Is it worse to get hung up on or stuck in a chatbot loop for 45 minutes?

I was trying to cancel a gym membership at Planet Fitness in Austin last week and found out their phone menu has literally 9 levels before you even talk to a person. I read a Consumer Reports article that said 73% of people give up before ever getting through to a live agent. So do you guys think being ghosted on the phone is worse than getting into that endless chatbot circle where it keeps asking 'how can I help you?' Has anyone else timed how long it takes to actually speak to someone?

2 comments

2 Comments

adam_butler3816d ago

The chatbot loop wins for me. At least with a phone tree you can mash zero and hope for the best, but a chatbot will just keep spinning its wheels asking the same question over and over.

martinez.reese14d ago

Wait, mash zero and hope for the best actually works for people? Ngl, I thought that was a myth at this point. Every phone tree I hit just goes "I didn't catch that" and resets the whole menu. Honestly, with chatbots at least you can type "agent" or "human" and sometimes it actually works. Tbh, the real nightmare is when the chatbot recognizes the word, promises to transfer you, then just sends you a help article link and ends the chat. That's the kind of stuff that makes me wanna throw my phone.