Automated Response Detection Software

[SKesselman]

Hi,
I'm having difficulty with a company who has not sent me my product after I ordered it on line.
I got an email from this guy & I think it's an automated response. Actually, I think a lot of companies do this, & we, as consumers, don't even know when it's happening.  I have some questions about this:

1) I've seen on some other computing forums that some people can actually tell what you're using as an email client, just by posting! I saw someone post that the didn't use a particular client & someone wrote back & said something like, "but what do you mean, you're writing from it...". WOW. That just blows me away. But it's true, so it seems reasonable to me that they also have something that could detect if an email you receive is an automated response or not, based on the software used to create it. Is there such a program? If so, does anyone have any recommendations?

2) If not, how hard would it be to create it?

3) Is it possible to send a reply so confusing to the program that it actually freezes up , ("Cannot compute! Cannot compute!")?
I'm not talking about something as malicious as a virus or Trojan, just...a harmless attention-getter. Nothing destructive, just a freeze - perhaps bringing the owner into action, and while looking for the problem, he's sort of brought face to face with his email? Perhaps I've seen one too many episodes of Lost in Space, but there are programs out there that simply cannot accept certain kinds of user actions/entries, and they crash. I have one of them, I must watch how fast I go when using certain commands, etc. (& there have even been what I think were content-related crashes, too, if there is such a thing).

I have a pretty good understanding of time and money, so I don't mind receiving an auto-response 99% of the time. They can actually be really useful. But some things just need to be addressed by a human being, & nobody likes to be treated like they were born yesterday ("Hi Sarah, thanks so much for bringing this to my attention. I sincerely apologize for the delay...").

 

Please help, I feel like such an idiot writing back to this "person", but I must, in order to get my issue resolved.

Much thanks.

[cranioscopical]

Is it possible to send a reply so confusing to the program that it actually freezes up

-SKesselman (February 28, 2009, 08:02 PM)

There's certainly a precedent for this.
Just about any reply sent to me triggers symptoms that are similar to those you desire to create.

[SKesselman]

Is it possible to send a reply so confusing to the program that it actually freezes up

-SKesselman (February 28, 2009, 08:02 PM)

There's certainly a precedent for this.
Just about any reply sent to me triggers symptoms that are similar to those you desire to create.

-cranioscopical (February 28, 2009, 10:21 PM)

Come on, you guys! I'm serious!! Let's see some coding!
 

I guess I'll have to Google it. 

[SKesselman]

So...am I correct in assuming then that no one here with any coding skills has ever created, or even heard of, anything like what I'm describing?

[cranioscopical]

So...am I correct in assuming then that no one here with any coding skills has ever created, or even heard of, anything like what I'm describing?

-SKesselman (March 03, 2009, 06:47 PM)

Well I can't help you.
I come from a time when the poison pen letter was state of the art. 

[Target]

I suspect you might need to change your tack on this one - <a href="https://www.donation....0>Deozaan's Kodak thread</a> may be of interest/use

I doubt identifying the originating mail client is going to help you, and unless you stage some sort of DoS (by flooding their email servers) it seems unlikely your going to attract any attention via an electronic medium (unless maybe your a blackhat hacker, in which case you've probably already drained their corporate bank accounts, transferred any remaining assets to the charity of your choice, hashed up a video incriminating the CEO in a child pornography ring, published it on youtube, then skipped off to Switzerland to enjoy your new 'product')

edit: spelling corrections (DOH!!)

[SKesselman]

Thank you Target, I read the thread. What Deozaan received was a classic automated reply, without a doubt.

I would love to start a blog as Carol suggested, but I'm not skilled enough to protect my PC, should I piss off the wrong person. In this case, the whole thing looked like a suspicious one-man show. Go ahead, laugh, I am such a sucker, sometimes!! He (?) actually sent me an email today.

Last week's email states that the reason why my product is late is "None of (my) business", (I never asked why) but it reads nicely, not sarcastic. So, I wondered if perhaps he was using automated response software & it couldn't discern between the phrases, "None of your business" & "Does not concern you/is our concern/is nothing you should concern yourself/be concerned with".

I have a particular interest in AI, & in automation software of all kinds, but no skills to create it, so I never mention it here.

I'm now convinced that what I received was not an automated letter at all, just a really, really poorly written form letter.

This company clearly needs an editor for their web site communications with the outside world.

BTW I found the name of software, Bulletmail, in the header of his email, & visited their web site. It seems much more geared toward campaign writers and people sending out subscription newsletters. So, unless auto response programs are not actually email clients, & they work with other email clients, I don't think it's auto response software that was used.

But I still wish I had a program to tell me so, for next time.

[Target]

It seems like it's relatively easy to set up a bot to monitor an inbox and issue responses via an associated email tool (no doubt others here far more knowledgable than I could comment on this).

sadly in a lot of cases they appear to place more emphasis on the 'artificial' than the 'intelligence'...

and to the best of my knowledge there's no way to differentiate between an automated response and one generated by an actual human bean (unless you have lots of examples, ie letters written by actual people are nearly always different, whereas machine generated texts never are)

Also check around, there may be a forum where you could sound off, or at least ask some pointed questions

[SKesselman]

Also check around, there may be a forum where you could sound off, or at least ask some pointed questions

-Target (March 03, 2009, 10:56 PM)

DUH! That is so obvious & yet, it never occurred to me to do so.
Maybe I forgot about complaint forums on purpose though, because they do put a knot in my stomach.

If he's honest, I'd feel horrible having written that I felt ripped off. I mean, again 

[Target]

you don't have to write anything firstup - have a browse and see if anyone else has had issues first

chances are they may already have a solution for you, and if not, then ask some questions (ones that make it obvious your unhappy with their service/responses) before you vent your spleen...