Is Wyze using AI now to reply to support tickets?

Cameras
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Is Wyze using AI to respond to support tickets now?

I only ask because I just received a support ticket about an issue with the new multi-cam feature where I sent the following request…

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Multi-Cam is not working… When i view live multi cam is working fine but if i go to scrub back in timeline it never works. I see can’t connect on all cameras. All cameras have SD cards and all cams have been running for months. I have attached pictures so you can see what I am talking about.

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The reply I received had nothing related to my issue at all. You must read it… I have removed the name of the support agent as if this is a person I don’t want to make them look bad in public.
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Hello Joe,

How are you today? My name is XXXXX from the Services team and I understand that you have Cam Unlimited enabled, but your Wyze Cam is not recording any smart detection events. Rest assured, I will work to find a solution.

First of all, I want to express my gratitude for taking the time to reach out to us about this matter. I do apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you and the delay in our response.

Please try the following troubleshooting steps:

Check that your Wyze app is up to date.

In your Wyze app, navigate to the Account tab > tap About.

Your current app version will be listed beneath the Wyze logo.

Compare your app version to the latest app version listed on our Release Notes & Firmware page.

If you find that your Wyze app is out of date, head over to your mobile device’s app store, and update the Wyze app.

Confirm that your Wyze Cam’s firmware is up to date.

You can check this by going to the Account tab > Firmware Update.

If there is an update available for the camera, please move forward with updating it.

Verify that your camera is assigned to Cam Unlimited.

You can check this by going to the Account tab > Services.

Ensure the camera is set to record correctly.

Open the live stream of the camera and wait until the camera fully connects.

Navigate to the settings > Event Recording.

For motion: Toggle motion detection off and then back on.

For sound: Toggle sound detection off and then back on.

Note: Sound detection is not available on all Wyze Cam models.

For smart detections: Once motion or sound is enabled, toggle the related AI detections off and then back on.

Navigate back to the camera’s live stream and wait at least 30 minutes for the camera to record events.

Restart the camera.

Navigate to the camera’s settings > Advanced Settings > Restart Camera > Restart.

Walk through setting up the camera like new.

Note: Do not delete the camera before walking through the setup process.

I hope that helps! If you have any further questions, please reply back to this email with the results of the above steps and the MAC address of your device so that we may assist you further.
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My reply back basically said…

I have cam plus for four cameras not unlimited. My issue is not about smart detection events.

My ticket is about the new multi-camera feature not working.

I therefore must assume the email sent to me was generated by an AI as nothing within it relates to my original ticket.

Perhaps someone can manually review it and get back to me.

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Looks like a level 1 canned message from a guy/gal that just started working there. The sympathy is a bit much.

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I don’t know about the “just started working there” part. This response seems typical for most of the messages that I receive from support (so maybe there’s a lot of turnover and most of the responses actually are from newbies?). It reads like a script, including the “sympathy”. :roll_eyes:

In my experience, it often takes several back and forth exchanges before someone on the other end gives the appearance of exercising independent critical thought and actually attempts to answer the direct questions I’m asking in a given ticket. That’s one of the reasons I spend (way too much) time here.

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I’ve given up calling support when I have an issue…I never reach THAT person. However, here, I tend to find actual answers to my questions/problems.

:grinning:

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I’ve never tried actually calling Wyze Support. I use e-mail tickets to report Web content errors and follow-up on on log submissions, and I’ve recently begun posting new topics in the Forum that include the relevant log/ticket numbers as additional follow-up, because at least that seems like a way to get more eyes on an issue and track it from my end so that potentially an ongoing issue can maintain some relevance even after Wyze Support closes tickets without any kind of notice. :man_shrugging:

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Agreed. Google and the forum is most helpful.

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I haven’t had any luck either way. When I have a problem I can’t solve it is usually beyond the competency of the support staff. I had a problem with the Wyze Mesh Routers which was ultimately solved via an engineer on the Wyze Discord server. No chance support had a script for that isssue (I tried.)

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Do you go:

  1. Forum
  2. Discord
  3. reddit
  4. Support

in that order? :slight_smile:

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Discord is generally too chaotic and disorganized for me, and I find that it’s often easier to locate relevant information here, though I’ve enjoyed some of the “Community Fireside” events they used to do there, and I started spending time in the Forum after @carverofchoice pointed me here for @Thesilente’s Google Home work-around following my post-installation issues with a Video Doorbell v2. That’s cool that you got feedback from an actual engineer there, though.

It’s also highly probably that I haven’t taken the time to really learn how to use Discord effectively.

I will note that I use Discord for notifications so that I can receive timely messages about things like app/firmware updates and service advisories. That’s been helpful to me, as I often see those before I get notifications elsewhere.

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Honestly when I worked as a Support I would have a template of canned initial responses for customers. Usually that was to filter out customers who didn’t know what they were doing, to get them thinking about their problems.

So yeah, it’s unfortunate when a knowledgeable customer’s detailed and well-written email is ignored… but there are a ton of problem requests out there that are just venting with no information.

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And, IIRC, the cohort you supported were not hoi polloi.

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That’s it, plus Google. Don’t use Reddit and NEVER support. The Wyze Discord server is fairly well organized, when people actually follow instructions and post in the correct categories.

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I completely understand that. It happens all the time on the Forum. Earlier today I clicked into a topic that had already had a number of views but no responses and found when I read the initial post that the user was just venting and not actually asking any sort of question, so I chose not to respond. :man_shrugging:

What frustrates me as a thinking person who has also provided support and who tries to describe my experience of a problem in detail (steps taken to reproduce, steps taken in attempt to remediate, etc.) and then ask discrete, directed questions is that the typical response from Support gives the impression that they haven’t actually read (nor understood, nor digested) the initial ticket or they don’t have the ability/knowledge/freedom/authority to exercise critical thought in a response or both.

Here at least I have some confidence that an issue will find a thoughtful :brain: behind the :eyes:, because those who participate have experience with similar issues and choose to be here.

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this prompts me to ask.

@WyzeJasonJ, @WyzeMatt
Is anyone aware of any upcoming Fireside chats, etc.? with uodates, discussions of features, feedback, etc.

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New feature, situation dynamic, so probably barely on Support folk radar at the moment?

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Is this a poll?

Forum
Google

Or the reverse.

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Me, too. But :duck: :duck: instead of :baby: .

Kind of a natural, eh? Make it so, Mr. Summerlin. :wink:

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I like :duck: :duck: but :imp: gives my better tech results.

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I sadly find the forums a little useless lately. When you bring up an issue you just get a bunch of people telling you how the stuff is garbage and a bunch of random things.

I posted this same support request on the forums first then support and none of them have really been able to figure out what is up. Often when I find an issue I will see if an existing solution exists but when none exists it takes a LONG time to get an answer.

I know this Multi-cam for me is not working like the intro video they made about the feature said it would work. Hopefully they will provide more information soon on ways to make it work.

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I agree. They use scripting to ensure consistency and ensure a standardization, particularly for troubleshooting issues. On the downside, they sometimes either pick the wrong script or don’t have a relevant one in existence yet. But I believe they have to exhaust the standardize script before they can go “off-script”… So I often assume the first couple of emails will be pre-scripted messages and then eventually they can address things directly after basic troubleshooting is confirmed as exhausted.

Ditto. If I am contacting support it is usually a financial or account thing they have to do that I can’t handle myself (for example, I’ve had to call them when I got double charged for a shipping fee, and needed them to credit one of them back). Or a warranty replacement which I can’t do on my own. Basically, I know they’ll give me a standardized scripted troubleshooting response, even though I’ve already done all that troubleshooting. I just accept it and get through it and confirm to them that I exhausted the troubleshooting, and now they can send the warranty replacement. I realize they have to suggest and ask that first. But as far as actually needing answers, I come to the forums or discord, sometimes public, sometimes asking other volunteers to test and confirm an issue, or see if we can find a workaround or resolution ourselves. Sometimes we’ll find or figure out something and pass that on to employees to tell support to add to their scripting to help fix things for people who call in. So sometimes the “fix” people get from support actually comes from people in the forums that figured out the fix in the first place. :rofl: And if someone does hear of a new fix from support, we usually hear about it here soon anyway. So I like the forums better either way.

Having said that, I do often refer people to support still. 1 benefit of making people contact support is that each reported issue gets added to their support/tracking system and then it is taken more seriously as a pattern and gets more attention for being a widespread issue instead of an isolated incident. So, Even when I know a problem is something that support won’t fix, I will still often ask people to create a support ticket. Also, there are some issues (not all) that I can’t properly escalate to an employee for the necessary action if I don’t have a ticket number I can give them as well, so sometimes I need them to do that to get me a reference number for that process.

Anyway, to directly answer this topic, in my experience, what is being seen isn’t an AI as much as it is a selected script that seems the most relevant. I’m sure their QA requires this. Just reply back again with the clarifications. When scripting is exhausted it seems they can and do go more off-script.

The sad thing is that scripting does fix or address 99% of the issues people contact support about (I used to work customer service through college, and the majority of calls were about the same basic simple things that any script could address). It does feel like Wyze QA is a little more rigid on script adherence than is necessary, but I guess they’re trying to err on the side of consistency and standardization. Unfortunately there can be downsides of taking it too far (irrelevant scripting and customer frustration that they weren’t listened to).

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