T-Mobile offers artificial intelligence (AI) support for their cell phone plans, and yes, it’s as awful as you might expect.

Here’s the story in a nutshell: We had a crazy international call bill for $183. A text came from T-Mobile after the call warning us of the charge. I went to contact customer service to find out what was going on, and T-Mobile directed me to the AI chat support.

The chatbot seemed as flabbergasted as I was about the charge, but couldn’t get full details until the bill closed. I reached out closer to the end of the billing statement, and the chatbot told me a specific day it could get more details. After that day I chatted with the AI bot again, and it told me I had to talk to an actual customer service rep.

The customer service rep told me I could have avoided the $183 charge by talking to customer service and adding a $15 service to my account. But I had to do that during the billing cycle. It was too late. After talking to their manager, the customer service rep said the best they could do was reduce the charge to $105, which was half the total cost including taxes and fees.

I specifically asked if I had skipped the AI chatbot and talked to a human customer service rep and added that $15 fee if I would have avoided the entire $183+ charge. Yep, no question.

So I’m now paying $105. I could have paid $15. AI cost me $90.

Fallout: I expressed my extreme displeasure to the customer service rep (to the point she fired back, which was fair). I asked her to inform her superiors, and reminded her this chatbot was replacing her job as well. I filled out the requisite surveys, noting the complete failure of the AI support. I gave T-Mobile a week or so before posting this, both because I’m busy, but also maybe they’d realize how they screwed this one up (and I’m not quick to flame a company online). Nope. Nothing.

I need to get a new phone soon. 15+ years with T-Mobile, and you can imagine how eager I am to ditch them.