Latest news with #LisaWebb
Daily Mirror
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Tickets for first Oasis reunion show being sold for over £10,000 each
The UK's competition watchdog has turned up the heat on Ticketmaster with just days to go before the first Oasis reunion tour date Ticketmaster has been threatened with legal action over its handling of the Oasis reunion tour - as other websites listed the band's first reunion show at eye-watering prices of up to £11,500 each. The Competition and Markets Authority concluded in March this year that Ticketmaster may have misled fans. It said the company could have broken consumer laws by labelling some seated tickets as 'platinum' and selling them for nearly two-and-a-half times the price of equivalent standard tickets. According to the CMA, they didn't offer additional benefits and were often located in the same area of the stadium. Its probe also found Ticketmaster failed to properly tell fans there were two categories of standing tickets at different prices. The watchdog says it has tried to find a voluntary resolution to its concerns, spelling out undertakings it would accept from Ticketmaster. But the CMA said there was a 'fundamental disagreement' between them and Ticketmaster, with the firm refusing to agree to its suggestions. In a letter to MPs it said it has now 'preparing to litigate the matter if necessary.' Ticketmaster has previously said: "We strive to provide the best ticketing platform through a transparent, consumer friendly experience. We welcome the CMA's input in helping make the industry better for fans." If a case goes ahead, the High Court will be asked to decide if consumer protection law has been breached. It came as ticket resale sites - not Ticketmaster - were found listing ticket's to this Friday's tour kick-off gig in Cardiff at astronomical mark-ups. Tickets for the show were originally priced at £150 for standing tickets, through to between £215 to £505 for packages. But a check by consumer group Which? found tickets being advertised for thousands of pounds, with the highest being £11,510. The government is currently consulting on ways to protect fans using resale websites. Which? launches a Stop Fleecing Fans campaign and wants a price cap introduced for secondary tickets, so they cannot be re-sold for more than the original buyer paid. Lisa Webb, Which? consumer law expert, said: 'Tickets to the Oasis reunion tour sold out months ago so fans desperate to attend face a lose-lose choice between risking the scammers on social media, paying hundreds more for tickets on secondary sites or missing out on the gigs. The government has promised to introduce stronger consumer protections for ticket purchases. 'Which? believes ministers must use this opportunity to put a stop to the touts and introduce a price cap to ensure that tickets can only be re-sold on secondary sites at the original price paid – the ticket's face value plus any fees. In the meantime, we'd recommend fans only buy tickets through official resale sites - as this eliminates the risk of being scammed and gives them more protections if anything goes wrong.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
People warned to watch out for scam emails following cyber attack on M&S
Scammers could use the cyber attack on Marks & Spencer to send scam emails trying to trick people out of their cash, Which? is warning. In April, the high street giant was forced to halt online orders after it was targeted by hackers, and, as it continues to recover, the store hopes its online operations will be running 'fully' within four weeks. Which? said criminals often use current events to make scams seem more plausible. It suggested that if someone receives an email from a brand they have an account with and they are not sure it is genuine, they should log into their account using a website they have used before that they know can be trusted. Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert at Which?, said: 'It's only a matter of time before scammers start using the M&S cyber attacks as a way to part people from their hard-earned cash. 'M&S has sent gift cards to some customers but scammers are also sending fraudulent emails offering afternoon tea hampers if you complete a survey. 'If you receive an email out of the blue from M&S, check the email address it's sent from to see if it ends in ' before clicking on any links and if you are still in doubt, contact M&S directly to verify if it's legitimate. 'If you think the email is a scam, don't click on anything and forward it to report@ before deleting it. If you've given any card details, contact your bank immediately using the number on the back of your card.' Sign in to access your portfolio
The Independent
a day ago
- Business
- The Independent
People warned to watch out for scam emails following cyber attack on M&S
Scammers could use the cyber attack on Marks & Spencer to send scam emails trying to trick people out of their cash, Whic h? is warning. In April, the high street giant was forced to halt online orders after it was targeted by hackers, and, as it continues to recover, the store hopes its online operations will be running 'fully' within four weeks. Which? said criminals often use current events to make scams seem more plausible. It suggested that if someone receives an email from a brand they have an account with and they are not sure it is genuine, they should log into their account using a website they have used before that they know can be trusted. Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert at Which?, said: 'It's only a matter of time before scammers start using the M&S cyber attacks as a way to part people from their hard-earned cash. 'M&S has sent gift cards to some customers but scammers are also sending fraudulent emails offering afternoon tea hampers if you complete a survey. 'If you receive an email out of the blue from M&S, check the email address it's sent from to see if it ends in ' before clicking on any links and if you are still in doubt, contact M&S directly to verify if it's legitimate. 'If you think the email is a scam, don't click on anything and forward it to report@ before deleting it. If you've given any card details, contact your bank immediately using the number on the back of your card.'
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
‘Stop hiring humans': Customer service under threat as robots take hold
Workers commuting on the London Underground have been confronted with a terrifying message in recent weeks. Scrolling digital adverts, displayed on the Tube's escalators, have urged businesses to 'stop hiring humans' and use artificial intelligence (AI) robots instead. The spooky messages are the work of Artisan, an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, which launched the guerrilla-marketing campaign to promote its AI software. But the ads have hit a nerve with London's commuter class, tapping into deep-seated fears that fake human workers are coming for their jobs. Hundreds of businesses across the country are now deploying AI workers instead of people. But instead of a brave new world of efficient robotic workers, there are mounting fears that the increased use of AI and chatbots will simply make things worse for customers and workers. Daniel O'Sullivan, a customer service analyst at Gartner, says consumers have justifiably had concerns about the rise of AI because 'chatbots have historically sucked'. Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert at Which?, says: 'Not all chatbots are built equally. While some can be helpful, others can send customers round in circles and make it difficult for them to get their issues resolved.' Replacing drudge-work For managers looking to cut costs, the pitch to replace human workers with AI software is compelling. On Artisan's website, it pitches 'your future colleagues' – Aria, Ava and Aaron – and promises customers they can get results 'without increasing headcount'. For now, Artisan is targeting the drudge-work of business sales, helping companies to automate outbound cold emails and the initial conversations with potential clients, work normally done by a very junior sales worker. The start-up is not yet dealing with consumer-facing customer service roles, which Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, Artisan's 23-year-old founder, says raise 'more issues' and risks. In the context of a business transaction, there may be little to lose with using AI to automate and personalise thousands of cold call pitches, job adverts or PR emails which may never get opened. But when it comes to interactions with consumers, 'the error rate is too high across the board', Carmichael-Jack says. 'That is why people have this anti-AI sentiment.' That has not stopped hundreds of businesses using AI worker and experimenting with AI customer service, whether the public wants it or not. Dozens of technology businesses have promised AI helpers that can smooth over customer service functions. These include AI bots from start-ups like the UK's PolyAI, which bills its technology as the 'most lifelike' voice agents, to tech giants such as Salesforce and its 'Agentforce' bots. High-profile businesses such as Klarna, the buy now, pay later provider, have already raced to replace jobs once taken by humans with AI bots. A question of quality But so far, these fake humans have produced mixed results. In some cases, companies have completely reversed course. At Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the chief executive, went all in on AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, seeking to swap human-led customer service for AI, dramatically cutting jobs. However, in an interview earlier this year, the Swedish company's boss admitted this AI zeal had not worked out. 'What you end up having is lower quality,' he told Bloomberg, adding that 'investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us'. So far, the public is not sold on the idea that AI agents are going to lead to an improvement in customer service. A survey from Gartner, published last year, found that 64pc of people would prefer it if companies did not use AI in customer service interactions at all, and 60pc feared it would make it harder to speak to a human – putting up an AI middleman. And there are plenty of examples of early attempts at AI-powered customer service getting it wrong. In 2024, a DPD chatbot swore when prompted by users and told customers that 'DPD is useless' and 'don't bother calling them'. In April this year, an AI support bot called Sam for the code editor app Cursor went rogue. After users found a bug within Cursor's service that booted them out when they tried to log in from multiple machines, Sam told customers that this was part of a new policy. Users were not aware that Sam was a bot, leading some to threaten to cancel their subscriptions. And last year, Air Canada was forced to honour a refund after its website's chatbot invented a policy when interacting with a customer. Generative AI-powered chatbots, which are trained to speak in plain English, suffer from a problem known as 'hallucination', whereby the AI will sometimes simply make up information if it does not know the answer. These bugs in customer service bots risk driving consumers away. A survey from customer service firm Acquire Intelligence found that 70pc of consumers would take their business elsewhere if they were let down by a bot. Such errors and risks mean that some companies that were among the first movers to try out AI agents as a replacement for human workers are already winding back. In a survey published this month, Gartner found that half of companies that were planning to replace their customer service staff with AI were considering abandoning the plans. 'AI agents' However, O'Sullivan predicted that rapidly advancing technology and changes in customer expectations mean the shift to AI workers is unlikely to stop completely. 'Perceptions here are changing very quickly,' he says. 'Even in the space of one year, we have people becoming more accustomed to using AI.' He added that when it comes to customer service woes, people want their problem solved, and the 'means through which they solve the issue is not necessarily the most important thing to them'. If bots get more effective than a human, consumers could quickly decide they prefer them to speaking to a real person. If the tech industry is to be believed, this shift is just around the corner. Increasingly advanced 'AI agents' – big tech's latest buzzword – are supposed to be able to take on ever more complex tasks from human workers. While customer support bots once could only provide basic question and answer functionality, agents will be able to draw information from across a business and function more autonomously. 'Customer frustration with traditional chatbots has typically stemmed from the tools' limited capabilities,' says Heidi O'Leary, a partner at Deloitte Digital. 'Agentic AI goes a step further, allowing these assistants to take actions on a customer's behalf – for example, initiating a return or refund without human intervention.' For now, she says the most successful uses of AI in customer service have kept humans in the loop, using AI as a tool to boost the performance of human staff, for instance, by quickly drafting emails or notes. Artisan's Carmichael-Jack says AI bots are 'not currently as effective as a human in a lot of use cases'. But this is rapidly changing, with tech companies building more accurate AI bots and attempting to instil 'reasoning' in them. He expects perceptions of AI employees to 'shift over the next couple of years because we know it is going to get it right'. In the near future, he expects that people would 'rather be put through to AI than to an offshore call centre. People will want to speak to an AI agent and you will be that annoyed if you are put through to a human'.
Perth Now
25-06-2025
- Sport
- Perth Now
AFLW coaches involved in first all girls Auskick gala day
It will be a historic occasion for female football in WA on Sunday with the first All Girls Auskick Gala Day. Des Penman Reserve in Nollamara will host the first event of its kind in any state in what's a milestone moment for female participation. More than 40 clubs and 430 players aged 5 to 12 from across the metropolitan area are taking part, bringing together hundreds of budding girls footballers for a fun, inclusive footy experience. All WAFL zones will have community football club representation from their district attending. Your local paper, whenever you want it. The event is a reflection of the growing demand for girls-only football options at the Auskick level and showcases the AFL's commitment to growing the women and girls' pathway, starting from grassroots. Both Fremantle and West Coast's AFLW sides will have players attending as well as head coaches Lisa Webb and Daisy Pearce, a recently announced Australian Football Hall of Fame inductee and pioneer of women's football. The event is happening from 9am to noon.
