I hired a local plumber to do some work on a bathroom remodel. They had a human secretary when I first reached out and they sent a plumber to give me a quote, everything was going smoothly.
After I get the quote, I call back and get a phone AI assistant instead to handle scheduling the job instead of the human secretary. The AI assistant does not understand my home address and keeps asking me over and over to repeat myself. It was never able to get unstuck. There was no option to speak to a person, so I hung up without getting the job scheduled. I wrote a bad Google review detailing my experience.
I called a different plumbing company (with a human on the other end) and got a second quote that was 30% less than the original, they came out and did the job.
Three weeks later, the owner of the first company reaches out making excuses as to why he wasn't flagged about my issue sooner and apologizing, but the job was done by that point.
I'd rather pay extra for services like plumbing if it means I can talk to a human because these LLM voice systems can't do basic scheduling calls.
People can wax poetic about the impending value transfer of these systems but I have yet to personally experience an AI integration in the wild that gives me confidence that these systems are ready to do human jobs. After my experience, I refuse to do business with companies that use frontline AI for communication because it’s just not worth it.
cowboylowrez•9h ago
yes but the key takeaway here is that the first plumber is using AI so that sounds like a sale to me. if the first plumber needs to get his AI fixed, he can get on the phone and talk with our AI.
CodingJeebus•9h ago
Sure, he bought an AI product. I’m not saying that nobody is buying this stuff. But does the product do well enough to justify its existence? That can only be answered long term.
That AI app cost him my 5 figure job and I made that very clear to him and I’ve also told many folks in my community looking for plumbing work to stay away from those guys.
cowboylowrez•7h ago
this is capitalism, the AI only has to be shiny enough to be sold, and once the plumber loses his business we can buy back the AI during the bankruptcy sale at a reduced price, wins all around well except for you and the plumber I guess but AI!!!!
CodingJeebus•10h ago
After I get the quote, I call back and get a phone AI assistant instead to handle scheduling the job instead of the human secretary. The AI assistant does not understand my home address and keeps asking me over and over to repeat myself. It was never able to get unstuck. There was no option to speak to a person, so I hung up without getting the job scheduled. I wrote a bad Google review detailing my experience. I called a different plumbing company (with a human on the other end) and got a second quote that was 30% less than the original, they came out and did the job.
Three weeks later, the owner of the first company reaches out making excuses as to why he wasn't flagged about my issue sooner and apologizing, but the job was done by that point. I'd rather pay extra for services like plumbing if it means I can talk to a human because these LLM voice systems can't do basic scheduling calls.
People can wax poetic about the impending value transfer of these systems but I have yet to personally experience an AI integration in the wild that gives me confidence that these systems are ready to do human jobs. After my experience, I refuse to do business with companies that use frontline AI for communication because it’s just not worth it.
cowboylowrez•9h ago
CodingJeebus•9h ago
That AI app cost him my 5 figure job and I made that very clear to him and I’ve also told many folks in my community looking for plumbing work to stay away from those guys.
cowboylowrez•7h ago