A 29-year-old man says that Amazon’s Alexa assistant started swearing at him just because he canceled his Amazon Prime membership.
Michael Slade was stunned when his Echo Dot speaker began to swear at him after he quit his subscription.
What happened left Amazon engineers baffled with the online retail company offering Slade a year of free Prime membership and gift cards.
Software is available for the device that can make Alexa curse but it is not clear whether someone might’ve uploaded it to the Echo Dot speaker.
Slade said the curses started the day after he called Amazon to stop his subscription. Speaking about the incident, he told The Sun: “I tried to cancel my subscription and had a short conversation with someone in customer services and the next day my Alexa is calling me names.”
When he asked the assistant to play some music for him, Alexa reportedly replied: “Sure, here’s your playlist sh**head on Amazon music. Sorry something went wrong.”
The device bleeped out the swear word part but the owner was still surprised.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Slade shared. “I normally asked it to play me music. I’ve never made a playlist.
“When I ask it to play music, it would say ‘here’s something you might like’ and it’s normally some pop or student favourites.”
He added: “I’ve spoken to technical support and they’ve never heard of this happening before. They kept saying sorry but they didn’t know what had happened.
“All I wanted to do was cancel my Prime subscription because I wasn’t using it. I’ve wondered if someone has changed something on my account.
“Although it’s strange because everything else works fine and it is still calling me Mike.”
It is not clear whether software might’ve been installed by Slade’s family or friends, or an Amazon employee.
“I swear I haven’t done anything to it,” he expressed. “Hand on heart I haven’t made it say, or know why. Nor do any of my housemates.”
Slade reported the incident to Amazon and he received a $6 gift voucher as compensation.
“I was a bit annoyed at the gift card they send me,” Slade said. “Five pounds is hardly enough for being called a s*******.”
After The Sun approached the company for comment, the firm increased the offer of compensation to $317 gift voucher and free membership to Amazon Prime for one year.
“Customers are able to personalise their Alexa experience, including playlist names,” said an Amazon spokesperson.
“Alexa would not respond in this way without some customisation from the user.”
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