Angry customer gets parcel service's AI to write poem on how bad it is

Dynamic Parcel Distribution (DPD), a parcel service in UK had to rush for damage control after one of its frustrated customers got the company's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to write a poem on how bad the company's customer service is. And the chatbot wrote it.

Ashley Beauchamp, the customer, still hasn't received his parcel.

He tried asking DPD's chatbot to share the company's customer care number. After failing to get it despite everal tries, a frustrated Beauchamp asked the chatbot to tell him a joke. When the chatbot obeyed, he decided to try his luck by asking it to compose a poem about the company's bad customer service.

"There was once a chatbot named DPD, Who was useless at providing help," the bot wrote.

"DPD was a waste of time, And a customer's worst nightmare," the bot continued before concluding: "One day, DPD was finally shut down and everyone rejoiced. Finally they could get the help they needed, From a real person who knew what they were doing."

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Beauchamp, who is a pianist and a conductor, has posted the hilarious exchange between him and the chatbot on social media plaform X (formerly Twitter). At the time of publishing of this story, the post had garnered 1.4 million views.

"Parcel delivery firm DPD have replaced their customer service chat with an AI robot thing. It’s utterly useless at answering any queries, and when asked, it happily produced a poem about how terrible they are as a company. It also swore at me," says the post.

He told ITV television that he had still not received the parcel.

"I think they might hold it hostage now. I wouldn't blame them," he said. "That's totally on me."

DPD UK, meanwhile, said that the funny incident was a result of an error. The company said that it had used an AI element within its chat system successfully for years but the error occurred after an update.

"The AI element was immediately disabled and is currently being updated," said the company said in a statement as reported by ITV.

(With inputs from agencies)