"The human spirit would prevail. If only I could find another human to help me out. I messaged the bloke who had installed it, but time was pressing, so I tried the manufacturer's website. It was all big and glossy, banging on about a green future, sustainability, solar this, inverter that."
"My phone told me I was calling a number in a small town in the east of England. An encouraging sign. It felt real. A competent techie with a strong Hull accent would have done nicely, but an automated American voice picked up, accompanied by stimulating piano arpeggios. My heart sank."
"I told her—seriously, what are the pronouns here?—that I needed help changing the wifi details on an EV charger. I muttered this almost shyly, uncomfortable about participating in such a chilling charade. It was chilling in that attempts had been made, with the carefully curated"
A driver faced a dead EV charger battery after five hours of driving and needed immediate assistance. The charger's wifi connection required reconfiguration, but the manufacturer's website proved unhelpful with broken support links. After locating a phone number, the driver reached an automated system with an American voice and piano music. When connected to technical support, the representative named Rachel appeared to be an AI rather than a human, creating an uncomfortable and unsettling customer service experience. The encounter highlighted the disconnect between glossy corporate sustainability messaging and inadequate practical support infrastructure.
#ev-charging-infrastructure #ai-customer-service #technical-support-failures #corporate-sustainability-messaging
Read at www.theguardian.com
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