“We thank you for your patience. Please stay on the line. You are caller #538.”
If that sounds familiar – and gives you nightmarish flashbacks – then we have good news for you.
As you know, nobody enjoys waiting on hold. But in some cases, waiting on hold is more than just an obnoxious waste of time… it’s a way for companies to prevent you from getting the service you deserve.
When a company makes you wait for hours on the line, you really have two choices: stick around, or hang up in frustration.
But now, thanks to an app developed by a teenager who hates parking tickets, you have a third option…
Get a robot to wait on hold for you!
That’s the latest feature added to the DoNotPay app, which uses AI to help consumers fight bureaucracy. The service is called “Skip Waiting On Hold”, and it’s the third service offered by the DoNotPay app.
What is DoNotPay?
The DoNotPay app was originally designed by a teenage American consumer rights activist to help people fight parking tickets – but since then, it’s grown in many ways.
The first version of the app only had one feature, which allows you to fight unfair or incomplete parking tickets (yes – the feature still exists!). All you have to do is scan photos of a parking ticket, then tell an AI-powered bot why you want to contest the ticket. It then prints you the paperwork you need to fight the ticket – and even creates a script for you to read if you need to argue your case in person!
After the “Appeal Parking Tickets” feature became an overnight success, the DoNotPay app quickly expanded to include its second feature: “Sue Anyone In Small Claims Court”. This service allows you to create paperwork to sue major corporations in small claims court, which otherwise can be extremely difficult due to all the red tape.
That was also successful, so DoNotPay has kept up the momentum. Now with the release of “Skip Waiting On Hold”, the app has matured into a full-fledged consumer protection robot.
The “Skip Waiting On Hold” feature is relatively simple. You simply tell it which company you want to get in touch with, and the robot will jump through hoops until it connects with a human – then call you up.
With DoNotPay, you can gorget being brushed off by long waits… overcome tricky legal wording… and never pay for an unfair parking ticket again… all in one app!
Consumer Protection in the 21st Century: Powered By Robots
DoNotPay is an early, relatively simple example of how AI can be used to give individuals a fair voice – and seeing its quick rise to success suggests the the future looks bright (and devoid of elevator music).
“I think the world would be a lot fairer place if people had someone fighting for them,” says the app’s creator, Joshua Bowden – who created the app four years ago, when he was just 18. We couldn’t agree more!
The “Skip Waiting On Hold” feature is included with a DoNotPay subscription, which currently costs $3 per month. It’s available for iOS and web only, but an Android version is on the way. As of this writing, the service is only available in the US.
Find out more on the official DoNotPay website.
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