My support chat was not human, appeared to be AI, and failed me

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Level 1

8 points

My support chat was not human, appeared to be AI, and failed me

I followed the "get support" path of Official Apple Support > scroll down to "Get Support" with the illustration of an Apple Advisor > clicked START NOW > "Tell Us What's Happening" : "problem with Lumafusion app" > took me to https://getsupport.apple.com/solutions with the header: APP DOESN'T WORK AS EXPECTED with the logo of App Store underneath.

I then scrolled down to CONTACT and selected CHAT option.

Then reached screen "CHAT WITH APPLE SUPPORT" and filled in form with:

First Name

Last Name

Email

Item title: Lumafusion

Order Number (Optional): M*******16

then filled out "Briefly provide other details" with info: I bought the app Lumafusion but I just noticed in App Store it said it was designed for IOS. But I do not have IOS, I only have a Mac M1 iMac. Unsure if it works"

======

Then a CHAT window opened, and I see:

You are chatting with Nathan. Your case number is 10***********0.
Thanks for contacting Apple Support. How can I help you?

I replied: "can you respond to what I already wrote plrease?" --

and then it went downhill from there. Later this guy "Nathan", whom I asked "are you human or AI?" replied "I am human"

then i entered my problem again and towards the end the agent says "However please note that for further Mac related issues I'd have to get you over to the department."

" Would you like an advisor from the Mac Department guide you on how to get through with them?"

I replied "Yes, please transfer me to a Mac advisor"

Nathan replied "Thanks for waiting Richard. I got through with an advisor here for you. Please hold while I transfer you over."

===================

Screen note appears: "Please hold while your chat is being transferred".

(new agent) "Thanks for contacting Apple Support. How can I help you?"

but this "new" agent is also identified as "Nathan".

I was unclear so I replied: "Hello, is the same agent "NATHAN" or a different "Nathan" agent?"

The reply I got was:

"I can confirm to you that LumaFusion is compatible with Mac that has macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later."

I then asked another question but there was no reply at all. The following suddenly displayed at the bottom of the chat: "We haven't heard from you in a while. To keep your chat

session active, please respond to your Apple Advisor and let us know

you are still there."

I did, but then no reply but this: "Since we haven’t heard from you in a while, we are going

to end your chat session soon. If you still need help, please chat us

back."

then it ended. Can anyone help me to understand if these two "Nathan"s were AI vs real humans? I found the whole thing very odd and wasted 45 mins of my time. Thank you.

[Edited by Moderator]

iMac 24″, macOS 14.6

Posted on Oct 31, 2024 10:48 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 1, 2024 5:26 AM in response to RHbayarea

I see no signs of AI in your report, but I get that it wasn’t satisfactory.

You may find a different (better) kind of interaction with phone support.
You may find excellent user-to-user support on this forum. 😄

I bought the app Lumafusion but I just noticed in App Store it said it was designed for IOS. But I do not have IOS, I only have a Mac M1 iMac. Unsure if it works"

Apple Silicon Macs (M1, M2, M3, M4) can run iOS apps. That is how that works; no adaptation for a different platform, but the very same app as build for iOS/iPadOS. Often, that doesn’t make them ‘true’ Mac apps, and you may find some typical mobile-like way of handling files, and lack of some functions that you might expect as seen in other established Mac apps.

Use iPhone and iPad apps on Mac with Apple silicon - Apple Support

LumaFusion for iOS - LumaTouch

LumaFusion app - App Store preview - Apple ← On supported Macs, this page may offer a link for the on-device App Store.

Can anyone help me to understand if these two "Nathan"s were AI vs real humans?

As this is a user-to-user forum, few if any know the current inner workings of the chat support teams. We have no more insight to that than you. I don’t think this is AI, based on your description.

I found the whole thing very odd and wasted 45 mins of my time.

You did get the confirmation that you sought. Right?

For questions about third party apps, it is probably best to contact the developer/publisher directly. How to contact an app developer - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Allan Jones

Level 9

72,434 points

Nov 2, 2024 11:21 AM in response to RHbayarea

As Urquhart1244 has pointed out, Apple will not see your legitimate issue here. There once was an Apple page for reporting issues with sales, service, or support, but that has not been available for years.

Rather than calling Apple, I think you have cause to post a business letter outlining your experience and frustration. When I managed customer support/satisfaction in another segment—and before email and web pages— I far preferred a concise business letter in such matters. It gave me time to fully investigate the issue and develop a cogent response to the customer. It was so much better than the life-sucking sight of a pile of pink "While You Were Out..." phone slips on my desk.

Higher-ups in most companies really care about image and how customer support functions can affect it.

Apple HQ address:

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Answer 3

etresoft

Level 9

51,138 points

Nov 1, 2024 5:42 AM in response to RHbayarea

RHbayarea wrote:

Can anyone help me to understand if these two "Nathan"s were AI vs real humans? I found the whole thing very odd and wasted 45 mins of my time. Thank you.

I'm pretty sure they were human. What you experienced during the transfer was most likely just a buggy chat system. The Apple support side was originally identified as "Nathan" and it just stayed that way.

I think the customer support folks are just perpetually swamped with work. Apple has over a billion (with a 'b') customers. Hiring and training new tech support people just can't keep up.

And I have some hard evidence to offer. As a developer for Apple products, sometimes I have to contact Apple Developer support for issues with my developer account. While there are millions of developers, that's millions with an 'm' - so a much smaller group. And developer issues are going to be more complicated. A chatbot couldn't handle that. But here's the important part. The support just wasn't very good. All I needed to do was change my address. I have a North American address that should be recognizable to Apple's employees and systems. And my new address was even more standard than the previous one. And I submitted it myself using an automated form. Apple still screwed it up. The screw up could have only been done by a human.

So while I can't offer you any assurances about the quality of Apple's support. I'm confident that they are humans trying to do their best.

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Answer 4

RHbayarea Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 1, 2024 1:24 PM in response to Urquhart1244

Thank you very much. It's true, I did end up getting the information I requested and needed. Also true that I probably would have had a better and smoother interaction had I selected phone support. It just wasn't available at the time when I needed this help. Third, I will follow your suggestion to, in the future, go directly to Apple support communities to post questions rather than use support.apple.com .

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Answer 5

RHbayarea Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 1, 2024 1:51 PM in response to etresoft

Another really helpful reply, thank you. As to the "two Nathan"s, that is the same thing I suspected after the chat was terminated: that it was the chat software bugginess or possibly just poorly designed software whereby the original chat agent name Nathan was continued to be used by the chat software despite my having been transferred to a support agent in another dept.

Second, your experience as a dev using chat for what should have been a simple quick process, along with the "billions" volume of support requests you pointed out, does better explain my interaction. My guess is that chat support agents are outsourced to other countries just like at every large-scale tech company and probably receive very minimal training, this you're right. They are humans under extraordinary workload pressures and are simply doing their best.

It was the Nathan + Nathan situation that caused my post here. I jumped to assumptions, I admit were also influenced by Apple's recent marketing barrage and "branding name" for Apple Intelligence. I will admit that to me it smacks of typical Apple positioning that whatever THEY are providing in their ecosystem is somehow a divine version of every other company's AI, and I just don't buy it. So I made a poor logical jump that what I was experiencing was "APPLE INTELLIGENCE" in use, and it was no better than any other companies implementation.

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