Filled in the online form to join up, and clicked the button to receive my email, so that I can reply to it and validate my account. What could be easier?
Well, my email didn't arrive. I requested a re-send, and it still didn't arrive.
I got on to Zoom's online customer support, and opened up the chat line. The chat line suggested I should check my spam folder, and maybe contact my workplace IT section for help. I confirmed that I had checked spam, and that I am my own IT support, and the chat line couldn't understand what I was talking about. "TRY AGAIN WITH DIFFERENT WORDS..." it suggested.
Tried a couple of re-wordings, and it became obvious pretty quickly that I was chatting with an expert system, and I was getting nowhere fast. I don't have a lot of time for this sort of exercise today, so I just said "Forget it for now - I'll try later."
To which the expert system replied:
"IF YOU USE LANGUAGE LIKE THAT, WE WILL BE UNABLE TO HELP YOU."
It's disappointing when an expert system has such poor expectations of its own customers. Maybe I will try again later - not sure.
The language problem, I think, is at their end - their chat line must have a very small repertoire of known words.
No worries. Maybe I'm due a return to Skype?
***** Late Edit - Happy Ending? *****
Credit where credit is due - I did receive the activation email, plus the 4 further re-sends I requested. They arrived at 03:11, which is 15 hours after I sent my original request.
OK - I'm probably operational now. I imagine the emails are sent by more robots. Thus my first impression is that Zoom's AI staff are not only sensitive but also remarkably slow. I have a couple of YouTube instructional vids to watch to get up to speed. Maybe later - my robot is still asleep.
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I guess you missed a few of the memos on ZOOM? Many organisations have banned ZOOM due to security issues and zoombombing ...
ReplyDeleteWith the lockdown, Zoom has been VERY busy, both in terms of support needs and traffic. I signed up with it last week (to make telehealth rounds at a local Nursing home - our office system was too cumbersome for that, would have required 10 separate emails to 10 unique email addresses for people who have none, discrete appointment times that expire, etc. It worked fine with the Nursing director carrying "me" around on a laptop. Aside from the two on the dementia unit, they all recognized me right a way and sort of had fun using the computer interface.
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