both. The money though is still in my bank.

No contact is possible on the app. Online it is a virtual assistant that failed miserably to give me an answer. Then it promised to email me within 4.5 hours. 6 hours ago.

Have you noticed how they are geared to refer you to “the community”? Or sell you something else?

John

To update the above. The app still showed I owed £759.99 but also showed I had paid it. I have had no reply to my message as promised so I prompted them.

I then had another look on the website and found a telephone number hidden away. Very prompt, and spoke to a nice young man. As we were speaking the balance mysterally cleared to zero. He said not to worry, sometimes it takes a while.

But the money is still in my bank account! (I don't think that’s a bad thing). These payments are often instant, with this one we are now into day two.

John

 

[GaryB]

We have one with the company I work for, to be honest it gets used a lot, the assistant is a lovely looking lady as below, the reality is it's actually answered by a 6' 6" Welshman called Huw!!!!!

 

[Raywood]

I hate these things and do not use them any more after having got nowhere with almost all of them.
Not sure about Flymo direct sales but most bits are on Amazon.

 

[Buckman]

I hate these things and do not use them any more after having got nowhere with almost all of them.
Not sure about Flymo direct sales but most bits are on Amazon.

Unfortunately not and when I pointed out to the supplier that the bits were not available anywhere not even from the manufacturer, they have agreed a refund even though the machine is 3 months old. Excellent service.

Sadly the machine was ideal for me as I need to use an elbow crutch. It had a wheel so I could easily run it along the edge of the lawn. I have used it mainly for lawn edging. Holding up a strimmer while doing the edging can be quite tiresome and difficult for me to keep it in a straight line.

Now to research and research some more and buy probably a more expensive strimmer that does have the spares available and is suitable for me.

 

[otherclive]

I hate these things and do not use them any more after having got nowhere with almost all of them.
Not sure about Flymo direct sales but most bits are on Amazon.

My Bosch strimmer sits unused in the garage. It totally fails to auto feed the cord, so I changed the head for stronger non auto feed cord. But I haven't used it for three seasons. Prefer to go round on my knees with garden shears. Makes for a neater job. Strimmer destined for charity shop when I get round to cleaning it.

 

[Buckman]

My Bosch strimmer sits unused in the garage. It totally fails to auto feed the cord, so I changed the head for stronger non auto feed cord. But I haven't used it for three seasons. Prefer to go round on my knees with garden shears. Makes for a neater job. Strimmer destined for charity shop when I get round to cleaning it.

We still have our electric Bosch strimmer, but it is a hassle to use. The Flymo cordless was ideal and made life so much easier. Unfortunately I can no longer kneel due to the pain in my left knee cap so no crawling around the garden with the kitchen scissors to do the edging.

 

[otherclive]

We still have our electric Bosch strimmer, but it is a hassle to use. The Flymo cordless was ideal and made life so much easier. Unfortunately I can no longer kneel due to the pain in my left knee cap so no crawling around the garden with the kitchen scissors to do the edging.

Get some Guinea pigs; strimmers, mowers and fertilisers too. Plus they are delicious cooked on a BBQ.

 

[Buckman]

Get some Guinea pigs; strimmers, mowers and fertilisers too. Plus they are delicious cooked on a BBQ.

Probably why the local farmer will not let us borrow one of his sheep!

 

[Sam Vimes]

Since we've strayed obsolescence territory, this is happening more and more. It used to be said that if a mobile phone was on the shelves in a shop it's obsolete.

Up here in the boonies you can rent a pig if you have some land that needs digging over in preparation for whatever. At least a couple neighbours did that but I haven't seen the pigs for a while......but even for us vegetarians the smell of bacon cooking is almost a call for conversion to the dark side.

As for strimmers, sorry to show off, but I have two. A two stroke for the large areas and an electric one for the edges and tricky bits. The electric one is a corded Ryobi and supposedly the spools are still available but it does look like you could rewind the empty ones yourself. It's pretty good and has a wheel for the edges but it's quite heavy....but not as much as the 2 stroke.

 

[Buckman]

Since we've strayed obsolescence territory, this is happening more and more. It used to be said that if a mobile phone was on the shelves in a shop it's obsolete.

Up here in the boonies you can rent a pig if you have some land that needs digging over in preparation for whatever. At least a couple neighbours did that but I haven't seen the pigs for a while......but even for us vegetarians the smell of bacon cooking is almost a call for conversion to the dark side.

As for strimmers, sorry to show off, but I have two. A two stroke for the large areas and an electric one for the edges and tricky bits. The electric one is a corded Ryobi and supposedly the spools are still available but it does look like you could rewind the empty ones yourself. It's pretty good and has a wheel for the edges but it's quite heavy....but not as much as the 2 stroke.

I have been looking at the Worx and Ryobi cordless models, but no guide wheels. Unfortunately no mention of harnesses either and again Virtual assistant totally useless in both cases!

 

[Sam Vimes]

I looked recently on the Ryobi web site in search of electric mowers but also looked at the strimmers. It seems most new stuff these days is cordless which I didn't want because of power and endurance issues.

A friend has a Stihl cordless strimmer. Very good if you have deep pockets but still (Stihl... get it) not a great running time if you have a lot to do.

FWIW...I got my 2 stroke strimmer and electric mower from Mowers2go. Good prices and good service, especially for up here.

 

[Buckman]

The Stihl is very good, but a bit pricy for mainly lawn edging.

 

[Dustydog]

Sadly my Flymo Mini 2 stroke strummer expired after 30 years . An Argos electric does the job now, Miss the smell and smoke of the old 2 stroke😎

 

[Hutch]

Sadly my Flymo Mini 2 stroke strummer expired after 30 years . An Argos electric does the job now, Miss the smell and smoke of the old 2 stroke😎

Did you put Castrol R in it., at 20 to 1.

 

[Sam Vimes]

My Ryobi strimmer was a four stroke running on regular unleaded. It died just a month ago ......seized solid and was unrepairable. With a large area to do I got a Stihl 2 stroke and can't believe the difference in performance. Takes me half the time it used to.

Mixed at 50:1

 

[otherclive]

My Ryobi strimmer was a four stroke running on regular unleaded. It died just a month ago ......seized solid and was unrepairable. With a large area to do I got a Stihl 2 stroke and can't believe the difference in performance. Takes me half the time it used to.

Mixed at 50:1

More firing strokes perhaps 😂

 

[Beachball]

Flymo strimmer sits in the garage cannot remember when we have use it my wife prefers the long handled lawn shears to cut the edges

 

[Buckman]

Flymo strimmer sits in the garage cannot remember when we have use it my wife prefers the long handled lawn shears to cut the edges

You are very lucky that she is able to hold them to cut the edges. OH and myself would have great difficulty with doing that.

 

[Sam Vimes]

More firing strokes perhaps 😂

It was over 12 years old. The main bearing had gone and what passes as a crankshaft was wedged in the casing. I freed it all up but couldn't source a new bearing.

It had done a lot of work over the years as it also powered the hedge trimmer and chain saw.

In some ways it did me a favour. As I mentioned the new one gets the job done in half the time. Larger cutting area, more power and higher revs. Plus the action is much easier on my back and arms using the handle bar type rather than the old D-ring handle type.

 

[Buckman]

Getting back to my original issue, I received a phone call advising me that the unit can be collected by DPD, but it needs to be boxed. I replied that as it is 3 months old and I no longer have the box, can I drop the unit off at the store from where I bought it. Reply was in affirmative so drove down to the store which is about 7-8 miles from our residence.

At the store I was advised that they only take back goods within the 30 days. I showed them the email from their customer services where it stated that supplier who refund my account once the item was received. The argument by the store was that they were not the supplier, but that Flymo were the supplier. The invoice and payment were made Online to the store so I assumed that theyw ere the supplier. They were adamant that they were not the supplier and had no idea about CRA 2015.

Back onto the phone and it turns out that the person who had phoned me earlier had been given the incorrect information by her accounts manager and that the item could only be collected.

Imagine trying to resolve this issue with a virtual assistant or even the AI thingy.

 

[Hutch]

Today I was waiting for spare parts for a shower, that I ordered next day delivery, Virtual assistant on chat. No luck what so ever talking to "Rachael" why give them names????
I eventually found a phone number for the supplier, It turns out that the part wasn't sent, as they are short staffed due to people being off work due to COVID. Here we go again.

 

[Buckman]

Update on the Flymo issue. We have been refunded so a good result and I did not even mention CRA 2015.

Seems very strange to sell a 'new to the market' product and then have no available essential spares. In this case it was the spool for the strimmer and the line. I looked for alternatives, but due to the type of spool and different szie line nothing available. Plenty of spares for all the other models. Shame as the machine was quite good.

Back to using our corded Bosch strimmer. As season is almost over, no point in buying a replacement until next year.