OT: Voice recognition software

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Why can't they make voice recognition software understand the phonetic alphabet? I just tried to phone Parcel Force to track a parcel, and had to give the tracking number to a voice recognition system. The tracking number begins with PBAD, followed by a load of numbers. PBA and the numbers were fine, but it simply would not take the D. It said "was it B?" then "was it Z?" (pronounced zee) then "was it T?". After a few attempts at reading it all again, I tried papa bravo alpha delta, which caused "I'm sorry, I didn't understand that". FFS!

[Jeff Layman]

Why do they use letters anyway? Why not just use numbers? Then all you need to do is enter them from the telephone keypad and tone recognition software at their end identifies the numbers. Simples!

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Presumably the code is usually used where voice recognition is not required - like on the parcel labels. It probably easily identifies to the couriers what type of parcel it is or where it's going.

[charles]

Probably for the same reason as car numbers have letters. You have 26 choices instead of 10.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Not quite 26 as O etc are avoided. What idiot made the 0 and the O similar?

[Brian-Gaff]

This is because there are many people who have no idea about phonetics, or make up their own.

The whole thing is a mess over the phone as there are so many ways a voice can get mangled.

I feel sure if they really thought about tracking numbers etc, they could make them several groups of numeric like phone numbers. Easier to remember and easier to understand. Brian

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

I eventually had to try different menu options to get a person. Who had no idea about the parcel anyway.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

"I am very sorry for the problems you have experienced; we take customer feedback seriously and are always trying to improve our services.

I will pass your comments onto the relevant department to make them aware of the issue you have raised, when making future enhancements they will take into account customer feedback to improve the customer experience."

[charles]

you could always put a stroke across the zero to make it unlike the letter

[whisky-dave]

The same one that made l i and 1 all look similar.

In fact yesterday I asked for the number written on the corner of a PSU, so I could ID which one he had, he emailed me back with "L" he was looking at 7 upside down !

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

I always do this when writing when it's not obvious if it's a zero or a letter, but most computer fonts, and car reg numbers, are not done with a stroke for some reason.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Like the 710 you put in a car engine :-)

A 7 should have a horizontal line through it.