With the way I dog people in this blog, this entry is going to be a little tricky for me. I mean, all people are not complete and utter morons, but like weeds, there's enough sprouting up these days to give people a bad name. So the thought of replacing a person with something not quite so human, to do the same job, seems like it would be right up my alley. Or is it?
I'm talking about automation. I'm not sure where it started but most of us likely got our first taste of it over the phone. And it may have started with the phone company itself. You would call the phone company with some problem you were having about your service, your bill, etc. and you would get this automated voice asking you to press 1 for this problem, 2 for that problem and so on. Today, I don't know if there's a service oriented company out there that doesn't have this automation set-up. Phone company, cable/satellite company, electric company, internet service provider, the local pizza joint, your bookie, everybody's using it.
Other than the fact that this probably takes a job away from somebody, the idea that I don't have to engage with some idiot that doesn't have a clue, and get my issue resolved, is an intriguing idea. I mean, it was probably some bozo doing the job that just didn't care that brought about this automation service to begin with. One problem though. After going through the whole automation sequence, pressing all the buttons to enter all the information, you still end up needing to talk to a live person after all.
Then when you get this live person, this live person proceeds asking you the same questions you just spent 15 minutes entering answers to with the automated piece of crap that was never able to help you in the first place. Then there's the fact that since the company you're dealing with no longer has a customer service department because they have automation now, if for some strange, wacko reason that automation doesn't solve your problem and you have to talk to someone live, they outsource that work because it's cheaper than carrying a customer service staff. And that would be fine if they didn't outsource this work to a country on the other side of the planet, so now you can't understand anything this live person is saying to you and you're not much better off.
When this person can't fix your problem, you get transferred to the "tech" department. Finally, someone who speaks English (CLEARLY). You tell this guy your problem and he says, "I don't handle that. Why did they transfer you to me?" I don't know, maybe something got lost in the freaking translation!!!!! Now, what I call the "transfer tag" game starts. This is where no one seems to be able to fix your problem, or no one seems to care about fixing it, and you get transferred from department to department. It's like they're playing a game of tag. NOT IT, NOT IT! And on to the next.
Automation continues to grow though. You don't even need a staff of people working at a video store any more if you want to rent a movie. Now you have these vending machines (like Redbox) that will rent you a movie without ever having to talk to a person. Never mind that these things have probably put places like Hollywood Video out of business along with all those lost jobs. Automation has even taken over at paid public parking lots where you used to pull into the lot, roll your window down, pay the guy waiving you in, he hands you a receipt you put on your dash, and you park and go attend your sporting event or concert or what have you. In downtown Houston, when going to an Astros baseball game at Minute Maid Park, this is the way it has always worked......until yesterday.
Because the Astros play this season has been less than stellar, I haven't been inclined to attend as many games as I usually do, so yesterday was the first I was exposed to this parking automation. There's still a guy with a flag waiving for people to come into his lot. A $5 lot. So I pull in, roll down my window to pay my way in, like I've done for the last 10 years. The guy comes to the window and tells me to park and then pay the machine in the center of the lot. Then take the receipt it gives you and put it on your dash. I say, "fine, whatever." I start to proceed, then stop and called him back to my car to ask him about exact change since I only had a ten spot. He said if I didn't have exact change, I could use my credit or debit card. Oh joy!
I was already in a hurry because I was meeting some people so I go ahead and pull in and head over to the machine. I insert my card and wait. Sure enough, machine says that it can not read my card. So I do it a second time, making double sure I'm doing everything right. Still can't read my card. So I call flag boy over, he takes my card and tries it, no deal. He gets on a phone to, I assume, call his supervisor, and I also assume he didn't get an automated service since he began talking right away. They came to the conclusion that I should walk about a block and a half over to the other machine and try that one. Luckily I found some people who had change for a ten.
Now, I want to know the purpose of this machine. It wasn't to replace the guy collecting money because there's still a guy there waiving a flag. I guess it's a good idea to not have a guy collecting all that money and having it on him in downtown Houston, but man, if the machines don't work, you're screwed. With a person, no matter how much of a dufus they might be, you can talk to them, tell them the problem and maybe find a solution. Not always, but most of the time you can. With a non-human, well, you can't state your case to a machine in the middle of a parking lot and expect to get anywhere with it. Plus people look at you funny if you do.
So in the battle of People vs. Automation, well, as the World Cup comes to a close, I guess I'll have to call it a draw......for now.
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