DUMB SALESMAN OF THE WEEK: NOT A ROBOT
by Hazed
In a really strange example of somebody using technology they have no clue about, a salesman in a car dealership recently asked a customer to make a tick on a piece of paper to prove they were not a robot.
Huh? Is robot technology so advanced these days that you can’t tell the difference between a human and a droid?
The customer, Marci Robin, was going through all the paperwork that needs to be signed when buying a new car, when she came across a print-out of the online “I’m not a robot” box and was told to use a pen to check the box.
"The sales guy was handing me paper after paper with a brief explanation of what each one was for, and then he handed me that page — with literally nothing else on it — and just matter-of-factly said, ‘And this one is just to ensure you’re not a robot,’" Robin explained.
The reCAPCHA security measure works online because the way a human moves the mouse before clicking on the checkbox is different from how a program, or bot, would activate the tick. But how that relates to real life situations is a mystery.
The explanation from the dealership makes no sense at all. A spokesman said that it was common practice: “It’s not about us. In order for us to print the next one, you have to check that. So we print it out, and have the customer check that when we do." Well yes, maybe you have to prove you’re not a robot to print out all the paperwork, but surely you can then just discard that page of the print out.
Besides, my guess is that if a robot is sophisticated enough to pass as human, it will be able to use a pen and tick a box!
