I just tried interacting with the chatbot for the first time. I am putting the user style bypass back in and not taking it off again. The icing on the cake is that after all this effort, my support ticket is poorly readable because line breaks have been removed.

Merry Christmas!


Transcript sample:
(User): I need to open a support ticket for GOG Galaxy.
(Chatbot): I am not sure, what you have in mind. Maybe one of the topics below is the one you're looking for?

(User): 2 ("I need tech support")
(Chatbot): What is the title of the game?
(User): Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days - Complete Edition
(Chatbot): Find all troubleshouting articles for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days - Complete Edition on our website.
(Chatbot): You can also visit PC Game Wiki

(Chatbot): Did I find the correct game and did you solve your technical issue?
(User): No solution
(Chatbot): Do you wish to receive technical support for this game, or apply for a refund?

(User): I need support for GOG Galaxy
(Chatbot): I am not sure, what you have in mind. Maybe one of the topics below is the one you're looking for?

(User): Open a support ticket
(Chatbot): I am not sure, what you have in mind. Maybe one of the topics below is the one you're looking for?

(Chatbot): Choose topic:
(User): Other
(Chatbot): Please choose the type of your inquiry below
(User): Other inquiries
(Chatbot): Please send me your e-mail address:
(User): (my e-mail address)
(Chatbot): Perfect! Now, let me know how I can help you:
(User): Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days - Complete Edition is missing in GOG Galaxy. It's still available in my library on the site. This issue is not specific to my account; many people have had this problem since at least August. I filed this as GOG Galaxy bug report 0191393 but it remains untouched to this day. Backstory: https://www.gog.com/forum/general_beta_gog_galaxy_2.0/my_game_disappeared/post2 Latest report: https://www.gog.com/forum/general_beta_gog_galaxy_2.0/gog_galaxy_dont_show_kane_lynch_2_dog_days_complete_edition

Heh, when I tried to get past it to submit the ticket about the DRM for the Witcher 3 "rewards", I got stuck in a loop because it couldn't select the game, it kept saying it found multiple matches for that title, spelled exactly, listing it and SWAT 3: Tactical Game of the Year Edition, no way to get out of the loop.

In the 21st century, chatbots, much like nuclear arsenals, take on the role of the ultimate deterrent. Their artificial machine-learning driven stupidity will waste your time masterfully while saving support costs for its "employers". Truly, theological experts now agree that hell is just a chatbot you must bypass to get in touch with St. Pete' at the gates of heaven, but that keeps saying you haven't answered enough questions yet or that it doesn't know what you mean.

All support bots are astonishingly stupid, it's not just this one. Although having to waste time going through this bot is already annoying.

I'm sure if it had better selection of regex and a list of common questions they might get to find proper paths, it might be better....

That said, i hate chat bots. And eventually lowering revenue because people won't buy on their storefront because they are doing stupid things.

Better to drop the support bot, put a FAQ (In general and go to game specific threads/problems) and allow a ticket or chat with someone to get a quick response.

Remember: Happy customers, are paying customers.

I don't think this applies anymore. Since users keep buying happy or not. Google is the worse when comes to chat bots. It's almost impossible to talk with a real person at Google.


GOG should remove their Chat bot.

Or, if they insist on keeping it, one solution would be to ensure that every conversation ending circumstance is caught, including being unable to actually initiate troubleshooting, like in my example when it wouldn't understand the game title, and at that point first ask if the problem has been solved, and if the user says no, ask whether user would like to submit a support ticket, with a third option along the lines of "yes, and let me do it on my own, I know what I have to do" option after yes and no that would close the bot and reveal the regular ticket submission form.
If they claim that most problems are actually solved by the bot (which would mean people not reading basic info or being clueless about computers in general I guess, though when the bot works so badly I wonder even about that), this won't affect that, but it would ensure that the path to support always exists and also that those who know what they're doing can use the, shall we say, more advanced submission method.

Oh, and a much smaller thing, but still annoying, is the fake typing icon and delay. It's a bot, it doesn't need time to type, stop wasting the user's time to fake it!

I am a simple man with a simple rule: I don't talk to computers. I don't chat with them. I don't speak to them. Any time I call a company and I'm forced to use their computer-based system I simply say "agent" or "operator" until they put me through to a human. If this takes more than three repetitions (looking at you, UPS, you mentally-deficient rectal warts) I escalate the call to a supervisor as soon as a human comes on the line, file a complaint, and also make a BBB complaint detailing the inability to swiftly and easily speak to a customer service representative.

I do not pay REAL money to get PSEUDO support in the form of a computer. If I'm calling you or chatting with you, I have ALREADY TRIED to find the answer myself on the web and I obviously need to speak to a real person because your FAQs and other links don't meet my needs. If THEY didn't hold the answer, your chat or robot voice won't have it, either.

I have not needed GOG support for any game since I bought the Unreal Tournament Pack in 2016 and it wouldn't run on my chipset. GOG's service was AMAZING then. I am disappointed to hear that they have gone the way of so many companies.

Rapid customer service is part of a competition model called "reflected value." It's why the Amazon Kindle is worthless without a supply of eBooks to read on it or an XBox is meaningless without a games library to play on it-- but it's also why an inexpensive product with mediocre customer support is often outsold by a more expensive competitor who is helpful when the buyer has a problem.

When we customers make a purchase, we are literally giving GOG time from our finite lives. This isn't a joke. You trade your precious life to an employer for money that is used as a medium of exchange to buy goods. If you buy a $70 game and you make ten bucks an hour, that is TEN HOURS OF YOUR LIFE you just traded away.

Don't get me started on taxes.

I should not have to waste MORE time out of my life waiting on hold or dealing with a simpleminded support bot to get help with that game.

Now, realistically, I just searched on GOG for games above $70 and only found six tittles, with 7,162 titles comprising an estimated 214,860 gaming hours (at thirty hours per title average) available for under $70. That is literally 24.5 YEARS of gameplay. But I want to point out that what brought me here was a search for "Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss" way back in 2011. I'm here eleven years and some 109 games later because the VALUE of my buy was so exceptional that I kept coming back to make more purchases, including my beloved "Thief" series.

Please, GOG, don't reduce the value of what you sell by making the support experience painful for the users! It's not 2011 any more. You have direct competition from sources like Steam, Itch.io and Gamersgate. We who have been here know you are better than they are. Please, PLEASE, keep proving that we were right to love you.

For me was actually simple to create a ticket, I though it was improving.

It is really simple to create ticket, but the chat bots is dumb imo.

GOG has better support than most DD store's from my experience, but that's not saying much. Steam support is bad, besides their good at refunding. Gamersgate support is pretty much none exstisince. Amazon also has no support for their DRM free games.

I bought games from so many DD store's in the past

Yeah. I need to reiterate: I haven't had to use GOG's support very much and when I did it was stellar. I simply hope that they continue to stay at THAT level and don't descend to the "shitty robot response" level of companies like GCI (HATE that cable provider!) and UPS.

I'm proud to have brought seven or eight friends to GOG and to be a staunch cheerleader for this company. But honesty compels me to tell them that they have to maintain that high level of awesome.

Merry Christmas, by the way!

Bots by their very nature are stupid ... they don't think.

So it is all about who does the thinking for them, which is both the person who sets the bot up and the person who uses the bot. Any issues with bots are related to at least one of those, usually both.

Probably the real stupid thing, because of all the unknowns and variables, is using a bot in the first place. But as pressures to service mount, they kind of become inevitable. Of course one of the reasons bots are in use are due to staffing levels and time constraints on support staff. That is also why they usually aren't setup all that well. Kind of a Catch-22.

Like many, I cannot stand them.

If you don't mind me amplifying what you've said, "poor staffing levels" are not an excuse. This isn't 1972. No one is sitting in a call center with a bunch of phones lined up side by side, answering help calls. These people are working from home, in their underwear, answering service calls. (My ex wife is a medical biller and coder and works from home. She is essentially medical billing technical support.) Covid, the standard excuse for companies since 2020 to explain their awful service, is no longer an excuse and never really was since those people weren't "coming to work" in the first place; they were sitting at their own computers in their own houses taking calls over their ISP.

The real reason we're dealing with robots answering our calls and chatting with us instead of getting a live person on the other end is that companies are trying to avoid paying for confident, competent employees to do the job.

As I mentioned, I do not pay REAL money for PSEUDO support. If I have ever given my credit card information to a company, I expect a real human being on the phone within three minutes of my dialing them or I won't give them that card info a second time. Hold times in excess of ten minutes are not acceptable; hire enough staff to answer the damn thing in a timely manner and stop telling me "Your call is very important to us." If that were true, you'd answer it.

Unreasonable? No, not really. Their time is not any more valuable than mine is, and I work hard for the money I earn that I traded to them. Service and support is part of the reason I gave it to them in the first place. I simply don't accept the excuse that "they have staffing problems." Staffing problems are a direct result of a work environment that is not worth it to the worker; either they aren't providing enough compensation to the workers so they leave, or they are suffering from abusive metrics (such as the irritating service call metric of "number of calls handled in a day" that forces call center employees to try to get you off the phone as fast as possible) and it causes the work situation to be untenable.

I submit that if companies want to earn the dollars in my wallet they must share them with their workers to a level that, when I call for support, that worker is available, knowledgeable, and skilled enough to help me.

Please note: I'm not disagreeing with anything you said, merely adding to it.

Any post about GOG's chatbot needs this Dilbert reference. You do realise what has actually happened here? GOG has recreated a homage to classic 1970/80's text adventure games, where you spend hours trying to find the magic <verb> <noun> combination to let you progress to the next area!

(The other) Scott Adams, eat your heart out!