This morning I placed a grocery order with Walmart. [View all]

When it was delivered, one item was missing. This happens, and its usually no problem.

So I went to the website to report it. A little box kept popping up to see if I was human. As soon as I went through the check, it popped up again. This happened around 20 times.

Finally I opened up a chat window. The bot did not understand me. After proving I was human, I finally got to chat with a human. Turns out she did not have all the usual tools available to her. Then the chat froze and I had to prove I was human again. I finally got back into the chat and typed out what item was missing and she was able to initiate a refund.

Something that usually takes 5 minutes took a half hour. It was pure frustration.

This is automation. This is the future. Pretty soon there will be no human on the other end at all. Too expensive.