[seayork2002]

I really mean this, are they real people or computers/robots? thanks

[jai*]

In my experience they are a combination of both.
You start a chat with a computer who notifies a 'real person' - sometimes it's out of hours and the person doesn't get back to you til the next day (I hate that, don't pop up with a LIVE chat request if there is no one there) but if it's during office hours I've only had to wait a few minutes to be chatting with a human

[*Lib*]

We have an auto help chat thing on our website, then it emails me the conversation to follow up

[seayork2002]

Thanks for your replies, it just seems like these (and call centres) that I am dealing with at the moment (I am presuming based overseas) come across as a bit robotic

[qak]

Especially when you get the preliminaries over quickly like:
"My name is qak and I need help with X"
and the robot reply is
"Who am I chatting with today" (wait for reply)
and then
"How can I help you today?" (waits for reply).

nb IKEA's Anna is totally computerised, she doesn't want to know who you are!

[JustBeige]

I think most of the live chat people I have dealt with have been people.

I actually prefer it as you dont have to contend with accents - both ways and I find typing out my request helps keep it short and concise

[Therese]

I think I have dealt with mainly people too.

[SlinkyMalinki]

I spent half hour with a Deals Direct 'real' person recently.