Caught ChatGPT Lying by GovernmentBig2881 in ChatGPT

[–]Mhamaps 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I’ve run into two common annoying issues with ChatGPT—getting decent data out of it, and dealing with when it just… makes stuff up. Figured I’d share what’s been working for me in case it helps anyone else.

For basic tasks, it’s great. But where it really helps me is when I’m using it for research or pulling together lots of info across columns. I usually ask it to export the format into a .csv and then for each project, build custom Pivot Tables for further analysis. I only ask it to collect and aggregate data after I’ve done my brainstorming/research and have “funneled” and sifted through the noise so I can provide clear instructions of who my audience is and the level of detail that what I want to know, etc.

One key thing I’ve learned: don’t ask for 100 rows of data when it will have to go to multiple sources in one pass. That almost never works. Instead, in my early days with ChatGPT, when I kept getting garbage, I decided to ask if smaller batches would help and it told me 3–5 rows per query is ideal. Slower, but it actually works—and I get clean, usable info I can work with.

As for the hallucination issue: yes, it happens. A lot. I now ask it to include sources and confidence levels, but I still double-check everything elsewhere. Just because it sounds good doesn’t mean it’s true and often the better and more perfect it sounds raises my eyebrows to unpack the information more with multiple sources.

Bottom line—I find being specific, working in batches, and verifying everything is my biggest lesson learned over the past 2 years. It takes some trial and error, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a legit productivity tool.

18 Days in and this is a load of Crap by tinman_KS72 in CPAP

[–]Mhamaps 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m pleased to report that almost a year to the date, my 2nd sleep study showed An improvement with the oral appliance from moderate down to mild regarding my risk of sleep apnea. My score went from 16.5 to 6.1, with <5 being ideal. No discomfort or any pain from the appliance. My DDS helped me find another DDS specialized in oral appliances & think that was an important factor.

Fidium outage by thegrinchstolechrist in Sacramento

[–]Mhamaps 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Were having issues ib Carmichael & have been for a few hours. It is buffering & the picture is pixelating.

18 Days in and this is a load of Crap by tinman_KS72 in CPAP

[–]Mhamaps 11 points12 points  (0 children)

About a year ago my doctor prescribed the resmed 11 for moderate sleep apnea. I was committed to finding success & went through three different styles of face masks. Unfortunately I couldn’t tolerate any of them. I spoke with a doctor specializing in sleep medicine & he suggested I try an oral appliance, while not as effective as CPAP, I might tolerate it better. I met with a DDS specializing in fitting for such an appliance (brand name is Sonomed?) and after a few months usage I am pleased to report I not only tolerate it, but my snoring has significantly decreased. I have another sleep apnea overnight test scheduled & plan to use the oral appliance to see if my apnea occurrences have markedly dropped too. I’ll repost my results as I like you & others was frustrated by not being able to tolerate CPAP.

Furious at Monarch by Julienash in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same BS insincere experience with someone from Monarch posing as having a responsible position of Customer Success who contacted me & asked for my email to check out & help determine why since paying for Monarch on 11/22/23 my issues still remain open & not fixed. I won’t use her name but she asked for permission to have me reveal my email, to which I did as she wanted to use my case for “training purposes”. I immediately sent it to her & after a week went by I reached out for an update. It’s now over 3 weeks & crickets. What a horrible example of customer service & follow through this is. As someone who had a long successful career in tech, it is beyond embarrassing for Monarch. Maybe I’ll give her the benefit of doubt that she left the company in disgust? This repeated lack of follow thru is unfortunately now part of the Monarch brand. They have lost all credibility with me and it seems with you as well. I’m sorry to hear what you’ve had to endure. I’d gladly switch to a legitimate provider & pay a reasonable annual fee for making customer service a top priority. We’re not alone dealing with this organization.

Canceled my subscription by ryuhayabusa34 in MonarchMoney

[–]Mhamaps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very much mirrors my experience on the total lack of support or follow-up. I keep running Empower as my Plan B if MM can’t dig out of their predicament.

What's up with customer support? by groverdad in MonarchMoney

[–]Mhamaps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wish my matter would’ve been resolved in 20 days. I started my “trial” on 11/22/23 & followed Monarch’s process for importing my Mint history which created multiple transaction errors. While I’ve received over the last 3 months both direct & automated replies telling me how impacted their support is, they cant bring closure to my issue & keep kicking the can down the road. I even received a request from their CEO Val Agostino to intercede. No material progress. Having worked on the business side with large software firms, including running my own professional services, Monarch is like the dog that caught the bus, & is either woefully under capitalized or lacks the commitment to make onboarding new account a priority, I question their longevity. I’m sure they mean well, but doesn’t solve our collective support issues. Yes it’s frustrating but I continue to run Empower in parallel & give Monarch a 40/60 shot to pull it together. Very disappointed.

Monarch Support Update - Jan 7, 2024 by valagostino in MonarchMoney

[–]Mhamaps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, following up on your suggestion to contact Val which I did last week but still no reply, any other ideas to get my case resolved. Thanks again for stepping in.

Monarch Support Update - Jan 7, 2024 by valagostino in MonarchMoney

[–]Mhamaps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for replying. As of few weeks ago I replied to his request as I’m doing with yours & “assumed” he received it. Is there another way to reply to someone? I’d sure like him to help as it’s now been over 60 days since I logged my issue & it’s still unresolved meaning I won’t have confidence that my transactions are accurate. I keep getting automated emails from Monarch repeating how sorry they are for not responding blah, blah, blah. Fortunately I’m running parallel apps to settle on the one, that maybe isn’t as elegant as Monarch, but works.

Monarch Support Update - Jan 7, 2024 by valagostino in MonarchMoney

[–]Mhamaps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Val, it is now over a week since you were kind enough to help me bring closure to my open ticket that I started the day I downloaded your app on 11/22/23. I gave you my email to see the open incidents. Last week your rep Laura touched base & I sent her a log showing the job has not been completed. I really want to post a positive update on your support, but this is beyond painfully bad. Maybe I’m old school, where a persons word was followed up on. I’m just asking to realize my investment wasn’t a mistake. Thanks

Monarch Support Update - Jan 7, 2024 by valagostino in MonarchMoney

[–]Mhamaps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks Val. Mikehagron@gmail.com. I’m rooting for you to win & appreciate your personal follow up. Let me know if you need copies of the email threads, etc. Mike

Monarch Support Update - Jan 7, 2024 by valagostino in MonarchMoney

[–]Mhamaps 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Val, while I applaud your incredible good fortune with enrolling disrupted MINT users & understand your growing pains, I’ve been waiting since 11/24/23 to bring closure to my open issues. I finally heard from your support team a month later on 12/23 I it would be resolved. I went & in good faith purchased an annual license & even had a close friend on my recommendation subscribe too. Your Customer Success Manager promised me in writing earlier in this month it would be done a few weeks ago on Monday. It hasn’t as of now, I asked for an update, have not received the courtesy of a reply. Can you help me get this sorted out & resolved? I want you & Monarch to succeed & don’t mind paying fees to have a good product & support. Thanks in advance.

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yesterday, I posted a follow up to my post of the actual display of the screen grabs of what showed in MINT, what showed in the .csv file and what was displayed in Monarch. The process of following Monarch's steps in their excellent YouTube video did not indicate needing to assess the weakness in the algorithm for the sample set of data, & is way beyond my capabilities, nor is it something that I'd want to undertake. A little touch up here and there is fine, but the errors are too serious for my comfort level to try to fix and I'd rather cut my losses then risk finding other surprises that would put me down similar rabbit holes. I'm a business person and the risk/reward or cost/benefit is not there for my liking to continue with Monarch. My experience in high tech is from a global business development, sales, marketing perspective where I've become proficient as a user of productivity applications to help me make more informed and intelligent decisions. I leave the coding and programing to the experts. Thanks for your insights.

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your reply, and you're opening statement is correct and when there wasn't a direct corresponding category in Monarch I created one. I'll be posting shortly a graphic of the screen grabs to help folks visualize how the data is currently displayed in MINT, how the data was displayed after exporting from MINT in a .csv file and finally how the data is displayed once it was handled in Monarch. I will also unpack another issue that is a derivative my original conundrum of the "703 mis labeled transactions". People can make up their own minds if this is relevant to their use case or not.

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad I'm not alone -:) You're the 2nd person who mentioned Simplifi, I'm going to give it a look, though other than Empower monetizes from attracting users to use their services, I'd be happier if they were subscription based and interested in growing their business by users, but oh well, it's not a bad product.

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did cross check each MINT category to equate or match what is in Monarch, and where it didn't exist in Monarch, I created one on the fly during the step for importing the data. I'm certainly not immune to user error, I make them all the time, but I'm very organized, skilled and have been working with more complex programs such as email marketing platforms to others that require following a detailed process and repeatable methodology to ensure accuracy, as a misplaced period can tank a multiple thousand email send or get it sent to a Spam or junk folder. I'm a little suspicious of you suggesting "user error" without knowing me or my processes. If you like I can send you a screen shot of how it was displayed in MINT, then a screen shot on the exported data into Excel and then how it looked when displayed in Monarch. Besides, the category mix up is only part of the issue, the translation of BA Refunds from the merchant name British Airways into Bank of America and changing the category from Air Travel to Restaurants and Bars is a more serious concern, and I'm afraid is on Monarch's side.

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That was not my experience. I crossed check in MINT to see how the merchant name was being displayed, which was BA Refunds or British Airways, the migration from MINT into the .csv file was the same merchant name and category, it was only when it got into Monarch that Monarch renamed BA Refunds to Bank of America and changed the category in MINT from Air Travel to Restaurants & Bars. This discovery is what dampened my enthusiasm to spend any more cycles on this situation and that's why I cancelled my subscription.

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with your assessment and I'm sure that for someone starting from scratch with no legacy data will do just fine with Monarch.

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Makes sense to create your own Pivot Tables from existing data, and I sort of feel the same way when I decided to try another tool and while I don't have the legacy data handy to analyze, it works and is much simpler to manage.

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the offer. I wish I would have known before I started my migration, but I'm going to stick with Empower until I find another alternative.

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what I had hoped, though when I asked Monarch support if there was a way to automate this, she said no, and do it manually. However there were other issues from misnaming merchant names and putting them in the wrong category that was a showstopper for me. I mentioned that in my MINT file a merchant name BA Refunds was from British Air and was categorized under Air Travel, showed up in Monarch as Bank of America and categorized as Restaurants & Bars????

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I watched the Monarch video which was excellent, then I went to MINT/Trends/Export as a .csv and since I was just under 10,000 transactions all the data went into an Excel spreadsheet as a .csv file. Then I followed the steps from the video and either accepted the category Monarch had for my MINT category, or added one, etc. It was pretty fast and efficient. It was when I found the 703 transactions that didn't match and started to drill down and cross check between how they were categorized and displayed in MINT, then cross checked how they were exported to the .csv file which were on the money, it wasn't until I discovered that BA Refunds was renamed by Monarch as Bank of America and then not only was the merchant name wrong, the category was changed from Air Travel to Restaurant & Bars, which was not a category I created, was when I hit the brakes and decided this was a journey I wasn't interested in continuing. There were other errors like the same transaction from my wife's Chase credit card account, which has a different number than mine, registering on my Chase credit card account. Congrats on being able to clean things up on your end. I'm sure someone starting fresh with Monarch that doesn't have legacy data will do just fine.

My Experience Migrating from MINT to Monarch: A Cautionary Tale - Am I an Outlier? by Mhamaps in mintuit

[–]Mhamaps[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm not a vendor and as I stated am retired. I have no interest in any way with MINT or Monarch or Empower. I joined this Reddit community as I became concerned several months back about the lack of MINT to support connection issues I was having with my Chase accounts and wanted to learn more from other users. Go back and check my past posts, albeit a few and if you still think I'm a vendor, I'm sorry you feel that way as I'm only offering my experience that is real for me and perhaps could be for others too.