Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
DRAPER — When Robert Brown's air conditioner went kaput, it was his first opportunity to use the home warranty he's been paying for. As soon as he paid the dispatch fee, the warranty company sent a tech who managed to get the air conditioning running again—for now.
"But my unit is bad," Brown says the tech told him, who also said the unit will certainly fail again.
So, he contacted his warranty provider, Choice Home Warranty, again through its online chat portal and asked them to replace the unit. Brown says he went back and forth with the company rep on the other end a couple of times. He declined the company's initial offer, which would have cost him $1,800, and he made a counteroffer.
"In the contract, it says that you either repair or replace, or you can pay me what you think it's going to cost to replace the unit, etcetera," Brown said.
In the chat window, Brown wrote, "Can I just get the maximum payout of $3,000.00 and I will order and get it installed myself."
The warranty company agreed to his offer, writing, "We will proceed with the payout option of $3,000.00 as per your request."
Brown said he was assured several times thereafter that the "payout has been initiated," but when it didn't show up, he called Choice Home Warranty. The answer he got from the rep surprised him.
"He said, 'We've had this AI up for about a week and it's really confusing and it's miscommunicating to people.'" Brown said.
It turns out that the person Brown had been chatting with wasn't a person at all. It was a bot, programmed to represent the company — artificial intelligence that was apparently on the fritz.
"I said, 'How's that my fault?'" Brown said.
He told the company he expects them to honor what was promised. He said they refused.
"I just don't know where to go from this," Brown said. "So, that's where I decided, you know what, let's call Matt."
He did, and I called the Utah Division of Consumer Protection to ask what the law says about this.
"A company is ultimately responsible for the things that their representatives are saying," said the division's director, Katie Hass. "A robot can be, in most circumstances, a representative of a company."
'The chatbot did it' is not going to be an excuse when it comes to deceptive acts and practices in the State of Utah.
–Katie Hass, Utah Division of Consumer Protection
She said a company trying to wriggle out of a rep's offer is nothing new. Historically, they've used excuses like a rogue salesperson going off script and making offers impossible to honor. While each complaint the division gets is investigated on its own merits, businesses cannot simply ignore agreements generated by their AI software.
"'The chatbot did it' is not going to be an excuse when it comes to deceptive acts and practices in the State of Utah," Hass said.
Her advice to Robert Brown?
"If they feel like they've been deceived in any way by the chatbot, maybe because the bot made a promise that the company is not willing to honor now, they are welcome to file a report with the Utah Division of Consumer Protection," she said.
"I'm just surprised that the AI information that is here is so detailed," Brown said.
In the end, the division won't be investigating his experience with an AI chatbot. I reached out to the New Jersey-based home warranty company on his behalf. While KSL Investigates didn't get a response, Brown said the company told him that they would honor their chatbot's offer after all.
He has since received his check. There is still no comment from the warranty company for this story.
