21 Comments

I was laughing and frustrated with you at the same time. My goodness!

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I don't know whether you have ever read any Alan Bennett or seen movies based on his writing (eg The History Boys, The Lady in the Van inter alia), but he has a wonderfully wry view of human nature. We were watching a TV programme about him discussing whether he took on certain opportunities that were presented to him in order to gain 'copy'. The answer was probably not, but that he milked them when they arose. This one fell into my lap. All I did was see the humour in it. Thanks for commenting.

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Laughing bitterly. Have you tried “I need to speak to a human?”

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No, it might have been more effective, but not nearly as much fun. See my answer just now to David R.

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Sometimes reality is stranger than any fiction we could write - I laughed til I cried at this one.

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Oh my goodness!!! These bots are really taking over the world. I recall conversations startlingly similar to these. Sigh. They do learn, but the extraordinary, blatant untruths along the way!!! (And here I was thinking how lovely you were offering me the 20% discount and how could I resist! And you were never even involved in the offer in the first place!!) Thank goodness you saw the humour in it all, and thank goodness these conversations are recorded. Oh my goodness….

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Yes, dear Beth, I was worried you might be very apologetic and I am glad you're not. It's only worth about £4. Personally, I got £4 worth of pleasure from the whole business. I believe this post is wending its way to the Substack people who make the bots. i shall be curious if they reply.

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Hahahhaa I personally love the bot even when it's wrong. Sometimes I ask it about the meaning of life just to break up my work day 😂

And yes, it does let you speak to a human if you ask. I've only needed that once.

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Nice idea! Does it have any profound things to say about the meaning of life?

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Haha nothing I can use practically 😅

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Here I thought I was talking to an actual person this whole time. I had a convo with the "bot" today. Substack's doing great training their AI.

PS. I love the sentiment and name of your stack.

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This is not funny. Stressful infuriating frustrating. I spent hours in customer support like this once (not substack). With the difference that they claimed to be real support agents and not AI. (and if I didn't respond quick enough I got connected to another agent and had to start all over).. I got completely mad it ruined two days for me (it was supposed to be just a quick inquiry). Until I finally reached a human who finally was able to sort things out. It is a trauma. I still havent forgiven them. Need therapy. Sorry for venting in your comment section! 😂

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Look at it this way. When i was your age, I would have had to go to whatever agency was causing me problems, stand in line forever, then be told I belonged in a different line etc etc. It's very annoying, but I really question whether trauma is the right word (ie it is not the same as being shot at in the jungle or being raped by your stepfather). Read a good book, run around your neighbourhood, take whoever it is to bed. Life is too short to get hung up by these things.

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mmm trauma was an exaggeration 🙏 Might be inappropriate to use it for comical effect in this way. I'm just playing on the fact that I found the frustration still palpable. I think being not heard and understood and a sense of wasting time going in circles really gets to me though. "Read a good book, run around your neighbourhood, take whoever it is to bed." Yes exactly these things! Not standing in line forever to meet an agent who happens to be a badly functioning robot who politely misinterprets not only what you say.. but also who he himself is and what he knows and can or cannot do 😂😂😂

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"To clarify, Substack doesn't have a specific 'Earnings' tab."

YIKES. You could have screamed. You laughed instead.

In this brave new world, we're all laughing our fannies off...

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Any chance of s restack of my post? Thanks.

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Ah, the botspeak is strong in that one. lol

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What a wind-up! How funny that the Substack bot ‘misspoke’!

I’m glad you eventually got an actual human response from Stripe. That’s reassuring.

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I couldn't really decide whether I was more annoyed or more amused. And then I suddenly thought I have a new post and there it was, the easiest and funniest one i have written. I would have been more annoyed perhaps if more money had been involved, but it was only £4.00.

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To risk sounding like a bot myself, Ann, there is something in publication settings that lets you toggle on or off Substack auto-discount offers on your Stack. I'd rather be in control, so turned it off.

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Yes, I finally found it but hadn’t known of its existence. And someone had, quite reasonably, taken advantage of it. I could have done the same thing. All income goes to a charity in any case.

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