ZFR: And why is support replaced with a moronic bot?
Lifthrasil: To have another hurdle before support actually does something?
Yes. The chat-bot is annoying and useless. At least useless for the customers. It probably has some use for support by frustrating customers until they give up and cease to try to bother support.
In case you think GOG support is bad
I got a year old WD external disc and its write speed lately is very slow. Tried the usual troubleshooting: different USB port, different OS, different machine. Can't try a different cable, because they use a specific proprietary one.
Opened a support ticket. Explained all of the above. Received this reponse today:
Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is REDACTED
It is my pleasure to assist you with your case and here is the case number for any future references: REDACTED
As per the email received, I understand that the drive is not detected. I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you.
Please be informed that these might be the possible reasons for the issue:
1. The USB cable is broken.
2. The USB port malfunctioning.
3. The USB adapter is not working properly.
4. The external hard drive is not formatted correctly.
5. The hardware and software like disk driver need an update.
6. The file system of the external hard drive is corrupted.
In order to troubleshoot your issue, please provide the following information:
1. What Operating System are you using? If applicable, please include the version.
2. Have you tried to plug the drive into a different USB port?
3. Have you tried to connect the drive using a different USB cable?
4. Have you tried to connect the drive to another computer?
5. Have you done any other troubleshooting on the device?
6. Do you see any error messages when you connect the drive to the computer?
7. Is your drive visible in the Disk Management or Disk Utility?
Even the frikin title of my frikin support ticket is "Very slow disc write speeds". So how on earth did this genius reach the brilliant conclusion that my problem is my drive not being dected? And the information he's asking are there in my email.
I swear the GOG bot is 100 times better in comparison.
Sorry for the vent, but moronic tech support is a pet peeve of mine. I understand that from their side they have to deal with tons of "my drive not working lol pls hlp" emails. But when someone takes their time to write a proper support ticket, give them a proper reply.
For a moment I thought this was just a bot auto reply, but no, this came the next day from a human.
Unless...
Bookwyrm627: Apparently there's some actual human psychology involved in this, it isn't just GOG.
Something about people not quite believing the bot if its answers are immediate, or something? It's been a while since I saw that tidbit, so I don't quite remember, just that "instant" bots were tried first, but users didn't like them. More than usual, I mean.
There is some human psychology involved here too and WD is sending bot emails days later instead of instantly.