It's not that Air Canada's defense that is the astounding part. Companies make all kinds of stupid defenses to claims. To me it's more telling that when alerted to this issue of the chatbot saying something that is different than their real policy that as a company culture wise they are willing to blow this up into the media for everyone to see over $800. Mistakes get made representatives misspeak, errors get made on the website. It is totally understandable that those mistakes happen even with a chatbot. If I was CEO of this company or a vice president in charge of marketing I would begin to fire people who were part of this chain of events that led to a lawsuit even if it was in small claims court. Because the proper action would be for the agent to raise the internal issue about the chatbot being wrong so it can be corrected and then also escalating the issue to a superior so that a refund could be given based upon the incorrect information. Whoever is within this chain of events that decided to not just outright issue a refund needs to lose their job. Because the negative press they're receiving over this cost them far more than the $800.
