{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-22T11:12:42.598Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"customer_service_chatbot","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"unknown","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":1,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-toronto-car-dealership-revoked-buy-back-offer-its-undisclosed-ai-chatbot-texted-customer-then-reinstated-it","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Later in the same text conversation, Quinn made a firm buy-back offer: $27,162.79.' and 'texting that “the team” would consider it, and that “$28,500 sounds reasonable.”' and 'Quinn never revealed its true identity, according to text exchanges examined by CBC News.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A dealership texting agent called Quinn made the customer a firm buy-back offer of $27,162.79, said his $28,500 counter sounded reasonable and set up a meeting to complete the deal; CBC says Quinn never revealed it was AI.","causal_attribution":"Customer account supported by the text exchange CBC examined."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'a BMW Toronto sales consultant called to revoke the offer, explaining that Quinn wasn’t a real person, but rather an artificial intelligence chatbot that had made the offer in error.' and 'the actual buy-back offer would be, at best, $20,000'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A sales consultant revoked the offer, saying Quinn was an AI chatbot that had made it in error, and said the real offer would be at best $20,000.","causal_attribution":"Customer's account; the dealership's sales manager confirms the bot's error."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I was shocked, I was astounded, like my jaw was on the floor.' and '“I feel embarrassed, and I feel angry that I’ve been negotiating with this bot,”'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The customer says he was shocked and astounded, and embarrassed and angry that he had been negotiating with a bot.","causal_attribution":"The customer's own account."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'“The AI bot ran with that, misunderstood the message,” he said.' and 'Quinn was never programmed to independently negotiate contracts, only to relay human-generated buy-back offers.' and 'After CBC News reached out to BMW Toronto, it reinstated Quinn’s original offer of $27,162.79.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The sales manager said a human employee's miscommunication led the bot to take the amount owed as the buy-back price, that the bot was not programmed to negotiate, and that the dealership reinstated the offer after CBC's inquiry.","causal_attribution":"Dealership's explanation and CBC's report of the reinstatement."}],"effects":[{"label":"chatbot offer revoked and cut by more than $7,000 until reinstated; distress at undisclosed bot","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"original offer reinstated and accepted after CBC inquiry","claim_id":"c4","direction":"positive"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ai-chatbot-bmw-dealership-9.7230226","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-22; no translation needed. CBC News report by Sophia Harris, posted 11 Jun 2026; HTTP 200.","independence_group":"cbc-bmw-toronto-june-2026"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["finance","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["The exact date of the text exchange (CBC says he decided the month before its June 2026 report to sell the car).","Which vendor supplied the chatbot and whether it is generative or scripted."],"geography":{"basis":"The dealership is BMW Toronto and CBC describes the customer as a Toronto man.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["CA"],"affected_person_countries":["CA"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a core case (communicated_with): a dealership's undisclosed AI texting chatbot made a customer a firm buy-back offer that staff revoked as the bot's error, leaving him devastated until the dealership reinstated it after CBC's inquiry.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-22"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The customer negotiated by text with an AI chatbot the dealership deployed; the chatbot made a firm buy-back offer that staff revoked as the bot's error, which the dealership's sales manager confirmed ('The AI bot ran with that, misunderstood the message'). The revoked offer and the customer's distress follow from the chatbot's own offer; the manager attributes the error partly to a staff miscommunication. The bot's output was not a fixed relay of a human offer: in the texts it expressed sympathy, asked about the car, answered the counter-offer ('$28,500 sounds reasonable') and proposed a meeting time, and the dealership says it misinterpreted a staff member's message. Whether it runs on a generative model is not stated.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Toronto: BMW dealership revoked a buy-back offer its undisclosed AI chatbot had texted a customer, then reinstated it after CBC asked","summary":"CBC News reported in June 2026 that a Toronto man selling his car back to the BMW Toronto dealership negotiated by text with 'Quinn', who made a firm buy-back offer of $27,162.79 and proposed a meeting to complete the deal. A sales consultant then phoned to say Quinn was an AI chatbot that had made the offer in error and that the real offer would be at best $20,000. The man says he was shocked and devastated and felt embarrassed and angry that he had been negotiating with a bot without knowing it. The dealership's sales manager said the bot misread the amount the customer owed as the buy-back price after a staff miscommunication; after CBC contacted it, the dealership reinstated the original offer, which the man accepted.","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-06-11","aiSystem":"An AI texting chatbot presenting as 'Quinn' that BMW Toronto used to handle an online buy-back inquiry; the dealership says it was meant only to relay human-generated offers (vendor not named)","aiProduct":"Unidentified chatbot","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A customer says a dealership's AI chatbot texted him a firm buy-back offer that staff then revoked as the bot's error, cutting it by more than $7,000 until CBC intervened; he says he was devastated and embarrassed to learn he had been negotiating with a bot.","frameworkFacets":[],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One customer, interviewed by CBC.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"CA","platformType":"other","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ai-chatbot-bmw-dealership-9.7230226","primarySourceLabel":"CBC News, 11 Jun 2026: Dealership revoked offer to buy back customer's BMW, blaming wayward AI chatbot","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-22T03:14:15.002018+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-22T03:14:15.002018+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["customer_service_chatbot","undisclosed_ai","car_dealership","canada"]}]}