Frustrated with the new Chat-only System

[SORS]

I wanted to share that I'm very disappointed that Zazzle moved to a chat-only system.  Sometimes a real conversation with a real person is the only way to resolve something quickly and clearly. I hope you will consider bringing back phone support.

[Connie]

Yes, I totally agree. The Chat bot is useless, and doesn't know anything. 

[KaptainBlasfemy]

whenever i'm faced with a bot i always type either "representative," "human" or something similar. have you tried that?

[Cat]

This made me chuckle. One time a customer contacted me wanting me to make a change to her existing order. I kept trying to explain that I couldn't help her and that she needed to either cancel and redo the order, or contact customer support. Apparently she thought I was a chatbot because she just kept responding with "agent." It totally cracked me up! I finally just pasted in the url for how to contact customer support! 

[Jadendreamer13]

Lol!

[osea]

I used Zazzle chat from much time. It seems working fine. I usually not like working by phone communications... Just for emergencies! Of course, anyone can meet for a coffee or something like that...

[Cat]

I didn't realize they had discontinued email support as well. It would have been nice if they had told us so I can stop sending people to the support email address. No wonder I'm suddenly getting a bunch more questions via chat!

FWIW zazzle.com/about/ask now goes to the chatbot - so I guess that's where I'll send people.

ETA - I just spent a few minutes asking it a bunch of the questions that I spent the day fielding from customers, and it did a surprisingly good job. Maybe it's improving?

[Anne]

Thanks for mentioning this. As usual, Zazzle did not bother to inform people properly. 

[Colorfulgalshop]

Had a conversation with the Zazzle Chatbot “ZEE” about this new customer service addition - Zee’s response - “You are right that the customer support options have changed. Our phone lines are currently closed, and we no longer use a direct email address. We are assisting customers primarily through chat for faster support. Our human chat agents are generally available from 3 am to 5 pm PT. If a customer's question can't be resolved by our virtual agent, Zee, they can be transferred to a human agent or get a link to our contact form to leave a message. We will get back to them within 1-2 business days.”

I was happy to hear that if Zee can’t help our customers that they will eventually be transferred to a human.  Hopefully a moderator will fill us in on more details. But then maybe the mods will be replaced with Chatbots - probably only a matter of time.

[Marcia]

This is bad. IMHO

[Colorfulgalshop]

I agree!!

[Susang6]

I had a problem and did use the chat system, but when they could not help me they referred me to customer service and gave me contact information.  Like you I did prefer speaking to a real person, rather than AI generated, but understand that the volume of calls must be great and the chat system is a good way to weed through to find out who really needs to speak to customer service.  I have come to accept as its the way business are run now. 

[Heather]

 Hi Creators,

Thank you for sharing your feedback about the chat feature. We’re actively improving SmartChat to support customers more quickly and effectively, which in turn helps reduce customer care questions that come our way as well as yours.

If a customer asks a question in Zazzle Chat that is not design related or you cannot answer, we recommend directing them to www.zazzle.com/about/ask.

Our goal with SmartChat is to provide instant, helpful support to Zazzle users whenever they need it. With the holiday season here, we’ve been adding new features that allow customers to resolve common issues on their own, right away.

For example, if someone enters the wrong shipping address, we can update it for them. If they spot a typo or realize they missed a section of their design, Zee can walk them through how to fix it. SmartChat can also assist with promo codes, Zazzle Plus inquiries, and forgotten passwords. And when we sense that a customer needs design help or is feeling stuck, we can still connect them directly with a human agent. We are still doing call backs if a customer really needs one and having those real conversations, but most of the time, the customer did not need a call back and found the chat feature to be helpful. 

We’re encouraged by the improvements we’re already seeing in response time, and we’re committed to continuing to enhance this feature to better support both our customers and our Creator community.

[Sea-Change]

I had an issue when I ordered an item as a customer. Chat was absolutely useless and incredibly frustrating.