When did they start employing robots at Smart?

[KeyserSoze]

For the heckuvit I called Smart USA (1-800-762-7887) just now to see if I could gleam any information about my reservation and I *SWEAR* I was talking to a tape recorder.

My question was "my Smart manager is out this week but I understand that they are receiving information about their first shipment and I'd like to see if you have information about my reservation and their first allocation.

I think her name was jessica or jennifer and all she could say was "We don't have any information about who will be your Smart dealer but when that information is known, which should be in January, they'll be calling you to confirm reservations, blah blah blah"

I said, "no, I think you misunderstood, I know who my dealer is and I know they're getting information on their allocations this week and was only hoping you had that to see if my reservation was in that first batch"

"We don't have any information about who will be your Smart..."

I then deviated with a few other questions but again she broke out in the same rheteric about not knowing who the dealerships will be.

Anyone else hit with this or did you actually talk to a human?

[Old smart]

"They" started hiring robots from day-one. "They" is not Roger Penske nor PAG nor the smart operation headquartered at Bloomfield Heights, MI. "They" are Internet Brands (IB) somewhere in CA, a sub-contractor of PAG, turned-to to run this whole program for them (and perhaps to add a layer on insulation).

[kmeinhold]

Yeah I talked to the same robot - I got the same scripted answer to my questions yesterday. I understand it, but frustrating none the less. I would HATE her job.

Question: Some dealers are already contacting customers about their cars and since my dealer is not ready, would my car be assigned to the next closest dealer?

Response: "smart USA has not announced the dealers yet but will make the announcement sometime in January. Cars will be available in the first quarter 2008".

AGGGH!

[jose3030]

Just wait a week or two you people. Jeez.

[spdickey]

Originally Posted by fishrdnc

"They" started hiring robots from day-one.

I've worked in a call center. Don't blame the robot. You would not want those people making things up or guessing what to say. Going off script means loss of job. Sometimes the script writers just don't keep up. Hey aren't the script writers on strike? Seems so.

[jwight]

Originally Posted by kmeinhold

Yeah I talked to the same robot - I got the same scripted answer to my questions yesterday. I understand it, but frustrating none the less. I would HATE her job.

Question: Some dealers are already contacting customers about their cars and since my dealer is not ready, would my car be assigned to the next closest dealer?

Response: "smart USA has not announced the dealers yet but will make the announcement sometime in January. Cars will be available in the first quarter 2008".

AGGGH!

I believe the whole thing is official on Monday; even though some people have been talking with prospective dealers nothing is official until the 14th, hence the rote response. BTW, based on my e-mail and a post from someone in Columbus, if your dealer is not ready to sell cars when yours is due to arrive the car will be diverted to the next closest dealer.

John

[SmartAzz]

I understand that the 'droids can't do anything beyond what they have been told to, but I don't get why they could not provide any information on the car production status associated with a reservation number (ie configured, allocated, in prod, in transit). Just simple data that is being tracked anyway, doesn't have to contain specific delivery information or even dealer info.