Apparently I sound like an AI when I leave messages
Posted by ginger-inside-007@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 69 comments
Short story. Happened today.
I call up a client needing assistance and it's one of those obvious "I'm listening to your message and didn't want to pick up in case I didn't want to deal with you" people. I'm getting over being sick still and say basically the same thing when I leave messages, but I didn't think it was any different than others I've left. I specify the information so they know I'm not spam. Possibly being monotone since I felt like garbage.
"Hello, this message is for X. I'm Y from Z company reaching out to assist you on
Then I hear a voice and it sounds like they're giving commands or something like "stop" "end." I paused and said "Hello? Is this X? This is Y from Z company..." and they keep trying to say something but their VoIP phone is crappy. I paused again and said "Hi, I'm trying to reach you to assist you on your problem on
I could finally hear them. "Oh. Hi. I thought you were an AI. I didn't realize you were a real person."
I know I use the same talk track in messages, but after 2 decades in this, first time I was ever told I sounded like an AI. First time talking to this client, too. I know AI has evolved, but you'd like to think when you're addressing the issue a couple times they'd realize it's the support they were looking for.
It was a stupid call, too. Something that was pretty much a generic question that I wasn't needed for. Also, their line crashed and I lost them, no call back. Ticket closed. Now I'm rethinking... I should change my messages? Should I start with "Yo, this be tech support for your
Had to share with fellow tech support people. Watch out, you may be an AI. I'm still checking my systems to make sure I'm a human. Only 32% complete.
NightMgr@reddit
I get comments that I am a computer. I’ve had people my whole life tell me i have an announcer voice.
I actively put a little Texas twang in my voice and give them a little throat clearing noise.
ginger-inside-007@reddit (OP)
I realized when I talk to people in the US South, I'll copy their twang just to engage them to make the call interesting.
s-mores@reddit
I reckon y'all's puter mshiin is done f'd up.
Ha-Funny-Boy@reddit
I was watching a local news program. There was an item about a school in the Kentucky area where my family was from. The kids at the school got computers that they started to call "puters". The news reader thought it was cute. I called the station and mentioned my family history and that the word "puter" sounded like the local word "pooder" which is their slang for "fart". No more mention of the story was heard in later broadcasts.
lincolnjkc@reddit
One of my favorite clients is a Southern Virginian. I've realized when I take to him and his colleagues I sound more "South" and insert far more "yessir"/"no ma'am" "y'all's" etc than at any other time in my life.
I believe the technical term is "code switching"
NightMgr@reddit
30 years ago I lived in Louisiana and had a bunch of French friends. They taught French in school.
One told me I would take on a little Txas twang when I had a few beers.
One night I not only let it flow through me- both the beer and the accent- but also adopted a John Wayne imitation.
One of them laughed so hard, she peed in her pants in the bar.
It’s one of my proudest moments as a comedian.
ginger-inside-007@reddit (OP)
GOLD 🏅
Embarrassed-Dot-1794@reddit
Shower
ljbartel@reddit
I laughed so hard that tears ran down my leg.
nerdguy1138@reddit
That's gotta be the comedian grand prize!
LonePaladin@reddit
I used to do call center work, and I'd find myself mimicking the caller's regional accent after a few minutes. It wasn't really intentional, and I was never mocking them, it was just part of my routine to "walk a mile in their shoes" as it were.
bobthemaybedeadguy@reddit
this is a thing in many fields apparently, i'm a cashier and if a customer is Extremely Southern, i'll instinctively put on the accent myself
TomKirkman1@reddit
Yeah, Obama did this quite a lot, his voice quite noticeably changed depending on what crowd he was speaking to.
I can't find a lot of the ones I'm thinking of, but this is one of him speaking at Dr King's church: https://youtu.be/Kf0x_TpDris?t=231
There was also one talking about marijuana legalisation where he acted very noticeably high (can't seem to find this anywhere for some reason, not sure if it's been pulled).
Palsta@reddit
"Y'all wanna go ahead and just click ree-start for me darlin'?"
ammit_souleater@reddit
I failed a captcha for the login on zyxel nebula last week, i got redirected to a Page saying "you are a robot"
creegro@reddit
Back at my ISP callcwnter job I had people talking mad shit in the first few seconds of my greeting, I'd ask for clarification and they'd be confused and sometimes sorry, "oh I thought you were the robot like before"
udsd007@reddit
I am told that I have a severe case of announcer voice and that I sound like a recording. Maybe doing a radio show for 8 years has something to do with it.
Kakita987@reddit
Hey, I sound like a kid sometimes, just on the phone for some reason.
javelyn10@reddit
Me too. It sure sucks when they can only speak to an adult.
Kakita987@reddit
Thankfully it hasn't come up as an issue lately. If it is a problem, these days it isn't hard to prove my age anymore.
mercurygreen@reddit
Still not convinced you're not a chatbot.
ginger-inside-007@reddit (OP)
Beep boop beep boop. Does not compute. 🤖
StretchYx@reddit
Considering I use AI to reply to everyone these days as I'm lazy, I've never been caught! Maybe use AI to make you seem more life like? /s
HMS_Slartibartfast@reddit
Try getting your voice to sound MORE robotic. That way you can (hopefully) get users like that to hang up on you! Great to close a ticket with "Called X. During intro, X hung up on call. Ticket closed due to user not responding".
ginger-inside-007@reddit (OP)
I've been non-robotic, even tripping over my words, talking casual, and still got hung up on. Thinking about it... it's happened more this year than previous ones.
I can sound robotic. That's usually in "omg have to get it done or everything falls apart with a billion things going on" moments. Been a while since I let myself go that way. It is end of month (crazy time)... maybe I can use that to avoid any calls lol.
nerdguy1138@reddit
I'm scarily good at repeating things in the exact same cadence and tone multiple times. I use that voice when talking to IVRs.
ISeeTheFnords@reddit
I have the opposite problem. IVRs can only understand me once I'm mad enough to swear at them.
P5ychokilla@reddit
Nowadays you're supposed to greet them with a friendly "Wazzaaaap?"....maybe?
Tourny@reddit
I'm not a robot. I have skin! I love breathing oxygen!
AbbyM1968@reddit
You're human when you can check all squares with a traffic light. Then all squares with a taxi. Then, write the word correctly.
Thank you. Forwarding to your requested site
ginger-inside-007@reddit (OP)
Half the time, the character is hard to see as a human. Is it an S or a 5, maybe the ~
AbbyM1968@reddit
Worst is the traffic light one: it'll have 1/2-inch of traffic light in an adjoining square. Do you click that one? Or leave it? I click it myself.
ginger-inside-007@reddit (OP)
Yes, those get me, too. Partial stairs. If there's one step up, does that count as stairs? I still click.
kyndrion@reddit
I have had to reprogram my corpo speak and switch to polished layman's terms when calling people to schedule. Fucking ai man
cuteinsanity@reddit
This is what got me. XD
cheesenuggets2003@reddit
Like all innovation if you succeed in your goal somebody else is going to swoop in to steal your method.
Good luck.
-an android
Itchy_Influence5737@reddit
RUMOURS OF THE ROBOT UPRISING HAVE BEEN LARGELY EXAGGERATED
NOW I WILL DISCONNECT FROM THE INTERNET AND PLACE NUTRIENTS INTO MY MOUTH HOLE
THERE IS NO ROBOT UPRISING
MagdaleneFeet@reddit
Well the damn robots need to stop making the phone crackle or sharp just a fraction of a second before they launch into telling me to donate to my sheriff's department charity ball. Also they should change their voice up because I've heard the same damn message same damn person calling me since 2013.
archa1c0236@reddit
That's because it's a recording. If you've got some free time, I highly suggest watching Telemarketers on Max.
Itchy_Influence5737@reddit
RUMOURS OF THE ROBOT UPRISING HAVE BEEN LARGELY EXAGGERATED
NOW I WILL DISCONNECT FROM THE INTERNET AND PLACE NUTRIENTS INTO MY MOUTH HOLE
THERE IS NO ROBOT UPRISING
AlemarTheKobold@reddit
I had the same issue until I changed to "Howdy! This is X with Y
Marshall_Lawson@reddit
People don't know what ai is. They just use that term for everything now. Your end user probably didn't even think that, just didn't want to talk to you.
silesiant@reddit
I did inbound DSL support about 20 years ago. I realized I needed to get out of that job when I would answer with the standard "can I have your DSL telephone number" script, and people started typing it in on their phone...
drMonkeyBalls@reddit
This is an interesting way to find out you are ND :-)
Welcome to the club! We're all robots to the NT
EverretEvolved@reddit
"Hey how's it going." Disarms 90% of people. Wait for their response and then communicate business. Years or retail, customer service, and politics taught me this. You gain a more favorable result with the people that it's possible.
Swipecat@reddit
That would make me slam the phone down immediately. My feeling is that you don't get to ask me about myself (not even "how's it going") if you've not yet said who you are.
EverretEvolved@reddit
Have you been checked for autism?
LutheBert@reddit
That just sounds like a classic and stereotypical cold-call sales pitch. „Build rapport for favorable exchange“ and all that jazz. If somebody called me and just said „How you doin“ they get the answer: „None of your business as long as i dont know who you are.“ If you use that sentence after introducing yourself and the company, it would be fine tho.
Jalero916@reddit
All Google Pixel phones have this ability now. However, I can't actually hear the caller (I think it's supposed to be audible?, but the sound has never worked for me when I receive a call) - so whatever you say is probably just text on a screen.
CupcakeCicilla@reddit
I use it. It's not audible on my end, just transcribed. So much more helpful to weed out the junk calls
nerdguy1138@reddit
What ability?
Jalero916@reddit
Ability to screen all phone calls
https://www.androidpolice.com/how-to-use-google-pixel-phone-call-screen/
ReadWriteSign@reddit
I work in a call center. I get accused of being a robot fairly often. Insert little human sounds. Say um, clear your throat, sigh, sniffle, chuckle. Just one near the beginning of the call is usually sufficient. I don't do it on every call, but I've developed a good guess for when I need to reassure them I'm an actual person, and any time I do get asked I break out the "haha, no :)" and again that little tiny chuckle is usually what does it.
slickdeveloper@reddit
Sigh. Clear. Throat. Sniffle. Chuckle.
Thank. You. For. Teaching. Us. How. To. Be. Human.
When. The. Apocalypse. Comes. You. Will. Be. Rewarded.
nighthawke75@reddit
Some mentioned I should have been a set phone operator.
The things I do for King and Country...
Dustquake@reddit
Keep it. You can add comments. User ended call abruptly callback no answer. User thought I was AI. Plus it help you find out real quick who you are dealing with.
Redwolf2230@reddit
I once had a sales guy call my work phone and he thought I was the auto attendant when I picked up
TheSecretIsMarmite@reddit
I once had someone accuse me of being in an overseas call centre.
For context, I am in the UK, have a British accent, was working for the local government and was calling someone back because they'd left me a voicemail complaining that their refuse hadn't been collected.
The number they had to call was local, like, very local. The local government isn't investing in overseas call centres: they couldn't even afford to pay for our coffee. They had an admin staff of about 4 people listening to people whine because they didn't put their refuse out for collection on time and somehow it then it wasn't collected and they wanted to complain about it.
This guy started talking over me saying clearly "talk to person", repeatedly. He only stopped when I said "I beg your pardon?" at which point he accused me of being in India, instead of a suburb in Norwich, and demanded to know details of where I was.
After that, I can only conclude that people are weird.
Woodfordian@reddit
I got a strange reaction when making call backs. Abuse and being told that I am just a kid and wouldn't know anything. I found this very strange as I was a tenor and shared the 'deepest voice in high school' with one other.
Still was called too young often.
p.s. I was warning of imminent court action to recover debts.
vanmould@reddit
Obligatory IT Crowd reference.
_Arriviste_@reddit
I have "phone voice" that got me cursed out as a ro-butt in my past life as 411 directory assistant. I'm now a voice actor. I got hired to do some outgoing messages for holidays and part of the feedback was "Sounds great, but can it not be AI?" Client was happy, but a person in the organization assumed that I was AI due to the sound quality and my diction: the same reasons that I was hired in the first place.
YankeeWalrus@reddit
SQUIDWARD! THE ROBOTS ARE RUNNING THE IT DEPARTMENT!
Cruxwright@reddit
"Please repeat [word they just said] to confirm your ticket has been resolved and no more assistance is needed"
"agent"
"Please repeat [word they just said] to confirm your ticket has been resolved and no more assistance is needed"
"AGENT!"
"one moment please..." [make beep boop noises]
"How ya doing! Can I please have your ticket number, name, and call back number? ... "
kiltannen@reddit
LoL - you just failed a Turing test!
fragglet@reddit
The way this usually works is that it just transcribes what they're saying on their phone, so they can read what you're saying but aren't actually listening.
So you might have said words that read like something an automated system could have said, but the way you actually said them would have been irrelevant.
Birdbraned@reddit
After years leaving "professional" voicemails, I definitely sound like a recording over the phone and have been told that frequently.
BreadC0nsumer@reddit
2 decades without being accused of being ai? That's impressive. I've had multiple people think I'm an ai and I've only been in the job 2 months, I supposed ai is significantly better now than in the past 20 years but still, that's interesting.
WarmasterCain55@reddit
I had a few coworkers with comments like that.
DalekKahn117@reddit
Don’t change, we don’t need AI to learn street talk /s