Automation is not always good customer support

Yesterday, I had to spend half my day dealing with cable television. I had called Cox Customer support. I had already done most of the general debugging: Turning off the television off then back on. Turning the TiVo off ten back on. By the time I called Cox I was quite sure it was not on my side.

I had the choice of the virtual debugger or and agent. I chose ‘Agent’. I still got the virtual tech support. A very calming automatic voice (condescending) started walking through all the steps again. It was like a combination of the IT Crowd and H.A.L. If cable was not important to the household at this moment, I would have canceled.

Problem with automation, is that it is decided to make a customer give up in frustration. What is so unfair to the person customer service person, and to me, is that the survey after words is designed to rank her performance. The virtual help got a bye.

I will say this; Cox live people are great. The virtual needs work.